Blog | W, L & P

Jul 16, 20242 min read

The Lord Will Not Abandon Us

I wrote this reflection on the July 17 Mass readings for Give Us This Day back when the war in Gaza began last fall. The war still rages,...

Jun 13, 20244 min read

The June They Carried Elizabeth Home

Somewhere along the way pallbearers became pallaccompaniers or pallwatchers as the funeral home staff took over the custody of the body....

Jun 13, 20244 min read

A Child's Prayer & John the Baptist

I wrote this one summer when Leo was very small. He's a teenager now. In all these changes, this remains constant: my reaction to his...

May 22, 20248 min read

Trinity Sunday:A Feast of Community for the ordinary days of Ordinary Time

Not two years after our oldest grandson was born he had a new sister. I was taking care of them shortly after her arrival and I was able...

May 15, 20243 min read

Mass Doesn't Need Add-Ons

Mass doesn’t need add-ons. For example, I don’t like, “Good morning,” as a greeting at Mass. It’s too small. “Good morning.” What if it’s...

May 9, 20244 min read

Wedding Season is Upon Us: Thoughts on Music for the Liturgy

I was serving on a worship commission back in the seventies when a bride requested this processional, “Torn Between Two Lovers and...

Mar 22, 20247 min read

Good Friday: A Reflection

I am in the age of funerals. Friends die, acquaintances die, cousins die, siblings die, spouses die, we die. I have no peers whose...

Mar 20, 20242 min read

Father Don Dilg, CSC: May the Angels Lead You into Paradise

Father Don Dilg, CSC, died early in the morning of March 19 at the Holy Cross House on the University of Notre Dame campus. He died on...

Mar 20, 20243 min read

"Risen" — A Movie for Holy Week

Looking for a movie during Holy Week or Easter Week? I recommend “Risen,” a fresh take on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ....

Mar 18, 20246 min read

Palm Sunday: We All Walk Togther

All glory, laud, and honor To Thee, redeemer king: To whom the lips of children Made sweet hosannas ring.” — Bishop Theodulph of Orleans,...

Mar 7, 20244 min read

Fire in Texas: The Wind Cannot Be Mastered. It Can Only Be Endured.

In 2017 a late February fire burned in Tulia, Texas, the town on the south plains of the Panhandle where I was born. A friend went to...

Feb 22, 20244 min read

The Feast of St. Polycarp: Look for the Trees

I read the later story before the earlier one. When I was in college, someone gave me a copy of The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Ten...

Feb 12, 20242 min read

Prayers for Ash Wednesday

Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. If we have not all three together, we have nothing. — St. Peter...

Feb 8, 20244 min read

What are We Going to Do About the Saints?

(I wrote this piece about a toddler granddaughter for the now sadly defunct liturgical journal, Celebration. It is a little more than a...

Jan 31, 20243 min read

I Want All the Stories

April may be the cruelest month, but February is the longest. The twenty-eight days of February attest to Einstein’s theory of...

Jan 26, 20243 min read

One Bled Out; The Other Bled In

My father died 53 years ago on January 26, 1971. I was 18. When I reached the age he was when he died, I scheduled a cardiac scan. I...

Jan 7, 20248 min read

From Christmas to the Cross

I turned twenty-three two weeks before my first child was born. College graduation, marriage and childbirth; I sped from one milestone...

Jan 5, 20244 min read

Aunt Dorothy's Toast 50 Years On

I met Aunt Dorothy fifty years ago when I married into my husband's family. She had seven children at home. The oldest was in middle...

Jan 1, 20247 min read

Thoughts on the Octave of Christmas: The World is About to Turn

My son-in-law, Nico, teaches me about poetry. He says poems proceed. A poem happens in time, like a piece of music: It begins; it...

Dec 28, 20232 min read

A Star at Its Rising: Thoughts on Epiphany

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is...

BY MELISSA MUSICK

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