Have you ever been surprised by your children’s reaction to something you did for them? Perhaps you brought home a small toy for your son, and he continued to thank you for several days afterwards. More »

The girl was walking in the fields some ways off from her home, when two strangers appeared and asked her to pick them some fruit. Brought up to show courtesy to adults, the nine-year-old hurried to obey. Not until she was in the forest did she realize it was a trick. More »

As the Carmelite monks chanted psalms in their church across the courtyard, the head cook labored in the monastery kitchen. There, against the background hiss of boiling water and the steady beat of his knife against the chopping block, stood a middle-aged man—a lay brother whose duties prevented him from joining the others in prayer. More »

Let us join with Christians around the world in praying for these special intentions of our Holy Father. More »

“Life is just one big disappointment after another,” Therese thought as she trudged down the stairs to the campus post office. “Here I am, at my second-choice college. Here I am, with one of my horrible migraines. Here I am, a failure at pursuing a religious vocation. What’s next?” More »

One day around 1780, an Episcopalian stepmother opened her King James Bible and introduced her stepdaughter to Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. . . ." Though the two were not close and the woman was preoccupied with many cares, the moment was extraordinarily significant. More »

How many times have we praised God in prayer and in the very next moment, snapped at our kids! More »

While visiting a farm, I remember being asked to retrieve water from a spring nearby. I will never forget stepping down into a cool, dank cave, its walls dripping with moisture. The atmosphere, dark and mysterious, was so pervasive that the cave felt alive, like an extension of my skin. More »