Totus Tuus: a brief, yet brilliant play (Christmas morning, eager child poised in front of tree with one large present, puffy-eyed parents on couch clinging to coffee mugs, How Deep Is Your Love plays softly in the background) Child: Can I open it? Mum: Certainly, dear, it’s yours! (child rapidly tears through wrapping paper, exposing [...]
We have been teaching NFP for nearly 28 years. We have volunteered much of our time preparing and teaching classes of many couples over the years, as well as lecturing to marriage preparation courses and youth group meetings, but let me share with you what we have gotten out of it. Admittedly, when we first [...]
I recently read an article written by a Protestant about modern worship. The author explored all the new ways, through technology and media, to keep the members interested in the worship service. The article was about how to keep the attendees feeling like they had a good God experience, new songs, new music, new films, [...]
Remember “live and let live” — or, as the gay-rights variation goes, “live and let love?” Remember that heady time not so long ago when Americans concerned about the unintended consequences of same-sex marriage were told that we had nothing to fear because the redefinition of marriage to accommodate gays and lesbians would not affect [...]
It’s a common misconception that any form of natural family planning (NFP) doesn’t work very well for women over forty because, oddly like teenagers, the body doesn’t produce the hormones that affect ovulation consistently and, therefore, following the natural signs of fertility is unreliable. I’ve had people knit their brow at me plenty for being [...]
Pope Benedict XVI offered an encouraging message to the recent meeting of the Equipes Notre Dame (translation: Teams of Our Lady), a pro-marriage apostolate. The Holy Father invited all Christian married couples to be “the gentle and smiling face of the Church.” There is no greater way for couples to achieve this than to joyfully [...]
Most Catholics are familiar with the three vows taken by most religious of poverty, chastity and obedience. To these three, St. Benedict (whose feast we celebrated July 11), added a fourth for the Benedictine order, the vow of stability. Our summer seminarian who had considered joining the Benedictines at one time spoke to us today [...]
In my position with the Diocese of Toledo, I get to instruct people on the joys of Catholic marriage: The two become one flesh. Marriage is gift of self. My path to holiness is through my spouse. Marriage is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. As Christ died on the cross for his bride the Church, [...]
I wrote my senior thesis for the Catholic University honors program nearly 10 years ago. In my youthful zeal and eager for my own upcoming marriage, I tackled the prompt of “Nature and Technology” with a 35 page analysis of Humanae Vitae, Paul VI’s vision of human nature, nature and morality, and contraception as “technology.” [...]
Lately, I’ve been involved in a number of ongoing efforts and conversations regarding community. Basically, we’ve been trying to get at the crux of what community really is and how to live it, and that’s got me yearning to dig deeper into the subject. We hear the word “community” all the time, used in many [...]
Fr. Carlos was a dear family friend and spiritual director for both Mark and I before and also after we were married. German-born, but having been stationed in Argentina for fourteen years, Fr. Carlos had an amazing German-Latino accent that was endearing and sometimes frustrating to those who didn’t know the origin of his unique [...]
No matter how many times I attend Mass, I still rarely attend with the presence of mind to realize I am attending a marriage ceremony. This is the most central and important aspect of my Christian life, and it just doesn’t occur to me that this is a wedding taking place. More specifically, the Mass [...]
As busy people with spouses, kids, jobs, responsibilities, we’re all bound to fall into a funk from time-to-time — a phase when we feel dejected, overwhelmed, ungrateful, unappreciated or just plain blah, sometimes for no good reason. So what can we do about it? Ride it out? Throw up our hands? Yell at our kids? [...]
{disclaimer: I realize that NFP is not always used to avoid pregnancy, but can also be used for medical awareness and to help achieve pregnancy. For purposes of this article I am referring to NFP used as “periodic continence”, that is, to avoid pregnancy.} There is a faction of Catholics who, in their desire to [...]
Style, Sex, & Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter, edited buy Hallie Lord, is full of spiritual truths and spunk! The ten women who each tackle a different current issue seem to hit most of the hot topics usually found splashed across the covers of women’s tabloids, but from a Catholic [...]
About a month ago, I went to see the movie The Vow fully prepared for it to be an overall disappointment. It certainly delivered, except for one scene that actually makes the movie worth seeing. The mother tells her upset daughter that she stayed with her husband after learning of his lengthy affair because she [...]
Although there is less skepticism with regard to NFP’s effectiveness these days, Natural Family Planning still gets a bad rap from many in secular society. I’ve heard more than a few people say, “NFP didn’t work for us.” When the rules are followed, NFP can be 99 percent effective in avoiding pregnancy and works well [...]
It’s official. Brad and Angelina are engaged, succumbing to pressure from family members to finally tie the knot. Back in the day, that pressure would have come from a worried mother, or more likely, a protective father and the business end of shotgun. But this is 2012. The family pressure to marry comes, in this [...]
Last year, on one of the morning shows, a couple was asked to carry a camcorder around while they debated and discussed their decision to have a vasectomy. After the births of three boys — the youngest only a few months old — they made the decision to go ahead and have a permanent solution [...]
The poor remodeler, he was so uncomfortable that I thought he might break into a sweat. In fact, he might already have been sweating, but I dared not look too closely, lest my scrutiny escalate his discomfort. He’d come to bid on our kitchen reconstruction and walked into more than he’d bargained for. However, the [...]
In today’s secular culture, there are some common misconceptions (pun intended) regarding the Church’s teachings on sex and marriage. I believe the following attitudes (in bold) illustrate that many modern Catholics, young and old alike, are poorly catechized, especially in this important area. The Church is preoccupied with sex. Actually, it is the world which [...]
Earlier this month the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s (GLAAD) “Commentator Accountability Project” included me on their list of people who deserve special scrutiny before they can be engaged as commentators on the marriage debate. But it is organizations like GLAAD that need to be held accountable for the impact of their rhetoric on [...]
When our first son was born, my oldest daughter was 7. She had been an only child for so long, we believed she might have some concerns and insecurities over this new addition. I remember talking to her the night our son was born. Mom was still in the hospital. I explained that the addition [...]
When I was asked to share my perspective on the HHS mandate, I thought there must be a mistake. Surely folks would rather hear from a good Catholic. A perfectly NFP-practicing, saved herself for marriage—five, six, seven-kid-having Catholic woman. That hasn’t exactly been my path. Not to mention, what could I possibly add to the [...]
