300 words a day

In keeping with tradition

I don’t get into the battles of seasonal change. I don’t care about when it’s okay to wear white shoes and white slacks. I don’t care about pumpkin spice, one way or another. I don’t care when you want to put up which kinds of decoration, or when you want to listen to what kind […]

by Jon Swanson

A prayer for the thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

God. Half my friends are mad at half my friends who are mad at them.And you and I both know that mad isn’t the right word. But frustrated. And concerned and critical and annoyed. They have been getting that way for months. They’ve been listening to news reports and opinions. They’ve been reducing each other […]

by Jon Swanson

Getting ready to get ready for Christmas

A special Saturday issue of 300 words to talk about a couple of resources for Advent. +++ If you’ve been here for very long, you know that I’ve talked about Advent as a season of preparation before Christmas. In the Northern Hemisphere where this description of the season developed, it was a way to handle […]

by Paul Merrill

Prayers requested

Paul Merrill writes here on the first Friday of each month. We’re sharing this at the beginning of the post because of its personal nature. +++ My sister-in-law is about to enter a season of hardship. She will begin kidney dialysis within a month or so. Her kidney is at 14% function, below the level […]

by Jon Swanson

A note for some of my friends.

Ah friends. Thank you for taking care of people who need care. For whatever reason, you are alongside what most everyone would call tragedies. A teenager left brain-dead through no fault of their own. A teenager left fatherless through no fault of their own. A teenager whose cancer did not stop. This isn’t the algorithm […]