About You:
Living Faith: Describe your vocation in life.
Patricia Livingston: Except for the years I was associate director of the sabbatical program at Notre Dame for men and women in full-time ministry in the church, my career has been mostly speaking and writing. My speaking has included workshops, talks at religious education and diocesan conventions, programs at retreat centers and parishes, and leading retreats. My writing has included articles for various Catholic publications, seasonal booklets and three books for Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana.
LF: How long have you been writing, or when did you start?
PL: More than 70 years. I started in grade school.
LF: What is the most difficult part of your writing process?
PL: The most difficult part of the writing process for me when I am writing for Living Faith is when I find nothing in the Scripture passages from the Lectionary for a day I have been assigned that really resonates with my faith in my own life. I keep rereading them and praying with them that something in one of the Scriptures will speak to me of something I could express in words that could be meaningful to those who read Living Faith.
LF: How many books have you written, and which is your favorite? If you haven’t written a book, name a favorite that you’ve enjoyed.
PL: I have written three books and two seasonal booklets. Picking a favorite of my books, Lessons of the Heart, This Blessed Mess and Let in the Light, would be like picking a favorite child. I cannot pick one.
LF: Where do you live today, and is that different from where you grew up?
PL: I have lived in Tampa for 28 years, the longest I have lived anywhere. Growing up, we moved many times. My father was an Army officer.
LF: Three words your best friend would use to describe you.
PL: I consulted with three close friends. The three words were: compassionate, sensitive and grateful.
LF: One additional thing you would want a Living Faith reader to know about you that we haven’t covered above. (A hobby, something silly or fun, an accomplishment, or an interesting fact?)
PL: When my fourth great-grandchild was born last May, it meant that all my children are grandparents.
About Faith:
LF: When did you first know that God loved you?
PL: I have no clear answer to this beautiful question.
LF: Describe a prayer practice that is meaningful to you.
PL: More and more meaningful through the years is a prayer practice I heard suggested by Bp. Ken Untener of Saginaw, Michigan. I later found it suggested after each day’s reflections in the quarterly “Little Books” he wrote for many years (and are still published using his writings). At the end of each reflection, he always added: “Spend some quiet time with the Lord.” Every day that I am graced to remember that suggestion, it is as if a door opens in my day, and I have some quiet time aware of God’s loving presence. It really blesses me.
LF: What’s something you’ve learned from the Bible or from the Mass or the Sacraments that has always stayed with you?
PL: Something I learned from the Bible that has always stayed with me is something from the beginning and the end of Mathew’s Gospel: Mathew 1:23 “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us”; Mathew 28:20b “And behold, I am with you always….” That God is with me always—no matter what I am going through—has always stayed with me.
LF: What excites you about being a Catholic?
PL: I have no good answer to this great question.
About the Bible:
LF: Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
PL: I cannot pick a favorite.
LF: Do you have a favorite Gospel? If so, which one? Elaborate if you wish.
PL: I have no favorite Gospel.
LF: If you could spend a day with a person (besides Jesus) mentioned in the Bible, whom would you choose?
PL: Too many special persons for me to choose one.
About Living Faith:
LF: How long have you been writing for Living Faith?
PL: Writing for this publication began with a poignant surprise. I had subscribed to Living Faith for a long time, looking forward to reading it every morning after I read the Scriptures of the day. In 2006, I had just returned from Knoxville, Tennessee, where I had been staying with my sister who was in a heartbreaking struggle with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. During my visit, we would assure each other, as we had done through so many seasons of life before, “We’re in this together.”
The morning I came home, the reflection I was reading in Living Faith so exactly expressed what I was feeling for her ordeal that I put down the book in tears. When I opened it again, I was looking at a different page. It had an excerpt from my own new book, Let in the Light.
When I wrote the editor to thank him, he responded to me by inviting me to join them as a writer for Living Faith. I felt as if the Living Faith team was saying to me, “We’re in this together.” Reading and writing for Living Faith gives me a profound sense of connection with all those who read it and with all our sisters and brothers on this human journey. My hope is that our “living faith” can encourage each other to trust God, who assures us in Scripture: “We are in this together.”
LF: Do you ever get to meet your Living Faith readers? What do you talk about?
PL: Sometimes I get to meet some of the readers (and lots of my friends are readers), and we often talk about our lives and our faiths.
LF: What is one thing you love about Living Faith?
PL: That it strengthens my faith and my life.
*The interview was edited for clarity and conformity to style. No meaning was altered in the process.
