About Cate MacDonald
I am a 27-year-old spiritual director at the Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology. Like many people in my stage of life, I am trying to figure out how to build a meaningful life out of the ridiculous hubbub that is Southern California. I am deeply interested in people, spirituality, family, community, and hospitality, both emotional and physical. Professionally speaking (and I use that term very loosely), I am a spiritual director, teacher, writer, and graduate student recruiter at Biola University. I believe that each breath we draw is evidence of mercy and grace and endeavor to live accordingly. And I love to cook.

On Treasures

I hate my ipod. It’s slow and quirky. It’s storage capacity is embarrassingly low by today’s standards, and so it is constantly making me decide what I may feel like …

New Year, New You, If Only: Reflections On Old Resolutions

Does anyone actually believe in the power of New Year’s resolutions? Sometimes I think they are simply a reminder of how much we desire change, and, given our propensity for …

No White Flags

There are times in my life when retreat seems the best option. I don’t mean peaceful, quiet, necessary spiritual retreat, but the retreat of the defeated army, slinking away from …

The Chaos Curve: Writers Block and the Ever-Writing Woman

I’m beginning to realize that the writers’ block I struggle with comes, not from a lack of ideas, but from being absolutely tired of my own output. Modern life, or …

To Laugh at Death

Yesterday I had the misfortune of having to go shopping for costume elements, which included looking for rubber snakes. Side note: Kids these days just don’t seem to be interested …

The Chaos Curve: Part I

A meditation originally written for The Twenty Pieces Project   I’ve noticed that I tend to self-reform in waves, waves usually started by an awareness of overwhelming chaos that grows gradually …

On False Simplicity

The following is a meditation written for The Twenty Pieces Project. Julie Barrios and I founded The Twenty Pieces Project as a way to challenge ourselves and our readers in the art of dressing simply …

Waking in the Dark Wood

Midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right way was wholly lost and gone. Canto 1:1-3, Inferno Now, this …