- By Melannie Svoboda SND
The season of Advent is all about time: the past, the present, and the future. Advent proclaims: Jesus came! Yes, he came over 2,000 years ago, born of a young Jewish woman named Mary in the small town of Bethehem. For about 33 years or so, he walked the dusty
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
This week, we in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving, a beautiful holiday on which we traditionally pause to thank God for the blessings we have received–especially family, friends, and nature’s bounty. I begin by wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving! This wish is coupled with a big THANK
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
We schedule all kinds of things: A doctor’s appointment, a dental check-up, a trip to the grocery store, lunch with a friend, our housework, an oil change, and even a time to go to church. As important as these appointments are, there is another appointment that deserves our regular attention:
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
The Art of Pausing is a fascinating little book. The subtitle is Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed. I thought, those words “overworked and overwhelmed” is how I feel at times. How about you? The book is essentially a collection of 99 haikus written by three authors “who inhabit very
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Two weeks ago, I attended the annual fund-raiser for the Geauga Faith Rescue Mission. This organization, founded in 2014, is a non-profit, faith-based housing program for men and women that provides a “safe and structured living environment while assisting our residents into stability.” It opened its men’s shelter in Chardon
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Have you ever felt like a bird in a cage? If so, have you ever felt set free from your cage? I suggest you reflect on this experience in your life. To help you do that, here are some examples from my own life when I felt set free. Some
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
In the book of Genesis, there are two creation stories. In chapter 1, God spends the first five days of creation fashioning the sun and moon, plants and animals. On the sixth day, God creates more animals–including human beings saying “Let us make man in our own image, after our
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
I was going over some notes I took from a few books I’ve read over the years. I thought I would share five of these quotations with you today. “Autumn” Appropriately, we’ll begin with a description of autumn by Joyce Rupp from the book The Circle of Life co-authored with
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
Once I was reading an article on architects. (I enjoy reading articles on things I know little or nothing about!) In it, the author was trying to discover what distiguished the really good architects from the medicore ones. Her conclusion? It was not the fact that good architects did things
- By Melannie Svoboda SND
John Muir has many descriptive titles. He’s been called a naturalist, author, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, environmental philosopher, inventor, mountaineer, co-founder of the Sierra Club, and Father of our National Parks. His biographer Steven Holmes, added another title: the patron saint of 20th Century American environmental activity. So, who was this
