This blog was originally posted on The Catholic Woman. Dear sister, What do you do when things don’t fit? When you don’t fit? Not too long ago, if you had asked me about my sexual orientation, I would’ve told you I was straight. I wouldn’t have told you about the shelf in my mind labeled “weird.” The shelf held a growing collection of not-so-straight moments. I rationalized these experiences of attraction to other women as “outliers,” “flukes.” To call them anything else woul

This interview was a part of a four week series originally published on The Catholic Woman. How do you define the feminine genius? Is it something innate to every woman or something else? Feel free to elaborate on what you think it is, and what it isn’t. The “feminine genius” is the unique way in which God desires to manifest himself, in His image, within woman. If we are all made in the image and likeness of God, this is innate to our very being, from our genetic makeup to o

This blog was originally posted on The Catholic Woman. To listen to the spoken word version of the letter, listen here. My dear sisters, Have you ever wept at the mountains? Have you ever seen something so beautiful, so good that you couldn’t help but release the ache for something more inside of you? Rolling down your face with a few tears and a silent sob. I have. This summer I hiked into the alpine woods to encounter God but found Him along the highway at a tourist site. I

If I'm honest, I hate it when I share something emotional with someone, and their immediate response is, “I know how you feel.” I get what they’re trying to say, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you’re reading this: I don’t know how you feel. I don’t have any clue about the vast majority of people who will read this. You might love your life. You might be a day away from ending your life. I can only know what I have been through and what I feel. If you’re strug

It was my freshman year of college. I enjoyed newfound freedom, which mostly consisted of late-night trips to Steak & Shake with my new circle of friends. On the surface, my new life in university was flourishing, but in the depths of my soul, I sensed something integral to my well-being was muted, or missing. My growing sense of this lack followed a series of heartbreaks in my teenage years. At the time, I wouldn’t have told you that I had been in love. I never had a boyfrie

I remember sitting there on the dirty concrete floor of my dad’s workshop. The cold and damp cement had caused those moldy old porno magazines my dad kept there to have a dusty feeling and a stale smell of mildew. I had stumbled upon that sinful stash; a tangible mark of my dad’s struggle that would, in time, become my own. I think I was probably about 4 or 5 years old and I knew shame in that moment. From that early exposure to a reality of sin far beyond my tender age, I kn

I was sitting on the chapel floor, staring at the tabernacle, in tears. I was supposed to be happy. That was the promise, right? If I followed Christ and the teachings of His Church, then I was supposed to find joy, freedom, fulfilment…but I was so unhappy. I thought of my non-Catholic queer friends who were so full of laughter, and I couldn’t square my experience of them with how I thought I was supposed to feel. In my anger with God, I finally broke down and told Him all th

The Adirondack Mountains are most beautiful in fall. I once heard the season explained as “God showing off." The tension and dynamism of the natural world during this time of year forces me to face my humanity, and there is a tendency to lose myself in the color and the spirit of this swansong to the green and life. In fall, I feel deeply my inner self and the inescapable reality that everything that lives must die in order to come back to new life. I was raised in these moun

This blog was originally posted at Courage International's Truth and Love website. In my undergraduate ministry classes, we heard a common theme. The line was repeated over and over again in every class from all our professors. I even heard a rumor that someone had embroidered it onto a pillow as a gift for another person in the major. I tried searching for something similar on Etsy for this blog, but no cigar. It’s a line from Pope Paul VI in his 1975 exhortation On Evangeli