Whether we realize it or not, every time we bless ourselves “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit” (or “in-name-of-father-son-holy-spirit-amen” if we’re trying to eat dinner quickly), we are not only making a prayer to God, but we are recalling our baptism. There’s nothing I love more on a [...]
Today is Pentecost. It also happens to be my birthday. Two very important events (at least in my world). Last night, when I went to bed, I was thinking about how I thought life would be at 27. I've always loved having a plan. When I was 16, I knew that by 22 I'd be [...]
It was our last 'Dare Greatly' - a program Katie and I had created for young women with the hopes that they would grow in their faith, as well as in relationship with each other as sisters in Christ. Because Lord knows, we need people to walk this journey with us. We had decided to [...]
Today, I moved home to NH from IL. Today, one of my biggest fears was realized. My 94-year-old, dear, Grandma Joan, forgot my name. My brother, Brendan, tried to prompt her: "Come on Joanie, you know this lady, who is she?" A shadow of confusion briefly crossed her face, followed by a twinkle of spunk [...]
My dad always washes floors by hand. It used to [alright, sometimes still does] drive my mom crazy. Especially when he did it *right* before company arrived. Or Christmas Eve. Or even on the last day of vacation. There was this old farm house we used to stay in on the Cape. I have memories [...]
Today is Monday, a day I affectionately love to begrudge and use as an excuse to drink too much coffee. But today is not any Monday, it’s Monday of Holy Week. . In today’s Gospel, people ridicule the woman for pouring expensive oil over Jesus’ feet, rather than giving it to the poor. Jesus responds [...]
“People are scheduling hookups now,” one teen exclaimed, “Literally, using Tinder to find someone to hook up with and then seeing when it will fit into each other’s agendas. That just seems so awful and awkward. I don’t get it.” “It seems like sex before marriage is becoming more and more widely accepted, people seem [...]
I love traditions. My family is always cautious to start something new, worried that I’ll suddenly exclaim, “this should be a new family tradition!” We have many, beautiful traditions in our family, but if we had a tradition for every time I declared a new one, we’d have hundreds…and then we’d probably have none because [...]
I recently re-read C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. If you haven’t read it, go get it on Kindle, Amazon, Audible, your library (yes, they still exist!). I love this book. It’s brilliant and I think everyone should read it. It’s written from the perspective of Uncle Screwtape, a demon, who is training his nephew, Wormwood, in [...]
I credit my Global Literature professor, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and, as my mother would later point out, the Holy Spirit for the reason I ended up in Uganda in May of 2014. In the Fall of 2013, I took a Global Literature class at Plymouth State University. We were assigned to read the Purple Hibiscus by [...]
Caitlin Bean 