I always had a sense of what it meant to witness beauty. As the Catechism states, “The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator” (341). And so, I have recognized these gifts as traces of God in my daily life. ...
Con-solatio Orientation 2025 was a beautifully formative experience, filled with challenges, deep insights, laughter, and, most importantly, prayer. During this time, I learned—through conversations, visits, and the example of others—ways I can best live out my vocation of love as a Con-solatio volunteer in El Salvador. During this time, I learned—through talks, visits, and the example of...
The main thing that is hard for me is having to face my own weaknesses frequently throughout the day. Even though I have had experiences where I live with people whom I do not choose, primarily my family (I did not choose them, but I love them and miss them a lot), living in a...
Every other Wednesday, we visit the local landfill called Mbeubeuss. Here, thousands of people scavenge through trash daily looking for things to repurpose or sell. We have many good friends who work there every day, and others even who live inside of the dump. They have taken tin, wood, old signs, and rugs to construct...
That day, Lucy and I went on visits together. We had an idea of the people we wanted to visit but the Holy Spirit had other plans. We knocked on several friends’ houses but they were either not there or just about to go out. After a while, I felt like we both surrendered to...
A good friend of mine recently shared with me that self-knowledge is self-gift. Hearing this quickly summarized what has been surely the most difficult, yet probably the most rewarding part about being here so far. They come in the form of two French and two Slavs. ...
For Memorial Day Weekend, we headed up to Buffalo, NY for a Con-solatio family reunion. We were welcomed by our own Father Peter (missionary in Argentina and now diocesan priest), Selen (Italy and El Salvador), Julia (Peru) as well as Fr. Peter’s family and my own (I, too, am a Buffalo native). We were also...
Every year, we look forward to attending the Con-solatio Annual Gala at the beautiful Bohemian National Hall in NYC. It’s always a special evening filled with love, laughter, music, meaningful encounters—and, of course, delicious food and wonderful company! It’s a joy to witness firsthand the incredible work,...
Who are we at Con-solatio and what is our mission? Words often seem to fall short of fully encapsulating our ministry of presence and compassion. This year, as we sat down to reimagine our logo, the question became even trickier: how to express something meaningful about our ministry through a simple little image? It turned...
These months have been full of newness: new people, new traditions, new routines...