What are you giving your Mom for her birthday? That question can make people cringe, either because they have no idea what to give her, or their relationship with their Moms is strained, or because they simply forgot about it altogether. Well, I’m here to solve all that. First, I’ll remind you of your Mom’s […]
With its announcement of possible reforms, China has implicitly admitted its forty year-old one child per-family policy has been a failure. The rules led to draconian abuses. There were an estimated 336 million abortions, including forced abortions and sterilizations at the hands of a powerful and intrusive family planning establishment controlling the most intimate aspects […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Wisdom 9:13-18; Psalm 90:3-6,12-17; Philemon 9-10,12-17; Luke 14:25-33) What it Means to Be a Disciple of Jesus Christ Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes three very demanding statements. He says […]
It seems there might be a lesson here for America.
This Saturday Pope Francis called for a day of fasting and prayer for peace, especially for the rapidly escalating (or deteriorating) situation in Syria. Since these days are so seldom proclaimed, they present us a great opportunity to examine fasting in greater detail. In todays age where fasting and penance are almost non-existent (sadly enough […]
I’m sort of a sucker for love stories. But then again—aren’t we all? Love is the most basic human need. The music we listen to, the TV shows we watch… everything about the culture we live in testifies to the fact that we are starving for real love that satisfies. Because of this, I believe […]
Far too frequently we look around our lives and find so much going so wrong. Sometimes we know what we can do about our problems, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s where faith comes in. Here’s what I mean: The sixth century before Christ was a time of tremendous pain for the Israelites. The Temple […]
Do you make the Sign of the Cross and bow your head in prayer before eating at a restaurant? On Ash Wednesday, do you walk into work after lunch with an ashy smudge on your forehead? When asked by your colleagues what you did on the weekend, do you say you went to Mass? Do […]
To feed the Israelites during their wandering time in the desert, the Lord caused to appear on the ground a flaky substance that tasted like pancakes with honey. At its first appearance, the people quite sensibly asked what everyone asks upon seeing something new, “What is it?” And that very question became their name for […]
In a profound analysis of the inherent problems with “advance directives” and other such statements of how one wishes to be cared for at the end of life, Brother John Luth writes in an e-mail: In philosophy, we are taught that the first words are the most important in an argument. As Christians, we can […]
When you live a life where you try to stay as connected to your Creator as this broken world and your sinful ways allow, you change your perspective on the big picture and the details. He has control over all of it. He can guide your path, deal with the obstacles on the way and […]
I realized a while ago that debates are pointless. All they do is try to prove the other person wrong rather than bring about greater knowledge of the good. Think about it – the nature of a debate is to locate the weakness in a person’s argument so that you can exploit it to the […]
Are you in need of some daily inspiration? Do you love to learn about the saints? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, then Sisterhood of Saints by Melanie Rigney (Franciscan Media, 2013) is a book you will want to keep close by. Rigney writes that researching all these women changed her life. […]
Last week marked 50 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Fifty years ago, if someone had told the audience assembled at the National Mall that they would see a black man elected President in their lifetime, […]
We talk a lot about technology in the New Evangelization, and rightly so: “The commemoration of this half millennium of evangelization will have full significance if, as bishops, with your priests and faithful, you accept it as your commitment; a commitment not of re-evangelization, but rather of a new evangelization; new in its ardour, methods and […]
There’s a dangerous tendency in America today to view disabilities of various kinds as insuperable barriers to productive and loving service. There is often an implicit, and sometimes explicit, disrespect of a basic feature of human dignity in the treatment of those with disabilities as merely passive recipients of government aid, the objects of public […]
When the sun sets on September 4th, the Jewish year moves from 5773 to 5774. Jews follow a calendar that is unlike the Gregorian calendar we follow in which September 5th will still find us in the year 2013. For Jews, the calendar is essentially a lunar calendar so that it can best reflect the […]
A great opportunity to share the Catholic faith with Protestants is when they bring up the ceremony that they call ‘Baby Dedication’. This is a ceremony in which the child’s parents, and sometimes their entire family (usually grandparents), make a public pronouncement and commitment before the Lord to raise their child to serve God, according […]
For most women when the buzzing alarm goes off in the morning, it isn’t because farm chores await completion and the baking of a hearty breakfast beckons. That’s someone else’s story. Instead, most likely, eyes peel open in order to face the daily grind—coffee, a commute, and a cubical. These days, there is more and […]
Ten years ago, I would never have guessed I would be on Facebook. The internet age has provided us a way to communicate with others all over the world. When I first joined Facebook I assumed it would be a way to see family pictures of grandkids and that’s about all, but I have found […]
Years ago, a caller asked a radio host what to do regarding her father. He wasn’t around while she was growing up, and his absenteeism hadn’t changed now that she was an adult. Despite his caring words on the phone, he wouldn’t actually follow through by visiting his daughter in person. The distraught daughter called […]
Francoise Baylis, a professor in Bioethics and Philosophy in Canada, has an important piece out on the Quebec law that pays for up to three IVF cycles out of the state-funded public health system. I wrote about this bad decision when Quebec passed the law in 2010. Is it working? Sort of. IVF cycles in […]
