Category: Live in Christ

Is There Still No Room for Him at the Inn?
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Is There Still No Room for Him at the Inn?

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by on Dec 27, 2013 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured, Live in Christ, The Social Order
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At this time of year we frequently see a clash between the secular and the religious. We hear arguments that make many of us cringe while others rub their hands together with joy, pleased with the debate they have again provoked. For instance, we hear from those like Bill O’Reilly that Christmas was declared a […]

Consider Christ
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Consider Christ

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by on Dec 25, 2013 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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With today’s writing I want to speak to an audience I don’t normally speak to.  We “smart” Catholics like to look down on those who don’t do things the way we do.  We look down on those who aren’t there with us every Sunday at Mass.  This is the audience I’d like to speak to. […]

The Advent of Virtue: Week Four
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The Advent of Virtue: Week Four

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by on Dec 22, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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This is it — we’ve reached the Fourth Week of Advent and the fourth virtue for this series. We will conclude with a final summary next week, but for now, please take the time to revisit the past three weeks here and enjoy this last reflection. WEEK FOUR (December 22-24): JUSTICE “Justice … consists in […]

Long Lines and Other Christmas Hardships: Gifts from Above?
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Long Lines and Other Christmas Hardships: Gifts from Above?

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by on Dec 21, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, The Catholic Family
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On a recent Saturday I went to the grocery store and took a number at the deli. They were on number 49. My number was 62. It was quite a crowd. Some people came in pairs, browsing in front of the glass displays as they waited for their turn, making it hard for me to […]

Raising the Bar in Every Area of Life
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Raising the Bar in Every Area of Life

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by on Dec 20, 2013 in Education, Featured, Live in Christ, Sports
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As a two-time NCAA Division I All-American and National Champion high jumper, Bill Thierfelder had long been accustomed to raising the bar in a literal sense. Now, he does so in a metaphorical way by promoting excellence and virtue in every aspect of life. In fact, each light post at Belmont Abbey College is adorned with a […]

The Wise Virgin
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The Wise Virgin

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by on Dec 19, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, The Feminine Genius, Women
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Who is she that comes forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array? (Song of Solomon 6:10) Does that Scripture really refer to the sweet mother in our crèche? The adoring mother, demurely gazing at the Babe, surrounded by inquisitive shepherds and under […]

Stealing Christ's Job
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Stealing Christ’s Job

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by on Dec 17, 2013 in Catechesis, Featured, Live in Christ
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In the Old Testament, the Azazel goat, translated as scapegoat, was one of two goats chosen for a ceremony on The Day of Atonement. The first goat was sacrifice but a priest would lay hands on the second goat and symbolically transfer all the sin and guilt of the community on to this animal. The […]

Keeping Christ in Christmas - Our Family's Approach
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Keeping Christ in Christmas – Our Family’s Approach

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by on Dec 17, 2013 in Columnists, Featured, Live in Christ
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“Actions speak louder than words.”  “One picture is worth a thousand words.”  “Talk is cheap.”  There are lots of different sayings in the English language that generally express the same thing–words alone don’t do the necessary job of communicating, especially in the case of a personal message.  Like “I love you,” for instance. So human […]

When I Will Concern Myself with the Roman Curia
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When I Will Concern Myself with the Roman Curia

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by on Dec 16, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, Women
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Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s headed up or headed down?  Whose influence is waxing or waning? Ah, Rome.  The Eternal City of intrigue. Ah, Vaticanistas. Of making many speculations there is no end. I will concern myself with the goings on of the Roman Curia when: All the dust is gone […]

Mary: More Than Just a Character in a Story
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Mary: More Than Just a Character in a Story

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by on Dec 16, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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I regularly receive an email called “Daily Heartlight.” It features reflections by a rotating group of people, all of them Protestant and most of them preachers. Most of my spiritual reading is Catholic, but I find these often have good insight about faith and Scripture. As we’re approaching Christmas, several reflections have involved Mary and […]

The Advent of Virtue: Week Three
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The Advent of Virtue: Week Three

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by on Dec 15, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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Rejoice! (Gaudete!) We’re already halfway through the season of Advent. If you missed Weeks One and Two, or if you would like to reread them, they can be found here and here. This week, we match the cardinal virtue of temperance to our Advent journey. THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT (December 15-21): TEMPERANCE The Apostle James exhorts us in […]

The Fred Who Tricked Me
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The Fred Who Tricked Me

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by on Dec 12, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Well, his name isn’t really Fred, but when I’m telling a real story about real people and maybe the people don’t come out sounding too good, I like to make up a pseudonym.  I just think it’s the decent thing to do.  I’m writing about Fred because he’s an example of really bad, I mean epically […]

Advent: Waiting Like Mary and Joseph
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Advent: Waiting Like Mary and Joseph

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by on Dec 11, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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I have just finished my annual routine of climbing into the attic and hauling out the box that stores our much-used Advent wreath. Candles? Check. Prayers? Check. Matches? We’ll need to get more of those. Like most families, the season of Advent falls right in the middle of a very busy time. School, work, extracurricular […]

Why Aren't They Preaching About What I Think is Important?
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Why Aren’t They Preaching About What I Think is Important?

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by on Dec 10, 2013 in Catechesis, Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Catholics tend to have a love/hate relationship with the concept of a homily.  In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis laments how everyone suffers when it comes to the homily.  The priest suffers because he has to give it, and the laity suffers having to listen.  This can be made worse by the fact that preachers can have […]

Second Sunday of Advent: How's Your New Year Going?
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Second Sunday of Advent: How’s Your New Year Going?

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by on Dec 09, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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The Advent season includes the feasts of many popular saints, including St. Nicholas, St. Ambrose, St. Juan Diego, and St. Lucy.  As I mentioned in my post about St. Nicholas, I didn’t learn much about the lives of the saints until I was an adult. I recognized St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day because they […]

The Advent of Virtue – Week Two
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The Advent of Virtue – Week Two

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by on Dec 08, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Last week we kicked off the Fathers for Good Advent series with a reflection on the virtue of fortitude and discussed ways in which it can help us grow with our families in these blessed days before Christmas. (You can read Week One here.) This week, we match the cardinal virtue of prudence to our Advent […]

Winter and Our Desire for Holy Silence
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Winter and Our Desire for Holy Silence

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by on Dec 07, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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I never have been a big fan of winter. Give me 90-degree temperatures with a chance to wear shorts and a T-shirt rather than 20 degrees, layers of clothing and slick streets. I’ll take baseball, walks to the ice cream shop and the smell of fresh-cut grass any time. Well, there is one thing I […]

Why Religion Matters More Than Science
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Why Religion Matters More Than Science

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by on Dec 06, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, Science
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I just finished writing a thesis about the late Father Stanley Jaki’s work for a Master’s degree in Theology, and my brain hurts. I love that about scholarship. You learn, assimilate, and then possess new knowledge. It’s hard, but you earn it. In the end, it’s more exciting than going to the mall, buying a […]

Filling Soles on St. Nick’s Day
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Filling Soles on St. Nick’s Day

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by on Dec 06, 2013 in Columnists, Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com, Parenting
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Growing up, Saint Nicholas Day meant three things:  the fireplace, stocking caps, and the biggest pair of shoes you could find. It started the evening before, when we finished the family rosary.  We always ended our rosary with the ‘blowing of the candle.’  Well, actually it wasn’t a candle, it was a little oil lamp […]

This is My Calling, This is My Vocation
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This is My Calling, This is My Vocation

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by on Dec 05, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage, Vocations
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I am a conundrum: a rather outmoded sort of woman, ridiculed by modern career women, vilified by the earth’s prophets of doom and sanctified by the religious right. I was the least likely candidate to have a lot of children. I had never even held a baby before my first born.You would think having nine children would have […]

O Holy Night
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O Holy Night

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by on Dec 04, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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A reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture: “They glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:31). Wherever we turn these days, Christmas music plays, and for some of us this year, the words to the traditional carols we’ve come to know by heart have suddenly taken on new meaning. Old familiar jingles about Christ’s birth now seem […]

Pouring Ourselves Out
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Pouring Ourselves Out

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by on Dec 03, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ
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Trying to come up with an intentional and authentic name for a blog is challenging. It needs to encompass a bit of who we are, and inviting enough for further readership outside of one’s own loving mother. I ended up choosing; Poured Myself Out In Gift. It is not something mind-blowing to be sure, or […]

The Advent of Virtue – Week One
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The Advent of Virtue – Week One

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by on Nov 29, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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How do we make “Keep Christ in Christmas” more than a bumper sticker in our family’s life? This Advent, let us prepare to welcome our Savior into our homes and into our hearts in a new and special way, setting our own pace for the season and setting aside the commercial pressures of the culture. […]

Church Interior
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Ten Tips To Help You Stay a Sane and Effective Catholic

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by on Nov 23, 2013 in Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Just diving right in: 1. Do not get your news and information about your religion, your Church, your Pope, or anything even remotely related to any of the aforementioned, from secular mainstream media, whether televised, in print, or online.  They are not with us, and they are not neutral.  They are against us.  Moreover, they […]