- By Melannie Svoboda SND
It’s fall where I live in northeast Ohio. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I associate it with the harvesting of fruits and vegetables, with warm days and crisp, chilly nights, and with the trees donning their array of fall colors: bright yellow, rich orange, deep red, and subdued
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
October 4th is World Animal Day. Appropriately, it falls on the feast of St Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis has said this about his patron saint: “St Francis’ response to the world around him was so much more than an intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Writer Kurt Vonnegut said the only proof he needed for the existence of God was music. Others have said that it is through music, perhaps more than anything else, that we get nearer to God. Victor Hugo maintained that “Music speaks what cannot be expressed. Music is the melody of
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
On September 16, 2024 I am completing my 80th “free trip” around the sun. In other words, I’m celebrating my 80th birthday. At noon. (Mom always said I arrived just in time for lunch!) This significant birthday fills me with awe and gratitude. It also makes me wonder, “How did
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
On August 24th we celebrated the feast of St. Bartholomew (Nathaniel), one of the apostles. The short gospel story for the feast always intrigues me (Jn. 1: 45-51). Philip has met Jesus and has accepted Jesus’ invitation to “Come follow me.” He runs off to find his friend Nathaniel and
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
The virtue of hope makes a difference in our lives. If we have hope, we will think and act differently from those who have little or no hope. The essence of hope is the firm conviction that a better world is possible. Hope is rooted in the promises of Jesus:
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Jesus said a lot of things in the Gospels. But sometimes we get so used to hearing or reading them, we can take them for granted. Or we can forget their “shock value.” One way to reclaim the power and significance of what Jesus said, is to rewrite some of
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
As most of you know, I love to write. In fact, I wrote my first “novel” in third grade. I wrote it by hand in a big red tablet with yellow pages. It was three pages long. But today I’m not going to talk about my writing. I’m going to
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
While I was on retreat two weeks ago, I meditated on Jesus’ temptations in the desert. All three synoptic gospels tell the story. For this meditation, I used a marvelous book a good friend recommended to me: Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories by Debie Thomas, a columnist for
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Many years ago, I had a retreat director who, at the beginning of every conference, read one of the prayers we say during Mass. Not the BIG prayers like the penitential rite, the Gloria, or the Eucharistic Prayers, but the small prayers–like the collect, the prayer over the offerings of
