Melanie Rigney's Blog, page 100

Of Sacred Artwork and Good Intentions

I’m not much for recommending things beyond books I love, and fellow editors and writers I trust. Just because I like a restaurant or a line of clothes or a Web hosting service doesn’t mean you will. Our expectations and needs may be totally different. And while I have a great respect for marketing (after all, it’s part of what I do for a living), I don’t take ads for this blog or my Web site or any other part of my ministry.

So it’s a big deal to me to recommend that anyone who writes in the...

In Defense of Living at Warp Speed

Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod , owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Timing, as they say, is everything.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus directs the disciples not to share what Peter has figured out: that Jesus is the Christ. It’s too soon; the prophecies must yet be fulfilled.

We’re all familiar with the first reading from Ecclesiastes: a time to be born, a time to die; a time to kill, a time to heal; a time to mourn, a time to danc...

Wednesday’s Woman: St. Therese Couderc

The Basics:Born February 1, 1805, in France; died September 26, 1885, in France; canonized May 10, 1970, by Pope Paul VI; feast day, September 26. Woman religious.

The Story:Talk about a call changing! Therese joined the Sisters of St. Regis with the thought she’d be a teacher. However, the number of pilgrims coming to the shrine of St. Regis at La Louvesc grew and grew and grew. Things became hectic and disorganized; there simply weren’t enough places for people, in particular women, to stay....

Returning Catholics FAQs: When Bad Things Happen to Good People

On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics , a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.

Why does God let bad things happen to good people?

This is one that many of us struggle with. If God loves us all that much, why doesn’t he protect us from the evil and pain of the...

You Got to Have Friends

Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod , owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Not even Jesus did it alone.

Of course we know he had the Lord at his side every step of the way, even at Calvary. And of course we know the Twelve and many of his other followers by name. How lovely, though, to consider that this wasn’t a one-way relationship of Jesus giving and giving and giving. Rather, as we are told in today’s Gospel reading from Luke 1 that th...

Wednesday’s Woman: St. Hildegard of Bingen

The Basics:Born 1098 in Germany; died September 17, 1179 in Germany; equivalent canonization on May 10, 2012, and declaration as a Doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012, by Pope Benedict XVI; feast day, September 17. Woman religious, writer, musician, mystic.

The Story:Hildegard joined a convent at an early age, and had had visions from childhood on. But it wasn’t until she was in her forties that she perceived the Lord wanted her to write down what she saw and heard. And write she did! Hild...

Returning Catholics FAQs: About Non-Catholic Christians

On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics , a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.

What happens to my non-Catholic Christian family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers when they die?

The Church acknowledges that blame lies on both sides for the schism betw...

Being the Gospel

Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod , owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

“I can do what I wanna do, be who I wanna be … I don’t have to be me ‘til Monday,” the old country song by Steve Azar says. Ah! We all know that glorious sense when the weekend comes or the kids go off to camp or something else happens that allows us a few precious hours to do and be whatever we want.

Do you ever long for a “break” in your spiritual life, for a few...

Wednesday’s Women: The Lay Women of the Great Martyrdom of Nagasaki

The Basics:Their ages varied, and most were born in Japan; died September 10, 1622, in Japan; beatified in 1867 by Pope Pius IX; feast day, September 10. Mothers, wives, laywomen, tertiaries.

The Story:There were more than fifty of them, missionaries and Japanese natives, on the hill that day outside Nagaski. More than halfe were beheaded; when the rest, including six laypeople, still refused to renounce their faith, they were burned alive. They included Magdalena Sanga, Maria Tanaka, Clara Ya...

Returning Catholic FAQs: About the Scandals

On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics , a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.

How do I come back to a Church whose leaders turned a blind eye to decades of pedophilia and other sexual abuse and then tried to cover it all up?

This is a Church of imperfect peop...