From Morning Prayer (Lauds)

Lord, inspire our hearts to prepare a place

for your only-begotten Son
so that when he comes
we may be pure and worthy to serve you.

St. Anthony Parish in Dubuque - Blessed Advent

This Advent, I plan to spend time each day praying for one parish (and her priest) from the state of Iowa. I no longer live in Iowa, but it is my childhood home. Since I cannot go to Iowa for Advent and Christmas, I will pray for special Iowa places from my Missouri home.

On this, the fourth day of the second week of Advent, I pray for Fr. Daniel Knepper and St. Anthony Parish. May those who are not Catholic - yet live near this parish - see the light of the St. Anthony laity lived out in the community. And may the Holy Spirit bring about many conversions through their faithful witness, with that same divine breath that came upon a young Jewish girl in Nazareth.

Blessed fourth day of the second week.

Senate Fails To Protect The Unborn

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Senate's rejection of a bipartisan abortion amendment to its version of health care reform legislation was "a grave mistake and a serious blow to genuine health reform," according to the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago and three USCCB committee chairmen commented on the Dec. 8 vote in separate statements Dec. 9.

Read the article in its entirety by clicking on the CNS link above.

Blessed Feast of St. Juan Diego!

Almost 20 years ago, I began my first teaching position at Beckman High School in Dyersville, Iowa. In spite of the fact that Spanish was my minor and I wasn’t a Catholic convert at the time, I found myself the only foreign language teacher in a small Catholic high school, teaching all levels of Spanish to about 160 students. I remember having little confidence as a teacher and even less in the subject matter.

I pulled activities and assignments from every possible place. Somehow, I came across a little story written in simple Spanish which I thought my upper level students would be able to translate. I considered the story nothing more than an interesting Catholic legend.

Thankfully, I did not propagate my misunderstanding, but rather simply assigned the story to my students and left religion instruction to the religion department.

In January of 2005, while nearing the end of my conversion to the Catholic faith, I received one of many “care packages” from Randy and Mary Hill, a married couple in the Archdiocese of St. Louis that had taken me under their wings when they discovered that I was converting. The box they sent to me contained a book on Marian apparitions entitled A Woman Clothed with the Sun by John J. Delaney. While reading a chapter on Our Lady of Guadalupe, I came across something that would take that little story out of the realm of legend and into the realm of absolute reality for me.

In 1990, while completing a college-level course on Latin America, I learned a couple of Nahuatl words (Aztec language), one of which was “cuatl” (pronounced kwah-tell, emphasis on first syllable). Translated, it means snake or serpent. The Aztec people even had a god named Quetzalcuatl, which literally translates to plumed serpent.

The book I was reading explained that the Aztec pronunciation of the word “Guadalupe” would have been something like kwah-tell lah-shoop-ay. So, when the Lady said her name to Juan Diego’s uncle, he would have interpreted the first part as snake because cuatl and guadal are both pronounced kwah-tell. What I didn’t know—which the book explained for me—is that the Aztec translation of the second half of that phrase literally means to trod on something. When I put it all together, I was stunned. In Nahuatl, the name Guadalupe means One who trods on snake! So when the Lady repeated her name for a poor, uneducated Aztec man, saying call me Santa Maria de Guadalupe, she was actually saying, call me Holy Mary of One who has trod on the snake. In Genesis 3:15, this is the name God reserves for Mary, the second Eve; so when the woman says her name, she gives the name the Lord planned for her from the beginning of time.

I have no idea how I overlooked the miracles behind the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe all those years ago. I’m sure it’s because I didn’t put together that cuatl and guadal have virtually identical pronunciations in Nahuatl, and I had never learned the translation for the rest of the compound epithet. Still, it amazes me that I could teach Spanish in a Catholic high school, assign the reading to upper level classes, and not know the whole story. It cuts me to the heart when I realize that I taught my students about the conquistadors, but not the miracle of eight million baptisms that occurred in the seven years following the vision. Some sources estimate that the actual number of conversions might have been closer to nine million (with the total Aztec population only ten million at that time).

I’ve promised myself that one day I will visit Mexico and see the five-hundred-year-old tilma that bears the image of Our Lady. I just wish I could gather all my former students together in one place and have another chance to teach them the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With uncensored delight, I would ask them if they have heard the story—the true story—of the Woman who converted a nation with the help of a few Spanish roses, a cloak called a tilma, and one very humble Aztec man named Juan Diego.

I urge you to read more about Our Lady of Guadalupe, and let the story speak for itself.

Santa Maria, mi Madre Nueva, gracias—por todos los milagros y las lecciones del corazon. Holy Mary, my new Mother, thank you – for all the miracles and lessons of the heart.

Resurrection Parish in Dubuque - Blessed Advent

This Advent, I plan to spend time each day praying for one parish (and her priest) from the state of Iowa. I no longer live in Iowa, but it is my childhood home. Since I cannot go to Iowa for Advent and Christmas, I will pray for special Iowa places from my Missouri home.

On this, the third day of the second week of Advent, I pray for Fr. Joseph Hauer and Resurrection Parish. May those who are not Catholic - yet live near this parish - see the light of the Resurrection laity lived out in the community. And may the Holy Spirit bring about many conversions through their faithful witness, with that same divine breath that came upon a young Jewish girl in Nazareth.

Blessed third day of the second week.

St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Dubuque - Blessed Advent

This Advent, I plan to spend time each day praying for one parish (and her priest) from the state of Iowa. I no longer live in Iowa, but it is my childhood home. Since I cannot go to Iowa for Advent and Christmas, I will pray for special Iowa places from my Missouri home.

On this, the second day of the second week of Advent, I pray for Fr. Mark Ressler and St. Joseph the Worker Parish. May those who are not Catholic - yet live near this parish - see the light of the St. Joseph laity lived out in the community. And may the Holy Spirit bring about many conversions through their faithful witness, with that same divine breath that came upon a young Jewish girl in Nazareth.

Blessed second day of the second week.

St. Columbkille Parish in Dubuque - Blessed Advent

This Advent, I plan to spend time each day praying for one parish (and her priest) from the state of Iowa. I no longer live in Iowa, but it is my childhood home. Since I cannot go to Iowa for Advent and Christmas, I will pray for special Iowa places from my Missouri home.


My life after high school was a busy one. Those next ten years brought three children and many more moves.

I lived in Illinois and Missouri before moving back to Iowa where my first husband (marriage later annulled) could attend seminary. I would never have predicted that he would pursue ministry and attend the same Presbyterian Seminary (University of Dubuque) that my father had attended many years earlier. Life is strange like that sometimes. We only spent his first year of seminary living in Dubuque. The final two years were spent at a student pastorate in Ryan, Iowa. But during that year in Dubuque, I began watching EWTN and was fascinated by a nun on Catholic television named Mother Angelica. The married student housing on the campus of University of Dubuque had cable television. And Dubuque cable carried EWTN before many of the other cable stations (since Dubuque was a solidly Catholic town). I would have to say that this was a significant moment in my journey.

It proves that even when our hearts are not seeking, God is working all things for His purposes. This final year of my own college degree (also at the University of Dubuque - undergraduate school) was the beginning of my deeper encounters with Catholics.

And I guess one could say that it began at Dubuque, in those quiet moments with EWTN and Mother Angelica. When my seminary husband would come up the stairs and approach the door to our apartment, I usually changed the channel. Why? Because it was a fascination that I couldn't even explain to myself. And so, I kept these things inside.


On this, the first day of the second week of Advent, I pray for Fr. Gabriel Anderson and St. Columbkille Parish. May those who are not Catholic - yet live near this parish - see the light of the St. Columbkille laity lived out in the community. And may the Holy Spirit bring about many conversions through their faithful witness, with that same divine breath that came upon a young Jewish girl in Nazareth.



Blessed first day of the second week.

My New Grandson is Here!

Giovanni jr. was born on December 4th. Here's my new little man!

Sacred Heart Parish - Blessed Advent

This Advent, I plan to spend time each day praying for one parish (and her priest) from the state of Iowa. I no longer live in Iowa, but it is my childhood home. Since I cannot go to Iowa for Advent and Christmas, I will pray for special Iowa places from my Missouri home.

As so often happens, our family moved yet again so that my father could take a new pastorate, this time in Manning, Iowa. I only lived there one year, my senior year of high school. The Sacred Heart Parish, like Mother Church, did not hit my radar. It's not that I was a solid Presbyterian. It had more to do with being a confused high school senior and the new student in a new town. I was too busy with everything . . . making all of those decisions in early life that send us on a crash course to broken hearts and broken dreams. And yet, when it all fell apart, I was left with the kind of heart that is ready to learn, ready to hear a new thing, ready to try something other than my own whims.

On this, the seventh day of the first week of Advent, I pray for Fr. Robert Gralapp and Sacred Heart Parish. May those who are not Catholic - yet live near this parish - see the light of the Sacred heart laity lived out in the community. And may the Holy Spirit bring about many conversions through their faithful witness, with that same divine breath that came upon a young Jewish girl in Nazareth.

Blessed seventh day of the first week.

Daughter Having Baby!

Dear Friends,

I will be away from my computer (not sure how long) as my daughter is in labor and my first grandchild will be born very soon.

Still journeying with you until the day of Our Lord's birth . . .

Denise