Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic

Peggy Rosenthal

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

August 2014

August 21, 2014

The Gift of Gravy Days

Well, I’ve reached my three score and ten years. It must sound positively ancient to...

August 04, 2014

A House Blessed

The doorbell rang around 11:00 a.m. My hubby George and I were both upstairs. “Can...

July 2014

July 15, 2014

Everybody Should Write Poetry

People who read poetry but don’t write it are like those who have just heard...

June 2014

June 17, 2014

Inner Peace Part 2: Mirror and Furnace

Yesterday I traced the spirituality of a Zen Garden stroll, then of meditation based on...

June 16, 2014

Inner Peace Part 1: Zen Gardens

Zen gardens were all the rage when I installed a modified version in my backyard...

June 09, 2014

Ripping Out My Past

I’m in the attic staring at boxes. One is labeled Journals, 1979-1985. Another is Journals,...

May 2014

May 20, 2014

Prado’s Ex-Voto: Dumbfounded By Mystics and Clothing Stores

What might it be like to truly live with God? Not in the way I...

May 08, 2014

Did Dante Convert Me?

Many years ago, my husband took a job in Rochester, New York, four hundred miles...

April 2014

April 16, 2014

25 Years of Image, 18 of Glen Workshops

To celebrate Image’s twenty-fifth anniversary we are posting a series of essays by people who...

March 2014

March 28, 2014

Lectio Divina for a Life

My friend Cindy’s memorial service was at the Quaker Meeting she’d attended for years. The...

March 14, 2014

In the Kingdom of the Ditch

I used to find “nature poetry” boring. Descriptions of wind through the trees, hilltop vistas,...

February 2014

February 19, 2014

Pope Francis’s Beauty and Art

“Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only...

January 2014

January 21, 2014

My Personal History of U.S. Race Relations

On Martin Luther King Day, I mused about how my relation to African-Americans has been...

January 15, 2014

Waking My Mother: Lost and Found

When someone dies, we say to the surviving family members, “I’m sorry for your loss.”...

December 2013

December 20, 2013

Blue Christmas

A few years ago, I learned about a church—an Evangelical Free Church—that holds an annual...

December 02, 2013

Living Advent

“What should I do for Advent this year, Bill?” The year was 1993. Bill had...

November 2013

November 13, 2013

I Don’t Have Time

In our current Western culture, we think we have control of time. With our watches...

October 2013

October 25, 2013

The Evolution of Evolutionary Language: The Imago Dei Project

I’m a word-watcher. I like noticing which words are winning the popularity contest in our...

October 08, 2013

When a Friend Dies

I received this group email not long ago: Our beloved Beth has passed away. We...

September 2013

September 11, 2013

Spiritual Counsel Part 2: Prayer and the Desert

As I wrote yesterday, my spiritual director, Fr. Bill Shannon, had said early in our...

September 10, 2013

Spiritual Counsel Part 1: Barking Dogs

“It’s good that you see spiritual direction in terms of a dog, instead of only...

August 2013

August 14, 2013

Becoming Baroque

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Oscar Wilde’s mischievously challenging line appears...

July 2013

July 24, 2013

The Poetry of Self-Absorbed Young Love

Until I was thirty-two, I was afraid to think about God. I panicked at what...

July 05, 2013

Women Who Make America

Imagine that you’re in grade school in the 1950s. At Thanksgiving, Uncle Richard turns to...

June 2013

June 10, 2013

Wiman and Words

At “Good Letters,” words are what we work with. Of course, this is true of...

May 2013

May 15, 2013

An Orchestra Against Ignorance

The alumni magazine of Brown University, my alma mater, begins its article on a unique orchestra...

April 2013

April 26, 2013

Luci Shaw’s Poetry of Hope and Humility

The pale bits—twigs, fibers, pine needles—sun struck, fall through the lazy air as if yearning...

April 08, 2013

More Poetry of Married Love

In a previous post, I used Richard Wilbur’s poem “for C” to talk about my...

March 2013

March 18, 2013

Auden’s Love of Neighbor

This is my one hundredth post for Good Letters. What a privilege it has been...

March 08, 2013

Can I Offer Up My Suffering?

“Pain is an evil, suffering is an evil. We mustn’t desire it. We don’t desire...