- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Deborah Meister, a writer and artist in St. Louis, MO, tells this true story. She was in the church parking lot before Mass one Sunday and overheard a child arguing with his parents. “But I don’t want to go to church,” he cried. “It’s boring!” She wondered if the father
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
This is the first paragraph in Frank Bruni’s book The Beauty of Dusk: They say that death comes like a thief in the night. Lesser vandals have the same MO. The affliction that stole my vision, or at least a big chunk of it, did so as I slept. I
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
As many of you know, I collect quotations. I have drawers of 3 X 5 cards filled with thousands of quotes from a wide variety of people. I started doing this as a college student. I file my quotes under topics such as adversity, beauty, happiness, Jesus, love, prayer, writing,
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
A good friend handed me a book the other day, saying, “Here, I think you might like this book.” The book is Inspiration Sandwich by an artist named SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy). My friend was right. I really enjoyed this unique and highly imaginative book. In one section SARK
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
I can’t let autumn fly by, without a few thoughts on this beautiful time of the year. So, today I’ve put together some brief reflections on this season by four writers—all happen to be women. The first is a quote by George Eliot—whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. She
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
As we know, there’s a very important meeting taking place in Rome right now. It is the Synod on Synodality. I wrote something about it on my October 2 post. The Synod runs from October 4-29. But it began on October 1 with a three day retreat outside of Rome.
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
There’s a famous black and white photo from the Third Reich taken in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. It shows a crowd of shipyard workers, a hundred or more, with their right hands raised, saluting their allegiance to Adolf Hitler. But if you look more closely, you see one man who
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Recently Eric (my grandnephew) and Mary Ann were married. Mary Ann’s father Ron is a deacon at the nearby church and he presided at the service. Deacon Ron wanted to walk his daughter down the aisle in a suit—not his clerical clothes. This meant he had to change after doing
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Brandon Chrostowski, founder of Edwins Restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, knows all about second chances. At 18, he was arrested for dealing drugs and was facing five to ten years in prison. Instead, the judge gave him probation. Because of this second chance, Brandon turned his life around. He went back
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Years ago, a good friend recommended that I read a book on Australia called In a Sunburned Country. It was written by Bill Bryson whose most famous travel book is Into the Woods, the best seller on the Appalachian Trail. Bryson was born in Iowa but lived for 20 years
