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What Your Avoidance Is Really Trying to Protect
Perhaps it’s responding to text messages. Maybe it’s taking care of your physical health, scheduling that dentist appointment you’ve been putting off, beginning a workout routine, or opening a bill you’ve been meaning to address. Maybe it is a difficult conversation with a spouse, parent, sibling, friend, or child. Whatever form it takes, most of us can identify areas of life where we continually postpone something we know needs our attention.
Venting or Healing? What JPII Teaches Us About Self-Expression
There is often a felt tension between the need to share one’s authentic lived experience (which is inevitably messy) and wanting to protect the reputation and uphold the dignity of the person being mentioned. It’s a valid point. Am I venting, or am I healing? How do I know the difference?
What Most Christians Miss About Forgiveness, Anger, and Emotional Healing
Since we all make mistakes, it’s a great gift that we can forgive and be forgiven. I can’t think of any Christians I’ve met who objectively disagree with the necessity of repair processes. I have met many who have never learned what forgiveness actually is, and is not. Sometimes this desire to do more only reveals how much of our spiritual life has become driven by pressure, fear, or the need to maintain an image of ourselves. We are no longer simply praying. We are managing.
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How St. John Paul II Is Essential to Healing Narcissistic Parts
A narcissistic part is not a monster. A controlling part is not a villain. Nor is a martyr part proof of holiness.
5 Signs You May Be Spiritually Narcissistic And What to Do About It
A pattern of spiritual narcissism is a really touchy, sensitive, and difficult topic. It’s one of the hardest things I talk about…ever.
How to Spot Spiritual Narcissism
So how do you actually begin to spot spiritual narcissism, especially when it shows up in parents, spouses, ministry, or spiritual direction?
Narcissism and the Problem of Change
Every January, people make resolutions. We want to change. We want to do better. We want to pray more, be healthier, be more…
What Guadalupe Teaches Us About Evangelization
When Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego in December of 1531, it was not a divine interruption. It was a divine fulfillment.
Long before…
A New Year’s Resolution You Didn’t Know You Needed
Every January, we rush toward resolutions that promise quick transformation. Pray more. Work out more. But what if the most important…
K-Pop Demon Hunters; a Catholic Response to Shame
Not a clever book. Not a popular book. A disruptive book. The kind that reframes your assumptions. For me, that book is…
The Most Important Book I’ve Read in Years
Not a clever book. Not a popular book. A disruptive book. The kind that reframes your assumptions. For me, that book is…
How St. Joseph Can Help You Make Decisions When You Feel Paralyzed
Joseph doesn’t ask for signs or a clearer plan. He receives a word from God, gets up, and moves. For anyone who feels stuck…
The Hidden Sorrow Behind the Immaculate Conception
As we look forward to celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we remember the reality of how this day came to be…
A Mosaic of Hope: Rebuilding Life After Loss
My husband Tom died suddenly in 2019. He was 46, healthy, and we’d just had a wonderful weekend together. In the middle of the night…
ADHD in Marriage — When Two Brains Share a Life
When ADHD enters a relationship, it doesn’t just affect one person. It becomes a third partner — shaping communication, rhythms, and even…
Loving Difficult Parents: What St. Francis Teaches About Family and Freedom
It’s one of the hardest spiritual and emotional challenges a person can face: trying to honor your parents when the relationship feels…
Inside the ADHD Brain — The Science Behind the Struggle
When I first began learning about ADHD, I thought it meant I just had to “try harder” to focus — that I needed more…
Practicing Mercy at the Holidays
Perhaps despite your best intentions, there is something about going home that can bring you back 20 years in the blink of an eye…
Attention Deficit? More like Executive Functioning Deficit
If we named ADHD more accurately, we’d probably call it Executive Functioning Disorder. it doesn’t really affected attention itself, it…
From Attila to AI: Why the Church Must Defend Humanity Again
What It Means to Be Human? This is the question our culture is asking, sometimes without knowing it, is simple: what is a person?
ADHD and Me, The Handicap That’s Getting Me to Heaven
I had every classic sign of ADHD, long before anyone called it that.Detentions, missed recess, notes home, “Needs Improvement” stamped on…
Memento Mori: Three Powerful Truths Offered by the Church in November
When someone experiences trauma it doesn’t just live in memory. It gets wired into the brain. Certain triggers…
Why You Can’t Separate Brain, Body, and Relationship
When someone experiences trauma it doesn’t just live in memory. It gets wired into the brain. Certain triggers…
That’s So ADHD!
But here’s the big question: What’s the difference between someone having an “ADHD moment” and someone who actually has ADHD?
Correcting Aquinas: Why One Small Error Still Wounds the Church
St. Thomas Aquinas built parts of his anthropology on Aristotle’s biology. From that premise, Aquinas could write that woman is…
Beyond the Bedroom: What JP2 Really Taught in Theology of the Body
Reducing Theology of the Body to “Catholic sex talks” is like reducing the ocean to a swimming pool. You’re missing the depth, the…
“You Don’t Have to Impress Me”: The Sentence Every Child Needs to Hear
“You don’t have to impress me for me to love you.” That one sentence did what hours of lecturing can’t. It cut through the fear that…
What OCD Really Feels Like (And Why It’s Misunderstood)
Having a part within you that is OCD doesn’t automatically equate to being organized or clean. OCD is brutal. It’s painful. It’s…
What St. Thérèse Knew About Being Supermom
When I first became a mom, I never would have said I thought holiness meant control. What I told myself was that I was…
Finding Mary in the NICU: Learning to Trust When Control Slips Away
When Stefanie’s daughter Anna was born, she arrived early and fragile. Within hours, she was whisked into the…