Author: michardillo
-
Book Review: Through an Open Window by Pamela Terry
First, thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Terry, through her publisher Penguin Random House, for the ARC of this new novel, to be published on August 19, 2025. This is Pamela Terry’s third novel, and I feel that her work becomes stronger and stronger with each new book. She is a true Southerner, and her…
-
Book Review: The Confession of St. Patrick
Every year I resolve to read more spiritual texts and every year I fail. This year, once again I resolved to do so and God gave me a helping hand. Last Thursday, after morning Mass, I ran into our parochial vicar outside the church. He mentioned that he was working on a research paper as…
-
Friends, Family, Food, But No Funeral!
My husband and I just recently returned home from a nine-day trip to our home state, Louisiana, where we had the time of our lives. This trip was planned around my nephew’s engagement party, bookended by family time and some really great food. When my husband and I married, we were both living in Maryland,…
-
Walking with Francis: Rest in Peace, Holy Father
Easter Monday April 21, 2025 The world woke today to the news that the Holy Father passed away this morning in the Vatican. Having just written religious reflections for the seven days of Holy Week, I was going to return to my book reviews and more secular personal essays today, but given the news, “shocking…
-
Behold, Your Mother
April 18, 2025 Day 6 of Holy Week Reflections, Good Friday Good Friday, March 29, 2024 On Good Friday in previous years our parish had had the Seven Last Words, but the practice had lapsed for some years. Last year, our pastor Fr. Lee brought it back with a twist. He asked seven parishioners to…
-
The First Millennial Saint: Carlos Acutis
Thursday, April 17, 2025 Day 5 of Holy Week Reflections, First Day of the Triduum, Holy Thursday In February of 2022, I was teaching middle school religion, coming back after my first retirement, at my parish school, St. Jude Regional Catholic School. Our faculty retreat that year was held at the Shrine of St. Anthony…
-
Feast Day of St. Bernadette of Lourdes
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 Day 4 of Holy Week Reflections On the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11, 2025, I shared with my parish family at the Shrine of St. Jude a reflection I wrote after visiting Lourdes in July of 2024. Today is the feast day of St. Bernadette, who was the…
-
The Papacy and the Pendulum
Tuesday, April 15, 2025: Day 3 of Holy Week Reflections Pope Francis, who at age 88 is one of the oldest reigning popes of modern times, is the current Bishop of Rome. His papacy began on March 13, 2013, and I remember the day very clearly. I was in my classroom at my first school,…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 