Pause+Pray

Reflect Somewhere towards the middle of Wendell Berry’s beautiful novel Jayber Crow, there is a beatific vision that seems utterly transcendent, and touchingly humane. Jayber gets lost in the horrible 1937 flood; soaked and exhausted, he wanders in the darkness, until ...

Reflect  In Isaiah 42:3 we read, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” These beautiful, clear images carry deep emotional weight. We are the bruised reeds. We are the struggling wicks.  ...

Reflect Has there ever been a time in your life that you wondered if you were “sorry enough” to receive absolution for your sins?  Pray Christ Most Merciful, You instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation not as a tool of oppression, but as the means of ...

Reflect “Instead they gave me poison for my food; and for my thirst they gave me vinegar” (Ps 69:22). How many times have I done this? Instead of doing someone a kindness or patiently listening to their woe, I tried to fix their ...

Reflect On a recent stroll through the woods, I was struck by the number of broken trees. Some apparently died from the damage, but others continued to grow, and some even appeared to thrive. Aren’t we all damaged somehow? Do we ...

Reflect Do you stop to consider that all the hosts of Heaven are present with us at the Mass?  Does that impact how you approach your Sunday obligation?  Pray All the Angels and Saints, you are surrounding us at the Mass, joining us in the worship of ...