A Master Catechist, Catholic blogger, and freelance writer, you can find me in many places around the Catholic world. When I am not lecturing at the parish, I'm writing, working on a future book, and tending to teens in the house and welcoming my knight home from the coalmines each night. I am passionate about Jesus, our Triune God, the Holy Catholic Church and her teachings, and the faith lessons I am continuing to be graced with.
Have faith. But when you are at the lowest of your moods, how do you have faith? Where does that ability to have faith come from? Presently I am reading a book about being happy despite your circumstances. Being happy doesn’t fix the problems and concerns of daily life, happiness doesn’t even pay the bills […]
We homeschooled our two daughters for 8 years from kindergarten/2nd grade until 7/9th grade. They didn’t have a boatload of friends during those years, but the friends they did have were special, kindred spirits, and we got together as often as we could. When we took the kids out of the Catholic school to home-school […]
Three men, brave and determined men, took that final leap into a new life; complete with new titles, responsibilities, and new homes today….never to be the same again. But they prepared for this over a seven year-span, immersed in the spiritual, biblical, and examples of those around them. They definitely had the support from family […]
“I’m not that interested in ‘mass’ communications. I’m much more interested in what happens between this person and the one person watching. The space between the television set and that person who’s watching is very holy ground.” – Fred Rogers The traditional family unit has been negatively hit from so many directions in our world […]
Last month, my knight and I were blessed to celebrate 20 years of marriage. Call me crazy, call me just a hopeless romantic, but I LOVE my husband! Yes, I refer to him as my knight because he is just that amazing in the way he treats me: holding doors for me, getting the car […]
It’s Lent and time to take into consideration what we can do to strengthen our relationship with God and grow more deeply in our faith. Lord only knows how badly our world needs stronger faithful people! What better way to do that than adding extra time with the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist? Christ […]
There is a dichotomy in this question or quest, if you will. “Fitting in” calls for a person to make a choice of accepting a set of ideals that belong to a certain group of people in the community. These set of ideals should match those of oneself to truly fit in. These ideals should […]
Even if you aren’t a Christian, even if you are an atheist, living together is NOT a good idea. Yeah, everybody is doing it now. It’s the norm. Who needs to get married when you have people ready and willing to move in with you? But, here’s why it’s not a good situation. First of […]
It’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Church’s 40 days of inventory, reflection, and commitment, to Christ’s passion and sacrifice; it’s the path to redemption, the humiliation of the human God, and the glorious climax of the Divine Man, which we call Lent. We can “put out into the deep” during this time and find […]
Talking with my sister-in-law, a maternity ward nurse, the other day about the new Health and Human Services mandate (HHS), I was curious about how things are going since she works at a Catholic hospital. She told me her hospital is totally orthodox and performs no procedures that would hurt or prevent or end life at all. […]
There are days and then there are days. Have you ever felt like there was so much to say and do, and not enough time, concentration, or energy to accomplish half of your expectations? Lately, during my daily chores, blog ideas, article notes, and lessons pop into my head and I rarely write them down. […]
Celebrating Mass together is the most important activity we do in our lives, and yet it is the most misunderstood and under-appreciated. From the moment we wake up we have a list of things that fill our calendars and day planners, leaving the Mass barely surviving on Sunday mornings. When we finally get there, we […]
At Adoration yesterday, deep in thought with Christ, I noticed gleaming shine from two places catching my sight. One was the monstrance, where the Holy Eucharist was displayed; the other was on my own hand. My wedding band seemed to match the golden monstrance made to enhance and protect Christ’s Body in the humble form of bread. […]
Recently, I went back to work part-time at a fabric store as the Education Coordinator in charge of the classes, schedules, teaching the sewing and quilting classes, and seeing to various other educational needs of the store. The other day, while talking with a couple of ladies about the seasonal fabrics at the store and especially the […]
How many times have you heard someone ask the question: “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” “Why am I here?” Too many to count, right? It seems too, that it is not a simple answer they want, but a large, extravagantly specific answer. They want answers directly from the source; definitive […]
Hypermiling is the way to drive now. I drive the “family car” which is an SUV and more than once I have been told that there is nothing you can do to get more gas mileage out of those things, alas! But believe me when I say this: I got another 93 miles out of my gas […]
Some of the perks of being a Catholic blogger all these years have been the friends I’ve acquired and the lessons learned from them. Stamina, fortitude, and grace, are the gifts of these friends during my short career as a writer of which I am forever changed. One of these new friends is Donna-Marie Cooper […]
Recently, I took an online course on the Revised Roman Missal, the use of which will be introduced on November 27th (the first Sunday of Advent and the new calendar year for the Church). During the five-week course of study, about a dozen of us students discussed our thoughts about the present state of the Mass […]
Did you know that prayer doesn’t mean having to stop everything and getting out a book, or having to come up with something formally well-rounded that makes sense? Did you know that prayer is as simple as talking to your next-door neighbor (not that anyone does that anymore) or a co-worker? Absolutely! For the most part off-the-cuff conversations with […]
I am thrilled to present a review on Linking Your Beads, The Rosary’s History, Mysteries, and Prayers, by Patricia Ann Kasten. Sometimes I pick a book to review because I want to learn about the subject, other times I chose a more recreational topic since I read and write mostly serious stuff. This time I […]
Imelda Lambertini was born into a rich family, the only child of Captain General Egano Lambertini and his wife Donna Castora (her name is recorded as Castora Galuzzi in some resources). The family was devoutly Catholic and well-loved by their community of Bologna, Italy. After Imelda was born, her mother had a dream and was […]
A few years ago, our pastor talked to us during homily about receiving the Eucharist reverently. He noticed that more and more receive communion than ever before with very few being conscience of the sin in their lives. Fewer are coming to confession, he said, yet are coming up for communion. Sin has taken a […]
When our children were young, my best friend shared a VeggieTale movie with us saying, “Your kids will love it; mine do!” She was right, not only did they love it, but my husband and I enjoyed them too. The characters are fun to watch and the Bible stores come to life in a way […]
The first time I saw the book, Consoling the Heart of Jesus — A Do-It-Yourself Retreat, I thought, “How could I, a mere mortal console the heart of God?” I wasn’t sure how anyone could console our Lord and Savior’s heart at the cross. It didn’t make sense to me, so I deemed the book unbelievable; that was […]
