A StoryThe word “discipline” has always conjured up for me images of what a person of a rebellious will requires: “That boy needs discipline!” And when we hear a person say that another person “lacks discipline”, we hear a distinct harshness in the voice of the one offering this assessment. The use of the word in this way never, in my experience, heralds the arrival of redemption, of a joyful find...  Read More

Our family has just returned from a week-long road trip to California. It was a whirlwind of new sights and experiences spanning hundreds of miles, a true Ludwig-style holiday. Among our many stops were the Mission Solano in Sonoma (my husband’s choice), Glass Beach in Fort Bragg (my choice), and, of course, the Jelly Belly Jellybean Factory in Fairfield (the kids' choice...  Read More

During my late 20s, I studied at Regis College (Jesuit) at the University of Toronto, for my Master of Divinity degree. In the fall Term of my second year, I begged Fr. Michael McMahon Sheenan, CSB to break a few rules (for a holy cause of course) and to let me into his Seminar. He made it happen, even though I had not been formally admitted as a student at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies (PIMS)...  Read More

July 27th, 2023 was an important anniversary for me, but unfortunately, not the fun kind. It marked not a birthday, or a wedding day, but the date of a car accident that exactly ten years before had changed my relationship with my body, forever. I have written elsewhere about the crushing nerve injury I suffer...  Read More

Dear friends,I know what you are thinking: what the heck is going on that we are being wished “Happy Peter Faber Day”? First of all, that is not at all how ‘Saints Days’ work. It is either “Today is the Feast day of St. Peter Faber, SJ” or “Today is a holy day made special by our honoring St. Peter Faber, one of the early friends and companions of Ignatius Loyola”… something very holy and special ...  Read More

We assume that people who are “gifted” enjoy having those gifts. Maybe. Sometimes. We who have less glory in us imagine that those who have more must be happier, more joyful, and with an easier life. The truth is that they are happier if, and only if, they have good friends (who have defeated the seduction of envy), and they will be joyful if they abide in God – a contemplative in action - through the Holy Spirit given us. Joy has no other source.  Read More

For the last ten years my husband Matty has tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade me into going on a camping trip. Although we are an outdoorsy family with a passionate love for nature and are often out romping around barefoot in the wilderness, camping was just a threshold I would not cross. To my city-bred sensibilities, sleeping in a tent i...  Read More

A “wise” person is not defined by how much, or by what kind of, knowledge he or she has amassed, but by how much his or her existence is transparent to, or “magnifies”, the Spirit of Wisdom – the Holy Spirit – who dwells unimpeded within him or her.  Read More

Wayside shrine at the hospital church of St. John the Baptist in Iphofen, Germany June 14, 2023My husband Matthew, a hospital nurse within a major health system, will be going on strike next week along with the nurse’s union. A contract was meant to be agreed upon by the nurses and upper management in December of 2022; however, after months and months of negotiations, no agreement could be reached...  Read More

My youngest daughter, Gesumina, is nearly four years old, and she does not speak. While her receptive communication (meaning, her ability to understand language) is excellent, her expressive communication (what she can say) is limited to a vocabulary of only about a dozen words; a typically developing child her age would be expected to have a vocabulary of over one thousand. Because of her speech delay, Gesumina (or “Jezzo” as we usually call her) utilizes a variety of methods to express herself, such as pictures, sign language (a mixture of “official” signs and ones she has created herself), objects, and babbly sounds. Those of us who are with her every day have become fluent in her “language”, and can usually understand her quite easily: rubbing her thumb and forefinger together means she wants me to sprinkle salt on her broccoli, a “peep peep” sound while she pumps her fist in the air means she wants me to read her “Thomas the Train”, pointing to a picture of the sun and then to her sister means she is commenting that Sabina likes yellow. Gesumina is a sweet, happy, playful little girl, and our interactions feel so organic and fulfilling that I honestly forget sometimes that she “should” be talking.  Read More

When I logged into Facebook on Easter Sunday, the photos I saw posted by friends revealed the joy of the holiday: smiling little girls in puffy pink Easter dresses, happy families gathered together for Church and feasting, dogs wearing bunny ears, giggling children carrying bright baskets and hunting for Easter eggs. It was a veritable barrage of cuteness and good cheer. This was not how Easter went down at the House of Ludwig.  Read More

by Tara Ludwig As Lent comes to a close, and we look forward to Easter, we cling to the promise of the Resurrection, and Jesus’ message of hope for all people. And yet, when many of us look at the world we actually live in, things seem distinctly hope-less; one could spend hardly 5 minutes watching the news before deciding that the most rational thing to do is to just give up all together. I have ...  Read More