They’re called “keynotes.”A keynote speech is a talk or presentation that establishes a main underlying theme. It sets up the framework for a program of events that will follow, summarizing the core message or the most important revelation. The term itself comes from the practice of a cappella music: doo-wop or barbershop singers played a note before singing to determine the key in which the song would be performed.Gabrielle Bossis, writing in the spiritual journal that would b...

Lord, make me an instrument of your grace.Where there is ignorance, let me bring inspiration;Where there is prejudice, understanding;Where there is weariness, strength;Where there is ugliness, beauty;Where there is loneliness, companionship;Where there is sadness, joy;Where there is fear, courage;Where there is doubt, faith;Where there is hatred, love.Lord, fill my mind with your truth,my heart with your love,my whole being with your Spirit.Grant me the supreme giftof forgetfulness of self in se...

“Lord, your poor little girl, your poor image is here before you, yearning for you with all the strength of her being.”The woman writing these words in 1945 was named Gabrielle Bossis. She wasn’t, in fact, a little girl: she was 71 years old. But that image, the image of a child coming—in trust and love—to listen to the words that would eventually become the spiritual classic He and I, is indicative of the heart and soul of this mystic who discerned and followed the...

In the classic He And I, French mystic Gabrielle Bossis, like the rest of us, started every year with something new. But her “resolutions” were very different from ours. Her conversations with God, recorded in her journal according to the date they took place, always started on January first with something called a “keynote,” what we might think of as a theme for the year. And all of these themes have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with self-i...

Most of us turn the page from December 31 to January 1 with mixed feelings. There may be regrets for what we’d planned to see accomplished in the year that is over. For many people, probably for most people, there is hope that the new year will be different. And most of us make new year’s resolutions. We decide that this is the year we’re going to lose weight, or start a new career, or take a class. We’re all about self-improvement, about making changes that will&mda...

While it is difficult to keep in mind in the midst of holiday celebrations, shopping, lights and decorations, and joyful carols, Advent is actually intended to be a season of fasting, much like Lent. It probably doesn’t feel that way, but any time the Church asks us to prepare for something, there’s an element of penance that goes along with that preparation.There’s something very appropriate about penance in this holy season of waiting. Because we spend time reflecting on the ...

You know what it’s like: by November, the commercial anticipation of Christmas is in full swing, and your kids are probably already thinking about Christmas morning and Christmas stockings and glittering presents under the Christmas tree. But how do you get them to slow down?As adults, we know Advent as a season of anticipation, a time of waiting (something that, truth be told, none of us are really very good at!). That’s not an easy or welcome concept to get across to children.But t...

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”(from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll)Right now, it seems impossible to believe that things will ever be...

Far in the back row, against the wall, was a hand hesitantly lifted for a question. I invited her to respond. “Doesn’t forgiving someone over and over again,” asked the woman in a subdued voice, “invite them to keep hurting us?” She had been a regular attendee during a parish program on forgiveness I had been leading, but had never spoken until then. Tonight, however, we had been discussing Jesus’ teaching that we should forgive those who offend us seventy tim...

When you think of Good King Wenceslas, you probably think of the song we sing at Christmas. Here are some amazing things about the real Saint Wenceslas: Wenceslas’ grandfather, Borivoj I of Bohemia, was converted by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who began the Christianization of Bohemia during Borivoj's reign. His grandmother Ludmila of Bohemia is also a Czech saint and martyr. She was canonized shortly after her death. Her feast is September 16. Wenceslas' father died when...