Looking for comfort in difficult times.

So, what is heaven, and where is it? Is it a place, a state of being, or a journey? Or is it all of the above?

As summer 2025 winds down and harvest season will soon arrive, it is good to reflect on the generosity of God.

The Assumption of Mary is a dogma in the church, declared in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. But the popular belief that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven upon her death stretches back to the early centuries of Christianity.

If you do notice them, does anything pass through your mind about them? Is it a good thought, or a not-so-good thought?

Categorizing people into neat and tidy boxes can make it difficult to remember we are each utterly unique, unrepeatable souls. And souls remain, and should remain, in the realm of mystery.

As summer turns the world a vibrant green, now is a time to embrace the soothing powers of the color.

I learned through both of those experiences the value of spiritual community, and supporting each other in our spiritual walks, using the spiritual gifts we have been given.

Taking care of yourself is essential if you intend to take care of others as well. The modern world makes that harder than ever.

We might not consider ourselves religious, or even spiritual, but if we live our lives with heart-centered values, we are living out our spirituality from the heart.

The late spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once wrote about the child of a friend asking him how big the heart is. Nouwen responded by spreading his arms out as far as they could go, and telling his young friend “Our hearts are as big as the world.”

"No one wants to think about dying, but death educators tell us the best way to deal with our own death is to acknowledge its reality while we are still healthy and full of life," Jerrilyn Zavada Novak writes in her weekly Spirit Matters column.

"Believe it or not, one of the highlights of the trip was going to a living, functioning mall. Remember those?" Jerrilyn Zavada Novak writes in her weekly Spirit Matters column.

"Her email got me thinking about how we honor the day we were born, throughout the different phases of our lives," Jerrilyn Zavada Novak writes in her weekly Spirit Matters column.

"During these times of wild uncertainty, rest in the unequivocal certainty that our God indeed is everywhere, and in everything," Spirit Matters columnist Jerrilyn Zavada Novak writes.

"Both instances jarred me out of my everyday reality into an ineffably dazzling moment of feeling a genuine spiritual encounter with the divine," Jerrilyn Zavada Novak writes in her Spirit Matters column.

It turns out Christ was referring to the universal church, and Francis’s enduring impact on the church is evident 800 years after his death.

May has been meaningful for me in many ways, and yet none of those individual ways can adequately explain my love for the month, other than it just has a beautiful feminine vibe.

I woke up Monday to a message from my niece that Pope Francis had died at the age of 88.

By the time most of you read this week’s column, the somber remembrance of Good Friday will have given way to the mournful grief of Holy Saturday or the renewed hope of Easter Sunday.

The tree outside our window reminds me this morning of how the grounding aspects of the natural world have guided me through life.

I was a student at Illinois Valley Community College when I first heard Kenny Loggins’ “Conviction of the Heart,” in 1991.

Back in the 1980s, my younger brothers and I religiously listened to Kasem’s America’s Top 40, every Sunday on the radio.

On Thursday, the first official day of spring, I caught a “glimmer.”

For most of my adult life, I have been on a quest for wisdom with a capital W.

Who here has not heard the old proverb “Every cloud has a silver lining?”

Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday.

What are you most passionate about?

Since the substance of the Origin of all things is Love, that means at your heart, you are love too.

Deep inside of us, no matter how old we are, we long for our mother.

January seems to go on forever.

The blessed virgin Mary is an intricate part of my life.

How do your eyes look at the world around you?

If there were a popularity poll for “Least likely to use TikTok,” I would be a strong contender.

January can be a tough month.

As this year closes, I can’t help but wax melancholic about where we are and the uncertainty of where we are headed, as individuals, communities and a nation.

During my childhood, Christmas was magic.

As a Gen-X kid, sitcoms and soap operas were my thing in the 70s and 80s.

One of the beautiful aspects of poetry is that a single poem can carry a thousand meanings, depending on the reader and the circumstances under which it is read.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, let’s talk about gratitude.

Although the calendar says we still have a month to go, we are beginning our long descent into winter, literally and metaphorically.

Saint Pope John Paul II was a man of keen intellect and deep insight into the nature of man and woman.

Women’s bodies are a complex blend of matter and soul, spirit and emotion.

It often happens when I slowly awaken to the day, some snippet from Jesus’s teachings will come to mind.

As a trusted source of tips on being spiritually well, I offer you a time-tested prescription this week.

Consciously choosing to think and behave according to your values will have consequences, especially when they are different from those of the people around you.

Several months ago, my husband and I began watching “The Chosen,” a dramatization of the complex lives of Jesus’s disciples.

“Names have power like magic spells.”

This week, I caught up with a former colleague from The Times Newspaper.

This past week, my youngest brother turned 48 years old.