Of Mountains and Molehills
One of my favorite throwaway phrases is “first world problems.” It never fails to make me laugh. Whether it’s my sister and a friend complaining about having to replace the batteries in her battery-operated wine opener, or my friends and I griping about too many fashion images and not enough fitness pins in our Pinterest […]
Kneeling at My First Mass
By guest writer Tasman Westbury. In the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. – Philippians 2:10 I was raised in the Uniting Church, but never truly grasped any of its teachings, and spent several years as an atheist before a series of […]
The Value of Almost Losing My Vision
I just went through a difficult time. As I sat there closing one eye, then opening it while closing the other, going back and forth looking through each one, I thought that maybe the reason why there seemed to be a dark blotch covering half the view of my left eye was because I was […]
Divorce Affected Me, Even Though It Wasn’t Supposed To
Guest post by Anonymous I was seven when my entire world changed. The life I knew, the life I thought was coming. Gone. You may be thinking… gosh, what kind of awful tragedy happened to this girl? Abuse? Tragic accident? Death of a loved one? Abandonment? Terrible medical diagnosis? None of those. Divorce. My parents separated. And divorced. Their marriage ended. A […]
Identity in Relationship
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. – Jane Howard Etymology: identity (n.) c. 1600, “sameness, oneness, state of being the same,” from Middle French identité (14c.), from Medieval Latin identitatem (nominative identitas) “sameness,” ultimately from […]
Single but Full of Love
Judging by the varying reactions to us women who remain single by choice or by necessity, we are a misunderstood lot. On the one hand, many people cannot believe a normal woman would be happy neither marrying nor dating — hence, the insensitive questions we endure during family reunions; or the well-meaning reassurances that if we just […]
Impossible Causes
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” —Luke 1:37 St. Rita of Cascia is the patron saint of impossible causes. During her life, St. Rita faced countless situations that seemed hopeless and impossible. As a girl, her desire was to enter the convent, but instead she was forced to enter an arranged marriage with an […]
God’s Rose-Coloured Specs
To say that someone sees through rose-coloured or rose-tinted glasses is a common idiomatic expression by which we describe someone as seeing something as being more pleasant than it is.[1] The idiom implies that someone’s perspective on a particular reality, or on reality itself, is overly optimistic—rose-coloured, tinted, and glossed, softening the cold hard truth. […]
Blessed are the Pure in Heart: pursuing a life of integrity
What does the word integrity mean to you? Is it a catchphrase? Something that calls up vintage 1950’s sepia images of Boy Scouts saluting and pledging to keep themselves “physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight?” Does it evoke images of West Point Cadets, clean-cut and standing arrow straight in spotless uniforms? Captain America telling […]
Mary-ing Our Marthas
I was at a high school soccer game recently. I didn’t know the girls playing, but my second daughter was collecting the balls hit out of bounds with the rest of her soccer team. At least she was supposed to. They were focused, at first. But as the game wore on, the girls seemed more […]
It’s My Body
One of the most common allegations made against pro-lifers, specifically anti-abortion advocates, is that it is an example of a bunch of old white men trying to tell women what they can or can’t do with their bodies. This allegation calls up all the righteous indignation of feminism, autonomy, and moral outrage against those old […]
The Parable of the Talents
The Parable of the Talents is a Kingdom Parable couched in terms of reward and punishment,1 outlining the consequences awaiting those who have been entrusted with God’s word and given the freedom and ability to make it bear fruit. God seeks the active cooperation of the faithful in the establishment of His kingdom,2 and failure […]
What Makes a Book Great?
(Warning: spoiler alert for A Tale of Two Cities after the image.) ___ Franz Kafka, author of the highly disturbing The Metamorphosis, wrote: “If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it? Good God, we would also be happy if […]
The Apparition that Changed the World: A Review of Jean Heimann’s New Book on Fatima
The following review was originally written on the blog Sacrifice of Love. It is republished here with permission from the author. With depth and simplicity, Jean Heimann’s new book, Fatima: The Apparition That Changed the World (Tan Books 2017), instructs and inspires as it delves into the story of Our Lady of Fatima. However, instead of […]
Marian Battle Plan for World Peace: Consecration and Salvation
Last year, I finished Fr. Michael Gaitley MIC’s book, The Second Greatest Story Ever Told. I am sure some of you know about his book 33 Days to Morning Glory sold by the Marian Fathers. The Marian book talks about Marian consecration according to St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pope St. John Paul […]
