Melissa Musick Nussbaum

Daily Easter Reflections: I was keeping 3-year-old Leo for the night. He wanted a snack before bed and I wanted him in bed, so I put some Cheerios in a plastic bowl and tucked them in together, a boy and his snack.

Daily Easter Reflections: We hosted our rookie wedding in 2000. First daughter, first wedding. The reception was held just blocks away from St. Mary's on a hot summer night in the foothills of the Rockies. I don't remember who thought of it, but at the end of the liturgy, the presider invited us all to process together to the party, following the bride and groom.

Daily Easter Reflections: This is what my mother tells me. She knows it's time for her to die, but she "doesn't know how to do it."

Daily Easter Reflections: We make the journey in the church, with the church, those living and those who have gone before us in faith keeping stride and holding us up when we falter, picking us up when we fall. It is the church who asks, "What name do you give this child?"

My Table is Spread: If a knee scooter is a "luxury item," forget about other non-transportation mobility devices. They build strength and agility, while allowing me to maintain the autonomy and dignity that is itself a valuable kind of therapy.

Daily Easter Reflections: The first baptism I remember was my cousin's. Nine-year-old Carol Ann was baptized by full immersion, "dunked" in the Southern Baptist way.

Daily Easter Reflections: We American Catholics have internalized a cinematic calendar — think "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Easter Parade" — that dictates snow for Christmas and sun for Easter

Daily Lenten Reflections: The Exsultet is the legend, the guide to the panoramic landscape of the Easter Vigil. Who is gathered to rejoice? Heavenly powers, choirs of angels, all creation. The earth and the Mother Church and all God's people join them.

Daily Lenten Reflections: Teachers speak of the "Lenten tripod” of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I always think of the wooden stools my grandfather built and painted and gave out to the mothers in the family to use in their kitchens. The stools had three legs and they were sturdy and true.

Daily Lenten Reflections: Many Lents ago, the children invited a friend for supper. I apologized for the meager Friday fare: made-from-scratch macaroni and cheese with three or four different grated cheeses, fruit, homemade bran muffins and jam. 

Daily Lenten Reflections: March is the month of Lent, when we are asked to rebuild the foundations of our lives on the solid rock of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. 

Daily Lenten Reflections: I often find specks of burnt palm caught in the deep wrinkles of my forehead on Ash Wednesday night. 

My Table Is Spread: I know too many friends and family members who become so distraught over remote disasters that they are no longer able to see the joy right in front of them. 

My Table Is Spread: Go to Mass in November and hear the truth: We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, all the saints and all the souls, all the beloved dead, whose number we will soon join. 

My Table Is Spread: I've been thinking about shepherds these last weeks and about parents and about how alike the roles are. Both shepherds and parents have one task: to take care of their flocks. That's it. That's the whole thing. Feed my sheep.

My Table Is Spread: As clouds gather over those shepherds in the church who have led their flocks into the deserts of abuse, we set a newly baptized child on a path to follow Jesus.

My Table Is Spread: My husband and I began to notice the rising pile of debris on the wooden bench just behind our garage. The bench was a construction site: Robins were building a nest.

Our notions of hell and heaven have traditionally been reflections of the landscape in which our forbearers dwelt and the climate they endured. What will my grandchildren's visions of ruin and paradise be?

My Table Is Spread: For our parish's first holy Communion program, I suggested a book that parents could read with their children to help them better understand the Eucharist. I chose Where the Wild Things Are.

My Table Is Spread: It is Easter Monday as I write and I am waiting. I am grieving. I am rejoicing. And I am grateful for new life and new love and old friendships and old stories.