Category: Learn & Live the Faith

Reflections for Sunday, November 15, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, November 15, 2015

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by on Nov 11, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading Daniel 12:1-3 2nd Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14, 18 Responsorial: Psalm 16:5, 8-11 Gospel: Mark 13:24-32 Reflecting on Jesus’ Second Coming and Our Life in Heaven They will see “the Son of Man coming in the clouds” with great power and glory. (Mark 13:26) Most […]

Why are the Middle-Aged Dying?
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Why are the Middle-Aged Dying?

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by on Nov 11, 2015 in Education, Featured, Health & Fitness, On the Job, Those in Need
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By now there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the disturbing study from Princeton economists showing that middle-aged white Americans are the only demographic showing increasing death rates. Only the 45-54 age segment, and only in the United States. Worse yet, the rise in deaths is due to suicide and substance abuse. One of the […]

Five Ways to Imitate Christ
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Five Ways to Imitate Christ

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by on Nov 10, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ
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In St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, he exhorts his readers to be imitators of God. I venture to say that St. Paul exhorts us to imitate Christ, who is God. After all, Paul had the encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus, which changed his life forever. How do we begin […]

Physician Assisted Suicide Undermines Efforts to Reduce Suicide
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Physician Assisted Suicide Undermines Efforts to Reduce Suicide

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by on Nov 10, 2015 in Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured, Those in Need
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Last week’s New York Times featured a haunting portrayal of suicide in America. Across the nation, suicide rates are on the rise—particularly among rural adolescents. But, as the article highlights, “suicide is a threat not just to the young. Rates over all rose 7 percent in metropolitan counties from 2004 to 2013, according to the […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: Forgiveness in the Family

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by on Nov 09, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Shepherd's Voice
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Pope Francis opened his Nov. 4th Wednesday General Address by spotlighting real families who witness daily to the great gift of marriage and family. Essential Christian families revitalize modern life by living out the humanizing values of the Gospel. When Christian families practice forgiveness in their homes, their actions have a ripple effect, reconstituting the […]

The Widow’s Mite
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The Widow’s Mite

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by on Nov 08, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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The time lag between the two widows in this Sunday’s readings was considerable.  Lots of things change in 800 years. But one thing their two societies had in common–they didn’t offer social security, welfare, 401K’s, or pension plans.  With no husband to provide for them, both widows were literally at the mercy of those around […]

The Meaning of Human Sexuality
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The Meaning of Human Sexuality

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by on Nov 06, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Men, Women
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As the concept of gender grows ever more fluid (you can pick any one of 58 gender options on Facebook), it’s worth asking why God created humans as male and female. Bacteria have no gender and reproduce mostly by dividing their cells. Some species of fish are sequentially hermaphroditic, changing genders throughout their lifetime. Angels, […]

dating, marriage, love
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Let Your Spousal Love Grow

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by on Nov 06, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Parenting
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This past summer, after nearly 16 years of marriage, my husband and I took our first bona-fide, airline-ticket “weekend away.” As you might imagine, it was quite a logistical undertaking for a family with four children. More than once I questioned whether we were being selfish for doing it at all. But something happened that […]

Reflections for Sunday, November 7, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, November 7, 2015

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by on Nov 05, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading 1 Kings 17:10-16 2nd Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28 Responsorial: Psalm 146:7-10 Gospel: Mark 12:38-44 Eagerly Awaiting the Second Coming of Christ Christ … will appear a second time … to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him. (Hebrews 9:28) November marks the final […]

The Only Good Catholic
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The Only Good Catholic

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by on Nov 05, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Those in Need
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Driving my kids home from school on one of our faster moving country roads, I was stopped short by a dog wandering stupidly around the yellow lines.  I couldn’t get out of the car to help because my son has a life-threatening allergy, so my frustration mounted as I realized that, until someone else came […]

The Light of Christ Can Stop the Brutal Darkness of Abortion
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The Light of Christ Can Stop the Brutal Darkness of Abortion

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by on Nov 04, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured, Those in Need
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The October 26th 2015 edition of LifeNews.com carried an article entitled “Abortionist Caught Saying It Would be a “Great Idea” to Burn Aborted Babies for Energy.”[1] The article attributed the quote to Michigan abortion mill owner, Renee Chelian, at a 2014 conference in San Francisco for the National Abortion Federation (NAF). Chelian owns the Northland Family […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: The Jewish Roots of Christianity

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by on Nov 03, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Shepherd's Voice
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Reflecting on the 50 anniversary of the historic Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate, Pope Francis lauded the document for proposing to every Christian “the rediscovery of the Jewish roots of Christianity.” Speaking in cinematic terms to give ourselves a frame of reference, is Christianity a remake (or re-boot), a sequel, or a spin-off of Judaism?  […]

Feathers in the Wind: Scandal and Sharing Online
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Feathers in the Wind: Scandal and Sharing Online

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by on Nov 02, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage
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St. Philip Neri once told a woman that as penance for her gossiping, she should scatter a pillowful of feathers into the wind and then walk about the town collecting every feather. The task was impossible, of course, and it emphasized that we can’t take back our words once they’ve been uttered. That’s especially true […]

All Saints Icon (detail)
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Is Praying to the Saints Idolatrous?

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by on Oct 30, 2015 in Apologetics, Featured, History
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Praying to the Saints is the opposite of idolatry.

Just Say These Words and Walk on into Heaven
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Just Say These Words and Walk on into Heaven

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by on Oct 30, 2015 in Catechesis, Evangelization, Featured
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Why aren’t there some words – profound, insightful, loving, deep, meaningful, powerful words– which, when read, heard, or said will immediately and instantaneously make a person perfectly good in this life and remain so until they die, thus enjoying eternal glory in Heaven? Why cannot words such as these be written which, once read, change […]

Giving God Deadlines
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Giving God Deadlines

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by on Oct 29, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Humor
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Having recently been divinely schooled on this very topic, I thought I might share the lesson I believe the Lord is trying to teach me. Perhaps some, less dense than myself, will pick up a valuable nugget for their own spiritual lives. As with most petitionary prayers, it began with a need. For us, it […]

Jesus's Door
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Jesus’s Door

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by on Oct 29, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Evangelization, Featured, Parenting
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I have always been pro-life, and so when we were faced with an unexpected prenatal diagnosis with our 5th daughter at her 19 week scan, there was no question we would bring her in to this world and face her challenges along side of her.  Immediate thoughts included just keeping her alive, getting her through […]

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Does Scripture Teach Us to Pray for the Departed, and to Pray to the Saints?

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by on Oct 28, 2015 in Apologetics, Featured, History
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Answer: Yes.

Democrat Senators Want Abortion Funding for Refugees
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Democrat Senators Want Abortion Funding for Refugees

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by on Oct 27, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured, Those in Need
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As refugees are welcomed into neighboring Middle East countries Democrat senators want to make sure abortion in available funded by US taxpayers. Senator Richard Blumenthal drafted a letter to President Obama signed by 27 of his Democrat colleagues asking that the longstanding Helms amendment be gutted. Current law prohibits any US foreign aid be used […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: Family and Fidelity

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by on Oct 26, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Catholic Family, The Shepherd's Voice
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Pope Francis’s Wednesday General Audience, on October 21, focused on the promise of love and fidelity made between husbands and wives.  The resulting fidelity in turn sets the couple and their family free. A couple’s fidelity to their promise to love is a blessing for the whole world because “no other school can teach the […]

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Three Things You’re Probably Getting Wrong About Praying to the Saints

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by on Oct 26, 2015 in Apologetics, Featured, History
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The Saints in Heaven are living witnesses and members of the Church.

Maybe a Time to Say Yes...and Mean It
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Maybe a Time to Say Yes…and Mean It

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by on Oct 23, 2015 in Apologetics, Featured, Live in Christ
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What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, “Son, go and work today in the vineyard.” “I will not,” he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, […]

The Blind Man Speaks Up
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The Blind Man Speaks Up

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by on Oct 23, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time The Blind Man Speaks Up There were hundreds in the crowd that day at Jericho.  No doubt all of them had needs, many of them urgent.  But this Sunday’s gospel tells us that apparently only one of them had the audacity to speak up and ask for help from the […]

Reflections for Sunday, October 25, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, October 25, 2015

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by on Oct 21, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading Jeremiah 31:7-9 2nd Reading: Hebrews 5:1-6 Responsorial: Psalm 126:1-6 Gospel: Mark 10:46-52 Saying Yes to Jesus’ Call Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you. (Mark 10:49) Today’s readings all involve a call from God. In the first reading, the Lord makes a […]