Writing

Reflections on Ordination Weekend Full of Paradoxes Everyone said, “Be as present as possible” and “try not to be nervous.” I worried neither of those things would happen. I told friends I was most worried about the blessings afterwards. There were 1 million details swirling in my mind and heart. What if I just forgot all the words? From the moment I walked into the cathedral Saturday morning, my heart was beating out of my chest, but it wasn’t nerves. It was sheer excitement

For a long time, I thought calling was something you answered once, in a singular brave moment of certainty. But the longer I live, the more I suspect vocation unfolds slowly across a lifetime, through a thousand quiet acts of saying yes long before we fully understand what we are becoming. I wrote about that long and winding journey toward priesthood, toward inhabiting a call I spent years trying not to want and could not ultimately outrun. On June 20, I will be ordained to

Why I Am Choosing the Name (and Vocation) of Mother As I prepared to preach this Mother’s Day and as I stand only weeks away from ordination, I found myself reflecting deeply on what it means to become “Mother Nicole.” It is a title I have sat with quietly for a long time now, turning it over gently in prayer and conversation and contemplation. And the closer ordination comes, the more certain I become that this is not simply a preference in language, but a vocation within th