Archive for February, 2015

Lessons from the Leper
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Lessons from the Leper

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by on Feb 14, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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Many Catholics are confused about suffering.  Some writers extol its surpassing value.  But does that mean that we should look for suffering?  Or, if suffering should come our way, that it would be unspiritual to seek relief from it? The story of Jesus and the leper in Mark 1:40-45 provides us with a case study […]

Five Things to Do This Valentine’s Day Regardless of Your Status
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Five Things to Do This Valentine’s Day Regardless of Your Status

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by on Feb 13, 2015 in Dating & Singles, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Not everyone loves Valentine’s Day. Some do because they are in relationships or it gives them an excuse to eat chocolate. Others hate it because they will probably stay home alone watching Netflix awhile their friends with significant others go out. Instead of wallowing in that funk, whether single or in a relationship, spread the […]

Pink Hearts and Green Aliens
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Pink Hearts and Green Aliens

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by on Feb 13, 2015 in Featured, Parenting
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Valentine’s Day is a big deal around our house. Our first child was born on Valentine’s, and she loves all things pink, pretty, and frilly. And chocolate. She loves her princess shoes, sparkles, fancy hair doo-dads (she’s also asking me for hair rollers, and she’s only five), hearts, ribbons, make-up, purses, clothes (the more sequins […]

Transforming Prayer for Married Couples
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Transforming Prayer for Married Couples

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by on Feb 13, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage, Men, Vocations, Women
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If someone told you that there was something you could do for as little as five minutes per day to virtually assure that your marriage would last unto death, wouldn’t you do it? Well this is it! Pray together daily. Marriage is not a couple, but a trinity. The third person is God. We need […]

Obamas in Church - Sunday, January 20, 2013
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Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast Remarks

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by on Feb 12, 2015 in Featured, Government & Politics, International Issues, Law & Justice, The Economy, The Social Order
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We lack the will to alleviate many of society’s ills.

A Fresh Look at Birth Control
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A Fresh Look at Birth Control

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by on Feb 12, 2015 in Catechesis, Contraception & Abortion, Featured
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It’s happening again, article after article appearing in my news feed. The theme is the same, although each has a slightly different slant to offer. Just as last year, I pour over each one, nodding all the while as my eyes scan the screen. The topic is birth control and each post does a good […]

On Being Invisible
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On Being Invisible

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by on Feb 11, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, Parenting, Women
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Recently, a Facebook conversation turned into a discussion over when we feel “invisible” while driving. It started innocently enough. I commented on how people seem to “not see” me when I am driving our family vehicle (which happens to be a 12-passenger van). My mom said she feels invisible when she drives their white car, […]

US Senators Urge Funding UN Agency Tied to Abortion and Prostitution
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US Senators Urge Funding UN Agency Tied to Abortion and Prostitution

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by on Feb 11, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured
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A group of U.S. senators is urging President Obama to fund the UN’s controversial population agency despite its ties to abortion and coercive population control programs, and its new push for countries to legalize prostitution. “We are disappointed that despite UNFPA’s critical work around the world, a number of misperceptions about the organization persist,” wrote […]

Reflections for Sunday, February 15, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, February 15, 2015

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by on Feb 11, 2015 in Uncategorized
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31–11:1 Responsorial: Psalm 32:1-2,5,11 Gospel: Mark 1:40-45 The Power of the Cross to Cleanse Us of the Leprosy of Our Sins The man … began to publicize the whole matter. (Mark 1:45) Have you ever watched a […]

Ask, Seek, Knock -- Your Gift Awaits
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Ask, Seek, Knock — Your Gift Awaits

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by on Feb 10, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Uncategorized
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I always have been taught that faith is a gift. And who doesn’t love receiving gifts – especially if it is the perfect gift, something sorely needed, something for which we have asked? That could be faith in anything, I suppose: faith in your family’s helping when times get tough, faith in being justly rewarded […]

Doctors Must Refuse to Cooperate With Court's Assisted Suicide Decision
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Doctors Must Refuse to Cooperate With Court’s Assisted Suicide Decision

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by on Feb 10, 2015 in Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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In his book The Nazi Doctors, author Jay Lifton wrote about the Nazi euthanasia program. He pointed out that it was important to blur and ultimately destroy the boundary between healing and killing to convince German doctors to participate. The imagery of killing in the name of healing was an effective tool in achieving this […]

Sympathy for the Devil (None so Much for Job)
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Sympathy for the Devil (None so Much for Job)

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by on Feb 10, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL? (BUT NONE SO MUCH AS FOR JOB) Once upon a time the devil sought an audience with the Lord, which the Lord granted for he knew the devil to be a man of wealth and taste—a taste for blood. A bit of a wild child but God put up with him […]

St. Scholastica, Abbess
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St. Scholastica, Abbess

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by on Feb 10, 2015 in Saint of the Day, Saint of the Day - Ex Form
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OF this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Casino. St. Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God from her childhood, and that […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: What Makes a Good Father

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by on Feb 09, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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On February 04, 2015, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on the family, reflecting on the dignity and role of fathers. Last week he spoke of the danger of “absent” fathers, reminding us of Saint Joseph who was also tempted to leave Mary, when he discovered she was pregnant. He was prevented from leaving when the […]

Okay to Euthanize the Disabled Says Canadian Supreme Court
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Okay to Euthanize the Disabled Says Canadian Supreme Court

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by on Feb 09, 2015 in Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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People with disabilities must be killed when they consent under a February 6, 2015, decision by Canada’s highest court striking the Canadian law protecting against assisting suicide. Unlike doctor-prescribed suicide laws in Oregon, Washington and Vermont that theoretically are limited to those with terminal illness, the sweeping ruling allows killing any Canadian who “has a […]

This Lent, Rediscover What Love Does
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This Lent, Rediscover What Love Does

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by on Feb 09, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Though my wife and I both grew up with dogs, we do not have dogs. There are a number of reasons, not the least of which is that some of in our family have allergies. But this did not keep us from hosting a dear, elderly couple for dinner last week, their little “Sparky” in tow. Love […]

Preach It!
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Preach It!

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by on Feb 09, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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The Bible is not just for Churches and Synagogues. Portions of it are read as literature, even in secular university classrooms.  Invariably, when you look at the syllabus of such courses, you find Job. It’s not hard to see why.  Job poignantly expresses what all human beings experience at one time or another–the feeling that […]

Poem: "Lead, Kindly Light"
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Poem: “Lead, Kindly Light”

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by on Feb 07, 2015 in Poetry
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Lead, Kindly Light Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home,– Lead thou me on! Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene,–one step enough for me. I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou Shouldst […]

Why Settle for Shades of Grey?
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Why Settle for Shades of Grey?

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by on Feb 06, 2015 in Featured, Leadership, Marriage, Men, On TV and Movies, The Social Order, Vocations, Women
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Remember the scene in the movie The Passion of the Christ when the androgynous, almost-beautiful-but-not-quite Satan character is carrying a baby, and when the face of the baby is revealed, it turns out to be old, ugly, and creepy rather than a sweet baby face? This was confusing for a lot of viewers, and when […]

CL9e - hbratton notxt
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How to Celebrate St. Valentine’s Day Like Adults

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by on Feb 06, 2015 in Featured, Marriage
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Men, you are being bombarded with advertising telling you that your wife would love to have a Teddy Bear for Valentine’s Day.  Here is a little flowchart to help you decide if you should get your wife a Teddy Bear.

Help Mary in Her Mission -- Offer Your Communion
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Help Mary in Her Mission — Offer Your Communion

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by on Feb 06, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com, On Books
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Fr. Emil Neubert, SM, one of my favorite Mariologists, wrote many books on Mary including Mary and the Priestly Ministry and My Ideal, Jesus, Son of Mary. Recently, the Franciscans of the Immaculate, through their publishing house, Academy of the Immaculata, have renewed interest in Father Emil Neubert by translating his French works from the 1950’s into English. […]

Book Review: <i>The Power of Daily Mass</i>
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Book Review: The Power of Daily Mass

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by on Feb 06, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, On Books
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In The Power of Daily Mass: How Frequent Participation in the Eucharist Can Transform Your Life (Ave Maria Press, 2015), popular Catholic author and speaker Bert Ghezzi shares how attending daily Mass has enriched his life. He also offers quotes from other daily communicants on the value this practice has for them. He reflects on […]

Poem: "My Work"
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Poem: “My Work”

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by on Feb 05, 2015 in Poetry
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My Work Knowing my routines as close neighbors do, They regard me with suspicion as I drive off to church- “It’s a weekday, for chrissakes!” They don’t know it is my job. My work to adore the sacristan’s bounty of a dark and empty church, to polish the holy vessels of the Precious Body and […]

Why Unemployed Men Don’t Do Housework
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Why Unemployed Men Don’t Do Housework

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by on Feb 04, 2015 in Featured, Humor, Men
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Women have long been annoyed that they do more housework than men, as demonstrated by many studies, but now they are really steamed. Last December, The New York Times reported on a regrettable trend. The number of men between the ages of 25 and 54 who are unemployed is at all-time high: 16 of every […]