Five Books for the Catholic Mom’s Soul
Living my vocation is hard. So, so hard. However, when I truly invest myself completely in loving and serving these humans that God has given me, the graces flow and joy abounds. Its true, what they say: If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. To that end, over the last few years I’ve been seeking […]
A Gift for My Grandmother and Saint Anne’s Gift to Me
The summer of 2008 was a summer of opportunity for me. I was able to attend the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City, Canada with other young adults from the state of Wisconsin through Catholic Youth Expeditions, a retreat ministry founded by Father Quinn Mann, a priest of the Diocese of Green Bay. As part of […]
Desperately Seeking Community
Disclaimer: This piece is written in the style of a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew a junior demon, Wormwood. This is based on C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, which is well worth a read. My dear Wormwood, You requested some tips on one of my areas of expertise, loneliness. Lack of companionship, social pain. I work my […]
Knowing Christ the Bridegroom as a Married Woman
About eighteen months into my marriage I was assessing my spiritual life when I realized something: while I had a wonderful relationship with God the Father and was quite drawn to God the Spirit, my relationship with God the Son was hurting. As a young mom I identified with the Father and wondered if He ever felt […]
We Don’t Call Her “The Virgin Mary” For Nothing.
Whenever we talk about Mary, we address her with many different titles: Mother of Jesus, Mother of God, Holy Mary, Blessed Mother. However, out of all these, the one most often heard across Catholic (and Protestant) aisles is The Virgin Mary. Virtually every person that claims the Christian faith accepts that Mary miraculously conceived Christ […]
St. Anne Novena
I’m going to let you in on a secret. When you type words into a search engine and then click on a link, the owner of that link (blog, ecommerce site, etc.) can see the words in the search that led you to their blog. For instance here are some screen shots from the singlecatholicgirl.com search engine results. July […]
Frustrations in the Apostolate
“If you want to serve the Church, be prepared to be disappointed” said one of the heads of a local apologetics organization for which I have been volunteering for the past few years. Indeed, those of us who have worked for one apostolate or another, such as in a parish or trans-parochial group or movement, […]
“The Heresy of Action”
“Sorry, but I don’t eat meat on Friday; I’m Catholic.” How easily and glibly these words can slip out of our mouths! Is “I’m Catholic’ just another label we toss around, not much different from “I’m a [name your sports team] fan,” or “I’m a bicyclist,” or “I’m a bookworm”? All of them labels, defining us, putting aspects […]
The ‘Sorry, Not Sorry’ Phenomenon
Chances are that if you are on any one of the major social media sites, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I refer to the ‘sorry, not sorry’ or ‘#sorrynotsorry’ phenomenon. But just in case you aren’t familiar with the phrase, folks tend to post it when they feel like they should be sorry about posting […]
You Are My ATM: An Object Lesson
You are for me. Each of you. All of you. You breathe for me. You are for my sake. You work for me. You accumulate for me. You are income for me. Food for me. Shelter for me. You are my employer, my workplace, my co-worker, my cashier, my janitor. You build me up or you bring me down. You affirm me, protect me, compliment me, bolster me; and if […]
The White Rosary
Your appearance disturbs me, you should not be, (fourteen years old and 5 foot 2) so light; barely into triple digit weight. You should not be here sitting across from me with downcast eyes, hidden behind your hair, brown/black brindled hair and pale, pale face, too white. Or if here, you should not be speaking […]
Know Mary, Know Jesus. No Mary, No Jesus.
During my days as a Southern Baptist, my opinion of Mary, the Blessed Virgin, was the same as every other Protestant. I saw her as just another character in the Bible, one who was given a particular task, and when God was finished with her, she faded into the background with the rest of the […]
Ask and it will be Given to you: Vocations in the Entitlement Society
Vocations in the Entitlement Society In the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you.” That works wonderfully as a tweet or Facebook status, it is short and sounds nice. Yet, the problem with only looking at one part of the chapter leads the reader to take […]
On Thomas, Doubt, and Being an Outsider
Have you ever felt like an outsider amongst a group of people who all shared a similar experience? Sat awkwardly in the background as they joyfully reminisced? The fact that you missed out on whatever it is that the rest of your acquaintances lived through can possibly leave you feeling isolated and uncomfortable. I imagine […]
On Church Closings and The Loss of Beauty
At a friend’s recent wedding, I sat in the pews of an old Gothic Church marveling that the art in every corner of the building so singularly brought the soul to contemplate the beauty of heaven. The rich harmonies of choir and organ, the solemn splendor of the Mass, and the inherent wonder of the […]
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