Learning to Carry Your Cross
Five years ago, I was in the middle of a rocky phase of life. I was moving apartments, there were major changes at my workplace, and a priest who kept […]
Author Archives: Joannie
Good King Wenceslaus and Christmas’ Call to Holiness
Most Christmas carols are about that first Christmas night or the celebration of Christmas today. But one stands out as something different. In a way, the carol “Good King Wenceslaus” […]
What Will I Give Him?
Have you marked everything off your Christmas to-do list? Last year, Advent was the longest it could possibly be and I still felt like I was running behind the rest […]
On Pilgrimage
As you read this, I’m on pilgrimage in Italy. One of my favorite parts of my job is leading trips to places in important to our Catholic faith. While you […]
A Story Still Being Written
This spring, four of my friends and I had a mini-reunion. We have all gone our separate ways since college, and it usually takes a wedding to get us all […]
Thank you, Bishop Choby.
“Are you Joan Watson?” asked the man sitting near me in the pew when I sat down. After I affirmed his suspicions, he told me he enjoyed my blogs and […]
Different from all other nights
There are several cues during the Evening Mass on Holy Thursday that tell you something is different tonight. Mass begins and ends with an empty tabernacle. Flowers and the Gloria […]
Being satisfied
Today after Mass I stopped to get a bagel and coffee, and the man making my bagel looked up in the middle of the process, paused, and said, “You have […]
Holy Land(s) 2017
I’m currently writing a Bible study on the parables, and all the reading I’m doing about them is making me really antsy to go visit the land where Jesus walked. […]
Rest in Peace, Father Scanlan
Another pioneer in Catholic education has gone to his much-deserved reward. News came this morning that Father Michael Scanlan, T.O.R., President Emeritus of Franciscan University, has passed away. I’d hazard […]
