“From Mary we learn to surrender to God’s will in all things. From Mary, we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone. From Mary, we learn to love Christ, her Son and the Son of God.” - Pope Saint John Paul the Great

I am a daddy’s girl. I am very close to my dad. We share the same birthday, and my little Saint’s middle name is after my dad’s. My father and I share such a special bond, so I am struggling with his recent health problems.

The deepest darkness is the discouraging reality that since my love for my son will never change, the agony of his loss will not either.

In 2016, our parish opened a perpetual Adoration chapel. Despite growing up Catholic, I was in my thirties with several small children before I ever attended a holy hour. I was captivated by the reverence and rituals of Eucharistic Adoration and quickly became a regular attendee of Thursday night Adoration at our church.

In the aftermath of loss, it is so important for families to remember their children. Although their lives were brief, we honor them and give their life the dignity it deserves. We hold onto every moment we have with them. A few ways to honor their memory are listed below.

It's easy to feel hopeless when life doesn't go as planned. Whether it's a relationship gone sour or the loss of a loved one, we all have our moments when hope seems hard to find. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 1817) Here are seven tips for finding hope in even the bleakest of circumstances:

Grief is a long and painful process. People who are grieving are often told that the first year of grief is the hardest, but I think the second year of grief can be just as difficult, if not more so. This isn’t talked about enough!

Carrying grief is hard, holy work. It has been almost 5 years and I don’t miss my son any less today than I did the day he died. But I have learned to make space for my grief. I have grown and stretched around it, learned so much from it, and become more the woman I am meant to be because of it.