Melanie Rigney's Blog, page 49

Jockeying for Position

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

(The mother of James and John said to Jesus,) “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. (Matthew 20:21, NRSVCE)

Oh, that wife of Zebedee. How she advocated for her sons. How sure she was that they were entitled to sit at Jesus’s right and left hands in His kingdom, whatever that...

Waiting Out the Weeds

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

“And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’  He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with the...

Wednesday’s Women: St. Lillian and Natalie of Cordoba

Note: I’m currently featuring women saints who knew each other personally–mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, sisters, and friends.

The Basics: Lillian and Natalie (also known as Sabigotho or Natalia), both born in the 9th century in Spain; died July 27, 852, in Spain; canonized precongregation; feast day, July 27. Wives, martyrs.

The Story: Lillian, Natalie, and their husbands on the surface seemed unlikely martyrs. Natalie kept her Christianity a secret, which many would...

Warm and Fuzzy, or Lack Thereof

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

Talk about mercy. The daughter of Pharoah, the ruler who had ordered the death of all Hebrew male infants, was moved enough by the sight of Moses in the bulrushes that she risked her father’s wrath and saved the baby’s life. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it, to think that a woman with so odious a father had such tender feelings for so...

Wednesday’s Women: Saints Waltrudis and Aldegundis

Note: For the next several weeks I’ll be featuring women saints who knew each other personally–mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, sisters, and friends.

The Basics: Waltrudis, born in Belgium; died about 688 in Belgium; canonized precongregation; feast day April 9; wife, mother, and woman religious. Aldegundis, born about 639 in Belgium; died 684 in

Waltrudis

Belgium; precongregation;  feast day, January 30. Woman religious.

The Story: More than age separated these sisters...

God, and Never Letting Go

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

It’s easy to turn our backs on God—in the short term. Life has a way of buffeting us about, of illness and disasters and disappointments happening to us or those we love for no discernible earthly reason.

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” (Genesis 32:26, NRSVCE)

 Things go all right for a while when we turn away. Oh,...

Be Your Best Self

An occasional series based on stuff that hangs in my room… or my heart.

I put way too much pressure on myself to be 150% all the time. It’s not exactly a competitive thing; I don’t have to be the best cook, the best writer, the most knowledgeable about 1970s rock and pop, but I do tend to expect that I will always give the most I can to every single solitary thing I do and excel at it, regardless of how others are doing. That can be a problem.

I think about the times that I did things with li...

Wednesday’s Women: Catherine Yi and Magdalene Cho

Note: For the next several weeks I’ll be featuring women saints who knew each other personally–mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, sisters, and friends.

The Basics: Catherine Yi, born about 1783, and Magdalene Cho, born about 1807, both in Korea; died September 26, 1839, in Korea; canonized May 6, 1984, by John Paul II; feast day September 20.

The Story: The Catholic Church in Korea was flourishing around the time Catherine was born; it’s

By Vatican [GFDL (http://www.gnu.o...

Faith in Storms

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

It is so easy to trust and believe when you wake up and find this, accompanied by singing birds. You can almost taste God in the breeze, the dissipating fog, the gentle sunshine. It’s all good, just like Him.

Storms are different, no matter how many we’ve survived. Consider the disciples in Matthew 8:23-27. All were adults; many had worked or l...

On the Nightstand: Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love

I saw this book while I was on retreat last month, and was intrigued by the cover, title, and concept, so it’ll be my reading material for July. It’s one of those things that sounds so simple–being hospitable to all, including strangers and those who don’t think or act or believe as we do–but can be so hard to do. Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love opens with some passages of The Rule of St. Benedict, including: “Let us open our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with attentive...