Nineteen Years – God in Everyday Life!

Nineteen years ago, my husband and I had a bright idea. What if there were a website devoted to finding God present in everyday life? Lots of sites at the time presented visions of spiritual life and vocation that often seemed far from the realities of life in a family, with children, careers, and all the challenges and joys of day-to-day life. But for folks caught up in the details of getting the family up, clothed, fed, and out the door to work and school, where might there be even an instant to stop and pray formally? Was it necessary to live in a community where such times were scheduled if one wanted a closer relationship with God? Could there be a way to live as ordinary folks raising ordinary kids, doing ordinary work in a small city or town?

And where might the institutional Church fit into such a life? Was it only through Sunday Mass and religious education classes? Sure, grace before dinner is great, but is it necessary to bring the whole family together to pray the rosary to raise children of faith?

We were children during the Vatican Council that instituted the reforms of liturgy and practice which we celebrate today. We remembered the days when folks came to Mass and sat in silence, praying from their own prayer books as the priest offered Mass.  We remembered how few people received Communion and how many refrained because they hadn’t been to Confession on Saturday afternoon. Our families had welcomed the reforms and embraced them for us and with us.

How could we share the delights of living in faith and finding God even in the middle of preparing dinner or washing up the dishes afterwards?

A friend suggested a website and offered to help set it up and host it. He had friends who could make it happen. And so, we started. (Thanks, Paul and Rajesh!)

Randy Pozos and I began to write our blog posts and publish them on our very own site, www.Theologika.net. The first post was published July 25, 2007 – nineteen years ago, Welcome to Theologika – A Space for All Things Theological.

I began writing a few days later with a description of the encounter of a child with a stuffed animal at the fabric store. I called it Love at the Fabric Store. It’s still one of my favorites of the over 500 posts I have written and shared in these past nineteen years.

We have lived a very full life along the way. Our children are raised and living fascinating lives of their own. We have grandchildren with whom we are blessed to share once again all the joys of childhood and of growing in wisdom and love through the daily challenges of life. And along the way we have been blessed to share what we have seen and learned with our readers.

Theologika is much more than a blog now. We have a library of works that are well worth reading and a Boutique where you can find them through Amazon. We have added a section we call Digest that brings together works from many authors and sources on specific topics. For each Digest issue, I created a puzzle that readers can try. The answers are found in the articles of the Digest. For many, there is also a PDF version than can be downloaded and shared with others.

Another section is Ask Theologika. In this one we answer questions on topics friends have suggested.

One of my favorite sections is OFS – Other Fun Stuff. How do we make a life of faith fun for our children? We have suggestions, recipes, and activities to share with families and friends.

We are still getting bright ideas and adding content. Webinars are among the newest – just getting started with those.

Thank you for sharing these past nineteen years with us. There’s a lot of content – just use the search bar and see what’s there – reflections on the readings for all three cycles of the liturgical year, lives of saints, experiences of God’s presence in daily activities, surprising things that happen along the way, and much, much more.

A big thank you to Randy, who along the way became a deacon and shared that learning and journey with me. Thank you also to family and friends who have shared their thoughts and insights as guest bloggers on the site. This was never intended to be only a forum for our voices alone.

We look forward to continuing to share our observations, joys, and hopes with others. We hope you, our readers, enjoy reading our work and share it with others.

On this feast of St. James the Apostle, may you be blessed with joy and hope in each day of your life. Remember always, you are loved, deeply and personally by the One who is Love. We are all blessed.