- By Melannie Svoboda SND
A friend recently gave me a marvelous new book to read during my recovery from hip surgery. It’s called Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe by the award-winning ecologist Carl Safina. The book tells the story of how Safina and his wife Patricia, on their Long Island
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
This past month I visited a special place I call Hip-Replacement-Surgery-Land—or Hippy-Land, for short. During my sojourn there, I learned (or re-learned) many things. Here are a few of them. The power of prayer. So many people said they were praying for me—family, friends, readers, even strangers—that I felt encompassed
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
I was watching a TV show about game wardens in New England. One day they got a call from an anxious family reporting a loved one missing. She was an “elderly” lady (about my age at the time, I noted!), an avid hiker, someone very familiar with the mountain trail
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Toward the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, after her incredible adventures in the land of Oz, Dorothy wants nothing more than to return to Kansas. She tells Glinda, the good witch, that she wants to go home. Glinda says that Dorothy already has the power to go
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, a much admired British leader, wrote a book entitled Not in My Name: Confronting Religious Violence (2015). Although I have not read the book (yet), I have come across it in other books I’ve read. Sacks maintains that at the heart of religious extremism is groupishness.
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
I served as novice director for my community from 1982-1988. One of my “jobs” was to get a retreat director for the novitiate retreat in August. Back then, the director had to be a priest. I dutifully booked a wonderful Franciscan a year in advance. But two days before the
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Psychologists tell us when we encounter danger or trouble, we act out of one of two human impulses: fight or flight. This means we either engage in combat with the danger or we head for the hills. But in his book, Earth Works, Scott Russell Sanders says there is a
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Beginning a new year is a good time to take stock of our sense of humor. As I have often said, a good sense of humor is a sign of a healthy spirituality! So, here are some humorous things (hopefully!) to make you smile, laugh, or groan! Let’s start with
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
For some of us, the beginning of a New Year is a time to make our annual resolutions. If you are looking for some ideas, might I suggest you take a look at the virtue of humility? I know, I know, some of you might be thinking, “How negative!” Or,
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Christmas is a celebration of the coming of Jesus into our world. What world? The world of Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, yes. But also into the world of today, 2023. And into the world of our own personal life–wherever we may be. Here is a little prayer-poem I wrote
