Spirituality
Tasting the graces of a silent retreat
By Michelle Francl-Donnay He would withdraw to deserted places to pray. – Lk. 5:16b Earlier this spring, a friend wondered if I would write more about what it is like to be on a long silent retreat. This account of my travels to the silent land is an invitation to taste – or for those […]
Along the way and at the destination: God
By Michelle Francl-Donnay Send forth Your light and Your truth. It is they that will guide me. They will bring me to Your holy mountain and to Your dwelling-place. And let me come to God’s altar, to God, my keenest joy. – Ps. 43:3-4a. My train vanished at 6:43 p.m. last Wednesday evening – with […]
Carry one essential, lighten the load
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. – Mk. 10:25 By Michelle Francl-Donnay “The mature female is perfect to carry the transmitter,” the sonorous voice of the Shark Week narrator drifts through the doorway of the […]
Some stay, some go, all are part of the weave
By Michelle Francl-Donnay My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent, is struck down and borne away from me; You have folded up my life, like a weaver who severs the last thread. – Is. 38:12a Clutching his mortar board in one hand, Matt dug in his pocket with the other and pulled out a quartet of […]
Noticing the good amid a changing landscape
By Michelle Francl-Donnay This I believe: I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. – Ps. 27:13 Two summers ago, on an early morning drive to camp, Chris made up a song. “Nothing but trees, feel the growth, waaa-ooooo….” That’s it. The whole song. Now imagine listening to it […]
A mother’s ‘yes’ to God
By Michelle Francl-Donnay As the child’s father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “You see this child; he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is […]
Finding God ‘on the move’
By Michelle Francl-Donnay Make me know the way I should walk: to you I lift up my soul. – Ps. 143:8b Over lunch last week my friend Lisa confided that she’s found driving to be a good time for meditating. “I need something just enough to keep my body busy.” And besides, with three daughters […]
Unexpected moments of clarity
By Michelle Francl-Donnay Wash me, I shall be whiter than snow. – Ps. 51: 7b Last Wednesday morning I was decorously pedaling along, dressed for work in skirt and stockings, a hundred papers to grade weighing down my bike bags and spirit. Cruising slowly up to the stoplight with the rest of the morning rush […]
Sit, stand, kneel? It matters
By Michelle Francl-Donnay May my prayer stand as incense before You, my uplifted hands as the evening offering. – Ps. 141:2 Final exams are looming large in my students’ lives these days. Much is at stake. Many of them have returned to the classroom from time spent in the Peace Corps or working in community […]
Tending at Easter what was planted in Lent
By Michelle Francl-Donnay Every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord! – Philippians 2:11 “707, 427, 440,” Father Tony rumbles, thumbing through the breviary and calling out the page numbers for Morning Prayer. “It’s still Sunday.” It is the fourth day of the octave, the eight days the Church […]