I’ve always watched I Love Lucy. Lately, though, I notice that there is something about it that speaks to me in a very personal way. It sort of tugs at me. I can’t say that the show takes me back to anything in particular because it isn’t from a time in my personal life; but, […]
I am sure you remember this song we all have sung so often at Mass: “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord; We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. “And we pray that all unity; May one day be restored. “And they’ll know we are […]
What’s the right age to let children ride their bikes to friend’s houses? Isn’t it just safer to drive them? Should I worry about what other parents might think? Riding a bicycle used to be the standard mode of kid transportation, especially in the summer. I recall hopping on my bike on golden summer mornings […]
I’m busy repainting two pieces of furniture that have already served three generations of my family — a 3-drawer bureau and a tall dresser. Over thirty years ago I was getting married and in need of more storage space for my new home. My husband and I became the happy recipients of the bureau from […]
Sometime ago, my father and I went to get some fast-food for lunch. While there, a mother and three daughters came in. My father became silent, and discreetly watched them order their carry-out and then leave. “Do you know them?” I asked, when they’d left. “No. Not really” he said, then proceeded to tell me […]
“I hate to admit it,” my friend confided in me. “But, I really have a difficult time feeling close to the Virgin Mary. She’s just so far out there.” She paused and revealed the rest of her dilemma to me. “I have an even harder time with the Church’s teaching that we should imitate her.” […]
Mark Teixeira is widely known as one of the best all-around players in baseball. After being awarded the 2000 Dick Howser Trophy, college baseball’s equivalent of college football’s Heisman Trophy, he was taken in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 2001. His professional career includes a World Series championship, two All-Star Game […]
Fatherhood is definitely not an easy topic to think or converse about for the majority of people in our current age. Many wise people have stated their belief that the downfall of modern society is directly linked with the erosion of the true meaning of fatherhood. Normally I don’t like to put all of my […]
Which woman has the perfect body? Unquestionably, it’s the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is “the masterpiece of embodied creaturely existence,” according to Donald Calloway’s The Virgin Mary and the Theology of the Body. This idea is logical, but it sounds strange to us. What most people mean when they talk about a perfect body is […]
There we were, my husband and I, lounging around the living room, facing each other but not looking at each other. He was transfixed on his laptop, ear buds in place, watching something on Netflix. I was glued to my laptop, working on business stuff. Over in a corner of the kitchen, two of our […]
From: Always the Bad Guy? My husband thinks it’s OK for our 12-year-old to get a Facebook page. I say absolutely not. She has heard us arguing about this issue and tries to jump into the conversation. Next thing I know, it’s me against them, which feels very unhealthy. I think we should present a unified front […]
Dr. Vincent Fortanasce knows the field of medicine as well as anyone. He has studied psychiatry at Yale, neurology at the University of Southern California and orthopedic rehabilitation at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, one of the top rehab centers in the country. He has spent decades treating thousands of patients, including world-class athletes and celebrities. Many […]
We homeschooled our two daughters for 8 years from kindergarten/2nd grade until 7/9th grade. They didn’t have a boatload of friends during those years, but the friends they did have were special, kindred spirits, and we got together as often as we could. When we took the kids out of the Catholic school to home-school […]
Not long ago, we were driving down Interstate 70 in the St. Louis area, just past the I-270 interchange, and saw a car pulled over by the police. Not just one policeman, though. There were at least three police cars there with colored lights flashing, Three cops! Wow, that has to be quite a feeling for […]
If I’d had any idea how much Mary would have grabbed hold of my heart when I started praying the rosary consistently I’d like to believe I would have started praying the rosary a lot sooner. Then again, she knew exactly when she could grab hold of my heart and bring it to her Son. […]
What to get for the contemporary male who has everything? The Man Bag. The Man Bag is a high-style satchel — a purse, though its creators hate when you call it that. It’s designed to hold the modern man’s wallet, keys, sunglasses, iPod, cell phone, body spray, hair goop, diary and whatever other junk he […]
In my previous article I outlined a hypothetical and all too common scenario observed among young couples today. Decisions made early in their relationship can have an impact on their future marriage. How can we effectively help our young couples achieve happy, faithful, lifelong marriages? This quote by Arch Bishop Fulton Sheen bears deeper reflection, […]
When we gaze across the pond at our European cousins, the general assumption is that we’re looking at our future. From food and fashion to politics and culture, Europe is on the cutting edge – the avant garde. Depending on your ideological sympathies, this is either seen as a good thing or a bad thing. […]
“Marriage changes people, she’s different now” stated the young man speaking about his new wife. “We lived together for two years, then suddenly”, claims the new husband, “the ring popped on and she changed?” Is she really different, I wonder? Did the marriage really change her? Many engaged couples I meet are already sexually active and […]
In talking to my mother the other day, she told me she had found a couple of the Christmas video greetings we used to make and send every year since we moved 900 miles away. I apologized for not getting them made in recent years. “I thought when the children got older we would have […]
Few life events are as transformative for women as having a child. And, no other expected life event has the potential to be so painful. These days, everyone’s mission is to avoid pain and sacrifice. We all know about the triumphs of women in the work world, but the one thing that distinguishes us from […]
Some nights, when there are no clouds, I look up at the night sky hoping to see so many twinkling stars. But the lights of the city are bright where I live. They can obscure the lights of the heavens and thus make it difficult to notice anything more than the most brilliant of stars. […]
For a parent, there is nothing more humbling than understanding that God has entrusted us with the care of his precious little ones. Nothing in life makes us realize the enormity of our responsibility as well as the reality of our inability as when our newborn is first placed in our arms. It is the […]
