A fundamental precept of the creed of our Christian faith is the belief that Jesus Christ suffered for our sake. And Lent is the time when we offer our disciplined attention, with particular clarity and purpose, to this suffering, and what was accomplished by it. And yet, though suffering is so central to our theology, it seems to me that sometimes we don’t quite know exactly what we mean when we talk about it...  Read More

During the years of my formal schooling and up into my 30s, I did not understand why I could not get access to Poetry; why it would not open to me. My parents taught all of us Ganz children to read, and to read all the time, barring access to the TV that we might grow in affection for books. They taught us well, doing that teaching in the most compelling way by themselves reading all the time. Yet, I could not figure out why Poetry was a locked box to me, the key to which was never placed into my hands. What was such a key?...  Read More

Even as a little boy I noticed the music of a person’s voice working in his or her language. I was captivated by the different ways that, especially adults, sounded English. (It never occurred to me that there were other languages.) Notice that I did not say the way an adult pronounced his or her words. Pronunciation has to do with the correct way of forming in one’s mouth the vowels and consonants...  Read More

A StoryThe word “discipline” has always conjured up for me images of what a person of a rebellious will requires: “That boy needs discipline!” And when we hear a person say that another person “lacks discipline”, we hear a distinct harshness in the voice of the one offering this assessment. The use of the word in this way never, in my experience, heralds the arrival of redemption, of a joyful find...  Read More

Our family has just returned from a week-long road trip to California. It was a whirlwind of new sights and experiences spanning hundreds of miles, a true Ludwig-style holiday. Among our many stops were the Mission Solano in Sonoma (my husband’s choice), Glass Beach in Fort Bragg (my choice), and, of course, the Jelly Belly Jellybean Factory in Fairfield (the kids' choice...  Read More

During my late 20s, I studied at Regis College (Jesuit) at the University of Toronto, for my Master of Divinity degree. In the fall Term of my second year, I begged Fr. Michael McMahon Sheenan, CSB to break a few rules (for a holy cause of course) and to let me into his Seminar. He made it happen, even though I had not been formally admitted as a student at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies (PIMS)...  Read More

July 27th, 2023 was an important anniversary for me, but unfortunately, not the fun kind. It marked not a birthday, or a wedding day, but the date of a car accident that exactly ten years before had changed my relationship with my body, forever. I have written elsewhere about the crushing nerve injury I suffer...  Read More

Dear friends,I know what you are thinking: what the heck is going on that we are being wished “Happy Peter Faber Day”? First of all, that is not at all how ‘Saints Days’ work. It is either “Today is the Feast day of St. Peter Faber, SJ” or “Today is a holy day made special by our honoring St. Peter Faber, one of the early friends and companions of Ignatius Loyola”… something very holy and special ...  Read More

We assume that people who are “gifted” enjoy having those gifts. Maybe. Sometimes. We who have less glory in us imagine that those who have more must be happier, more joyful, and with an easier life. The truth is that they are happier if, and only if, they have good friends (who have defeated the seduction of envy), and they will be joyful if they abide in God – a contemplative in action - through the Holy Spirit given us. Joy has no other source.  Read More

For the last ten years my husband Matty has tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade me into going on a camping trip. Although we are an outdoorsy family with a passionate love for nature and are often out romping around barefoot in the wilderness, camping was just a threshold I would not cross. To my city-bred sensibilities, sleeping in a tent i...  Read More

A “wise” person is not defined by how much, or by what kind of, knowledge he or she has amassed, but by how much his or her existence is transparent to, or “magnifies”, the Spirit of Wisdom – the Holy Spirit – who dwells unimpeded within him or her.  Read More

Wayside shrine at the hospital church of St. John the Baptist in Iphofen, Germany June 14, 2023My husband Matthew, a hospital nurse within a major health system, will be going on strike next week along with the nurse’s union. A contract was meant to be agreed upon by the nurses and upper management in December of 2022; however, after months and months of negotiations, no agreement could be reached...  Read More