Every year, my sister and I take the anniversary of each of our parents’ deaths off and spend it together. We go to the cemetery and to Mass, and gather the memories and the mourning into our arms and hearts for one more year.
Valerie Schultz
Valerie Schultz is a freelance writer, a columnist for The Bakersfield Californian and the author of Till the Moon Be No More: The Grit and Grace of Growing Older. She lives on the Oregon Coast.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
How do you outwit a troll? Spread a little love.
Many of us have learned the hard way that “L.G.B.T.” is a trigger for some Catholics to become very un-Christian.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
The spiritual lessons of a school shooting on Ash Wednesday
May we repent as we worship at the altar of the gun, even to the point of sacrificing our own children.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
How your DNA points to the existence and intricacy of God
Your DNA is like a blueprint of your soul, which is another sacred thing that is not like anyone else’s in the world.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
How can we cure cataracts on the soul?
It is not just our eyes that become brittle and inflexible as we age. Our hearts can, too.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
When my daughters joined #MeToo, I knew I had to tell my story.
Thanks to social media, thousands of stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault are going viral under the social media movement, #MeToo.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
A colonoscopy isn’t pleasant—but it’s a clear sign of God’s presence.
I sensed God in the heightened awareness of my own mortality.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
St. Maria Goretti teaches me to see God in the faces of murderers and rapists
For inmates, incarceration is their punishment. But in the library, we focus on rehabilitation.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
In prison, writing is an act of redemption
One day we may see one of their bylines in The New Yorker. One day these men will be released from prison.
Posted inFaith, In All Things
Is a living wage too much to ask the Catholic Church?
While the church relies on volunteers in many instances, certain jobs require extensive training, which must be compensated.