Reflections from Our Directors
Loss of Control
The adoption caseworker made it clear the child coming to MN to live with me had endured a staggering number of losses. Preparing to become a mom meant lining up grief therapists, researching childhood trauma and carefully thinking through small acts that could help...
Trauma and Spiritual Practice
“O, send out your light and your truth; Let them guide me, Let them lead me to your holy altar.” Psalm 43: 3, Nan Merrill paraphrase Trauma When our 7 month old puppy, Hazel, jumped off of our back porch and went...
Burn Brighter: An Invitation to Group Spiritual Practice During this time of Upheaval
“let us turnto our Godandto the sacred lightof the Holy Spiritthat burnsineach of us.” – from Burn Brighter*, a Meditation by Ray Angle I sit, center myself, recognizing I am in God’s presence, take a deep breath, and there is Mr. George Floyd, trying to...
Grieving Accompanied
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. Psalm 46:5 One profound memory during this pandemic was in Holy Week. A week that reveals human nature at its worst...
Be Not Afraid
On March 13, 2020, a national emergency was declared concerning the Covid 19 outbreak. For the next week I devoured a constant stream of news – all related to the virus. On March 30, I woke up at 5:30 AM in order to go grocery shopping at 6:00 AM the...
Uncertainty in the Time of Pandemic
In times of uncertainty, of not knowing, we may encounter the challenge of questioning where is God in this pandemic? When we are not sure how long it will take for Covid 19 to be gone or at least managed, or the “pandemics” of racism, white supremacy and our...
Seeking Spiritual Health
“As a society, we face pandemics both organic and cultural, both new and centuries old. What does the community of spiritual directors at Loyola have to write about during this prolonged storm?” A few weeks ago, two of Loyola’s spiritual directors, Linda Cherek...
Grace Touches Shame
The summer days have been hot this year and not simply because of temperature and humidity. The heat comes from the amount of change that is called for in the world around us and deep within us. An invisible virus, Covid-19, spreads rampantly and wreaks havoc on...
“ONLY CONNECT”
When I drove an SUV with a spare tire on the back, I had a friend paint on it a globe and the words only connect. Often strangers in a parking lot would approach and ask what it meant. “What do you think it means?” I’d reply. I watched them...