A few years ago, I started making an effort to do my all my Christmas shopping before the start of Advent. I wanted to be free during Advent to focus on spiritual preparation for Christmas, rather than rushing around trying to buy everyone’s gifts at the last minute. As a born procrastinator, this proved to […]
You all know the drill–every December, stuff starts to find its way into your house. You throw a Christmas party and people bring you hostess gifts. You do a gift exchange at work and bring home more kitsch. Then there’s Christmas morning, plus the rounds to the relatives’ houses where you collect more stuff to bring […]
A Frugal woman. Sounds kinda boring, doesn’t it? Like that woman wearing an ill-fitting jeans jumper that looks like it’s from 30 years ago, buying only day-old bread, never getting anything nice or new, and spouting off about how everyone should grow and grind their own flour, like her. Um yeah, I really don’t want to […]
Money troubles are a leading cause of divorce, and studies show that the more frequently couples argue over money the more likely the marriage is to fall apart. So how can couples avoid this marriage-killer? To start with, forget the idea of my money vs. your money, or his money vs. her money. That kind […]
As a cradle Catholic, I’ve had the privilege of learning about and praying for the intercession of many saints for all my life. Lose my keys again? Calling on Saint Anthony. Test coming up? St. Joseph of Cupertino to the rescue. Pregnancy issues? Alternate between St. Gerard Magella and St. Raymond Nonatus. Husband unemployed? […]
The fiftieth anniversary of The War on Poverty has reignited a flurry of discussion over what to do about the poor in America and around the world. This coincides with some interesting recent statistics on an increasing gulf between what the poor and rich are earning each year. Unfortunately, these disparities are nearly always approached from the […]
Occupy Wall Street activist and “independent journalist” Jesse Myerson recently made waves when he penned a piece for Rolling Stone in which he laid out five major policy priorities that Millennials should be fighting for, including such novel concepts as “guaranteed work for everybody,” and “take back the land.” Perhaps the best indicator of the sheer lunacy […]
God’s love came to us in circumstances of radical poverty. The Creator of the universe was born in a stable, poor and homeless. How then has the preparation for the celebration of this miracle come to include Black Friday brawls and countless tips to reduce holiday induced stress? We blame stores for advertising Christmas in […]
One of the constant themes of Pope Francis’ pontificate is his emphasis on reaching out to the poor and the marginalized. Those who are “least” in this world are dear to the Holy Father’s heart and he uses every opportunity to exhort believers to go out from beyond the four walls of our churches and […]
When Christ was made flesh in this world through the Incarnation that meant that no facet of human existence was to be set apart from God’s redeeming grace. This message is needed now more than ever, particularly in the West, in the area of economics and finance. A Catholic outlook on economics necessarily does not […]
From an early age, my dad drilled into my head the lessons of compounding interest. It was quite simple: start investing in stocks early on in life, add just a little each month, wait a while, and watch as your savings grows by leaps and bounds! Numbers were touted about how the market had averaged […]
Many people today are worried, justifiably, about major devastating events that could seriously alter our way of life. Yet, intertwined with those legitimate fears are vehicles that may or may not be legitimate, which do little more than stoke fear or evoke a collective sense of worry, unsubstantiated by the facts. It goes without saying […]
Over the years I have heard many arguments for and against the idea of providing any kind of an inheritance for one’s children. There was the egalitarian argument that framed the issue as one of democratic virtue, rejecting the idea of accumulating any wealth for the sake of the next generation. Better that your children […]
Ever since the industrial revolution and the mass migration of Americans from rural areas to cities, there have been periodic fledgling back-to-the-land movements. Each of these trends was a reaction to the low wages and exploitation of factory workers. Nostalgia for “simpler times” and the desire for more self-determination inspired many to move back to […]
We have often heard the quotation, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” The correct quote reads, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This quote comes from the Inaugural address of Franklin D Roosevelt in 1932. Right after the infamous stock market crash of 1929, which led to the Great […]
So, you finally did the responsible thing: you executed a Last Will and Testament. If you consulted with an attorney, you probably got a Durable Power of Attorney for Financial Decisions and a Durable Power of Attorney for Medical Decisions, too. Good for you. But you’re not done yet. You see, estate planning is kind […]
One can hardly turn on the radio or the TV without hearing the melodrama being played out in Washington DC around the Federal Budget. Well, I guess it is not so mellow. There are no simple answers, there are no immediate cures. As is true in any question in life, there are two sides to […]
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 […]
A citation and 93 days in jail. That’s what planting veggies in your front yard could get you, at least in Oak Park, Michigan. Ridiculous, you say? Hardly; it’s a reality, and it’s happening to Julie Bass. Julie and her family live in an average neighborhood in an average home in Oak Park, and a […]
HEAR YE! HEAR YE! READ ALL ABOUT IT! This what one used to hear on the corners back when the newsboys wanted to tell people that something spectacular was happening in the world. In the past 30 days, we should have heard this call about two different events. One was the Standard & Poor downgrade […]
“From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or […]
“Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil” (Matthew 6:34). We have all heard the adage, “One day at a time”. As we noted in the last article, Jesus himself gives us this rule of life. In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (the […]
The Grace and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you! We have often heard this admonition, “Take it one day at a time.” This is frequently assumed to be from the 12 Step Spirituality; however, it was straight from the mouth of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount: […]
The season of Easter baskets and pastel blue and pink and green eggs is upon us, although many of us still have these in the behind-the-scenes preparation stage. We have turned our face toward Jerusalem and the way is not so rosy. Not yet. Not until after Good Friday and Holy Saturday. But who knew […]
