Sr Kathryn’s Podcast - Touching the Sunrise

These days of pandemic and lockdown are creating a new pandemic of mental health issues. In this podcast I address some ways in which Jesus helps us free us from the stick, heavy, and negative thinking that is part of the difficult days we are living. We'll talk about why it's hard to get rid of these thoughts, what Jesus knows that we forget and how he helps us get free from these sticky thoughts...

Jeannette and I talk today about an experience at prayer and selection of my journal:   Iam acting: within what breaks, I am vast Abyss within the falling, I am depthless Depth in the emptying, I am the Silence Stop Shed your mind’s unconscious gossip and still your Heart Touch your forehead to the earth    …My carpet        a floral carpet Crimson Red        on which you bumble and tumble in My G...

I’m almost 57. Fifty seven years of people, situations, issues, reaction, desires, disappointment, dreams, loves….  This year on my birthday, I’m making the resolution to “not look back.”  To not look back at disappointment. To not look back at rejection. To not look back at loss.  Of course, looking back is important to do at times. I actually began to rediscover parts of my life during the impos...

The seismic shifts that are underway in every aspect of our culture these days are nothing compared to the seismic shifts God is calling me to personally, perhaps calling all of us too if there is to be any resolution that will promote the human advancement of us all. We can no longer face anything the same way we did five months ago. It seems like such a breath of time, and yet a centuries-wide c...

Hi there. I’m Sr Kathryn Hermes and thank you for joining me as we explore the Love that is the heart of the world and the work of the Heart that helps us become this Love and to discover it in the world so that all the world becomes to us like the miraculous burning bush. We have been invisibly stamped with the signature, the seal of the God who bends over us with such tenderness. 2020 has been a...

Hi there. I’m Sr Kathryn Hermes and thank you for joining me as we explore the Love that is the heart of the world and the work of the Heart that helps us become this Love and to discover it in the world so that all the world becomes to us like the miraculous burning bush. We have been invisibly stamped with the signature, the seal of the God who bends over us with such tenderness. In these days I...

We are continuing a series of six Podcasts looking at Light and Darkness - Courage and Faith - Healing and Hope through a Marian Lens. Each episode features an event in Mary's life and a particular image we have chosen to prayerfully reflect on together. This Podcast Series accompanies the launching of the Third Edition of my book: Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach. In today's episode we e...

The anxiety that has bubbled just below the surface capsizing my frightened heart through all the experiences I’ve had during the lockdown has brought me in touch with anxiety issues that are nothing new. They have been woven through my life and have affected me spiritually and emotionally. This may be happening to you. Perhaps you are touching more keenly the wounds of  PTSD, OCD, scrupulosity, m...

We are continuing a series of six Podcasts looking at Light and Darkness - Courage and Faith - Healing and Hope through a Marian Lens. Each episode features an event in Mary's life and a particular image we have chosen to prayerfully reflect on together. This Podcast Series accompanies the launching of the Third Edition of my book: Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach. In today's episode we e...

We are continuing a series of six Podcasts looking at Light and Darkness - Courage and Faith - Healing and Hope through a Marian Lens. Each episode features an event in Mary's life and a particular image we have chosen to prayerfully reflect on together. This Podcast Series accompanies the launching of the Third Edition of my book: Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach. In today's episode we e...

I'm so happy to bring to you an Easter reflection from Sr Marie Paul Curley. She's such a great writer and has so much experience living through difficult times. Happy Easter! Sr Kathryn “Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb” (John 20:1). Our experience of Lent this year has been intensified by the distress and rest...

Friends, this is a reflection for Holy Thursday, the unique celebration of the Last Supper we are living, huddled in our homes in fear, in stillness.... May your hearts be at peace. Sr Kathryn

We are continuing a series of six Podcasts looking at Light and Darkness - Courage and Faith - Healing and Hope through a Marian Lens. Each episode features an event in Mary's life and a particular image we have chosen to prayerfully reflect on together. This Podcast Series accompanies the launching of the Third Edition of my book: Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach. In today's episode we e...

Nothing (read not even the coronavirus pandemic) will separate me from the love of Christ.  The words of Paul. A hymn. An affirmation. A credo. Nothing at all, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in al...

As we learn to stay home, we can learn to "stay home" deeply within our hearts. So as you shelter in place, stay home, or perhaps put your own life at risk on the front lines of essential services and medical care, let these words of God bring your heart peace. “Be still, and know that I am God, exalted over nations, exalted over earth!” (Psalm 46) This pandemic is not more powerful than God who h...

We are continuing a series of six Podcasts looking at Light and Darkness - Courage and Faith - Healing and Hope through a Marian Lens. Each episode features an event in Mary's life and a particular image we have chosen to prayerfully reflect on together. This Podcast Series accompanies the launching of the Third Edition of my book: Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach. In today's episode we e...

We are starting a series of six Podcasts looking at Light and Darkness - Courage and Faith - Healing and Hope through a Marian Lens. Each episode features an event in Mary's life and a particular image we have chosen to prayerfully reflect on together. This Podcast Series accompanies the launching of the Third Edition of my book: Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach. Today's episode is an int...

My heart melts a bit whenever I remember what God has done for me. I forget. I wander. I wonder. I'm uncertain. I decide to go elsewhere.... But in the end he always brings me back. He always recreates me...recreates us. It is his delight to do so.

Sometimes the pain doesn't go away. That inner heart pain. We see it in the eyes of others who carry regrets and disappointments and sorrow. Today is a guided meditation for healing memories with a practical process anyone can use to grow in serenity and peace.

Today is our final reflection on ways to live the new year in a new way, to seek the new you in the present, every present moment of the coming year. We'll talk about a practice I began to address the negative thoughts that I find myself thinking.... And did I discover how many negative thoughts I had! Jeannette and I talk about how quickly things start to change when a simple practice gets put in...

When we think of New Year's resolutions, we are often really thinking about closure and control, about getting to a goal that helps me become something I want to be. Poets, authors, and saints offer different perspectives on life that invite openness, vulnerability and love. Jeannette and I talk about contributions from Rainer Maria Rilke, St Augustine, Adrienne Rich, Erich Fromme, Anne Truitt, St...

This year, instead of resolutions, I began the year with practices. In today's conversation with Jeannette, I share a practice I recently began: doing everything as if it were potentially the final time I would have the privilege of doing it. In our conversation we talk about what I learned after just a few days of doing this and why I think it is more effective than New Year's resolutions.

January is the time when we think about resolutions for the new year, for a new me. By this time the regular spate of articles debating the worth of making resolutions has just about ended. What I want to offer you are four conversations about setting a solid foundation to a new year, a foundation that focuses on practices for the present rather than resolutions for the ideal future image we have...

Okay, I admit that the title for this article is a little startling. We are celebrating Christmas, right? Check your calendars. It is still December. Look outside. The liturgy is talking about Christ’s birth and the stores are boasting Christmas specials.  But I couldn’t resist not sharing with you an insight into the glory of Christmas that I discovered in a very old book The Mass Through the Yea...

It was just a small photo my dad texted me the other day. Around the tiny pine cone tree that stood proudly on their kitchen table he and mom had strung an equally tiny string of white lights. For what is a Christmas tree without lights? What is Christmas without the star blazing in the night, announcing the glory of the news of the Messiah’s birth? As we drove home after dark Sunday with strains...