You’re probably expecting me to say something about strapless dresses and not showing too much skin, but I’m not. Okay, I can’t resist so here’s my opinion on the subject: don’t be trashy, The Dress is about your wedding day, not your wedding night With wedding season upon us, what I really want to talk [...]
From a talk with my eldest. With her permission. Because teenagers need to know that they’re not alone. Another bonus of NFP…it makes it easier to promote chastity and abstinence to your children. I noticed the other day that you were listening with rapt attention to the girls at the pool as they talked about [...]
In honour of Mother’s Day… A fellow writer recently asked somebody to write something positive about motherhood. She said “Some of us not-yet-moms are scared of motherhood because all we hear is that you’re miserable and debilitated for nine months, then have a day of the most excruciating pain ever, then you don’t sleep for [...]
Imagine for yourself: A 13-year-old middle-eastern girl sitting at home, minding her own business. Maybe she’s doing chores. Maybe she’s studying. It won’t matter in a few moments what she is doing, because her life is about to change forever. An angel comes to her. Now, she’s heard about angels from her parents and from [...]
Have you ever seen the letters “WWJD?” The phrase “What Would Jesus Do” appears on bumper stickers, wristbands, coffee mugs and various other tchotchkes from time to time. As a young mother, however, I often find myself asking, “What Would Mary Do?” To me, Mary, the Mother of God, is an amazing model of perfect motherhood. She was [...]
I find it very intriguing that so many people today are having kids with their significant other or living with them but seem deathly afraid of the commitment of marriage. I say this because for me the decision to get married, even though it was a lifelong commitment, was much less daunting than when I [...]
It happened again. Oh, I thought this time would be different. But, then I saw it, that pretty little pink box, peeking out from in between the hairspray and nail-polish remover, greeting me so warmly from the bathroom drawer where it waits. I was only trying to get some lotion, I wasn’t looking for it, [...]
You sure have your hands full! Do you know what causes that? When my family of seven rounds a corner (mostly when I am not with them), folk find a way to scoot in our direction just close enough to launch one of these quips. Just recently, my wife made a comment about this on [...]
I don’t really like abstinence. Wait. What? I certainly think restraint is valuable–I resist the kind of trips where you go to Target for two things and come out with ten. I try not to eat meat on Fridays. I teach NFP. In some cases, however, particularly the case of sexuality, abstinence seems to miss [...]
“You’re crazy.” Well, thanks for your kindness and tolerance in regards to my way of life. We hear a lot about tolerance and accepting others nowadays, but this is usually the response I get from people when I tell them that my husband and I don’t use contraception. Let me tell you, I love when [...]
A couple summers ago, I yelled “gonads!” across a classroom of laughing grad students. We wiped tears and covered red faces while during the first session of our human sexuality class, we shouted all the sex words we knew. Our professor – sex therapist Dae Sheridan – made a list of them on the board. [...]
The Huffington Post must have known the publication of “My Wife Is Expecting Twins and I Am Not Happy About It” would cause waves. Tsunami-level waves, where people were aghast to read paragraphs like this one: Two blessings, two bundles of joy. How could you not be happy, you ask? Of course I’m sympathetic to [...]
After listening to a great talk issued by Lighthouse Catholic Media’s new young adult line, Truth be Told, I found myself greatly in need of an emotional chastity makeover. The talk, entitled “Why Do Women Do That?” and given by Lisa Cotter, examined the way a woman’s mind works, how men should best respond, and [...]
Last week my friend Audrey and her husband Phil took their two children to the Texas Roadhouse at Arrowhead in Peoria, Arizona – a suburb of Phoenix. One of their kids, Henry, has autism and he had a rough time adjusting to the new environment with its music, noise, bustling people, animal heads on the walls, and [...]
With mercury we measure pain as we measure the heat of bodies and air; but this is not how to discover our limits– you think you are the center of things. If only you could grasp that you are not: the center is He and Hem too, finds no love– why don’t you see? [...]
One of the fruits of the Council and the New Evangelization as a whole is the lay apostolate: lay men and women discerning and identifying ways to use their gifts and vocations to serve the Church. That is why I’m featuring a new apostolate that launches TODAY right here in my home state. It’s an apostolate [...]
“The English language lacks the words ‘to mourn an absence.’ For the loss of a parent, grandparent, spouse, child or friend we have all manner of words and phrases, some helpful, some not. Still, we are conditioned to say something, even if it is only ‘I am sorry for your loss.’ But for an absence, [...]
More often than not in life we remember criticisms more than we remember compliments. When someone asks me to recall the last time I received a compliment it takes me at least twice as long to recall than if someone asked me to regurgitate the last insult or criticism thrown my way. Chances are that [...]
In 388 AD, Saint Augustine wrote: “We all certainly desire to live happily; and there is no human being but assents to this statement almost before it is made.” True. But what does it mean to be happy? Season one, episode one of a little show called Sex and the City considers this question as it applies [...]
My 13 year old son (#2) and 8 year old daughter (#4) were playing the Wii yesterday when the inevitable fight broke out. “But why do you get to be the girl? There’s only one girl and a bajillion boys. Be one of them.” My sweet daughter whined for the thousandth time at her brother. [...]
Did any of you catch the recent “Princeton mom” flap? Princeton alumna Susan Patton, in an open letter to women attending Princeton, advised that they should find a husband in college–otherwise they’d wind up divorced from a not-very-smart man they’d meet later in life. (Ouch!) Then Kathleen Gerson fired back, countering that it’s objectively better for young women to marry later in life. And then Ross Douthat [...]
Have you heard? “Catholics are homophobes.” or “Catholics hate gays.” With homosexual marriage on the fore front of society, I get tired of hearing from others what Catholics believe. What do we believe about marriage? To put it short and sweet, “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a [...]
Dustin, may I call you Dustin, good thanks. Before we get started talking about the conjugal act of marital intercourse, why don’t you introduce yourself for a moment. Are you married? How many kids do you have? How do you bring home the bacon? What is Engaged Marriage? DR: Thanks for having me! I’m 33-year-old [...]
The Easter season always gives me a sense of renewal and rejuvenation. Not only is the Catholic celebration of Jesus’ resurrection a central component of our faith, but the Easter season also brings with it a feeling of new life and a spiritual “fresh start”. This Easter, our son’s first, brought to mind his Baptism. [...]
Q. How do you pronounce “ignitum”? A. Well, you have some options. The Romans would have said ig-NEE-toom. In church, we’d say “in-YEE-toom.”
Why?
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