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February 2015

February 26, 2015

The Courage of Men

By Suzanne M. Wolfe Twenty one men dressed in orange jump-suits are kneeling in a...

February 04, 2015

Cutting the Cord: An Observation from The Way of Saint James, Part 1

Sean was not an easy child to raise. My husband and I became his parents...

February 03, 2015

The Power of Twelve

You won’t want to do it, but I’ll ask just the same: imagine being twelve...

December 2014

December 24, 2014

Certain Poor Shepherds

Long ago, when there were only three television stations, you had to wait for what...

December 17, 2014

In Defense of Fruitcake

At some point or another, every Christmas celebrant in America has to draw lines in...

September 2014

September 25, 2014

Better Red(head) than Dead

One day my mother came home from the interior decorating shop where she worked, very...

August 2014

August 07, 2014

Aesop’s Fables Are Always in Fashion

Called upon to present a gift to a small boy, I was asked to pick...

November 2013

November 26, 2013

The Lost Girl Lets Go

There’s something about the midday nature of the appointment that gives it a furtive cast:...

October 2013

October 17, 2013

Honor Thy Mother

It came to me one quiet afternoon, a couple weeks after we were home from...

September 2013

September 25, 2013

All I Needed to Know I Learned from the Phonebook

Sing in me, O Muse: That like Navin R. Johnson—the “I was born a poor...

July 2013

July 12, 2013

The Narratives We Need, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. Recently I sang Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with the Seattle Symphony. In...

July 11, 2013

The Narratives We Need, Part 1

“Tell me a story,” my son has started to say after reading his bedtime books....

June 2013

June 11, 2013

The Mystery Inside Me

For the past nine months, I feel like I’ve been at a standstill. A place...

June 06, 2013

How Shall I Answer If God Calls My Name?

Here I am. Out of place. The computer terminal asks for my borrower's card ID....

May 2013

May 22, 2013

Before the Fall of Baseball

As a child, school did not rank high on my priority list, which meant my...

May 13, 2013

Two Tribes: Good Wishes and Good Works

One summer my family got evicted from the house we were renting in Florida. The...

April 2013

April 30, 2013

Of Parsonages and Pirates

For Cathy Warner, Literary Editor of IMAGE Journal’s “Good Letters” Blog But Jesus called the...

March 2013

March 13, 2013

Little Houses

For Peter and Jackie Cooley, who live in one. “So what do you know about...

March 11, 2013

The Preacher’s Kid Returns

My sister my brother and I are right now, from three separate states, trying to...

February 2013

February 26, 2013

We Are All Immigrants

Several years ago I had the humbling honor of sharing my journey as a convert...

September 2012

September 23, 2012

A Story About Beauty

I have my father’s hands I have my mother’s tongue I look for redemption in...

September 14, 2012

The Armchair Astronaut Packs for Mars

This post is adapted from my manuscript, The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope: Essays at Play in the...

August 2012

August 31, 2012

The Garden of Memory

My brother and I walked down an old road the other day. Our parents were...

August 23, 2012

The Rock-afire Explosion and Pizza Parlor Tricks

Pay no attention to the man—or rather, the band—behind the curtain. Like Dorothy and her...

August 07, 2012

The Summer I Wasn’t Attacked by a Shark

Guest Post By Cathy Warner Jaws is released the summer I turn fourteen, and my...

July 2012

July 23, 2012

Depression, Gift, and Legacy

For Johnny, of course My mother has been dead a year now, and it has...

July 05, 2012

Moonrise Kingdom and the Divine Symphony

"It's the rhythm in rock music that summons the demons," said the church community of...

June 2012

June 29, 2012

Baseball and the Law of God

Last Friday night, a freak microburst descended on our neighborhood with eighty mile an hour...

May 2012

May 31, 2012

Prayer in Five Parts

“Prayer…is always available to us.” –St. Seraphim of Sarov I I sit atop my red...

May 24, 2012

My Rainbow Connection, Disconnected

It was a Saturday night and my wife, Becki, wanted to stream the documentary, Being...