Not the Pat Answer

Father Zosima then advises his suppliant, in some of the words that Father Ambrose of Optina Pustyn asked Dostoevsky to convey to Anna Grigoryevna: “Be not comforted. Consolation is not what you need. Weep and…

Mev and Andrew

For Suzanne Renard Mev Puleo died 28 years ago today and, out of the blue, I just remembered something Andrew Wimmer had written about the book I wrote about Mev way back in 2005. Even…

Sitting

The night before I left, one of the patches containing painkiller came off, and Mev was in a lot of pain.  She wet the bed twice, vomited once.  For some reason, the alarm on the…

A Source of Life

As a young adult entering the Sisters of Loretto at eighteen, somewhat naively, I spent a lot of genuine effort to read and take seriously the Gospel.  What has sustained me over the long haul,…

Availability

The following is from an interview Mev did with Tereza Calvacanti in Brazil in 1990; it appeared in her 1994 book, The Struggle Is One: An important discovery is gratuity. That is, giving time and…

Remembering Mev

Last week anticipating giving a talk on Mev at her alma mater Visitation Academy, I inquired on Facebook if anyone from her Viz days had recollections about her. Stephanie Ortbals-Tibbs offered the following… I still…

What Rubem Said to Maria Evelina

Yes, Raquel’s birth was a purifying experience in that it empowered me to say, “this is important,” and the rest becomes blurred.  Her birth re-integrated things in my life. For example, when she was born…