ritual

Embering
What to do with this grief over what happened to you? I don’t know, so I’m making a ritual.

Return, Reimagine, Ritualize, Rebel: How has 2020 changed your spiritual life?
KtB is inviting submissions about how the events of this year have impacted your spiritual life.

Not Weird Enough
According to the author of a new Catholic handbook, eucharistic adoration should be the new yoga.

The Motherly Rituals of Back-to-School
September 4, 2014. First day of school. There is silence in the house. Only the click of the old clock announcing time at every second. Time. Children make it seem so frugal. I am a mother. The relentless pursuit of paying attention, doing chores oriented toward my children’s livelihood, the pettiness of the routine day…

The Praying Habit: Final Week
After four weeks of experiencing other faith traditions’ prayer texts and rituals, switching back to praying however I wanted was an unexpectedly dramatic shift. While I didn’t struggle as much as I did my first week of Lent, I was far from perfect. For one, I was indecisive about which tradition to attempt each day.…

The Praying Habit: Catholic Week
This was the week I was most looking forward to doing when I made this Lent commitment. Catholicism has been an ongoing presence in my life despite not being raised in the faith myself. Many of my friends and classmates growing up were Catholic—I was extremely jealous of their beautiful First Communion dresses (I got…

Confessions of a Former Purist
I’m not such a huge fan of the TV show Homeland these days, but the second episode of Season 3, which aired Sunday, might be winning me over. Brody’s daughter Dana has long been my favorite character and she’s getting more so. With that complicated way she wrinkles up her brow, her round innocent face…

Fear of God, Love of Armpits
Imagine riding New York City subways in the heat of summer…with an armpit fetish. Such is the fate of Samuel. Meet him and others who seek the services of Mistress Josie, a vegan dominatrix in “Den of the Dominatrix,” a new piece by Maria Smilios just out on Narratively. Here’s a taste: Samuel is a…