St Therese Little Flower Catholic Church
Diverse but complementary members of the One Body of Christ 

Recently I read an article about the millions of microbes in and around me—how in some way they’ve been around since the Big Bang and will continue in existence, how they are all necessary in the plan of creation. I’ve been making myself more conscious of the interdependence of all things. Maybe I achieved a bit more consciousness when I found myself apologizing to the microbes as I cleaned the sinks with disinfectant.

Today give an apology to Planet Earth and think of ways to preserve her.

Reprinted with permission Sr. Valerie Schneider, SND

Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider, SND is a Sister of Notre Dame of the Toledo Ohio Province.  She has graciously given us permission to use to her blogs a...

I love the writings of Barbara Brown Taylor, a 65-year-old American Episcopal priest, 

 Professor, writer, and theologian. Her books include The Preaching Life, Altar in the World, and Learning to Walk in the Dark. In 2014, Time magazine named her on its annual list of the 100 most influential persons in the world. Currently she lives on a farm in northern Georgia with her husband Ed.

This is a true story she tells in Learning to Walk in the Dark. Somehow, for me, the story seems very appropriate for what we celebrate in our rituals during Holy Week and on Easter. Maybe you will get a similar feeling…

A few years back Taylor and her husband were exploring the...

“I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”  (Isaiah 42:6b-7)

Imagine God reading Isaiah 42:1-7 to you to remind you that you were formed to be a light for the nations. A tall order, but you can do it, because the Lord is your light and salvation (psalm 27). God will shine through you, because God needs you. God needs your knowledge, skills, personality, talents to build up the earth. God plans through our thoughts and feelings to achieve the aim of creation: to bring all into one in love.

Sometimes we think God’s will is floating...

“If you are not grateful for the things you have, what makes you think you will be grateful for the things you want.”  –Tony Agnesi

Every March, Diane and I are blessed to spend the month in sunny Naples, Florida. We love the nearby Vanderbilt Beach and walk the beach every morning for an hour and a half.  We are so grateful to share this time together. Every year, I comment on how I missed my life’s calling as a beach bum!

Naples is an upscale city and most of the people here are retired successful folks from other parts of the country and seasonal vacationers.  I love everything about the area except for one thing. In the 20 plus years we have been coming here I can’t believe is how un...

As they were going along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But he said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 9:57-62)

Hold on just a minute, I need to finish...

Father, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians  1:27-31

The seasons are changing and for the first time it was cold enough that I needed a coat.  As I scanned the coats in the hall closet, I spotted a nice looking black...

The date was December 9, 1967. The occasion was the Veterans Day remembrance ceremony in Missoula, Montana. Attending the ceremony was Dan Gallagher, a demolitions specialist, who had just returned from a 13-month tour in Vietnam. But at the front gate of Fort McChord, where the ceremony was to take place, a group of anti-war demonstrators had gathered.

Dan saw her right away: a young woman with long blonde hair about his age, 20. Her name was Betsy Mulligan and she was waving a sign with big red letters that said: “Baby Killer.” He says, “I saw more hate in her eyes than I had seen in the eyes of the Viet Cong.” Little did Dan and Betsy know back then, that one day, many years later, t...

As many of you read this, I’m undergoing some minor out-patient knee surgery. I injured my knee last spring but didn’t make time to see a doctor until July. Crazy, right? The discomfort wasn’t so bad at first, but gradually it’s become worse and has limited my activity. Recently I’ve been counting the days until I can have it taken care of.

If you’re like me, you don’t pay too much attention to your body until something hurts. For the last 5 months I’ve been  increasingly aware of my knees and how I take them for granted. Being both a nun and a gardener I depend on my knees. For me, kneeling is a stance of reverence before the Holy—both in the sanctuary and in t...

Sometimes I wonder what this world will look like when my children get to be my age. Everything seems to be changing so rapidly and much of that change doesn’t seem to be for the good.

I do think in some ways the Church is definitely experiencing a resurgence and strengthening, but it will have to do so in the face of an increasing culture of atheism and selfishness.

Of course, I bet my parents wondered the same thing when I was a child. As much as things change, they remain the same. When Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount, I would guess some parents there were having the same kind of worries. But Jesus proposed a way of life in the Beatitudes that was counter cultural then and is count...

Some of us have a negative view of winter. We see it as a season of cold that disrupts our routine and puts a damper on our fun. Have you ever noticed how some of the weather people speak about winter? They say we will be attacked by a cold front. Or we should prepare ourselves for the invasion of arctic air from Canada. One meteorologist even said that the winter storm is going to deliver a blow to the country’s midsection. Poor winter! It needs a public relations agency to give it a more positive image!

But I recently came across a website that calls winter, “the most misunderstood season of all.” The author addresses his words to people (like me) who live in...