The deepest struggle in marriage is not money, miscommunication, or even differences in personality—it is hardness of heart. When our hearts grow hard, we stop listening, stop forgiving, and let the sorrowful mysteries of life overwhelm us. Instead of turning toward one another, we retreat into silence or resentment.
Continue reading “Breaking Open With Love and Hope”
The season of Advent invites us into a sacred rhythm of waiting, expectation, and discovery. It is more than a countdown to Christmas-it is a time to pause, reflect, and rediscover the deeper meaning woven into these weeks of preparation. In that spirit, I’m delighted to share the Hinges of Hope Advent Retreat guided by Fr. Hung Pham, SJ. This retreat offers a space to gather with friends from across the globe, to breathe deeply, to ponder our deepest hopes, and to reflect on how the “doors” of our lives might open wider to grace, to love, and to one another. You’re warmly invited to register here for the ZOOM session and step into this journey of reflection.
As we begin Advent, I offer you the following meditation on Holy Doors, a journey through the door of Christ.
Continue reading “Get Hinged to Hope This Advent”
God’s mandate is love. Not efficiency. Not urgency. Not the breathless pace we’ve come to accept as normal.
Continue reading “Anchored in Love: Choosing the Unhurried Path of God”
Advent is the coming of Christ into this world. Did you know there are 198 different names and titles for Jesus in the Sacred Scriptures? They each describe different characteristics of God and his desire for a relationship with us by uniting divinity with humanity in Jesus. Since at least the eighth century, the Catholic Church has been singing the “O Antiphons;” the mystery of Christ in our salvation history. The coming of the Son of God in our human nature culminates in the solemn chant of the O’Antiphons from December 17 to 23. Their repeated use of the imperative “Come!” embodies the longing of all for the Divine Messiah.
O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love, come to teach us the path of knowledge!
Oh, come, that wisdom, from on high, and order all things far and I; to us, the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.
Lord Jesus Christ, so many times we seek the wisdom of this world for guidance in our lives. Come into our lives this advent, that we might know God’s will for our lives with the wisdom that only you can give. In your holy names, we pray Amen.
I’m grateful for the prayers written by those who have walked before us. During Advent, I love meditating on these words as I sit in the waiting, longing for a well lived life in Christ.
May the sounds of Advent stir a longing in your people, O God.
Come again to set us free from the dullness of routine and the poverty of our imaginations.
Break the patterns which bind us to small commitments and to the stale answers we have given to questions of no importance.
Let the Advent trumpet blow, let the walls of our defenses crumble,
and make a place in our lives for the freshness of your love,
well-lived in the Spirit, and still given to all who know their need and dare receive it.
Amen
By Howard Thurman
The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God. Pray in gratitude every day.
Psalm 100 instructs the soul to, “enter his gates with thanksgiving.” Gratitude is the key to God’s Heart, the place to begin in prayer. When you thank God, you’re acknowledging reality: God is real and He is the Source of all gifts and graces you receive in life —He is the Source of your very life!
Thank Him for Who He is: Savior, Healer, Redeemer, Lover, Friend. Thank Him for what He’s done. For giving you life, for His forgiveness and mercy, for the myriad of ways He’s provided for you both daily and in times of crisis, for speaking to you through His Word and the Church and in the silence of your heart. For blessings and for the beautiful mystery of suffering.
And it will open up your own heart, too. Thanksgiving will lift the veil of comparison and consumerism to see all that God has already done, all that He gives, all that He is. It will lift your heart and inflame your love. Thanksgiving will make you more content with what you have and more hopeful for what’s to come. Practice thanksgiving every single day and soon it will become a habit and your habits will become your life.
Start here: Thank you, Jesus, for…
In all things, joys and sorrows, we have reason to praise the Lord.
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be always in my mouth. My soul will glory in the Lord; let the poor hear and be glad. Magnify the Lord with me; and let us exalt his name together. (Ps 34:2-4)
Amen
As we begin the advent season, how can we not contemplate Mary’s journey in the final days of her pregnancy. Her journey mirrors ours as we prepare our hearts for Christmas. Take some time today to reflect on what sacred longings are in your heart. What are the joys you long for?
What are the joys you are currently experiencing? How do I maintain the balance and lean towards gratitude during uncertain times not falling into the spiral of fear?
Lord, every day can be our yes, our Fiat, like Mary allowing your love to be born in our heart. Help me say yes today out of love for you. Amen
Read: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:1-18
Reflect: Thank you for journeying with Smitten with Goodness as we prepared our hearts for Christmas. Now that we have finished, you might be wondering what is next? How do I maintain the spiritual momentum I developed this Advent?
Respond: Help me to pray and establish a dedicated time to dialogue with You, developing a personal relationship and solid foundation for living a spiritual life. Draw me towards your word, reading the bible (protip: start with the Gospels, Psalms or Proverbs) and meditating on what the living word is telling me. Let me apply what I hear to my life.
Let’s be Smitten with God’s Goodness!
Merry Christmas! Love is born.
Read: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:4–8
Reflect: Living in the Theological Virtue of Love. Love or Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Jesus makes charity the new commandment and it is superior to all virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.” Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.
By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, “binds everything together in perfect harmony”
Colossians 3:14
Respond: We love because you loved us first Lord. Thank you for your birth, for being fully human and divine, to show us the way to love. Help me love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all love. Help me love my neighbor as myself for your love. Help me forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon for all whom I have injured.
Smitten With Goodness 