family
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This year, I sort of missed Christmas. For whatever reason, it seems like Christmas is a time when people in our family get sick. For some, it’s the pace of work at the end of the year; my sister-in-law who worked in bookstores often collapsed when the stores finally closed for Christmas, for instance. For
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To love is to pay joyful attention to another in ways that communicate mutual belonging, inherent mattering, and gratitude. After finishing Fr. Greg Boyle’s latest book, Cherished Belonging, I found myself searching for a better definition of love. The classical Christian definition from St. Thomas Aquinas, to love is to will the good of another,
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Today I had the honor and responsibility to lead a very informal service for my family in remembrance of my sister, Sharon. I’m not an ordained…anything, really, but it was a family-only thing at one of her favorite places, Whitey’s Fish Camp, and I was as qualified to lead a service as Whitey’s was to
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Apparently, Pope Francis is coming to the United States. Because this pope has been so surprising, so candid, and so open, just about everyone has some sort of expectation of what he will do and say – in his unprecedented address to Congress, in his White House visit, in his time in Philadelphia coinciding with
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I continue to hear from people about the loss of my father. Whether it’s on Facebook, e-mail, via card or in person, my reaction is sometimes surprise that people have heard and always gratitude that they noticed. I know some people who would rather not have the reminder of their loss and the awkwardness of
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Much to the chagrin of those I work with, I don’t follow scripts. But once I figured out what I wanted to say at my dad’s service today, I wrote it down. I am Paul’s son Jeff. I feel compelled to start with a joke. If you were around my dad at all — if
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I kinda thought my next post wouldn’t be until Pope Francis published his encyclical on the environment, but I realized that there’s been a lot of attention about this week’s extraordinary synod of bishops on the topic of the family, and my non-Catholic, was-Catholic, and Catholic-but-busy friends were aware and not necessarily sure about it.
Reading Francis 