Inspired by Scholastica

For those of us dealing with aging, we need to ask ourselves if we like the person we have come to be. If not, we might want to make some late life changes. Have we become cranky? Maybe we need to find ways to be more even-tempered and peaceful. Have we become selfish? Maybe we need to work on being more generous and thoughtful. Are we self-centered? Perhaps we ought to work on being more other-centered.  This aging business makes us more transparent. We see our faults more clearly and may realize we don't like some of our weaknesses. In the past, we could gloss over our deficiencies because we were busy with our careers and families and hobbies. Now, we are limited in the things we can do, and some of our loved ones may have died, so we have more time for some introspection. We don't want to be full of regret and self-condemnation, but knowing we will soon meet our God makes us want to be a better person. We realize there is much room for improvement, and we have only a short ...

We generally think of the 12 apostles as Jesus’ regular followers, but there were also women. We know of Mary Magdalen, Martha, Mary Salome, the Samaritan woman, the woman cured of a hemorrhage, and the Canaanite woman. I’m sure there were more women in their company, who were never counted. Who else would prepare the meals for the Twelve? Who else would help keep the children quiet? Who else would wash the dishes? Women were not considered equal or important in that period of Jewish history. We know that when Jesus worked the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the crowd was estimated at 5,000, not counting women and children. Yet, Jesus was always present to women and acknowledged them. It is evident in many of the stories in the New Testament. One example is the woman with the hemorrhage who merely touched the hem of his garment. He did not ignore her, but asked who touched him? He also cured the daughter of the centurion, the mother-in-law of Peter, the Samaritan woman, and Mary Magd...

Our novice director used to tell her novices over and over:  “live with an open hand.” She would say we are called to love, but our love must not cling too tightly to people, possessions, or life itself. We must have a stance of openness, aware that “nothing is ours for keeps, that all is gift and that the love we give and receive here on earth is but a reflection of God’s love.” That sounds good, but difficult to carry out in the ups and downs of life.   When we love someone, we often want it to be forever and total.   We have to learn to share our loved ones and not grasp them for ourselves alone.   We also must learn to be openhanded with our possessions, to give of them freely.  E ven life should not be clung to. If we receive a diagnosis of some fatal illness, we must try to see it as gift, as a wake-up call to get our lives in order. To live with an open hand takes a lifetime to learn, and we will never do it perfectly. We admire people who can li...

Sometimes, when everything seems chaotic and the world is full of bad news, it is hard to find joy.  Everywhere we look - in the newspapers, on TV, and in the streets - the news is depressing. Recently a new app appeared on my iPad called "Nice News," which reports only good things happening around the world, like someone risking his life to save a person or someone using his wealth to help children get an education. I'm sure there are good things happening that are not reported, like the families that are taking in Ukrainian refugees and giving them a safe place during the war in Ukraine, or the reporters who risk their lives to make sure we hear the truth about crisis situations, or the astronomers who are discovering such exciting things about galaxies and stars that we never knew existed.  We need to focus on these happenings instead of the truth-deniers, gun violence, blatant liars, and cruel treatment about whom we see and read. Recognizing the courageous people aro...