As we prepared for our first practice of the year, I may not have been the most excited member of the family. Soccer is a great sport, but I’m just not a fan of extracurricular activities that throw our lives into a tailspin for months.

Having the opportunity to be this little boy’s mother is an amazing blessing. It’s also an astonishing gift for me, especially since I wasn’t sure I would ever be a mother—never mind a mother of two sons who were born on the other side of the world.

We have to accept that even with the suffering and challenges life can bring, God is writing a more wonderful story than we could imagine.

What are the false gods that we are tempted to look upon, to hold on to and depend upon, that distract us from the gaze of Christ into our eyes, minds and hearts?

How do you prepare to host your first sleepover? I made sure we had popcorn and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on hand.

I have discovered now through direct experience, though I had certainly sensed it through photographs, that it is practically impossible to gaze at Mont Saint-Michel without falling into mystical reverie.

The beach is a place full of wonder. The ocean is magnificent, powerful, and moving with a rhythm all its own.

Whatever happens, darkness at the break of 2:48 p.m. Aug. 21 is going to be another grand moment with creation.

If we start sharing stories of heroic virtue and courage, we are bound to inspire religious vocations.

It forced me to recognize that racism is real, not just under hoods, but in so many large structural ways and in small daily encounters we take for granted. And I realized that I do not know how to respond to racism, even when I am confronted by it.