Rev. Catharine Is Currently
On Medical Leave

The Blessed Mother and Me

Beloved – So ever since the fire at Notre Dame de Paris, I have found myself leaning into practices that come from my Roman Catholic background. One of our comrades from The Way of the River, Rev. Madelyn Campbell, prayed the Rosary with me on Good Friday. More consistently, I’ve been finding myself praying the […]

A Challenge: Let’s Share Our Gifts!

The Healing Focus for Heart of Business this week is about Visibility. It is about allowing ourselves to be seen as who we are and as having the gifts we bring. The challenge after the Remembrance (a kind of Sufi meditation Heart of Business folks often share) was to write about our gifts and strengths […]

Pillage of Spirit and Culture

As you know if you read my last blog post, I was on the Bespoken Bones podcast #20. One of the things we talked about in that interview was how discussions of cultural appropriation can be very binary, and that that binary is not always a helpful way to go about having conversation. Let me […]

No Glitter in My Ashes Part III

Who’s Repenting? Another Problem Solved by Truth-Telling So ashes aren’t a problem. Glitter itself may not even be the problem. Blending is a problem. And there is another problem yet. The problem of singling out. In the article to which I am partly responding, the author makes two suggestions:  One, have a glitter + ashes […]

The High Priestess – Moon Dancer

When last we left our intrepid adventurer, she was looking at what many consider to be the most “traditional” of Tarot decks, the Rider Waite Smith deck. Specifically, the post concerned the third of the Major Arcana, the High Priestess, Roman numeral II. I invite you to go back to that post if you haven’t […]

Hospitality of the Holidays?

complex woven Christmas ball with lights inside

In some ways, this is a season of hospitality or its lack. Many of us hear the story of the emigration and return of Joseph and Mary to and from Egypt, reminiscent of the time the Israelites spent in Egypt generations earlier. Many of us hear the story of the pregnant Mary being welcomed by […]

Why Writing? Part Three

The Examination of Consciousness The Examen, also called the Examination of Conscience or Examination of Consciousness (learned that last one from a Dominican Sister), is the last of the writing practices I’ll go over in this week’s posts. Unlike writing Morning Pages, journaling, or gratitude lists, the Examination of Consciousness is done in the evening. […]

Why Writing? Part Two

My Wariness of Gratitude The Stoic philosopher Epicteus said, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” Why be wary of gratitude? I mean really, Catharine, gratitude is a great thing! Epictetus (and a bunch of other awesome people) says so! Nonetheless, […]

Why Writing? Part One

Where Has Spiritual Practice Been? It’s been a while since I’ve written about spiritual practice. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about gentleness and persistence in the context of spiritual practice. It’s been a while since I’ve written about the ancient and powerful art of writing as spiritual practice. And frankly, it’s been a […]

Thoughts on Beautiful Conversation

I used to say that I thought excellent conversation was better than sex. Now I hadn’t had much sex at the time, so… Still, excellent conversation, discussion, discourse, even archaically called “intercourse”—is a beautiful, beautiful thing. There are so many splendid pieces of conversations:  The listening, the speaking, expressing one’s own sense of the truth, […]