Like Huck Finn, these independent spirits have found a home (and a little adventure) on the Mississippi River. Soon as it was night, out we shoved; when we got her out to about the middle, we let her alone, and let her float wherever the current wanted her to. . .. Yonder was the banks…
God knows, we’ve fought enough these past few years — but for one night, we make a truce. A poem. As darkness settles over the land,we gather above the wide river —some thousands of us Americanscome for Fourth of July fireworks. Our long shadows linger in the lastlight, entangling us with one another,and perhaps with…
A poem. My grandfather didn’t like to talk about the war,but if you asked, he would share this story. On a cold April morning just outside Monte Casino,he walks into a field, dry stalks breaking under his feet.His living breath makes small curling clouds of fog,lit by the morning light for the space of a…
…as you will undoubtedly be told when you have The Conversation with friends and family Anyone who has ever joined the Winona Catholic Worker as a live-in volunteer has inevitably had The Conversation with his or her family and other relatives. With surprisingly few exceptions, the announcement that one is about to join the Catholic…
Engaging and true-to-life, these ten short stories vividly portray people who are wrestling with important life issues–love, work, money, suffering, communication, vocation, and more. Written from a young person’s viewpoint, the stories offer in-depth material for reflecting on the meaning and practice of the Christian life.
Lacey escapes spending a drunken night in a Tijuana jail only to be shaken up the next morning by encounters with a world he has never known.
Scott and Emily have just gotten engaged, but Emily wonders if they will turn out like her miserable, divorcing parents.
Lily’s developmentally disabled brother, Christopher, can be exasperating. But he has some lessons to teach her, like how to wake up bees.A companion leader’s guide is also available, which includes suggestions for using the stories with groups.
It’s been a post-apocalyptic winter around here,the sun smothered by ash-gray rags sodden with snow,the snow wrung out on our heads by the bony handsof Arctic winds. Some ancient ice god wants us dead,judging by the icy daggers he hangs around our houses.At night, he presses his face against the black windowsand claws at our…
Books Waking Up Bees: Stories of Living Life’s Questions (Saint Mary’s Press, 2000) Answering God’s Call to Covenant: Which Way to the Rest of Your Life? (Saint Mary’s Press, 2005) Primary Source Readings in Catholic Social Justice (Saint Mary’s Press, 2007) Living Justice and Peace: Catholic Social Teaching in Practice (Saint Mary’s Press, 2007) Great…
This week, I walked into our local Kwik Trip convenience store without slipping on a mask for the first time in more than a year. It was a little anticlimactic, given how long we’ve waited for this day to come—everyone else in the store, similarly unmasked, went around buying bananas and milk and eggs and…
Here’s a short story I wrote in the spring of 2020 about the editor of a small-town newspaper whose recent cancer diagnosis causes him to re-think his definition of “news.” Someday, I hope to write a longer work about Jeremiah and the staff of The Weekly Whisperer. In the meantime, enjoy! Jerry Jeremiah Madison Peach…
You know the old saw about disaster being opportunity in disguise? When my Windhovering portfolio website went down a few months ago, it felt like a disaster…I am diligent about keeping backups, but in this case, the backup was unrecoverable. It’s a long, tedious, and uninteresting story, so I’ll spare you the details. But over…
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