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Sometimes I like to think of our convents as think tanks. Not because we're all so smart, but because we can take a question none of us knows the answer to and think it through together. We don't have a smartphone to look things up. We rely on the brains God gave us, and often it ends in laughter. Whether we get the answer right isn't really the point. We're growing in relationship through it.
Read more →August 2026
Blessed Augustus, a Salesian brother in Italy said, "If God wants this, all will go well since he can take away every obstacle. If he does not want this, then neither do I." That is detachment: letting go of our desire to control every outcome and placing our trust in God's hands. Easier said than done.
Read more →August 2026
A lot of people want to pray, but they don’t know where to start. Or, they want to start building better habits around prayer but struggle with follow through in their daily lives.
Let’s look to the masters: Learn to Pray Like a Monk
Read more →July 2026
Often when I settle down to pray, all sorts of thoughts, concerns, temptations, and more start rotating through my mind pulling at my attention and peace. I don’t necessarily want this montage to happen but it frequently does. Does this happen to you also?
Read more →July 2026
Often when I settle down to pray, all sorts of thoughts, concerns, temptations, and more start rotating through my mind pulling at my attention and peace. I don’t necessarily want this montage to happen but it frequently does. Does this happen to you also?
Read more →May 2026
There’s a healthy and an unhealthy way to love ourselves. Jesus said, “love your neighbor AS yourself.”
This implies that we must first learn to love ourselves authentically before we can really love others – or as St. Anthony says — “all human beings.”
Read more →January 2026
Christian monks throughout the world this week embark on the season of Advent, a period of silent preparation for the coming of Christ into the world at Christmas.
All of us have seasons in life that are marked more by waiting and anticipation than by action.
Read more →November 2025
During my Novitiate year in the monastery, I was in charge of the refectory (aka the kitchen) – keeping it clean, keeping food in the pantry, etc.
My chore one afternoon was to mop the refectory. Father James, an older Irish Carmelite in his 70s (and one of the wisest men I knew) walked by and invited me to sit in on a class he was teaching during the same time I was supposed to mop. I would have preferred to go to the class and honor his invitation but I didn't know what the right thing to do was.
Read more →October 2025
At 19 years old, I got a group of friends together over my first summer back from college to go skydiving over the Georgia plains. I remember the skydiving guides telling us before we went up:
“Now, when you get up there and you’re standing on the edge of the plane holding on, everything in your mind and body will NOT let you jump. You actually wont be able to jump because your body wants to preserve itself. But when we say go, you HAVE to jump. You will have to mentally override your instinct and force yourself to jump. You will have to trust that it will be ok. That is why you came here.”
Read more →September 2025
We make dozens of decisions a day – how to respond to someone, what to eat, how we will spend our time, and much more.
One of the best aids to making healthy decisions in the “little” things throughout the day actually has nothing to do with a given decision. It starts way before the decision arises.
Read more →August 2025
In one particularly grueling job I had years ago where we often worked to 10pm each night, I remember one more junior person would make rounds after she finished her work at 9pm – or later and ask “I’m wrapping up so what can I help you with?”
This floored me – she should be going home but she wanted to help others to get home too. Through this, maybe she worked a few extra hours but she also left a lifelong mark on my understanding of how to build up others at work. I think that was a good investment of her time.
Read more →July 2025
Most of the brothers I lived with in the monastery took naps regularly. Yes, you read that right. They napped.
I’m not saying everyone can or should nap. Frankly, I struggled to nap myself - but I did try.
These brothers also usually slept 7 or more hours per night on average.
Why such dedicated sleeping habits?
Read more →June 2025