I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
My talk is Community in Complex Times. What’s the organizational structure that stays responsive and resilient in a complex, shifting landscape? Come find out!
I’ll be speaking at Benedictine College and the public is welcome. September 9, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. in the McAllister Board Room on the 4th floor of Ferrell Academic Center.
Ever since I gave fellow Chestertonians Joy in Three Persons, I’ve been hoping to be asked back to give them this talk. I’m thrilled to represent our local Northeast Kansas Chesterton Society on our own home turf!
What do you get when you put the genius of women together with the practice of Sabbath-keeping? Human freedom and flourishing!
The Place of Poetry in Catholic Education – a half-day, hands-on, fun and surprising exploration of poesis, human formation, faith, and the power of words.
This is one of my favorite conversation groups, and it all started when one lady took me up on my offer to come to a private group any time, just for the joy of spending time in conversation. They pick a topic, we eat brunch and drink coffee (my only ‘fee’ for this is coffee!), and after a brief presentation, we let the conversation flow for a total of 3 hours. THIS is what I’m talkin’ about!!
God has introduced me to a new saint for this talk, and I am looking forward to sharing her with these ladies. Hint: freedom is a capacity for mercy. I so enjoy participating in the Holy Spirit’s creativity to serve the Church. Every time I’m asked to speak is a new adventure.
What a beautiful time of year to be encouraging women to pursue their beauty! The King desires it, so I’m happy to be His messenger. Mary, Tota Pulchra, pray for us.
For the Lawrence, KS Literary Ladies Society I’ll give an overview of C.S. Lewis’s An Experiment in Criticism, and share why I think it’s a very important book. [Sadly, the ladies cancelled this event, but I leave it here hoping for another opportunity to discuss this great book!]
Yes, we know this is on a Thursday! That’s how things roll in Ohio.
Fr. Jim Korda interviewed me for his Wineskins radio show, while I was in Ohio to give this talk. My interview begins at 9:24 on this broadcast.
I’ll be the Poet-in-Residence for the Storytellers of the Great Plains in Wichita, KS, offering my workshop on poetic presence, perception and personhood.
Presenting: Homeschooling to Rock the World and The Intellectual Life
Can’t wait to hear the Keynote Speaker, Fr. James Schall…have loved so many of his books! [Ugh…he was sick and didn’t come! On the bright side, a much-smallified edition of this talk was accepted for the Newman Society Journal by editor Joseph Pearce…yay!]
Presenting: The Holy Spirit Wants YOU! Beautiful + Effective + Powerful
Mother Mary as a Model for Women Who Bring Unity to the Church and the World
Presenting: Sabbath, Simplified.
Presenting: Joy in Three Persons (I’m thrilled to present about Chesterton to die hard Chestertonians!)
Presenting: Living Books and Communicating Reality to a Child
Presenting: Hope, in a Word (The theme this year is Mercy and the Revolution)
Presenting: The Holy Spirit Wants You Beautiful, The Holy Spirit Wants You Effective, and The Holy Spirit Wants You Powerful. Wow! I know the Holy Spirit is already preparing the way for those He is leading to come to this multi-parish retreat. (Post retreat note: This was one awesome weekend!)
Presenting: B is for Bricks (Teaching huge life lessons in small pieces) and Getting Out of the Box (Creative credit reporting for college applications)
Presenting: Joy in Three Persons – Weaving Supernatural Joy into Natural Life (See the You Tube link, above, for my presentation of this at the 2016 Chesterton Conference at Slippery Rock, PA)
Presenting: A Prayer, a Poem, a Person, a Place
Presenting: Taking Care of Mom and Each Other
Presenting: Hi-Resolution Beauty
Presenting: A is for Atmosphere
Presenting: The Glory of Form
Presenting: Taking Care of Mom and Each Other
Presenting: What About Gaudi?
Presenting: Three-Dimensional Transcendentals, Preamble for Faith
Presenting: Creating an Advent Liturgy with Poetry
This is my most-requested audio – about how we can educate our children well, despite our own inadequacies. The Problem – We must get kids from where they are, to where they need to be; from ‘uneducated’ to ‘educated’. Given the poverty of our own education, we feel asked to do the impossible: build a […]
Some audiences want to cut right to the chase: “Give us practical applications of all your ideas about Sabbath-keeping.” OK – here you go: In this talk I do just that – give concrete, practical ways to dip into the kind of leisure that brings interior equanimity and leaves you more whole, more human, more […]
I prepared this talk for the Heart of a Woman group, in Kansas City, shortly after the suicide of a Catholic mother of ten. It was a shock to me, but not entirely unexpected, as I had known her during the years she struggled with depression and disintegration, despite her devotion to the Church, Christ, […]
For an Apostles of the Interior Life Women’s Retreat, where the theme was “The King Desires Your Beauty,” I prepared this truly interesting talk. Will you believe me when I say that this is another of my favorites?!?! I know, I’ve said that about a lot of these talks, but revisiting them to give a […]
I once asked a friend who calls herself a Jewish-Catholic if it had been hard for her to accept Mary’s role in Salvation History. She laughed and said, “Heck no! Every Sabbath was begun by a Jewish mama’s prayers! I’d have been suspicious if Lord Sabbaoth hadn’t come through a woman.” Jewish women welcomed Sabbath […]
Differences between the original myth of Cupid and Psyche, and C.S. Lewis’ retelling of the myth in Till We Have Faces have the effect of revealing new dimensionality in the Christian understanding of both myth and of the human person. The pre-Christian myth, like the pre-Christian person, is veiled in a darkness that constitutes a […]
In “Stour Valley and Dedham Church” Constable has painted the Vale of Dedham – a familiar and beloved area of his native England.
“The Merry Drinker,” by Frans Hals This is a portrait of an unnamed man, called in the title only ‘a merry drinker’.
Giotto’s painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, portrays the literal and spiritual senses of this story.
Berlinghieri’s St. Francis appears behind the altar of San Francesco in Pescia, Italy. It is an excellent example of art ordered to divine worship.
A mom is the caretaker of a huge, wonderful, potentially beautiful, critically important place! She, herself, this actual, unique person, is the single most important ‘environment’ in the lives of her children. Like Mary, like the Church, she is an atmosphere. She is an atmosphere of affection. This is not just warm, fuzzy feelings, but […]
Benedictine College hosted a Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization in 2014. The theme was Transcendentals as Preambles to Faith, and I got to propose my take on that as a paper. Anyone who knows me could probably have bet good money I’d do something ‘three dimensional’ with that, and they’d have won those bets. […]
I once got a chance to do an all-day retreat with one of the sister Apostles of the Interior Life. Naturally, I wanted to discuss the role of leisure in the formation of persons! As usual, I prayed about the upcoming event, and God brought together several threads of my contemplation to weave this talk. […]
Did you know YOU are a poem? Check out Ephesians 2:10, where the Greek ‘poema’ is usually translated ‘workmanship’. I like ‘poema’ better, as it implies beauty and artistry, but ‘workmanship’ is nice. I’ve discussed the importance of poetry, poetic education, poetic imagination and poetic reading in many different venues (many of the talk topics […]
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