the true. the good. the beautiful. (revisited)

“That his creatures should share

in his truth, goodness, and beauty --
this is the glory for which God created them.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 319

I started "the true. the good. the beautiful." series ten years ago (what!?!), but only posted three times. I just went back and reread my first post  and wish I would have continued. Maybe I'll try again ... or maybe this will be a one time thing ... 

In my first three posts in this series, I focused on what we were doing as parents to feed our children's intellects with truth, to form their wills with goodness, and to inspire their affections with beauty. Now that the kids are older, and indeed two of them have moved out, I think I'll broaden the series ...

I don’t know about you, but I am especially wearied by all the lies, the ugliness, and the bad news dominating the media these days. I’ve largely been avoiding news radio, television, and websites for this reason, but even my social media streams — Facebook and Instagram — are full of political rants, pandemic debates, and links to horrific news reports from around the globe (and right now from my beautiful hometown of Minneapolis) when all I want to do is connect with family and friends and see what they’re up to. I’d rather my streams were full of truth, goodness, and beauty, uplifting my soul rather than wearying it. So ... that's what I'm hoping to inspire by starting again ...

truth | tro͞oTH |

noun

the quality or state of being true

(also the truth) that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality

This poem spoke truth to me this morning, especially when I am tempted to throw in the towel, build a cabin in the woods, and abandon the world.

The New Day

Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl

One more day begins.

Jesus within me wants to live it.

He has not locked himself in.

He walked in the midst of the people of his day.

With me he is in the midst of the people of today.

He is going to meet each person 

who enters this house,*

each person I bump into in the street,** 

rich people other than the rich people of his day,

other poor people too,

other intelligent people and ignorant people,

young children and old men,

saints and sinners,

healthy people and sick people.

All will be people whom he came to look for.

Each will be a person whom he came to save.

He will have a word of reply for each person 

who speaks to him.

He will have something to give to each person

who is in need.

Each person will be for him

as if he were the only person existing.

In the noise he will live his silence.

In the tumult he will launch his peace ….

* namely, the people who live here with me

** or interact with from the mandated six feet of physical distance

goodness | ˈɡo͝odnəs |

noun

1 the quality of being morally good or virtuous

Speaking of being Jesus to the people around me, we’ve had our share of tensions from being cooped up together for the last three months, but also moments of grace and goodness that gladden my heart and inspire me to try harder to love those God has placed in my immediate presence … the teenage boy helping his little sister with an architectural issue with her Lego mansion, the eldest taking the initiative on some major yard projects and enlisting the youngest’s help, dad putting a huge pile of work aside to go kayaking and get ice cream with his daughters, children noticing when stress levels are rising and offering help and hugs and back rubs, apologies given and received, time together not taken for granted. 

beauty | ˈbyo͞odē |

noun

1 a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight: I was struck by her beauty | an area of outstanding natural beauty.

a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense

If you know me, you know the tonic of wilderness is a healing remedy for my weary soul. A wild geranium from my walk in the woods yesterday …

If you care to join me, share some truth, beauty, and goodness today. If you’re a blogger, link up below in the comments (I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to do a real link-up, so if you know of an easy way, enlighten me?); if you're on Facebook or Instagram, tag me in the comments, please! 

Peace, friends.

Stay-at-Home Week 1

A young hobbit once lamented to his wizard friend, "I wish none of this had happened." The wise wizard responded, "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us" (JRR Tolkien).

I am not unaware that many lives have been much more terribly disrupted than mine has been by the pandemic now afflicting our world. I am not unaware that there is much anxiety, much fear, much suffering, and much death.

But we all have a choice of how to respond to what is happening around us and to us and to our world.

On Friday Pope Francis asked us to consider why we are afraid. He reminded us that the Lord is "calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing ... a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to [the Lord] and to others."

So, friends, what are you doing with the time that is given to you?

Living The Lord's Day Well

I'm a do-er. I struggle with be-ing. Especially when I'm at home on a Sunday afternoon and the dishwasher needs to be unloaded and the laundry folded and the lesson plans prepared for the week and ... and ... and ....

But I'm also a work in progress. So I'll try (again!) to set Sunday aside as a day for prayer and rest and family ... even (especially?) when I am at home.

Today I turned some overripe pears into a cake.

I finished reading my Christmas book and colored for a while.

I took a nap. (So did The Athlete.)

I reveled in feeling like I was in a snow globe 

(for a very few minutes ... the snowfall so far this "winter" has been lame).

I listened to the Vikings win (in overtime!).

I shared a meal and prayed a rosary with the family.

We blessed our home for the new year. (Happy Epiphany!)

I sipped a glass of wine and wrote this blog post.

What's your favorite way to keep holy the Lord's Day?

Need some ideas?

If you're in the Archdiocese of Detroit, or even if you're not,

check this out!

2019 Churches

Books, hikes, and churches! These are the things I keep track of every year. 

Here's a list of the churches/chapels at which I attended Mass in 2019: 

1. St. John the Baptist (Ypsilanti, MI)

2. Christ the King (Ann Arbor, MI)

3. Our Lady of the Lakes (Penn Yan, NY)

4. St. John the Baptist (New Brighton, MN)

5. Our Lady of Fatima (Michigan Center, MI)

6. Chapel of Christ the King, Franciscan University (Steubenville, OH)

7. St. Augustine (Austin, MN)

8. Holy Rosary (Bozeman, MT)

9. Resurrection University Parish, University of Montana (Bozeman, MT)

10. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit (Bismarck, ND)

11. St. Peter (Forest Lake, MN)

12. Sacred Heart Major Seminary Chapel (Detroit, MI)

13. Pastoral Center Chapel, Diocese of Duluth (Duluth, MN)

14. Christ the King (Richland, WA)

15. St. Mary (Escondido, CA)

16. St. Paul (Ham Lake, MN)

17. St. Mary (Altoona, WI)

18. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary (Duluth, MN)

Are you a list maker like me? What do you keep track of?

Hiking Log

In addition to keeping track of what books I read each year, 

I also like to keep track of my hiking mileage. 

In 2019, I logged a pathetic 138.3 miles. I'll say it again ... pathetic.

My goal for 2020 is 365 miles. Unpaved.

I logged my first three miles today. 

Did you know there are amazing health benefits to walking,
specifically in the woods? 

The Japanese call it "forest bathing."

I don't know about all the science behind it,
I just know a walk in the woods makes me feel amazing.

If you are an Ann Arbor area hiker,
share with me your favorite places to get off the beaten path?

2019 Book List

So, outside of school and work, here's a list of what I read in 2019:

The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Wit by Margaret Edson

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans

On Living by Kerry Egan

Tales from the Perilous Realm by JRR Tolkien

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

If you want to know my thoughts on any of the above, let me know. If I could only recommend one, the winner of "most surprisingly enjoyable and highly recommended" this year is George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind. Although it's a children's fantasy story, it's theological and philosophical undertones are unmistakable. Read it. And then let me know what you think! And share some of your favorite reads of 2019?

Happy New Year! And happy reading!

A Good and Faithful Servant

On March 21, 1996, I wrote in my journal, “… after Mass [at St. John Vianney Seminary] I was introduced to Father Sirba. There have been several occasions in my life where I have felt God has attracted me to someone I didn’t know or barely knew. I get a strong feeling that this person is going to play a major role in my life. This is how I felt the first time I saw Father Sirba. Before I even knew who he was, I knew I had to get to know him.” 

I wrote Father Sirba a note shortly after learning he was a spiritual director at the undergraduate seminary affiliated with the university I was attending and asked if we could talk. I had seminarian friends at the time who had introduced me to the concept of spiritual direction, which, as a college student in love with God but trying to figure things out on her own, seemed like a very good idea. I decided to ask Father Paul, thinking, I wrote, it was “maybe the reason why I felt I had to get to know him." I wrote that "I was extremely nervous, but Father Paul was very easy to talk to. He felt very privileged that I asked and said he’d pray about it and he had to ask [the rector] because seminarians were his first obligation…. He said if he couldn’t do it he would help me find someone else. It’s not easy for me to talk to a lot of people, but it’s very easy to talk to Father Paul, so I hope God wills it,” I wrote. God did will it. And so began a relationship that would turn into a beautiful friendship and one of the most influential and meaningful relationships of my life. 

Father Paul Sirba was my spiritual director through college and beyond. He was a good listener. He was obviously a man of prayer. He had a deep inner joy and often got me to laugh at myself, teaching me not to take myself or my faults too seriously. In fact, I don't know if I can remember a single time we were together when there was not laughter. He was also my husband’s spiritual director while he was in the seminary. He was the priest who helped us figure out our friendship when, as a seminarian, my husband began to have deeper feelings for me. He was the first person to whom I admitted I loved my soon-to-be husband back. He witnessed our marriage vows.

When he was no longer our spiritual director, Father Sirba became a closer friend. He often joined us for dinner. On one of these occasions, shortly before he was consecrated the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Duluth, we had him over to share with us the story of the day he got “the call,” and I learned that we had been praying together in the adoration chapel at Nativity parish in Saint Paul on the day the nuncio telephoned and it was a comfort to him to be praying with a friend — even though I had no idea. We were blessed to attend his consecration and reception on a very cold winter day in Duluth. (Go here to read more about that day.)

Bishop Sirba moved to Duluth; we moved to Bismarck, ND. But still our friendship endured. He visited North Dakota for a meeting with the bishops of the province and stopped to have a meal with us and bless our new home. When The Athlete and I visited Duluth for a mother-daughter weekend, he made time to meet us for dinner. When our family vacationed in his diocese, he drove two hours one way to celebrate Mass with us in our little cabin and join us for a pontoon ride on the lake. On another trip through northern Minnesota, he hosted us at his residence for a late night pizza party. When we moved to Michigan, we drove through Duluth and The Bookworm received her first Holy Communion in the chapel at his residence on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Through the years, he answered every text I sent him and returned every phone call, despite his new role and busy schedule. 

The last time I saw my friend was this past September. I was driving The Artist to college in California and we decided to go through the Upper Peninsula and northern Minnesota rather than going through Chicago and the Twin Cities. I will be forever grateful that we did. We were able to make a quick stop in Duluth where Bishop Sirba celebrated Mass for the two of us and then took us out for brunch before we got back on the road again. It was during this final conversation with him that I caught my only glimpse of the burden of his love for our Lord and for His Church. We were discussing the scandals in the Church and I expressed my sympathy for how difficult it must be to be a bishop and my appreciation for him. As he looked down to pay the bill, I saw his eyes fill with tears. Later that day I received a text: "It was so good to be with you! As you said, friends are able to pick up where they left off—we do have a lot to catch up on. Give my love to Matt. Enjoy the adventure!"

I had often lifted my friend up in prayer, but beginning that day, I began in an intentional way to daily pray for his consolation and peace. On December 1, the First Sunday of Advent, my prayers were answered. Our Heavenly Father suddenly called Bishop Sirba home. 

In the days since Bishop Sirba’s death, I have heard many times, “He was one of the good ones.” This pains me — that a “good” bishop is an anomaly in the minds of many of the faithful. I am certainly not naive — I have worked for the Church for more than twenty years — but I know many, many good and holy priests. Unfortunately, a good and holy bishop, shepherding his people and quietly leading his diocese, does not make the news headlines. I mentioned that I could see the burden Bishop Sirba’s faithfulness had to have been only once — as a mutual bishop friend commented, “He made being a bishop look easy.” But there is no way it could have been, or can be — our bishops need our prayers.

We drove to Duluth for the funeral and arrived the evening before in time for a rosary and Evening Prayer. We were so blessed to be able to spend a holy hour in the early morning in the dark Cathedral before saying our final good-byes, without lines of people waiting behind us. The funeral was beautiful. The love of a people for their shepherd was clear, as was the affection of his priests and fellow bishops —I will never forget the lines of deacons, priests, and bishops, young and old, processing out of the Church, many openly weeping.

After getting over the shock, I quickly realized Bishop Sirba’s death was indeed an answer to my prayers for his peace and consolation because he was freed from another fifteen or so years of service as a bishop. In the days surrounding his death, it was made clear to me again and again how difficult it must be to be a bishop in the Church right now. One of my bishop friends reflected that Bishop Sirba was lucky; another knew precisely the number of years he had left before he could retire. I reflected on a dinner shared with a third bishop friend some years ago -- I had asked him how it was being a bishop; he replied, “I meet a lot of people … but that's it.” He obviously missed the relationships he had formed as a pastor. I recall thinking how lonely being a bishop must be, especially if a priest has to leave his home diocese and his brother priests when he's called, and I resolved to invite him over for dinner more often — which he always gratefully accepted. Another bishop friend told us whenever he’s asked if he likes being a bishop he replies, “I like doing God’s will.” These men are true servants of God — they did not seek to be bishops, they do not necessarily enjoy being bishops, but they are trying their best to do God’s will. 

Bishop Sirba’s life was such a gift to me — he inspired me, and continues to inspire me, to live the joy that is the mark of a true Christian. And his death has been a gift to me, too — the Advent hymns this year filled me with a longing for Jesus’ birth in my life and in our world in a way that they never have before. His death also inspired me to be more intentional about praying for our bishops. Won’t you join me?