We can only love by loving. -Iris Murdoch

My three kids in three different schools each had their first day of the new academic year in this past week and life has been a flurry of activity on the home front. They’re happy and having fun, which means I am relieved! My daily walks with Brigid and Bingo continue to keep me focused and light on my feet and in my soul…today our dog picked up her millionth stick to proudly bring back home to our backyard and she could not have been happier….may your week ahead be a blessed one and may we all delight in the simple pleasures of every day.

Trust in God- Saint Francis de Sales

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow.

The same loving Father

who cares for you today

will care for your tomororw

and every day.

Either he will shield you from suffering

or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace, then,

and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.

When I slow down enough to smell the roses, I usually see the beauty and all else that is ours to share. -Morgan Jennings

This week I share a reflection on the faith aspect of the concept of welcoming the stranger. This important principle has shaped my own approach to hospitality, and resonates with me as a parent at this time of year as two of my three children are welcomed into new school communities. As a society I think it beneficial for us to remind ourselves of how valuable diverse perspectives contribute toward positive experiences of community.

Blessings on your week ahead!

On Welcoming the Stranger

The role of the stranger in our lives is vital in the context of Christian faith, for the God of faith is one who continually speaks truth afresh, who continually makes all things new. God persistently challenges conventional truth and regularly upsets the world’s way of looking at things. It is no accident that this God is so often represented by the stranger, for the truth that God speaks in our lives is very strange indeed. Where the world sees impossibility, God sees potential. Where the world sees insecurity, God sees occasions for faith. Where the world sees death, God proclaims life. God uses the stranger to shake us from our conventional points of view, to remove the scales of worldly assumptions from our eyes. God is a stranger to us, and it is at the risk of missing God’s truth that we domesticate God, reduce God to the role of familiar friend.

(Parker Palmer, The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of America’s Public Life, New York: Crossroad, 1983, p. 59)

Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself. -St. Francis de Sales

This week I share a reflection and a poem that speak to our need to consider others, and context (always), in our decision-making and in our lives. I have enjoyed some recent time in deep reflection and emerge from these summer weeks with gratitude and appreciation for my community of support. The new school year has begun, at home and at work, and I love the freshness that the new beginnings of each academic year provides. Like this image from a recent plane ride, I find that summer expands and renews my perspective on many fronts. God is good!

Blessings on your week ahead.

Discipleship –Fr. Richard Gula

The challenge of discipleship is to be faithful and creative witnesses to the mission of Jesus to proclaim God’s inclusive love. We do so by living according to a set of values that enshrine self-sacrifice: meeting hatred with kindness, hurt with healing, bitterness with graciousness, jealousy with affirmation, conflict with nonviolence, suffering with compassion.

Discipleship requires bonds of support in solidarity with others- not grabbing for honor and glory, but offering selfless service marked by kindness and generosity so that violence is not inevitable.

Remember

by: Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,

know each of the star’s stories.

Remember the moon, know who she is.

Remember the sun’s birth at dawn,

that is the strongest point of time

Remember sundown

and the giving away to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled

to give you form and breath.  You are evidence of

her life, and her mother’s, and hers.

Remember your father.  He is your life, also.

Remember the earth whose skin you are:

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth,

brown earth, we are earth.

Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their

tribes, their families, their histories too.  Talk to them,

listen to them.  They are alive poems.

Remember the wind.  Remember her voice.  She is the origin of this universe.

Remember you are all people and all people are you.

Remember you are this universe and this universe is you.

Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.

Remember language comes from this.

Remember the dance language is, that life is.

Remember.

God is always present and looking to connect with us. We just need to invite God to the table and listen. -Rebecca Ruiz

I am enjoying a break from my computer these weeks and am basking in the summer beauty of California along with some quality time with my family. I am happy to share this below reflection, and two links from musicians who inspire me, as resources for gratitude, faith, and recognizing God’s presence. Blessings on your weeks ahead!

God’s Presence– Sr. Anita Louise Lowe

If I think about it and and are open, I think each of us could name an occasion in which we encountered God’s presence in a rather unlikely place or manner. Such times are reminders that God is always with ys. May we open our eyes and hearts to see and to recognize that presence of God, even in the most unlikely place.

Lord, in our work and play we know your goodness and love. Bless us with joy as we set out for our days of vacation. -Give Us This Day

I am counting my blessings as I head into the long holiday weekend ahead. Yesterday we played tourists in our own town, walking out our door as a family for a morning hike, followed by brunch and then strolling around Chinatown and the Little Italy neighborhoods of San Francisco. I love where I live and enjoy it even more when we can have leisurely- yet active- time as a family, sampling yummy culinary fare while gallivanting all around the City. God is good.

This week I share a couple NPR Tiny Desk Concerts that have entertained me in recent days. The value of national public radio as an entity, and the arts in general, have been questioned by some. I could not be more grateful for the gift of free press, music, and the gifts and talents of the artists who enlighten my life. Blessings on your week ahead!

We will never come to know our true vocation unless we are willing to grapple with the radical claim the gospel places upon us. -Fr. Henri Nouwen

It’s almost full summer break in my household and our whole clan is ready for a change of pace and some quality time together. As the son of a teacher, and an educator for 25 years, I have lived on an academic year cycle my entire life. I look forward to the rejuvenation and rest ahead!

This week I share an article from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, along with two YouTube links that I came across last night. Enjoy and blessings on your week ahead!

Joy Begets Joy

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, host of the CAC podcast Love Period, reminds us to choose joy amid life’s difficulties:  

Friends, I believe the bold path to making our lives and the world better is fundamentally lit by the radical, fierce love that all the major religions preach. Though we are outraged by injustice, we don’t get there with just our outrage. We need to get there with our joy, which—according to my friend Father Richard Rohr—is both a decision and a surrender. It’s a decision to look around and recognize and value what is good, what is lovely, what is inspirational—and let that delight us. It’s surrendering to the fact that there is not much we can control in life, but our reactions are within our control. Recognizing joy and embracing it—these are our decisions to make.… 

On any given day, your joy might be quiet and peace-filled, tucked way down in your belly. Your joy might be extroverted and raucous, making you dance, sing, and shout. Do you with your joy, be you with your joy, feel it your own way. Every day, like brushing your teeth, focus on it, find it, be fueled by it. It’s inside you, waiting to resource you. To build your resistance and resilience. It will support you, whether in your movement-building or when making sandwiches for your children. It will help you stand up for the other and stand in line for an inoculation. Joy powers kindness; joy begets joy.  

Joy is an essential need for the thriving of the human spirit. Without it, we are diminished and too often left with the festering of our wounds, resentments, and fears. Joy is that feeling of well-being, pleasure, and happiness that accompanies us as we move through life. It alters the way we see the world, its people, and ourselves. Joy tints our perspective with optimism and the confidence that we will go through the hard things, and though we might be bruised or battered, we’ll come out on the other side. Joy is the wellspring of resistance, the water of life. Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and smile from the inside out. There, there it is. Can you feel it? That’s joy! 

The fullness of joy is to contemplate God in everything. -Julian of Norwich

I found this morning’s Psalm reading (146) to be a beautiful reflection of the awesome, healing power of God and God’s love. Recent weeks in our country have caused great unrest among some, most especially our immigrant communities. At a recent gathering in Chicago to honor Pope Leo XIV, the Cardinal of that Archdiocese offered insightful remarks about the value of human life. I share them with you as a reminder of God’s abundant love for each and every one of us, most especially those in greatest need. Blessings on your week ahead!

Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archdiocese of Chicago- June 15, 2025

“They [our country’s immigrants] are here due to a broken immigration system which both parties have failed to fix,” he said to cheers from many in the stands. “They are here not by invasion but invitation: to harvest the fruits of the earth that feed our families, an invitation to clean our tables, homes and hotel rooms, an invitation to landscape our lawns, and yes even an invitation to care for our children and elderly.”

Noting that it was the day before Trinity Sunday, a celebration of the Christian doctrine of the three persons of God, he said that the value of human life is defined by the fact of being loved by God.

Christians have an obligation, he said, to reject “language or activity that demonizes and degrades the dignity of others, that pretends that some persons are unworthy to be connected to us.”

Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. -Abraham Joshua Heschel

This morning I listened to a podcast with Dr. Sue Varma, based upon her book, Practical Optimism. She spoke of the “4 M’s of Mental Health:” Mindfulness, Movement, Mastery and Meaningful Engagement…all elements to support our exploration of purpose, meaning, and balance in life. I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept of purpose throughout the many miles I have logged, including during a roadtrip last weekend that is depicted in the image above. Lots to think about.

I look forward to checking out the book and encourage you to do the same. This week I share some resources from some workshops I am leading to help inform your approach to our shared exploration…like the image above, our awareness evolves. Blessings on your week ahead!

Awe and Mindfulness in Leadership

Everyday awe is a basic human need. Awe signals an awareness of vast thigs that unite us with others. Awe…heightens our awareness of being part of a community, of feeling embraced and supported by others.

It is hard to imagine a single thing you can do that is better for your body and mind [and spirit] than finding awe in your environment that surrounds you.

                                              -adapted from Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder (2023)

Reflection on Gratitude

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.

And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.

We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”                                                         – From “Small Kindnessses,” by Danusha Laméris

Stewardship is about our need to respond with all that we are, and all that we have, in gratitude to God. -E. Jane Rutter

Today I prepared a workshop that I am leading next week, to help a group reflect on that which they appreciate from this current academic year that is winding down. So I thought I would share a couple of the reflections on gratitude….it’s a celebratory time in my household, one of my kids is graduating on Thursday, and we have family traveling in to celebrate alongside us. God is good! Blessings on your week ahead.

From “Small Kindnessses,” by Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.

And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.

We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”                                                                                                      

From “On Prayer,” by Abraham Joshua Heschel

To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain the sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live. Who is worthy to be present at the constant unfolding of time? Amidst the meditation of mountains, the humility of flowers — wiser than all alphabets — clouds that die constantly for the sake of beauty, we are hating, hunting, hurting.

Suddenly we feel ashamed of our clashes and complaints in the face of the tacit greatness in nature. It is so embarrassing to live! How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.      

The truth of God comes through love, the only real way of knowing God. -Sr. Mary Kay Oosdyke

Oh, the comforts of home.

I just did a double take, as I settle into my umpteenth hotel of the spring…I scoured the channels and was so happy to find the San Francisco Giants game. Turns out it’s a replay of an earlier game today in Miami, but I realized my own confusion given the multiple time changes I’ve traversed in recent weeks…I was slightly confused given the timing… how could the game possibly be in the first inning at 9pm? And then, it felt so comforting to hear the voices of our announcers, Mike and Duane, and I realize the game was on delay…cool. I’ve been to six other states in the last four weeks, and it’s so nice to settle into my evening with the Giants!

This helps me appreciate and acknowledge how disorienting our own changes in routine…locations….and communities….can be at times. Thank God for faith and our shared belief in the goodness of humanity. My heart goes out to all those in the midst of transitions.

This week I share a refreshing take on a musical piece that has been so much a part of my adult experience, the Buena Vista Social Club. Decades ago, I fell in love with Cuban music, and improved my Spanish along the way, with my own introduction to this unique history. If you’re not familiar with it, I encourage you to check them out. Blessings on your week ahead!