As human beings, we find ways to mark ourselves. Clothing changes with the mood and allows us to feel comfortable in a particular context. We surround ourselves with things that we associate with a particular function, feel, era or ideal. Tattoos, indelible markers, freeze moments and remind us of who we were or what we thought at one time or another. We alter our hair and our flesh, our outer shells, to reflect something of what we think the world wants to see. Regardless of how we do …

A few things have been happening
as of late when I sit down to pray.
Option 1: Obligations stretch out before me. Reading, papers, exams, committee meetings, conferences, house tasks…these are the things that fill my time. Sitting in prayer or reflection can quickly turn into a moment of planning. I have obligations to fulfill and I feel like I need to fulfill them well.
This goes for the practical…
“I am going to read two hundred pages tonight.”
“I need to put in one hour a night studying for this exam between now …

I say a lot of Hail Mary’s. I am not sure what it is about the prayer. Maybe it is that I get to focus on the life of Mary, the peasant child, the young mother, the strong-willed socialite (more wine!), the prematurely-aged mourner, and the one who held all things in her heart. Maybe it is that I get to think of the theology: the Mother of Mercies, the greatest of all disciples, the Theotokos, the Holy Queen. Or maybe it is just that I firmly believe that there …

I am back in New York for the first time after having lived here for three years. I forgot what this place is like, and that it took me a year-and-a-half to get used to living here the first time. As it is now, I sometimes wish that I had never left it. Something about this place, the proximity of humanity with all of its triumphs and failures, it reminds me of the importance of who it is that Love is calling me to be.