Tales From the Trenches

God reveals himself through the beauty of motherhood—he speaks to our hearts and draws us in, initiating a life of fulfillment and holy satisfaction. Yet, when I wake in the gray hours of a dawning Lent, those early moments of my subconscious give me away—both an awareness and a longing are revealed. I am aware …READ MORE

I started noticing it after my second child was born. My first two were fourteen months apart. Even after those crazy months of sleep deprivation and hormones resettling, I just couldn’t shake this underlying feeling of sadness, loneliness, and unfulfillment. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, I thought. I had everything I had ever dreamed …READ MORE

My youngest sister and I are very close. Surprising, because there is a seventeen-year age difference between us. We housed her for a brief time when she attended the University of Dallas, clearing out a bedroom in our crazy house so she could enjoy some privacy along with the occasional home-cooked meal. She shared in …READ MORE

On this day in February, when I was seven, I experienced the death of a person for the first time. I was an only child then, and my parents and I had returned from late Sunday Mass to a confusion of cars and the pulsing orb of an ambulance in our driveway. My elderly grandparents …READ MORE

Think often of God; do so by day and by night, in your business and even during diversions. The Lord is always near you. He is with you. For your part, never leave him alone. —From The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence. Exhausted, I overslept my alarm and woke up at …READ MORE

Dostoevsky penned a famous quote that I’m fond of: “Beauty will save the world.” I seem to stumble on the sentiment often, which might be my own fault—(it is writ large on my favorite notebook). In my home, however, most of the time Truth and Goodness feel a little easier to handle than Beauty. I …READ MORE