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Guest Post: They Say
This is a guest post by Meg O’Neill. Meg O’Neill generally spends her time adventuring, laughing too loud, and exhibiting mediocre athleticism in a variety of sports. She did her JV year in San Jose,...
View ArticleAn FJV’s Reflections on DisO
With Dis-Orientation just completed for the current JVs, I feel obligated to reminisce on where my heart was just twelve short months ago. Raise your hand if you were simply ecstatic for the arrival...
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My “Formation” Years
In June 2015, I graduated from Santa Clara University. I spent my next year in Baltimore as a Jesuit Volunteer, working at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, a college-prep school for students from...
View ArticleHow I Became a Runner
I wore black December 31, 2016 when I went out to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Let’s just say I was celebrating the death of the year 2016 — it had been a rough one. Between ending JVC, moving back to...
View ArticleThe Wisdom of Emptiness
Although I was raised Catholic, I have begun expanding my spirituality in adult life. I have felt an increasing pull towards Buddhism as techniques like meditation have grown in popularity over the...
View ArticlePurpose Outside of Production — Is it Possible?
Minus a few organizational edits, this post serves as a stream-of-consciousness ride into some of my deepest and hard to articulate thoughts. Enjoy! I love to complain about my busy schedule and work...
View ArticleRadical Friendship
Call me a sappy romantic, but I love the idea of falling in love. Socially conditioned to identify with Disney princesses, I have always been an avid fan of romantic comedies and over-the-top...
View ArticleMy Principles
I’m the sort of nerd who likes to articulate my principles. My articulations of my principles are largely borrowed from Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness trainings, which are elaborations on Buddhism’s...
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The Mystery of Mystical Experience
You might not know how to respond if a person asks you: “Have you ever had a mystical experience?” Granted, it’s a very tough question to answer. How do we even begin to define a mystical experience?...
View ArticleListen Up: There’s Power in What You Put in Your Ears (Part 2)
I’m an intersectional feminist, but I really love country music. In the style of The Guilty Feminst podcast, I would offer this confession. The storytelling and catchy road-trip tunes that come out of...
View ArticleGuest Post: Advent Birthing
This is a guest post by Anne Berry. Anne Berry was a JV in Managua, Nicaragua, from ’01–’03, where she first learned about Maryknoll Lay Missioners and dreamed of one day becoming one… She studied...
View ArticleBecoming an Artist, Again
My friend Laura gives the best gifts. When we were in high school together she sewed me an apron that has seen me through dinner parties, pie making, cooking adventures, and still hangs in my kitchen...
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We Need to Talk About China
After I studied abroad in Beijing, I started looking for excuses to return to China for a full year. During my year as a Jesuit Volunteer, a Jesuit suggested that I check out the Maryknoll China...
View ArticleWhat Are the Elements of Your Spirituality?
As a person who has gone through Catholic and Jesuit education for almost her entire student career, I have been blessed with the opportunities to go on endless retreats. Since I was young, I have...
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Light a Candle & Say a Prayer for Someone
I straighten up my room. Clear off my desk. Place a candle on it as well as a very special rock. An explanation about the rock: last year, I lived and worked in Jilin City, China, through the...
View ArticleNo Hands but Mine
Just a few days after returning from the beautiful and warm ReOrientation in Texas last year, the polar vortex hit the Midwest. My housemate and I were enjoying a snow day when we received an email...
View ArticleFitness is the New Religion
I found myself one weekend morning gasping for air and desperately toweling off my sweaty face. I struggled to keep pace with my classmates, who were effortlessly locked into their stationary bikes,...
View ArticleThe Church, in Twos and Threes
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” says the Lord. I know this line best as sung in the Gospel Acclamation I heard nearly every Sunday during my JV year. I...
View ArticleLittle Resurrections: A Celebration of the Earth
What does resurrection mean to you? This past week, the pastor of my church commissioned us to write and create pieces that allow us to express our interpretation of the Resurrection (we are...
View ArticleA Modification to the Hail Mary
About two years ago, I ended up accompanying a friend of mine to the hospital. Once the paramedics showed up, there really wasn’t anything for me to do other than hang around, wait, and pray. At...
View ArticleTwo of My Favorite Prayers
In October, I posted about one of my favorite prayers: “A Modification to the Hail Mary.” I wrote in that post, “For me, belief in the resurrection and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ don’t...
View ArticleSpiritual and Also Religious
Americans increasingly identify as “spiritual but not religious,” or “SBNR” as I once heard a priest phrase it. Wikipedia says that people who identify as such do “not regard organized religion as the...
View ArticleDivine Images: Our Self-Narratives of Gender
I really like “Gender, Sex, and Other Nonsense,” an essay by Daniel Walden in the March 2021 issue of Commonweal. It’s a beautiful, Catholic piece of writing about transness and self-narratives. I...
View ArticleHow I Pray
I’ve already written about my relationship with prayer a couple times for The Ruined Report. In A Modification to the Hail Mary, I wrote: For me, belief in the resurrection and a personal relationship...
View ArticleThis Winter I Am Doing Less
I recently had a busy season. My partner and I got married at the end of October, and — gosh! — weddings take a lot of work to plan. Beyond that, I think I over-scheduled myself, making too many plans...
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