Labors from the Heart, a collection of personal narratives, comes from the inspiring day-to-day work of people who attempt to prove the Catholic university true to its mission.

Some of the essays are written specifically about the individual Christian ministries—residence hall ministry, liturgical coordination, marriage preparation and enrichment, and adult Christian formation. Others are about faculty and administrative activities which find a distinctive home in a Catholic university—a law school's legal aid clinic for the poor and marginalized, an alumni association's continuing education program with a special focus on social justice and professional ethics, an innovative program for training a corps of young teachers for underserved Catholic schools. Some are narratives by people who have a professional or personal stake in the vitality of Catholic higher education—an alumna who provides a retrospective of the meaning of her education, a writer who "commits acts of public relations" on behalf of the University.

Faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni provide personal perspectives on how the Catholic character of a university such as Notre Dame is realized in their own occupations, ministries, and vocations.