McGrath Institute Blog

Allow me to share with you a very real problem that I have been dealing with for my entire life. Self-esteem.  Confidence. Body image. These issues started to reveal themselves to me at an oddly early age, like when I realized that I was one of the tallest and heaviest boys in my third grade class or when I hit puberty before anyone my age. I don’t have an older brother so I really didn’t have an older guy to whom I could relate. Since I was often ashamed of the way I looked and clearly didn’t feel good about myself, I covered up as best as I could from others. For me, this hiding was a physical battle, and my shirt was my protective armor.

At Notre Dame’s 174th University Commencement Ceremony on May 19, Dr. Norman C. Francis, the longtime president of Xavier University of Louisiana, will receive the 2019 Laetare Medal. This premier symbol annually honoring American Catholics will celebrate Francis’ “leadership in the fight for social justice through educational empowerment,” as University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, recently put it in a news release.

Centering prayer cultivates a disposition of interior silence intended to make room for God. It is a way of disposing ourselves to receive the gift of contemplation, an encounter with God’s presence. As St. John Vianney said of his time in Eucharistic Adoration, “I look at him and he looks at me.” This contemplative gaze or time of being with God is at the heart of centering prayer.

Winifred was faded: a ghost of a woman you vaguely hoped, rather than knew, had once existed in full color. She shuffled into church every Sunday about half an hour late, careful to inform bystanders of the reason, sure that they had been anxious for her. Her pale blue eyes were vacant, almost devoid of all color now, faded like the wisps of grey hair under the knit cap she perpetually wore.

Anyone with very small children – think, 0-3 years old – knows that things often do not go according to plan. There’s the blowout diaper right as you walk out the door. The nap-strike that leads to an emotional meltdown when dinner needs to be made. The relentless demand for a story when a deadline looms. Yet, we’ve all heard the adage “kids thrive with schedules.”