Cloister Garden

I’d never spent Thanksgiving in a convent full of Sisters, all of whom seemed more excited about the St. Cecilia antiphons than the turkey.

"Serving coffee to the Sisters is like the eighth work of mercy," the novices liked to joke. After a few invigorating sips, I had to agree.

The reality that my family was about to go home and I was going to stay here, permanently, made everything else seem trivial in comparison.

I took a deep breath. This was it. I was leaving my old life behind, and entering the cloister.

Do you really mean it, Mary? The Lord seemed to be asking. Will you really give up everything, even marriage, for Me?

“I don't think the Lord wants me in Kentucky anymore,” I told my dad over the phone. “But how can I give up my job?”

Kentucky was the last place I lived before entering the convent. Every detail of my life here helped prepare me for entrance day.

I had it all: great job, posh apartment, new friends. I felt confident in myself, and pretty. But what was happening to Mary on the inside?

When we are faced with the darkness and isolation of this past year, what will we choose? How can we find our own light in the darkness?

Now that my husband was home, it was time to have our baby!

This year, we wouldn't just be reflecting on the mystery of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection. My husband and I were living it out

Our baby girl would be born in that pandemic darkness, but she would not stay there.

As we welcomed in 2019, my husband and I agreed upon our New Year’s Resolution: to try for a second child.

Because Jesus is God and outside of space and time, His Life continues to be lived, mysteriously, in each of His followers.

Like Abraham, “who went out, not knowing where he was to go,” (Hebrews 11:8), I was embarking on a journey with an unknown endpoint.

The Lord was calling me. He spoke to me in those intimate Thursday mornings before the Blessed Sacrament, and through the beauty of the

In the spring of 2010, I worked as an Army public affairs intern on Fort Hood, Texas, a 24-hour drive from my Michigan home. I used my...