As I was preparing for the seasons of Advent and Christmas, my heart kept leading me to meditate on Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. Too often it is romanticized in a way that the real weight and significance of the story is diminished. The reality is that the circumstances of the […]

This reflection is being penned the day after another horrific mass shooting; innocent people murdered and wounded, parents left reeling, and students left with a life-long trauma that no surgeon could bind up. Yet another atrocity in a country so accustomed to gun violence that we have settled for it […]

Most of us instinctively reach for God when life feels heavy – when the diagnosis comes, when the job is lost, when the relationship breaks, or when someone we love is hurting. Pain has a way of pushing us to our knees. In those moments, prayer feels like breathing. It’s […]

In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thesolonians 5:18) We have just celebrated my favorite holiday here in the United States, Thanksgiving. Growing up, I loved all the family getting together, playing board games, eating delicious food and, of course, […]

The year was 1886. On July 13th of that year, in a dirt-floor stone hovel in County Roscommon, Ireland, a child was born into abject poverty. The midwife, seeing the sickliness of the child, declared that his chances of surviving the night were hopeless. The child’s grandfather, hearing this, took […]

Ever since the newest member of our family arrived—our third child—life has taken a 180-degree turn. The house is louder, messier.  Our routine now feels like a survival mission; but you know what? We’ve never been happier, because we’ve never experienced so deeply what it means to truly let go […]

There are moments, quiet and filled with light, when the heart understands that everything finds meaning in the love of God. It is not weariness or resignation, but the serene certainty that God’s will is perfect, even when life feels uncertain. In those sacred moments, grace descends gently, like a […]

Although we are about to conclude the Jubilee Year of Hope, I would like to offer a brief reflection on this theological virtue. The virtue of hope has both a negative and a positive connotation. The negative is not being in fullness; it is the “not yet” of the creature. […]

One of my favorite prayers is Psalm 23. Its words have been my companion through joy and through struggle. I whisper them every night before bed—and sometimes during the day, when I need strength. My daughter, Christy, learned it by heart too, and we used to recite it together in […]

I have been feeling a little lost lately after the recent passing of my dad.  The tasks involved in handling my dad’s affairs have been so overwhelming at times that I have sometimes felt like I haven’t had the time to process his death and fully grieve.  Since my mom […]