Recent Articles
Tuesday Five: Liturgical Season of Advent
Advent is a season of preparation, waiting and expectation, but society all around us says otherwise. Christmas has been sprawled out in supermarkets and department stores since mid-October, manger scenes spread across suburban lawns and the music, oh the music that is jingle belling and deck the halling… I can’t stand it. Yes, maybe I […]
Venerable Fulton Sheen: Theologian? Timeless?
With the unofficial feast day of Ven. Fulton Sheen coming up, it seemed a good time to present some thoughts on Sheen. Most people who know him think of him as ”popularizer” of the Catholic Faith; does this mean he is not a theologian? Should he have stayed in the obscurity into which he seemed to […]
Singing Over Me
I wrote this in my journal a while back, and thought I’d share. It might be a poem–I’m not sure. Saint Cecilia was obviously here! I hope you enjoy! It’s inspired by this Bible verse: The LORD, your God … will exult over you with loud singing … Zeph 3:17, RSV God is always singing […]
Sorrowful Mysteries and Sin
It was a Friday evening as I sat in line for confession. I thought to myself, “This certainly isn’t how the average twenty-something gal spends a Friday night.” I sat in a quiet church with the Blessed Sacrament exposed, waiting for my turn to get my soul scrubbed clean. As I waited, I pulled out my rosary […]
Veiled Words: Modesty in Speech and Thought
“The Victorians pretended sex did not exist; the moderns pretend nothing else exists.” Archbishop Fulton J Sheen This is my first post writing for Ignitum Today, and in honour of that I thought I would try to ignite a little debate on a nice controversial topic, sex. Seven years into marriage I’m somewhere right between […]
Three Reasons to Pray the Angelus this Advent
Farmers pause in their fields at midday and bow their heads in prayer. Businessmen and women overhear the ringing bells of nearby churches during their lunch break in the downtown business district. Neighbors to Catholic Churches hear the church bells toll thrice daily at six, noon, and six, as an invitation to pray the traditional […]
What to Expect When You’re Converting to the Catholic Church
Becoming Catholic is a tricky business. When I left my wonderful Evangelical church two years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. Now I’m a self-confessed Converty Pants (a term I made up for nerdy converts/reverts like myself!) So I’d like to share with you what you can expect when you’re converting to the Catholic Church… Expect […]
Come Over Here and SayThat to My Face
Rape, incest, and mother’s life…oh, and abused children. Better aborted than abused. How many times have we heard these “acceptable” exceptions to an outright ban on abortions? It is easy to understand and even sympathize with the mindset that finds these exceptions to be allowable. No sane person wants to inflict further suffering on someone […]
Nic Davidson’s Black Friday Shopper’s Companion
Preface: This “Black Friday Shoppers Companion” was created to aid you in the many escapades, detours, pitfalls, and ecstasies that you’ll experience as you venture out on the day after Thanksgiving. It is meant to be read repeatedly on your phone as you shop, or printed off and crumpled in with the coupons, to be […]
Home on a Friday: Missing Loved Ones during the Holidays
Imagine the setup: 27 year-old guy, home alone on a Friday night, 9:30pm and heading to bed. That was me a few weeks ago. Am I cool? You know it. Wrong. Around 9:30pm, on a Friday, as I was snuggled cozy into my bed, I decided to refresh my Facebook newsfeed one last time. And […]
Marriage Isn’t For You: A Response
A few weeks ago, an article titled “Marriage Isn’t For You” popped up all over my newsfeed. Of course, I clicked because when I want to do something well, I read about it. We’re three years into our marriage and I still read every scrap of matrimonial advice I can lay my hands on, because, […]
With the Point of a Nail
I walked through the yard where they were collecting the bodies of those killed by the typhoon. They bring them in on trucks, collecting them from out of treetops along the beach, rubble piles in the city, drowned vehicles along the street. A body bag hides a lot about the person it contains, but it […]
The Problem with the New Evangelization
God bless the effort of the New Evangelization. It encapsulates, I think, what many of us faithful Catholics have desired to see (more) publicly for years. Even in my youth I always wondered how so many faithful Catholics relied on their opinion as opposed to integrating the words of the Church, words I found as […]
The Best (and Worst) Catholic Flash Mobs of All Time
Ok, so maybe the title is a bit misleading. Flash mobs only started in 2003 according to wikipedia which makes this “all time” list of Catholic flash mobs really just a 11 year sampling of awesomeness. Regardless, Christmastime seems to be the “flash mob” season ever since this little gem went viral in 2010: Then, […]
Ten Signs You’re a Catholic Introvert
I’m an introvert. I’m not shy, I just like books, quiet get-togethers and lots of alone time. I do not like too much noise, attention and worst of all: small talk. Of course, God always likes to stretch our hearts, so he called me to an order where I am constantly doing public speaking, talking […]
Stop Pushing Boundaries
Some help for when your son tells you he wants to be a priest… I worked at a college for a few years that came up with what some claimed to be such a wonderful marketing slogan: Pushing Boundaries. Question #1 – what does that even mean? I was always perplexed by such an […]
