Feb 23, 2026 | By Hannah McAnally - UT Austin

During the season of Lent, people often abstain from certain foods, drinks, or activities. In place of the item, observers use the time to focus more fully on Christ. But what exactly is Lent?

One origin of the word lent is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘lencten,’ which means spring. Another origin of the word is the Germanic word ‘langitinaz,’ meaning long days.

Feb 22, 2026 | By Hannah Joy Legatowicz UT Austin ‘27

I give a little, it means nothing.

You give nothing, it means a little.

I give you a little, yet you smile—

How can someone with nothing

Afford to give even a smile?

Feb 21, 2026 | By Raleigh Adams YDS ’26

"Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does.”

– The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Feb 20, 2026 | By Mitchell Schultz UT Austin ’27

A lot of life is waiting, some good, some bad. The eager anticipation of jumping out of the darkness for a close friend’s surprise party is an exuberant waiting that boils and bursts like a pot set too hot on the stove, giddy in its mischievous love. Waiting can be arduous, like the newly married couple that grows into a not-so-newly married couple as they try faithfully and diligently for children of their own.

Feb 19, 2026 | By Isaac Oberman DC ’26

What distinguishes fishing from other sports and outdoor recreation is the practice of slowness that mirrors living. The real art of the movements, the instruments, and the disposition of the fisherman or fisherwoman allows it to offer keen reflections on the good life. And there are few greater philosophers of the good life than Hank Hill.

Feb 18, 2026 | By Emma Ventresca BF ’26

The language of “setting out into the desert” is frequently associated with Lent, but I would like to call to mind another image of “setting out.” Recall the moment when Jesus asks Simon Peter to “put out into deep water,” when He first calls him and his brother Andrew to be His disciples. After they raise the nets bursting with their catch, Simon Peter falls to his knees and says, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Fervently convicted of Christ’s identity as savior, Simon Peter embarks upon a life of apostleship as a fisher of men.