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Tag: Good Friday

Good Friday

His body lifeless,
Tabernacle door ajar.
Where is now my God?

Author MegPosted on March 29, 2013March 29, 2013Categories BeautyTags Good Friday, Lent, prayer5 Comments on Good Friday

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mhunterkilmer

Catholic speaker and writer. Saints for kids at @saints.aroundtheworld

Happy month of the Sacred Heart from this Sacred H

Happy month of the Sacred Heart from this Sacred Heart-shaped fuzz I saw on the side of a chair today ❤️‍🔥

Ven. Jean Thierry Ebogo (1982-2006) was a millenni

Ven. Jean Thierry Ebogo (1982-2006) was a millennial Cameroonian seminarian who suffered from a terribly painful cancer but said, "I only want to be healed so that I can become a priest."

(Pronounced ZHON tyeh-REE, but swallow the n like you're French)⁣⁣⁣

Jean Thierry wanted to be a priest from the age of 6. Growing up in a poor family, he worked hard to help earn money, selling lemon ice in the street when he was little and later driving a motorcycle taxi and working as a photographer. By 13, he was writing love poems to Jesus and continued writing poetry throughout his life. Though a funny, intelligent, popular boy, no amount of attention from girls could distract him from his goal of priesthood. He was rejected by one religious community after 6 months with them (because his prayer life was too intense!), but at 21 he entered the Discalced Carmelites, taking the name Jean Thierry of the Child Jesus and of the Passion.

A few weeks later, the man who had been such a faithful child would begin his own passion. A soccer injury led to the discovery of a malignant tumor which forced the amputation of his right leg; Br. Jean Thierry offered his suffering for the intention of holy priestly and religious vocations.

But by the next year, the cancer had spread throughout his body. Br. Jean Thierry was taken to Italy for treatment, but it was too late. He was given permission to make his vows early and did so in his hospital room, his mother by his side. He prayed for healing, longing to be a priest of Jesus Christ, but he died only a month later--a month shy of his 24th birthday. Before dying, he said, “I will not do like St. Therese, who promised a shower of roses from heaven; no, from heaven I will make a flood of vocations rain." His last words were, "How beautiful Jesus is."

Br. Jean Thierry's mother wasn't with him when he died. Her residence permit had expired a few weeks earlier, so she had left the country, separated from her son because of immigration policies. Through his intercession, may we be given a flood of holy priests and may families separated because of immigration policies be reunited.

Ven. Jean Thierry Ebogo, pray for us!

#BlackSaints

Lilacs and my bestie were exactly what I needed to

Lilacs and my bestie were exactly what I needed today.

If today's hard for you, for any reason, please know of my prayers. You are so loved.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, both spiritual and physical—especially the dozen women who text me every year on Mother's Day. I'm so grateful for you all!

Happy confirmation day, Daniel Francis de Sales! (

Happy confirmation day, Daniel Francis de Sales! (Don't mind me, just slowly collecting all the kids in this family into my godfamily....)

Look, I do try not to make it weird, but if we're

Look, I do try not to make it weird, but if we're honest? This is the energy I bring to every party.

(Though usually my Bible is in my bag and not held triumphantly above my head. Usually.)

📸: @photos.eviesue

15 years after I taught them freshman religion, sh

15 years after I taught them freshman religion, she's a mother and he's a Father! Meanwhile, here's the newly minted Fr. Chris with his religion teachers from freshman and sophomore years of high school. What Easter joy!

I've never been so delighted by an ordination. Apparently that was obvious, as a seminarian stopped me to tell me I had the biggest smile in the whole church at Fr. Chris's first Mass. Look, when a man you've loved since he was a child not only gets ordained but quotes the Song of Songs in his homily at his first Mass, you're going to weep with joy. I don't make the rules 🤷‍♀️

(Also, happy red jumpsuit season to all who celebrate. I've got a confirmation next week, so you'll be seeing it again soon!)

There isn't much I enjoy more than cheering at a (

There isn't much I enjoy more than cheering at a (half) marathon, especially when so many people I love are running it!

I've been working my way through this series for 4

I've been working my way through this series for 4 years, but volume three only took me eight months 💅💅 And I finished on Holy Thursday, which is rather perfect. Bring on volume 4!

On Palm Sunday, we proclaim Jesus as King, the kin

On Palm Sunday, we proclaim Jesus as King, the king who brings peace and calls each of us to a radical, sacrificial love of the marginalized--the very same kind of love that sent him to the Cross to save us when we were enslaved to sin and captive to death.⁣
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That first Palm Sunday was a revelation of Jesus to his people as their true king, but it was also a protest against an empire built on state-sponsored violence. It was a declaration by the followers of Jesus that they would follow after the God who had become a migrant for them, that they would walk in his footsteps even when he demanded that they love those who had the least to offer.⁣
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This weekend, I joined in a similar procession of joy and anticipation, proclaiming to our city that followers of Jesus must be people of peace, of hope, of radical generosity. I marched in faith, in penitence, and in trust that God is still sovereign, even in the midst of such suffering and injustice.⁣
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I'm praying this week that the crucified Christ will speak to the hearts of those who promote and profit from violence, that (like St. Longinus) they will be drawn to his pierced heart and remade in his image.⁣
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I'm praying that he'll do the same to me. ⁣
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"Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: 'Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood' (Is 1:15).⁣
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"As we set our gaze upon him who was crucified for us, we can see a crucified humanity. In his wounds, we see the hurts of so many women and men today. In his last cry to the Father, we hear the weeping of those who are crushed, who have no hope, who are sick and who are alone. Above all, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.⁣
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"Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from his cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters!” -Pope Leo, Palm Sunday 2026

Why yes, I do like my job. (Thanks to @photos.evi

Why yes, I do like my job.

(Thanks to @photos.eviesue for the pics!!)

Soaking up the (fleeting) warm weather with a fron

Soaking up the (fleeting) warm weather with a front porch Bible study with the girls. What could be better?

If you're single for Valentine's Day, I highly rec

If you're single for Valentine's Day, I highly recommend wearing SO MUCH PINK AND SPARKLES to hang out with your favorite kids and watch the Olympics, followed by your usual holy hour with the Song of Songs and then many snacks for another Olympics watch with friends ❤❤

1. "I haven't really been paying attention to ever

1. "I haven't really been paying attention to everything that's going on," a priest friend said. "Is that bad?"

I'm usually one to be gentle in a moment like this, to try to convince rather than being blunt, but we've passed that point.

"Yes." I said. "It is bad. Your people are suffering and they need you to see it." They need you to say something and do something, but above all, they need you to care. They need you to grieve with them, to understand (as much as you can) how awful everything is.

You probably know somebody who's afraid right now or somebody who's grieving. Your neighbor, your coworker, your classmate, your doctor, the people who sit behind you at church or park near you at school events. You need to pay attention for love of them.

But even if you're in the unenviable position of loving no immigrants, no people of color, nobody who works for a threatened nonprofit, nobody with the courage to protest, you still need to pay attention. Because these might not be your people, but they are people. And when you pay attention, hopefully you'll be moved to speak and to act, recognizing that dehumanizing language and behavior must be opposed.

2. I've been appalled to hear some Christians insist that immigrants are not their neighbors, that only Americans (by which they typically mean white Americans) are their neighbors. Given that this might be the most famous parable of all time, I have little patience for this level of Biblical illiteracy. Your God said very clearly that you have to love your neighbor as yourself and that by neighbor he means everybody, even those your people have loathed for centuries. Miss me with this white nationalist nonsense about immigrants not being your neighbors.

3. Even if they weren't your neighbors, even if God hadn't demanded a radical love for migrants, even if he hadn't made it clear that your salvation depends on your care for the least of these, the majority of those being targeted right now are not only your brothers and sisters in the human family but your LITERAL brothers and sisters by baptism. How can a Christian possibly despise other members of the body of Christ solely because of their country of origin?

I wasn't trying to write this book. Honestly, I r

I wasn't trying to write this book.

Honestly, I really wanted to outsource this one. But when I started looking for Bible studies for my small groups program at Notre Dame, I couldn't find a single one I liked. (Doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I couldn't find them.)

I didn't want a book full of excerpted Scripture passages, I wanted a book that was going to point people back to their Bibles, that was going to help them get comfortable reading the Bible itself and marking it up and seeing the context and checking the footnotes.

I didn't want a study on a topic with a handful of Scriptures to support it. I wanted people doing the study to dig deep into the word and come out knowing the Lord better.

I didn't want a book to read with discussion questions at the end of the chapter (or no questions at all). I wanted people to wrestle with the text right there, with space for them to write their thoughts so that when they went to Bible study, having an answer right in front of them might make it easier to start sharing.

So I accidentally wrote a book. And then I realized that if my students needed it, maybe the Church as a whole needed it. Yada yada yada, Who Is Jesus? will be out later this month!

This is a 12-week study, suitable for high school (or possibly middle school) on up, but written for adults. It's intended for group study, but written so that you can do it on your own as well. In a group setting, I'd say anyone with a basic knowledge of the Gospel story should be able to use it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend solo use for serious Scripture scholars (since you probably don't need to be fed questions at this point), but the word of God is inexhaustible, so feel free to join a group using this book, no matter how many times you've read the Gospels.

If you want to take a semester to get to know the story of Jesus and you want to do it with a group, have I got a Bible study for you! (And if you're looking to buy a bunch—say for your parish or your school—they've even got a bulk discount for you.)

As I mentioned yesterday, the @Ignatius_press stu

As I mentioned yesterday, the @Ignatius_press study Bible is an excellent Bible and I'm so glad I read it in 2025. But I spent all of December desperate to be done. Not because it took so much longer to read than my regular NAB. Not because it was so large and cumbersome to carry around. But because those two factors combined to mean that I had to read at home.

I have my Bible on me at all times. Typically, I start my holy hour every day by doing that day's Bible reading. I spend about 15 minutes reading and then the next 45 sitting in silence. And while there are times that I've got other stuff to work through and times that nothing really stands out from my reading, more often than not, I spend at least part of my meditation praying with the Scripture I just read. Yesterday, for example, I spent nearly half an hour praying with Psalm 16, then another ten minutes meditating on Leah and Rachel and the ways they were both so focused on what they didn't have that they couldn't be grateful for the incredible gifts the Lord had given them.

Last year, I didn't have that and my prayer time each day was so much poorer. Plus, because the reading took so much longer, I began to put it off. Scripture became something I had to get through very late at night, rather than something to savor.

I don't think there was really any way around it. And I'm so glad I took the time to read all the notes and essays in this study Bible.

But with all the fascinating tidbits in this Bible, I think the most important thing I learned this year is that I absolutely cannot be a person whose primary relationship with Scripture is one of study. It has to be fodder for prayer. My study always has to be leading into time to sit with the word (and to preach, which is also prayer for me). I need a slow relationship with Scripture, one that leaves me space to wrestle and ponder and hope.

So kudos to Ignatius Press for their study Bible, which is such a gift to the Church! I'm looking forward to keeping it on my shelf for many years to come. But give me a Bible that fits in my purse any day. It's the only way I know to be a woman of the Word, which is one of the most important things in my life.

As of December 31, I've read every word of the @ig

As of December 31, I've read every word of the @ignatius_press study Bible (I wonder how many people can say that!) and I've got some thoughts.

It's very well done, this Bible. The notes are thorough (occasionally to excess, as with some of the Wisdom literature, where every verse seems to be explained, no matter how obvious its meaning). The introductions to each book engage differing positions as to date and authorship, and while they generally come down on the more traditional side of things, there are scholarly arguments to support these positions and never an unthinking deference to tradition.

The Bible is well-constructed, though if I had it to do over, I'd go with the hardback rather than the leather. While the leather is nice, the Bible is too heavy to stand upright on the shelf without damaging the bottom of the cover and risking that the book will bend and fall.

I do love a wide-margin Bible, but honestly, a book this size has no business adding wide margins into the mix. So there isn't a ton of space to add your notes. That said, I don't think this book should be your go-to Bible. It's a great reference but it's not going to be the Bible you typically take to prayer (or preach from, if that's your thing).

I was grateful for the essays and extras throughout (charts and maps and diagrams) with one caveat: a map needs a scale, and quite a few didn't have one. Now, I'm no cartographer, so I'm open to being told that there's some reason a scale isn't necessary, but it did stand out to me.

So who is this Bible for? Well, I'd say it's a good thing to have on the shelf in every Catholic home. Typically, I don't think you'd need more than one per household unless multiple people are attempting to read the whole thing at one time.

Y'all know I'm a huge proponent of reading the entire Bible through. I would definitely encourage reading the Ignatius Press study Bible (and all its notes) all the way through once. That said, I'll warn you: it takes a LOT of time. I'll share soon about how I'm glad I swapped my Bible for this one in 2025--and how I'm even gladder that I'm back to Bible this year.

I'd love to hear from y'all--thoughts on this Bible?

In the midst of the fear and struggle and anger an

In the midst of the fear and struggle and anger and confusion and grief and loneliness, God is with you. And his Saints stand beside you, praying for you as you seek to follow the Lord in faithfulness. All you holy men and women, pray for us.

What better way to celebrate the Baptism of the Lo

What better way to celebrate the Baptism of the Lord than by getting this beauty baptized? So grateful to be her godmother and to be reminded through her baptism of the voice of the Father that says over each of us, "This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."

You are just as beloved today as you were the day of your baptism, friends. Praise the Lord for a live that no sin can destroy.

What a gift it was to spend the day leading a retr

What a gift it was to spend the day leading a retreat for seminarians.

I really do mean that it was a gift. It isn't always easy to be a woman in the Church—especially a woman with this much to say. I was delighted to be asked, pleased that the professors chose to attend, and profoundly honored when one told me he features one of my talks in his preaching course.

But I think the most beautiful moment was when I mentioned that some folks on Facebook were angry that they'd asked me to speak and this very orthodox priest was baffled. He genuinely couldn't understand why people would think a laywoman didn't have something to say to priests and seminarians. Not just about being a woman, but about Scripture and theology and prayer and the heart of God.

Honestly, his confusion healed something in me.

Though by and large my calling to preach has been accepted in the Church, there are places I'm not invited. Doors that are open to laymen with fewer credentials. Eyebrows that are raised, lips that are pursed. I'm welcome to speak to the youth or the women, but maybe not...you know...everybody. People assume I'm trying to usurp the role of the priest, assume I'm not orthodox, assume, assume, assume.

Every once in a while, they say the quiet part out loud, as with the (otherwise lovely) priest who said, "I don't like woman preachers."

And all this added up to enough that I decided not to share a picture of myself in the seminary swag they gave me because I don't want this lovely (very faithful) seminary to find themselves under online fire for the crime of listening to a woman.

But they shared the pictures themselves. Didn't even pause to think that maybe people would be mad about it, because that would be absurd. Because obviously women have valuable contributions to make in the areas of Scripture and theology and spirituality. Because obviously men need to learn from women. Obviously clergy need to learn from the laity. Obviously we're one body with so much to offer each other.

Praise God for holy priests—especially those who are well aware that they don't have a corner on holiness. In our very, very broken world, I'm feeling just a little bit more whole today.

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