To hear the word “help” called out is a summons

Can I pray for you on pilgrimage?

Mothering Spirit news

Thanks for helping to spread the word about our virtual birth story retreat: Sing A New Song on Nov. 6-8. 

This week I shared a quick (90-second!) sample session on Instagram to show you how we’ll be praying with Scripture. We also rounded up a lovely collection of essays and reflections from our writers on their own birth stories. Share with a mother who might love to join us (and can’t make an in-person retreat)?

I also asked for your help in both spiritual and material ways as we’re getting Mothering Spirit off the ground. Check out our concrete needs here.

For your reading & reflection

Along the lines of asking for help, I loved this short piece from Pádraig Ó Tuama on the importance–and etymology–of help.

This episode of Anderson Cooper’s new podcast with Stephen Colbert is stunning. I don’t know if I’ve ever listened to a more profound conversation on grief.

A gorgeous poem about introducing a child to autumn: First Fall by Maggie Smith.

My friend Haley’s mouse nuns book is here! (Yes, a children’s book about an order of mice who live under the floorboards of G.K. Chesteron’s house.) Check out The Pursuit of the Pilfered Cheese and pre-order The Curious Christmas Trail.

I just preordered Marcie Alvis Walker’s forthcoming book, too: Everybody Come Alive: A Memoir in Essays.

A striking reflection from Sarah Ku on the Korean mother martyrs.

Check out the FemCatholic conference in Nashville on Oct. 29: a rockstar lineup of wise women.

Love this collection of three-word theology from the New Testament, from Diana Butler Bass.

Register now for the free virtual retreat I’m leading for the Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College. Parable: A Retreat on Change in Ordinary Time, coming to you live over your lunch hour on Oct. 26-28 – a perfect way to pray in the midst of your own ordinary time!

Oct. 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I’ve gotten lots of requests lately about Grieving Together: A Couple’s Journey through Miscarriage, the book my husband and I wrote. Bookmark it if you or somone you love has lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss? Please keep bereaved parents in your prayers in a special way this month.

Pilgrimage prayers

I leave on Wednesday for our pilgrimage to France. If you’d like me to take a special intention with me, would you simply reply and I’ll add it to my prayer list?

Thanks for keeping our pilgrims in your prayers, too. 

A lot of you liked this one. Thought you might like to remember that God’s still waiting to meet you like that. Right there on the middle stairs.

This post contains affiliate links.