Ignatian Solidarity Network

written by: Karon Latham I had a disturbing conversation with another parent this week. Not earth-shattering or disillusioning, for I have unfortunately had those reactions to eerily similar conversations in days gone by. I’m older now – turning 40! – and have already had ample opportunity to realize that I may have in fact been a more »

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What a sacrament, a gift, a glimpse into the holy our children are. Their excited persistence encourages—demands, even—our attention. Being a parent has challenged me to rethink how the traditional Sacraments I experienced our living God in have multiplied into the countless, daily sacraments of parenthood.

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I’ve just survived one of the most difficult experiences I can think of as a parent—solo parenting! My husband had a work trip that required him to spend 5 full days in Los Angeles with his colleagues. Consequently, that meant that I was home alone with our son, Liam, now 3 years old, and managing all of the details of our lives the best I could. And the many bumps, twists, turns and failures made me realize how much I missed having my partner around.

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Knowing all of this, how do we teach our children peace amid all of this violence? The answer may be right in front of us and actually quite challenging. We must be people of peace ourselves. For some this call to action could be rooted in the model of Christ, for others in Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Dorothy Day, to name just a few. Our everyday actions with our children will need to be analyzed for the messages they send about how to treat others, even those who harm us.

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Greg Carpinello reflects on parenting during the Easter season and invites everyone to live in radical ways so as to bring light and love to the darkest places of our lives.

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Together or apart, we are still the best of friends. And so I pray my son takes that with him as he continues to grow up and follows his passions—together or apart, we are here to love him and support him.

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The culture of disposability abounds when personal convenience becomes the primary driving force behind individual decisions, while other factors – like accounting for limited earthly resources, fair wages for workers, and environmental health – do not factor into our decision making processes.

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“I want to fall in love again with life and people and God. I want to be amazed by the world and all its beauty.” That’s what I wrote in my journal the first day I arrived at JVC:NW orientation, sitting by some picturesque stream, uncertain of what the year would bring, my spirit alive with the excitement of that new step, clueless as to the extent to which God would amaze and unmistakably change me.

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Many of my days are unremarkable – filled with a mix of grace and laughter, monotony and routine, but unremarkable nonetheless. And then there are the other ones. You’ve had them, too, I’m sure. The ones you will always remember, as they hold moments that mark us forever. Joyful ones, painful ones, seemingly simple ones, and ones where we can hardly breathe, our hearts full of awe… or grief… or fear.

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We all know the routine – either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s day, someone asks, “Hey, Carrie, what’s your New Year’s resolution this year?” And then, out of desperation, most of reach for tried and true statements such as losing weight or exercising more. But we all know that somewhere around mid-February, these best intentions for a new way of being fall away in the business of our normal ways.

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New Year’s Resolutions don’t work. At least they don’t work for me. 2002: Get in Shape. 1999: Learn a New Language. How did those work out for me? Well, let’s just move on. So I haven’t made them in about a decade because I used to find that I would forget about them by mid-to-late January. By that time each year something else had grabbed my attention and that capital “R” Resolution had slowly faded into the din of my life.

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Depending upon the type of person you are, Christmas shopping may already be a thing of the past. Maybe you start planning and buying in July so that these final weeks are filled with more home-time than mall-time.

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Written By: Carrie Nantais Several years ago, while praying on Christmas Eve, I was having an imaginative contemplation of the stable where Mary was laboring.  It was dark, musty, and surprisingly warm and quiet.  Except, of course, for the labored breathing and sounds of a young woman, rocking herself back and forth, encouraging her body more »

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So why should the season of Advent, the liturgical season of great hope for Christians, become so empty? So frivolous? So antithetical to the spirit of love, generosity, and divinity?

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