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 [...]
As the Church grapples with the modern world, intellectually and spiritually, globally and personally, she needs to be well prepared for adult converts. You are deciding to get life insurance. You have been weighing it up for years, listening to people who are adamant that you need it and people who are confident that it [...]
“Accustom yourself to pray this way and, God grant, soon you will nurture true prayer in yourself. Then there will be no need for rules. Labour, or nothing will come of you. If there is no success in prayer, then there will be no success in anything. It is the root of everything.” – St [...]
While writing her opinions of several C.S. Lewis books she had recently finished, a friend of mine remarked: “The more I learn, the more I want to love.” This sentence resonated with me because it reflected such an honest and beautiful desire of the soul to continue to learn more about her Divine Spouse. Here she [...]
About a decade or so ago, a popular refrain to questions about permissions was “It’s a free country.” “May I sit here?” “It’s a free country.” “Do you mind if I smoke?” “It’s a free country.” “Should I skip Mass this week?” “It’s a free country.” The remark was basically a flippant reply, as if [...]
Self esteem. A modern essential. Self esteem was a term invented by Sigmund Freud. The concept has taken wings since then, enhancing other modern philosophies. In the modern world, ever increasing affirmation of self esteem is key through political correctness (not offending anyone), relativism (everyone is right in whatever they think) as well as in [...]
The other day I walked into our bathroom to encounter a small stack of towels, folded on the floor—the same stack my wife had earlier asked our eighth grade son to put away. She hadn’t told him to put the towels on the shelf rather than the floor. Hence the stack on the floor. This [...]
Among other things, the papal resignation means that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s fourth encyclical will go unpublished, or at least unpublished under his own authority. This encyclical was to be about faith, and it would therefore have completed his encyclicals on the theological virtues. We may never know what he would have written, though I [...]
Lent is a time I think to reflect on beauty. True beauty is something that uplifts the soul. It draws us to God. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once said about art, “The work of art is the fruit of human creativity, which questions the visible reality, trying to discover its deep meaning and to communicate [...]
Despite all the fireworks and happy status updates, we’re all aware that a new year brings new problems. There’s going to be a lot of challenges and tears. No year is easier than the last, especially when you’re a teenager and not quite sure of your place in the world. Many of us are anxious [...]
Once upon a time, angels directed shepherds to the Christ Child’s manger; how much harder it seems to find God in our midst today. Have the processes of intellectual evolution rendered faith impracticable—obsolete? One contemporary writer considers just a few of the difficulties that Christianity poses to the modern mind: The difficulty begins with the [...]
You know the symbol: the ancient Christian fish that’s sprouted legs and bears the name Darwin. There’s a car down the street from me that has one and every time I see it, it makes me sad. Not angry, but sad. There is this perceived opposition between the two worlds of science and religion that [...]
With my job come several wonderful perks. Attending weekly mass with the Catholic School is one of them. It’s a K-8 school, and my favorite part of mass is going to receive Communion. The voices of the students grow louder and louder as I approach the altar. Of course, the older students think they are [...]
This month marks the beginning of the Year of Faith. It has gotten me thinking; do I really have faith? If I lived at the time of Jesus, would I really touch Him? Approach Him and talk to Him with faith? I came across an interesting footnote to Luke 23:6-12 (The New American Bible, 1987), [...]
What’s the balance between faith and writing? Where’s the point where you have to stop and think: Am I focusing too much on fiction and losing grip on the Truth? Have I lost sight of what really matters? Am I dwelling on things that aren’t real, and wasting my God-given talent on something that’s only [...]
On my post last week at Catholic Sistas, Shawna asked a simple but important question: What do you think prevents people from stepping back and really examining their fundamental claims and seeing truth in the Catholic Church? The answers are as numerous as there are people. But here’s just a few big oness: 1. Suppression [...]
I love Easter! I love the readings, the flowers, the extra Alleluias, the joy and of course the Resurrection. During our weekly staff meeting our priest loves to lead us in a small Lectio Divina of the upcoming Gospel for Sunday. This weekend’s Gospel comes from John 20: 19-31. Growing up I always knew this story [...]
Most of the time I assume myself to be a person falling into the same category Churchill found himself in when dealing with people he didn’t like: “He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” People rub me the wrong way, and they will continue to do so [...]
Today is Good Friday. At noon, my family will drive to Mt. Adams, to a hill overlooking the Ohio River. We will descend many steps, cross a bridge, and then go down many more, before reaching a landing, turning around, and going back up each step, one rosary bead at a time. I will wear [...]
Hi. My name’s Mariella. I want to be a Saint. Or… Hi. My name’s Mariella. I have discovered controversy. Right now the Scripture that keeps popping up in my head is John 15:16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your [...]
I’m wearing bunny slippers as I type this post. My late Aunt Tracey gave them to me two Christmases ago (her last Christmas). I wear them, but I don’t even like slippers. I’m not a fan of slip-on shoes. They always slip off. I wear them because Aunt Tracey gave them to me. Aunt Tracey [...]
Tie your running shoes to the outside of your bag before the security lines to save space and wear slip off shoes for ease of removal. Keep your 3-1-1 liquids bag in an outside pocket. Have your ID and boarding pass in one hand and your laptop in the other, prepared to grab two plastic [...]
My thanks to the blogosphere, which takes sufficiently little notice of me to complain when this post wasn’t published on time…three. weeks. ago. Hurricane Irene came and took our internet, then Labor Day took me visiting family, and yesterday saw me still recovering from the effects of a fabulous Catholic wedding and the party which [...]
Fear. It paralyzes us to immobility. We’ve all experienced it to some degree. we hear a friend saying something skewed about someone else; we want to correct them, but… we see a stranger who obviously could use some assistance, and we hesitate… someone we love tells us a hard truth, and we lash out [...]
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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