Melanie Rigney's Blog, page 12

Shine

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

She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days.The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. (1 Kings 17:15-16, NRSVCE)

It was a miracle, really, the way the widow’s bit of flour and oil never went empty, even after a year. She had been qui...

Happy Birthday, Radical Saints

Today is the official publication date for my latest “baby,” Radical Saints: 21 Women for the 21st Century. It includes the stories of twenty-one women who walked the earth in the 20th century and were canonized this century. They ranged in age from nine to ninety-three when they died, and lived on every continent but Antarctica.

They’re a diverse bunch–a child. A mother. A former enslaved person. A former heiress. A laundress who became an invalid. A convert. A number of women religious who ser...

Fragility

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

Human life is always fragile, and the past few months have attuned us to that. Things are going along in an unremarkable way, and then we or someone we love or know (or a friend loves and knows) dies of a disease we were only dimly aware of six months ago. New lives are stalled because weddings can’t go on. Big changes are delayed, if not canceled, because the comp...

Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, ...

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

Human life is always fragile, and the past few months have attuned us to that. Things are going along in an unremarkable way, and then we or someone we love or know (or a friend loves and knows) dies of a disease we were only dimly aware of six months ago. New lives are stalled because weddings can’t go on. Big changes are delayed, if not canceled, because the comp...

Friends in Faith: Melanie Cameron

“Never see a need without doing something about it,” Saint Mary of the Cross Mackillop used to say. My friend Melanie Cameron puts that into action.

In addition to being a devoted wife and mom, Mel always is answering needs. She is the executive director of St. Anthony’s Bridal, a non-profit in my area that helps brides on a tight budget have weddings to remember (and provides a good home for used wedding gowns). More recently, she’s galvanized women across the Diocese of Arlington, VA, to make...

On the Nightstand: Seven-Storey Mountain

Twice, I’ve started this Thomas Merton memoir, billed as “one of the most famous books ever written about a man’s search for faith and peace.” But then well, I got busy…

 

I ran across it in late May as I was cleaning my bookshelves, and I swear, this will be the time I finish it.

Souls to the Kingdom

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

I made my Cursillo in November 2006 at the Josephite Pastoral Center in Washington, D.C., and sat at the table of the amazing graces.

Two weeks earlier, I’d been on my first-ever parish council retreat. It was one day, held at a beautiful wooded setting that was just inside the Beltway, but felt a world away from the hustle and bustle of DC.

It was a day of good wo...

Departures

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

“But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me,  ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:5-7, NRSVCE)

Change...

True Security

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

We werent the kind of people who went to the doctor much, but a number of relatives at Thanksgiving dinner had told my parents that cough of mine was really bad. So, the following Monday, Mom and I went to see Dr. Brzica. Double pneumonia, he pronounced almost immediately, and ordered her to get me to the hospital ASAP. We stopped home first to get some clothes...

Called Christians

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

Maybe it was a pejorative. Maybe they were the first to use it, because there wasnt a word that encompassed Jews and Gentiles in the same community. Maybe it caught on because Christian is shorter than Christ-follower.

Regardless, the phrase gives you a Holy Spirit shiver: it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26, NRSVCE)

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