We spend a lot of time in our lives lying. We lie to strangers to seem better or more interesting than we are. We lie to loved ones to spare their feelings or protect them from something. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.

Worst of all, we lie to ourselves. And we do it for various reasons, all seemingly justifiable at first glance. But upon deeper investigation, it turns out that a lie is still a lie and simply trying to convince ourselves otherwise is both exhausting and impossible.

So here we are. We’re all striving for the same things in life. These things we all want break down into three overarching pillars – caritas, unitas, veritas or love, unity, truth.

We all wish to be loved, to give love, to feel love. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, to feel unity in our hearts through family and community. And we all want to have love and unity that is genuine, authentic, and truthful. These three pillars are intertwined. They overlap and ebb and flow and blur into each other. That’s what makes them so critical in our lives. They are so deeply interconnected and play such vastly important roles in the life of every single human being, whether we recognize that or not.