FOR THE JOURNEY January can be a drag, a real letdown. The remaining Christmas cookies are stale crumbs and the tree, once so respected, has been ingloriously dragged out of the house to be recycled into mulch. One by one, the Christmas lights in the neighborhood have gone out, as if some festive power grid […]
Effie Caldarola: Gratitude, a spiritual practice
FOR THE JOURNEY Like many families, during the holidays we try to focus on thankfulness by asking each guest at a festive meal to express that for which they are most thankful. Surprising how tongue-tied a roomful of noisy siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins suddenly becomes when given this task. Sometimes, one kid comes up […]
De-clutter, make room for the spirit
Effie Caldarola: FOR THE JOURNEY A member of my faith-sharing community devoted one year to buying nothing. Nothing, at least, that wasn’t a necessity. She bought food, of course, and if her printer ran out of ink, she would deem that a necessary purchase. She paid her utility bills and her mortgage, but she added […]
Effie Caldarola: Blocking out the noise to listen to God
I sit at the desk in my little home office. A fall sun streams through the window, pouring brilliant light on my plant. If a plant could speak, I know it would tell me how happy it is. It’s a perfect Monday — comfortable temperatures, no wind, a cloudless blue sky. My window is open […]
Effie Caldarola | Martyrdom in our time
A little over a year ago, Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt was assassinated in Syria. His story is inspirational for the sheer faithfulness and integrity of his witness. I keep his picture in my office to remind me of this witness. Although we don’t know for sure who killed him — Syria being the […]
Effie Caldarola: A time to render your heart
There was a time in medieval history and in some places even later when believers would use extreme methods of self-discipline, or self-punishment, during Lent, as a penance for sin. We’re most familiar with these practices from movies we’ve seen, or in my case, the historical novels I enjoy reading. Hair shirts that bit at […]
Effie Caldarola: A pet’s death and our own
After Christmas, a brutal cold descended on my part of the Midwest and ushered in our new year. We returned from our holiday travels to find a light dusting of snow. Most of it had been blown away by the harsh winds of the Plains, but when I awoke in the morning, I discovered that […]
Effie Caldarola: Finding God in the silence
Do you ever sit idly in front of the television, remote control in hand pointed like a weapon, and flip through channels wondering why the offerings are so bad? It’s enough to make a woman pitch her remote and grab the nearest novel. Fortunately, right before I did that one night, I switched to public […]
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