Dear Friends,   In his Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber recounts the following story. Rabbi Yehiel Mikhal lived in great poverty, but not for an hour did happiness desert him. Someone once asked him, “Rabbi, how can you pray day after day, Blessed be Thou…who has supplied my every ...

Dear Friends,   The Church in its liturgy celebrates the life of St. Martin de Porres on November 3. Martin was born of a Spanish father and a former slave of African or Native American heritage. Because of his background, Martin faced no small amount of discrimination and disdain in ...

Dear Friends,   Two years ago, I needed a minor procedure and found myself with six other adults in hospital gowns, waiting in wheelchairs outside the surgical area for over two hours. The attending doctor was called out on emergency, and instead of canceling our appointments, they kept us on ...

Dear Friends,   Recently I watched a movie with my grandkids adapted from a children’s book called Because of Winn-Dixie. Many of you reading this might remember this story of a lost and lonely dog befriended by an even lonelier little girl. Throughout the story, this girl—who happened to be ...

Dear Friends,   What pleases God most? The question is not irrelevant. When we love, we want to please the person we love. If we love God, we naturally want to please him. Perhaps our sacrifices are most pleasing to God? Our sacrifices—if motivated by love—are important, but they’re not ...

Dear Friends,   October 6 is the feast day of St. Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian order. Delve into Church history a bit, and eventually you learn how the Carthusians never had to be reformed … because they were never deformed. One trait that has served them well is ...

Dear Friends,   This summer’s blockbuster movie ‘The Odyssey’ was Christopher Nolan’s presentation, or interpretation, of Homer’s 8th Century BC epic poem of the same name. In addition to being one of the highest grossing films of all time, it also managed something remarkable, it got people not only talking ...

“What does it mean to make your work a prayer, and how can you remain united to the Lord when your attention is absorbed in the task at hand?” Dear Friends,   These were two of the questions that my community of consecrated women were able to ask during our ...