Author Archives: Alison Griswold

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Don’t Take a Vacation From God

By Alison Griswold | June 18, 2013

As a kid I remember being super excited for a road trip from Massachusetts to New Jersey to visit my grandparents. In my five year old brain, “New Jersey” might as well have been the moon and a week was basically forever. I had to pack accordingly. Pulling bags out the closet I filled them with my stuffed animals, dolls, books, art supplies, my sticker collection and a panda poster. Wisely, my mother did an audit on the bags when I told her I was ready to go. She explained to me that I Read more [...]

The Crying Chair

By Alison Griswold | May 6, 2013

The chair had a problem though. While I could sit in it, drink coffee, talk on the phone, and do homework unaffected, I was the only one. For everyone else, it was the “crying chair.” Girls that had been frolicking through the hallway singing N’Sync (which was our One Direction) would see that my door was open and, upon entering and sitting down, would burst into tears. I would sit on my standard-issue desk chair and nod, sympathetically, while they poured out their hearts.

Type Nice: Digital Evangelization

By Alison Griswold | April 8, 2013

If you’re on any type of social media and have an opinion about anything, you’ve probably experienced this. You type, “Wendys fries are so much better than McDonald’s” as a status update. You walk away from your computer and return to find World War III has broken out on your wall, with friends declaring their allegiances.

Stop Worrying, Your Vocation is to Love

By Alison Griswold | March 9, 2013

The idea of discerning our vocation can cause a lot of anxiety. Wondering if we are called to be married, enter religious life, who we should date, if we should visit convents or try out seminary can be overshadowed by fear – fear that we’ll do the wrong thing or that God will plant us somewhere that will make us miserable.

Nature vs. The Pill

By Alison Griswold | January 8, 2013

I think this is a pretty normal trend — with maturity comes better decisions about our health. We realize fruit and granola makes a better breakfast than doughnuts and mountain dew and preservatives that enable food products to last until the year 3000 (I’m looking at you, Twinkies) should probably be consumed in moderation.

A glaring exception to this is our culture’s enthusiasm for hormonal contraceptives, or “the Pill” as it’s known on the streets. If you’re like me, you hear “pill” and think something that’s good for you and will help you feel better, like Aleve for a headache or Nyquil for a cold.

Meatless Fridays: Can You Take This Food Challenge?

By Alison Griswold | December 7, 2012

Yep. Because Friday is the day that Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us, the Church instructs that we should call this to mind frequently—not just the forty days before Easter. While most of us are familiar with abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent, we are challenged by the Church to recall the importance of Good Friday throughout the year by making some act of penance each week.

“Bless Me Father, I’m #sorrynotsorry”

By Alison Griswold | November 6, 2012

This is also a feeling Catholics may have when approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We know we need to go. Christ gave us this sacrament by which we “obtain pardon from God’s mercy” and are “reconciled with the Church” (CCC 1422). We need to hear those words — “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace!” Yet sometimes, like my mother, we do something and while we know it’s wrong we’re not that sorry. Should we still go to confession?

Why Do You Do That?

By Alison Griswold | October 8, 2012

Having grown up in South Carolina which is something like 3% Catholic, a lot of my conversations in middle and high school were about the differences between where we all went to church. My friend Meghan, a Baptist, was especially inquisitive about what we Catholics were up to. I invited her to attend mass with me.

Real Sex & Respect

By Alison Griswold | September 18, 2012

But we live in a world that doesn’t really get that.

A world where people sing songs about how they’re perfectly good at being “bad” and radio edits of songs switch “love” in for the “f” word like there’s no difference. Society has taken something sacred, designed by God to unite couples in the Sacrament of Marriage and cooperate in bringing new life into the world — and categorized it as just another extracurricular activity.

Now What?: Advice for After a Youth Conference

By Alison Griswold | July 23, 2012

When you wake up, you look at your floor, strewn with t-shirts, phone numbers of friends, and your journal. You remember the moments that challenged you, the resolutions you made to make changes in your life: to delete the songs on your computer, to change who you hang out with, and to basically be the Mother Theresa of the tenth grade.

YOLO: You Only Live Once

By Alison Griswold | June 12, 2012

If you’re on the interweb, you’ve seen #YOLO unfold in a series of tweets or status updates of shenanigans involving late nights, red bull, and impulsive hair dye. I don’t find the choices in these updates all that inspiring.

When I think of life-changing choices that inspire, I think of my friends Cathleen, Mark, JD and Kate.

Cathleen, Father Mark, Kate and JD made decisions based not on the idea that you only live once, but that their lives are eternal and their actions have eternal consequences for themselves and those they encounter. To put aside the luxuries, rewards or the “easy path” on earth may seem crazy or ill-advised, but following Christ has always been about faith in Christ’s promise that “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).

What Memories Will You Make at Prom and Graduation?

By Alison Griswold | May 12, 2012

In choosing what you do to commemorate these final days of school, whether after graduation, prom or band practice, at the forefront of our mind and hearts should be this reality that all is a gift from God, to be used for His glory. This doesn’t require walking around yelling, “hallelujah,” but it demands that our actions be a reflection of who we belong to. We are not our own.

Dead or Alive?: The Incorrupt Saints

By Alison Griswold | April 25, 2012

Deep in the heart of Paris, there is a Catholic Church that you could walk right past, if you weren’t paying attention. It’s on a cobblestoned road lined with shops and apartments with classic french windows that you half expect the characters of Beauty and the Beast to pop out of, yelling, “Bonjour!” and “I need six eggs!” It was only at the tip of a local that my friends and I ventured down ru de Sèvres and into the Chapel of the Priests of the Congregation of the Mission. We were told that it was the burial place of St. Vincent de Paul and not to be missed.

This Is My Body: One Girl’s Journey From Doubt to Belief

By Alison Griswold | April 4, 2012

Joanna and I became friends in college, when I was a junior and she was a freshman. Her family had converted to Catholicism when she was a teenager and she struggled to embrace their new beliefs. I was a theology major who loved my Catholic faith and a good discussion. Joanna would often knock on my door, offer me a pudding snack, and spend hours grilling me about the Church. Not Just a Symbol Joanna’s biggest issue with the Catholic Church was the Eucharist. Having been raised Episcopalian, Read more [...]

Do You Gossip?

By Alison Griswold | March 26, 2012

I wish I could say that seeing how hurt she was cured me of any desire to ever speak ill of anyone. I felt bad. But I also experienced the power of words for the first time, and the power of sharing a secret, fact, or observation about another person was intoxicating. While I knew it was wrong, I often resorted to gossip to garner attention. I operated under the assumptions of “I’m just saying what everyone already knows,” “I’d totally say this to their face.” Or, the ever popular, “Well, I’m telling people so they can add it to their prayer intentions.” While this used to prick my conscience, like any sin, the more I spoke the less I felt bad.

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