Cloister Garden

Until someone looked me in the eyes, listened to my story, and understood me…I would never get better. I would never be healed.

Before I left, I wanted the home visit to be longer. How many friends and family members could I see within a span of 120 hours?

You need to rest, Sister. Five a.m. comes way too soon around here. But try as I might, sleep eluded me.

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 was on my way to retreat with the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia.

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.

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...