Lisa Brenninkmeyer's Blog, page 17

For Your Weekend: Peace, Joy, and Questions

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 1:18–24

The Christmas countdown is on and the days left to get everything done are in the single digits. If you’re like me, you’re probably reading this as you wait in line at the store, maybe with your Amazon app open on your phone at the same time. I get it. As much as we are trying to be joyful and peaceful, the reality is that this week is anything but. Our to-do lists and our stress levels seem to be growing, not shrinking. Add in a good dose of...

For Your Weekend: Lord, I Have Doubts

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 11:2–11

Do you have doubts about who Jesus really is? You aren’t alone. The very people who rubbed shoulders with Jesus did, too. 

But first, as we say in the television news business, the backstory. In this week’s gospel passage from Matthew, John the Baptist is in prison after denouncing King Herod for his promiscuous affair with his brother's wife. Herod's decision to dismiss his own wife and steal his sister-in-law instead caused a public scandal...

For Your Weekend: Be Prepared

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 3:1–12 

On my daughter’s eighth birthday, we invited her entire class to our home for pizza and cake. As I blew up balloons and hung streamers, my husband’s contribution to getting the house “party ready” was deep cleaning the front hall closet just thirty minutes before our little guests arrived. He completely emptied it; coats, brooms, an old trunk, a jogger stroller, sports equipment, and power tools, creating a massive pile of junk in the front e...

For Your Weekend: Don’t Worry. Be Ready.

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 24:36–44

On the first day of my junior year of college, I sat stunned as I heard my professor say, “In this class, I will never tell you when you are going to have a test.” I was outraged. How cruel, I thought. How will I ever know when I need to study? In light of this information, I had two choices. I could be diligent and prepared should our professor give us a test. Or, I could waste precious study time by worrying, reading into my teacher’s word...

For Your Weekend: Christ Is King

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Luke 23:35–43 

My approach to the annual family Christmas card photo has changed. For around twenty-five years, I accomplished the heroic feat of corralling seven children and a reluctant husband into a delightful, color-coordinated pose in front of the camera. Smiles might have been forced at times, but our clothes never clashed. We presented a unified and visually pleasing display, because as the queen of the house, I could insist on it. I held the keys to...

For Your Weekend: Do You Trust Him?

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Luke 21:5–19

I have to have a difficult conversation. Not only that, I need to have this difficult conversation with someone that I’ve had a complicated history with. So, I’m doing what all good Catholic women do when faced with this situation.

I’m procrastinating. 

And then I’m confessing it—again and again. 

This week, the same priest that I’ve been confessing this particular challenge to simply looked at me and said, “You have to trust that God will give ...

For Your Weekend: It’s Not About What It’s About

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Luke 20:27–38

My children are smarter than I am. I thought you should know, in case you want to ask them anything. In our house, when a child turns thirteen, they suddenly know everything. Before they used to ask me questions because they didn’t know the answer—now they ask me questions because they think I don’t know the answer.

My husband and I lovingly refer to this phase of parenting as the “velociraptor phase.” Do you remember the velociraptors from the...

For Your Weekend: Lord, Give Me Perspective

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Luke 19:1–10

My only son fell out of a tree last summer, smashing into the concrete pool deck below and fracturing his arm in three places. My brother had tied a rope swing high up into the branches of that tree, teaching my son and his cousins to launch themselves off the swaying rope into the water of the deep end below. I remember driving home from the orthopedic office as my son recounted his dramatic fall: “It was amazing how differently things looked to me ...

For Your Weekend: Improving Our Posture

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Luke 18:9–14

Warning: embarrassing confession ahead.

I want priests to like me. I want them to recognize my excellent work, think I am holy, notice my attendance at Mass, and hear how saintly I am in the confessional. Why? A small faith and enormous pride hold my face down in the lie that past sins aren’t forgiven and salvation is the result of my good efforts. In other words, I need the priest to see how virtuous I am today because of how miserable I was ye...

For Your Weekend: The Widow Who Never Stops Asking

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Luke 18:1–8

There was once a time in my life when my prayers to God were bold. I asked Him for everything from revival in the world and miracles in tragedy to things like my sanctification, a husband, acne medicine that I couldn’t afford, and a dirt cheap Patagonia fleece for my birthday. Believe it or not, Proactive appeared at my doorstep with no name on the box, and I found a very inexpensive Patagonia fleece at a thrift store two days after I prayed that...