In 2018, my family and I were blessed to take a three-week, self-led European pilgrimage. We started in England, where we visited both the Tyburn Convent, built to honor the Catholic martyrs hung on London’s infamous Tyburn Tree, and then the Shrine of Our Lady of...
I haven’t spoken to my mother in over two decades, but every once in a while, when I’m walking through a rainy parking lot in a pair of jeans, I’ll still hear her voice speak from my memory. I hear her tell me that my legs look like stuffed sausages, just like she did...
I love retreats, and I’ve been to a lot of them. There’s just something about getting away from the usual faces and the usual routine in order to meet others who are drawn to God in the same way I am. There’s also one feature that just about every retreat has that can...
I used to treat Lent like yet another diet. My eating disorder is binge-restrict: I didn’t like the size of my body, so I’d restrict. Restricting was painful. Food was my comfort, so I binged. I’d then feel bad about my trashed self-control and poor body image, so I’d...
The short answer? Yes. The long answer? Yes, you can’t do this alone. If you are like me, you have begged God to relieve you of your addictive or compulsive behavior. I can’t tell you how many times I prayed, asking God to make me wake up thin and promising to give...
Everybody in any kind of recovery knows how cunning and patient those old thought patterns are, just waiting to sneak back up on us in the middle of a stressful day. So it really wasn’t any surprise to me when, on one of those recent stressful days, I was passing by...
Even before entering into recovery for my food addiction, I had heard a slogan that kind of, sort of made sense…but didn’t really. Don’t just do something. Sit there. I knew at least intellectually that it meant, “Stop trying so hard. Stop being a perfectionist. Let...
With proper preparation, winter is a time to get cozy and a time to indulge in all sorts of things: comfort food, delicious treats, and open fires. Winter can also offer us more time. We can develop new skills, sharpen old ones, and prepare for the following year. But...