Jazz will give you back your mind, reggae will give you back your body, but the blues will give you back your soul. -Taj Mahal

I read A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean over the weekend. My boss lent it to me, and it was an inspiring read. The beauty of nature abounds, as does the depiction of a family who loves one another through triumph and challenge. Many years ago I viewed the movie yet reading the story now was timely and relevant. In a season of my life when change is prevalent, trusting in the relationships and presence of my family grounds me.

I also recently read this thoughtful piece on the artist Taj Mahal: Taj Mahal’s Music Takes It All In: ‘My Sweep Is Global” Rooted in the blues and connected worldwide, the musician, 83, is still looking ahead. Listening to his record often brings Brigid and me such joy as his voice and instrumentals cascade throughout our home. The below YouTube clip takes us through the streets of New Orleans, another of my favorites.

I hope these resources make us think, help us smile, and provide a reflective moment during this busy time. Blessings on your week ahead!

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.” -Norman Maclean

Take my heart, O Lord, take my hopes and dreams. Take my mind with all its plans and schemes. Give me nothing more than your love and grace. These alone, O God, are enough for me. -Dan Schutte

Winding down the end of every academic year feels like a mad dash to the finish of a really long race. This May is no different. Our daughter graduates 8th grade next week and we cannot wait to celebrate her! Plus we have family visiting from out of town and we cherish our time together with these loved ones who will be here soon.

I am happy to share a few reflections that sustain me during these full days. Blessings on your week ahead!

“Practicing gratitude will help us more fully appreciate what has been offered us. Being grateful influences our attitude; it softens our harsh exterior and takes the threat out of most situations.” -Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women

“When Hope feels distant,

And Peace seems unreachable,

Let us be

Mentors of Hopefulness.

Let us carry our Light

To those overcome

By darkness

Let us be for our children and

For one another

‘Pilgrims of Hope.’

Let our Joy Abound.
Alleluia!”

Sr. Joyce Weller, D.C.

Some people think that it’s holding on that makes one strong. Sometimes it’s letting go. -Sylvia Robinson

Recent challenges and opportunities remind me how significant family & community, and prayer & exercise are to my overall well-being. Keeping focus on that which is foundational provides me clarity throughout times of uncertainty. At home and with work, we’re all eager for the summer season on the horizon. It’s been quite a stretch!

Enjoy these reflections for perspective on your day. Blessings on your week ahead!

Prayer of Gratitude

Eternal God, thank you for this day. As we gather together to do the work before us, thank you for your presence and the guidance of your Spirit. Everything we see, let it be through your eyes. Everything we do, let it be in your ways. Everything we seek, let us find it in your love.

Toward a Second Spring

God is always trying to lead his people toward a newer land of the Spirit, a new consciousness. It is a movement within and yet outside of history, its destination a world hidden yet somehow visible. The day-by-day world that people seek to escape – the uncreative actions, the mere “contacts” of every day – is both a scenario for salvation and the place people have to leave if they are to be saved. Here are superficial and sterile minds, men and women of pride and arrogance, hatred and prejudice, who turn from the forgotten and lonely, the sick and hungry, who wield the kind of power that generates chaos and fear. If this kind of place is hostile to God, God is not hostile to it in return. The object of God’s salvation is the world, and the mission of the Son is to bring about a new exodus. Jesus comes into this place of hostility, but he is not under its power. He leads people forth toward a new spring, a second spring of the human spirit.

  • From A Time for Salvation: Reflections on a Redeemed Universe, Louis Savary, S.J.

Let Providence be the driver….not certainty. -Sr. Lisa Laguna

I loved reading mysteries as a kid. My mom, a teacher, brought us to our community library every Friday in the summer; growing up, I spent countless hours devouring series like the Hardy Boys and reading authors like Stephen King. Along with instilling within me my passion for teaching and learning, my mom also introduced to me, at a young age, the power of reading as a practice for resting, relaxation, and growth. So much so, that many summers I also shared my sister’s series like Nancy Drew and The Babysistter’s Club! This lifelong practice now manifests itself across all kinds of non-fiction reading, mysteries, and great novels that my wife Brigid passes along to me. God is good!

This Lent, as I journey along the mystery of God’s goodness, I find comfort in the humanity of Jesus and striving to learn from His challenges and experiences as told by this Church season’s Scripture. Some of my own recent ups and downs pale in comparison to the struggles that Jesus endured, and so I find inspiration in his humility and selflessness. I trust in the “not knowing” piece of my own faith journey and seek to embrace the mysteries of my life with openness and perseverance and trust in Divine Providence. And I eagerly await the joy of the Resurrection on the horizon!

I am pleased to share some resources this week to support your reflection. Blessings on your week ahead.

Let Your God Love You

Be silent. Be still.

Alone. Empty.

Before your God.

Say nothing. Ask nothing.

Be silent. Be still.

Let your God

Look upon you. That is all.

God knows.

God understands.

God loves you

With an enormous love

And only wants to look upon you

With that love.

Quiet. Still. Be.

Let your God —

Love you.

A Way Other Than Our Own: Devotions for Lent, by Walter Brueggemann

“I imagine Lent for you and for me as a great departure from the greedy, anxious anti-neighborliness of our economy, a great departure from our exclusionary politics that fears the other, a great departure from self-indulgent consumerism that devours creation. And then an arrival in a new neighborhood, because it is a gift to be simple, it is a gift to be free, it is a gift to come down where we ought to be.”

Faith is the bird that feels light and sings when the dawn is still dark. -Rabindranath Tagore

On this day in 1977, Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande was assassinated as a victim of El Salvador’s civil war. Rutilio was a courageous person of the people, who advocated for an end to the war and equal treatment for all. A visit to El Salvador decades ago had a profound influence upon me as a young teacher, especially my visit to the home and chapel of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero. Many years later, their witness for peace still resonates with the needs of our world today.

Enjoy this week’s quote along with another great, joy-filledTiny Desk performance by one of my favorite hip-hop groups, De La Salle. Blessings on your week ahead!

Rutilio Grande, SJ, on LOVE
“In the pursuit of justice, we can expect to encounter discord and opposition; and in such cases, conflict is sometimes unavoidable. Yet love does not allow us to stand on the sidelines of such conflicts; it commands en-gagement. In such situations we do not advocate physical violence. Instead we should engage in the struggle by employing the moral force of the power of love. Therefore the code is one word, LOVE: against all anti-love, against sin, against injustice, against the domination of peoples, against the destruction of peoples.”

Leading with an open heart helps you stay alive in your soul. -Ronald Heifitz & Marty Linsky

Last night we played a family board game and listened to a Bob Dylan record. It was so nice to wind down our evening together and connect over laughter, music, and healthy competition. I had plenty of time to recall last night’s enjoyment on my drive into the office this morning, when I found myself following a tractor trailer truck around some twists and turns of the beautiful Wine Country roads. I find myself welcoming opportunities to slow down.

This week I share a quote from my morning prayer book today, along with a song that infused my weekend workout on the elliptical. I hope they bring some perspective to your day. Blessings on your week ahead!

“Today, more than ever, we need to pray…for the light to know the will of God…for the love to know the will of God…for the way to do the will of God.” -Mother Theresa

Every act of virtue is an ingredient unto reward.- Jeremy Taylor

We spent time in Chinatown over the weekend and it felt glorious to begin to celebrate the Lunar New Year. I had hoped that this past January might have offered a chance to re-set and renew with the start to 2026, but alas, my life had other plans. And so I’m now embracing this “Year of the Horse,” as characterized by “strength, energy and resilience”…along with “happiness, good health, and prosperity.” I’ll take it, please:)

Blessings on your week ahead!

a blessing for when love makes you brave (Kate Bowler)

Blessed are we,
when love makes us brave.
Be it our friends or teachers,
Our mentors or partners.
Our siblings or parents or grands.

From the littles who remind us to get in the game,
even if there really is something more pressing to do in that moment.
To the parents who remind us how quickly it all goes,
whose wild, ungrounded belief in us gives us courage

To try something new.
To make a big leap.
To take a chance on love.
To risk, to fail, and to try, try, try again.

This is the kind of love that sticks.
So bless all of us, in our great big web of love.

Practicing silence means making a commitment to take a certain amount of time to simply be. -Derek Chopra

At a team meeting this morning, we discussed the distinction between “listening,” and “listening for”…with the idea being, when we simply “listen,” we meet people where they are. Without judgment, nor pretense. A colleague stated, “listening is at the heart of healthy community.” Amen!

This week I share the below prayer along with the sincere hope for peace in our world. Respect for all begins with an honest embrace of the inherent dignity of each one of us, and through time in dialogue, time in quiet, and time together, may we build bridges and be peace to one another. In prayer and community we can move forward with hope. Blessings on your week ahead!

Emergency Novena for Peace, Justice, & the Protection of Human Dignity

Through the Intercession of Servant of God Dorothy Day.

God of all peoples, Your heart aches for every person who suffers.

You are near to the brokenhearted and close to those crushed by injustice.

We bring before You the violence of our time, the fear that grips many communities,

and the despair that tempts us to believe nothing can change.

Through the witness of Servant of God Dorothy Day, stir us from passivity,

move us toward our suffering neighbors, and teach us to love in ways that change the world.

Servant of God Dorothy Day, you chose the way of radical love in a violent world.

You trusted that small acts of faithfulness could reshape history.

You believed every human life mattered.

Intercede for us.

Pray that our nation may be healed of cruelty.

Pray that fear may not have the final word.

Pray that we may become builders of peace,

even when peace feels impossible.

Help us to live the Gospel with integrity, to love without conditions, and to seek justice without ceasing.

God of mercy, receive the prayers we have placed before You.

Hold close those who are suffering.

Protect those who are in danger.

Strengthen those who labor for peace.

Remain with us in the days ahead.

Do not let our hearts grow hard or our hope grow thin.

Make us instruments of Your compassion in a wounded world.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

“God, You stayed. Thank You. I did what I could. Now, You keep watch.” -Modern Serenity Proverb

I have been thinking quite a bit about the concepts of unconditional love and radical forgiveness. Both of these traits seem to be needed in today’s world, and I also find moments for practice within my life these days. Embracing these belief systems and placing them into action require a discipline and intentionality that at times can feel impossible. Today’s reality calls us to conversion of our collective and individual hearts, toward a peaceful revolution of sorts, one that invites all “in,” rather than cultivating division. One that is grounded in the recognition of God in others.

Alas, I give thanks for family, community, and the fulfilling sense of purpose that encompass my identity as a person, partner, dad, and educator. I trust and pray that communities in need, across our Church and in our society, find similar experiences of belonging and purpose. Blessings on your week ahead!

“The law of love demands that we become people of the towel and water, that like Christ we wash the feet of our neighbor. This simply means that we wash the feet of one another when we implement the Gospel. That and that alone is the true revolution that will change the face of the earth.” -Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Grace in Every Season

True love always brings joy to ourselves and to the one we love. -Thich Nhat Hanh

This week marked the third anniversary of the passing of Zenmaster, Poet and Monk Thich Nhat Hanh. In recent years I’ve come to appreciate him as an example of inner strength. I hope this quote and video remind us of the peace within us. Blessings on your week ahead!

“We don’t need to wish our friends, ‘peace be with you.’ Peace is already with them. We only need to help them cultivate the habit of touching peace in every moment.” Thich Nhat Hanh