When I was in college, I prayed and discerned a vocation to become a sister or a nun. I was enthralled by the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart, since I had had the honor of working with and forthem at a Catholic School in Florida. Fortunately for me, I was assigned to work with […]
Me to my 7th grade daughter: “You can go to the school dance, but you can’t slow dance with any boys.” My 7th grade daughter: “The principal said we’re not allowed to say no.” This conversation, naturally, almost shocked me into a full-blown panic attack. Then it got worse. Me: “Are you sure that’s what the […]
Google has launched a new company called Calico (California Life Company) whose focus is to “solve death.” CNN reports: Last month Google announced a new medical company called Calico, whose explicit aim is to take on aging itself. But what will Google’s approach be? And what other research into prolonging life already exists?… Calico — […]
But when sex is divorced from love there is a feeling that one has been stopped at the vestibule of the castle of pleasure; that the heart has been denied the city after crossing the bridge. Sadness and melancholy result from such a frustration of destiny, for it is the nature of man to be […]
A third-inning, bases-loaded double off Fenway Park’s Green Monster was the spark the Boston Red Sox needed to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 and clinch the World Series championship. The star who supplied that pivotal hit was right fielder Shane Victorino, who celebrated as he stood on the base by pounding his […]
“It seems to me that a principal cause of the loss of faith is the dropping off in the practice of the family rosary … the abandonment of the family rosary is a main reason why so many Catholics have lost the faith…. the Church of the future is going to consist solely of those […]
One of the most challenging parts of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples — The Lord’s Prayer — comes near the end: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. That’s not necessarily meant to be a challenge on the surface. At first glance, it actually should bring us great joy. […]
Thomas Aquinas writes: …all goodness is pleasing to Him by nature, always and everywhere, whether it be in angels, in men, or in other creatures…Similarly all evil displeases God everywhere and always and in whatever it exists. Dads, do we delight in the accomplishments of our kids? I’m sure we do most of times. If […]
When I visited a fertility clinic for diagnostic tests a few years back, the place was packed to the gills. The nervous energy pulsed through the air as women considered investing their savings for treatments. But this isn’t just another infertility story. This one includes a miracle from an obscure Medieval saint: St. Leopold of […]
When my fiancé and I were still just dating, we approached our priest and spiritual director and asked him how we might discern if we were called to marriage together. He leaned back in his chair and said, “You have to know how to pray, and what to ask when you pray.” Father went on […]
People have strong opinions. And with a strong opinion comes a definite sense of being right. Sadly, in the dating process, too many singles believe that they have not found love if they are dating someone who has different opinions. In other words, love is about having the same opinions. But love is the union […]
Liturgy is a lot like parenting. No. Liturgy IS parenting. Jesus Christ is the groom and His Church the bride. Together they have done a wonderful job of cosmically birthing a multitude of Christians. In an effort to raise their children to the heights of charitable virtue, they provided us with the rhythmic order of […]
As each of my kids approached mid-fall of their second grade year, an excitement comes over me in anticipation of the Saint project! My oldest son had a thing for St. Francis. He loved animals and thought that Francis was the man for him. We read up on the saint’s life, found a hooded brown robe, tied a rope around […]
The Archdiocese of New York has published three handy booklets for parents, providing suggestions and examples on how to talk to their kids about the gift and responsibility of human sexuality. Each booklet focuses on a particular age group: primary grades, middle schoolers and teens. Fathers for Good spoke to Kimberly Quatela, chastity education coordinator […]
In every family there are there are three primary relationships for the father. In descending order of importance: the first is the father with God; the second is the father with the mother; the third is the father with his children. Constancy in love: Dad must pray every day-on his own and with his family. […]
There can be a fine line between loneliness and solitude. In solitude, there is a quiet joy — time spent by yourself in nature or at eucharistic adoration, an opportunity for contemplation and prayer and just basking in a peaceful presence. I love solitude. Like so many, however, I dread loneliness. And unfortunately, I have […]
According to Statistics Canada, the years between 2010 and 2031 will see an accelerated rate in the aging population since this is the period when all baby boomers will have turned sixty-five. By the year 2036, between twenty-three per cent and twenty-five percent of the population will comprise of seniors aged sixty-five and over. The […]
The lives of women have been so severely impacted by the dark side of contemporary culture that it’s hard to know where to begin to dig out of the lies. As with a ball of knotted twine, one needs to see the threads distinctly in order to separate and untangle them. Likewise, we need to […]
According to research published by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, our teens may have more wisdom than we give them credit for when it comes to sex education. Most teens (94 percent) think that adults should inform them that they ought to wait to have sex at least until they get out of […]
“Hey Patti, I’m getting serious about praying for my family. I’m going to do a 40-day fast and daily rosary, do you want to join me?” My friend Shellie Rusch asked me this recently. She has six kids and we have a spiritual sisterhood in many ways. As a wife and mother of ten, I […]
Thomas Aquinas writes: In God there is a primary perfection, which is that He never changes His nature. … Let us strive therefore to acquire a stability of spirit… God does not change. His ‘anger’ or ‘wrath’ we sometimes read about in Holy Scripture is not really God changing His mood or His feeling for […]
You can never anticipate the feelings you will go through following a pregnancy loss. Nothing in life prepares you for it and no one ever thinks it will happen to them. Of all the emotions I went through after each of my three losses, the one that kept surprising me over and over again was […]
Some parents call it a meltdown, others use the more familiar word tantrum. I call it the Land of the Terrible Twos. It’s a place never far away where our active boy goes when he doesn’t get his way, or when he wants more attention. He’ll be happy with his dessert as mommy and daddy […]
The notion at the heart of the Obama Health Law is that Americans spend too much money on health care, and if there were a way to reduce spending, there would be overall positive impact. However, two articles from the Washington Post out last week show that when Americans are forced to spend less money […]
