Most of our fears as young kids revolve around nighttime. As we grow up, the tools we're taught stay with us. Whether you've got young ones or older ones (or fears yourself), you can keep it simple with these ways my husband and I fight fears with our kids. What...
Significant changes mark this season of my life. The biggest being my transition from college to post-college. I like to use the actual seasons to help describe the kind of season I’m in: rest reminds me of lying out and feeling the summer heat. I feel the crisp...
Triumph of the Heart "In the harrowing confines of Auschwitz's starvation cell, Catholic priest St. Maximilian Kolbe volunteers to die in place of another prisoner, joining nine others condemned by the Nazis. As despair and fear grip the group, the pressures of...
When you first meet someone, you’re curious to know them. You want to know how old they are, where they grew up, what they currently do, their best memories, etc. Perhaps, they’ll share with us something very unexpected — their vast knowledge of electric fish in...
When I became Catholic fifteen years ago, I was amazed by all the organizations available to Catholic laypeople. They are the outward, organizational expressions of our “Catholicity”, our call to worship, to serve, to pray, to evangelize. I bet anyone reading this...
Every January, many women enter the new year with sincere intentions and clear goals—only tofeel discouraged when those resolutions fall apart a few weeks later. The problem isn’t a lack ofdiscipline or desire. More often, it’s that we jump straight into what we...
Ten seconds. Ten measly seconds. That’s all it takes to ruin your day—and maybe even your life. Your teacher catches you copying off the student next to you. You blow a semester of your kid’s tuition on a bad bet. You take a drink for the first time in four years. Ten...
Lust is more than a personal weakness or a private struggle—it is a direct assault on the sacredness of the human person, on marriage, on family, and ultimately, on the very image of God. Among the seven deadly sins, lust uniquely wounds not only the soul of the...
Chicago. Autumn of 2025. The air turns crisp as September surrenders to October’s embrace, leaves ablaze in reds and golds, whispering secrets of harvest and renewal. Baseball fever grips the heartland—the “October Classic” looms, where underdogs dare to dream and...
Two years ago, after I’d been in my current job for several years, I felt I’d finally get the promotion for which I’d longed. In my mind, I deserved it. And, based on subtle clues from my boss and others, I thought it was coming. I told my family it was coming. I was...
You can find images of Mary throughout my day - tiny figurines on my bookshelves, a TinySaint keychain on my bag, a fun sticker on my laptop or Stanley cup, and even Marian images in my phone camera roll that I stumbled upon and loved. I’ve heard that many converts...
There are many things that I wish I knew when I was younger. One of those is that a man’s primary core need is to be respected. Women desire to be respected too, but men equate love with respect. To them, to be respected is to be loved. I have learned that I’m a...
We are all shaped by our life experiences—both the joyful and the painful. Over time, these events begin to influence how we behave, how we react to challenges, and most significantly, how we see ourselves. Unfortunately, when those experiences are negative, they...
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” – Luke 9:23-24 Stories are often told about the great and the...
What you are about to read is my story, my journey, my destination, and my heaven on earth. I have been a secular Discalced Carmelite since the spring of 1988, living in the world, and spending the last 49 years as either a social worker or teaching in Catholic...
Michael Schattle spent his adult life as a missionary — first, in a traditional sense, as a FOCUS Catholic missionary, then, through active involvement in young adult communities. At the age of thirty-three, on December 2, 2024, Michael died unexpectedly. In...
Watching my son arrange dinosaurs during Mass—his way of staying regulated—reminds me how far our Catholic family has come on our autism journey. What once felt impossible has become a chance to witness the Church embracing all her members, including those on the...
I’ve always wondered why in the world God wants us to worship Him. It never quite made sense to me that a loving God would possess an ego so big that He’d ask His kids to fall down at his feet. But then, one day, I heard an analogy that made at least a bit of sense....
When our son Nathan was in the second year at his Lutheran preschool, my wife and I decided that the large classes and busy hallways of public schools weren’t right for him. Nathan was the quiet kid. He’d sit in the corner and play by himself, anxious to learn...
When you think of influential Catholics, you probably immediately think canonized saints. Not only are there more saints in heaven than we would be able to canonized—or even know by name—but there are many influential Catholics from around the world that we might not...
Racism is an ugly stain on society that many courageous people have tried to heal. Like me, you can probably rattle off names like Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, or even John Lewis and his statement about getting into “good trouble.” But can you think of any...
“How could God let this happen?” This cry of a grieving heart expresses one of the greatest challenges to belief in a loving and all-powerful God. Suffering. It feels like a betrayal as if God has stopped being what He is supposed to be. And as much as we can observe...
We live in a beautifully convenient technological era, a time of unprecedented comfort and devices that generations before us could never have conceived. With the advance of remote work, ever-present screens, instant streaming, and drone delivery, why bother leaving...
I kept my faith to myself for the first ten years of my marriage. My husband was an atheist, and although he came to Mass with me, he didn’t really get it, nor did he really want it. His questions felt like challenges to my faith, and it saddened me that I couldn’t...
There are times when it may feel like God is against you, by taking away people or things that you love and hold dear. The loss of a family member, a crumbling marriage, or even the loss of a job; these things may make us feel burned by God and make us cry out, “Why?”...