Category: The Catholic Family

Free Will: Candy has Consequences
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Free Will: Candy has Consequences

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For years, I guarded the kids’ Easter baskets like the soldiers outside of Christ’s tomb. I’d monitor them vigilantly – if I could have rolled a stone in front of them, I would have. I wanted the children to make the contents last and to really appreciate the treats inside rather than just wolfing them […]

Allowing Jesus to Set Us Free
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Allowing Jesus to Set Us Free

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If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear […]

Catholic School Kids “Human Shields” for Treaty Activists
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Catholic School Kids “Human Shields” for Treaty Activists

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Dressed in blue, gray and white uniforms, the children of St. Raphael Academy lined the long dark table in the hearing room. A row of microphones separated them from the two benches of smiling state legislators above. The students wanted their state to issue a resolution urging President Obama to “adopt in its entirety” the […]

How to be a Good Sinner
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How to be a Good Sinner

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Today two ideas collided.  It didn’t hurt so much, but it did shake things up.  Shaking up can be a very good thing.  I remember a quote on our fridge from youth: “Sometimes God knocks us off balance so we’ll take a step forward.” So true. Socrates, Copernicus, St. Francis, Einstein, John Paul II… all examples […]

The Prom Dress
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The Prom Dress

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Having a large family brings many blessings. One that might surprise some people is the blessing of not having enough money.  Most people would not understand how less could be more. After all, part of the reason large families became an endangered species is because so many couples stress about money when contemplating more children, […]

Lent, A Time to Receive Forgiveness and to Forgive Others
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Lent, A Time to Receive Forgiveness and to Forgive Others

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Editors Note: The five previous article spoke of Lent as a time to “open wide our hearts to Christ”, a time “to listen to God’s voice”, a time “to repent in words and actions“, a time to “pray for miracles and a time “to give from the heart.” This article will look at Lent as a grace-filled time to […]

Hiking With the Blessed Mother
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Hiking With the Blessed Mother

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I’ve always been pretty athletic, but my first introduction to hiking was not especially enjoyable.  It occurred during Survival Training at the Air Force Academy and included seven days of hiking about 8-10 hours a day in the mountains of Colorado.  We hiked at night so I was not able to enjoy the beautiful views […]

How is Weight Watchers Like NFP?
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How is Weight Watchers Like NFP?

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In the late summer of 2000 I entered the doorway of the nearest Weight Watchers and tipped the scale at a little over 200 pounds.  After having two little boys within two years of each other, health issues from the first birth experience, and the death of my mother just days after my second son […]

Lent, A Time to Give from the Heart
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Lent, A Time to Give from the Heart

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Editors Note: The four previous article spoke of Lent as a time to “open wide our hearts to Christ”, a time “to listen to God’s voice”, a time “to repent in words and actions” and a time to “pray for miracles.” In works of charity one offers fine flour, and when he gives alms he presents his […]

Compliments to You
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Compliments to You

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All the women I know fall into one of two categories: those who can graciously accept a compliment and those who would rather grout tile than graciously accept a compliment. And, of the women I know, there are really only about three who would be able to graciously accept a compliment. That means that pretty […]

Degrading Cycle Targets Girls
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Degrading Cycle Targets Girls

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The crime alone was heinous enough. According to police in Cleveland, Texas, an 11-year-old girl there was gang raped six times last fall by a total of at least 19 assailants, some of them boys, some of them ex-cons more than twice her age. Her assailants documented their attacks using cell phone videos and photos […]

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John Paul II, Family Size, and Christian Prudence

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Years ago, after attending a natural family planning class my husband and I had taught, one of the students called me to tell me why she wasn’t coming to the next class.  After a brief span of conversation that let me know she felt very intimate with God, she proceeded to inform me that the […]

What’s a Baby Cost?
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What’s a Baby Cost?

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When my wife and I found out we were having our first baby, I was ecstatic.  The coming of the new baby filled all my thoughts.  I got to be a boring conversationalist, with only one topic to discuss.  It was uncanny the connections I now saw (which had never been apparent to me before) […]

Lent, A Time to Pray for Miracles
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Lent, A Time to Pray for Miracles

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Editors Note: The three previous article spoke of Lent as a time to “open wide our hearts to Christ”, a time “to listen to God’s voice”, and a time “to repent in words and actions.” This article will look at Lent as a grace-filled time to pray for miracles — small ones and big ones. These […]

Q&A with Herb Meyer: How to Analyze Information
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Q&A with Herb Meyer: How to Analyze Information

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Dr. Paul Kengor: Herb Meyer, you’re a favorite here at The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. You did our Ronald Reagan Lecture in February 2009, which was truly captivating (click here to watch). You did one of our Freedom Readers lectures last year (click here). And you’re also no stranger to […]

Courtship vs. Dating -- Why Dating is More Likely to Get You Married
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Courtship vs. Dating — Why Dating is More Likely to Get You Married

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When I was single, the books I read recommended something called “courtship.” The problem was…it didn’t work, either for me or for anyone around me. So if you have a commitment this weekend, it is a good time to think about how courtship and dating philosophies differ, and why dating is more likely to get […]

R-Rated Movies in the Catholic High School
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R-Rated Movies in the Catholic High School

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[Editor’s note: This document was prepared on behalf of a group of Catholic parents to address issues locally that may also be going on elsewhere in the country. It is published here as a resource for parents who may find it useful.] Having chosen [a Catholic School] does not relieve [parents] of a personal duty […]

Lent, A Time to Repent in Words and Actions
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Lent, A Time to Repent in Words and Actions

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Editors Note: The two previous articles spoke of Lent as a time to “open wide our hearts to Christ” and “a time to listen to God’s voice.” This article will look at Lent as a time of true repentance and penance, but not just in words but also in our actions as well. The word […]

Ugly Girls
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Ugly Girls

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For the second time in a week I have run into the ugliest girls I ever met. I’m not being mean. It’s simply true — they’re hideous. Dubbed “Monster High Girls”, they are 10 inch or so fashion dolls and marketed to little children ages 6 to 12. They have been around since last summer, […]

The Forty-Day Challenge: From Ashes to Resurrected Love
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The Forty-Day Challenge: From Ashes to Resurrected Love

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Last Wednesday was “Ash Wednesday,” when Catholics and other Christians receive ashes on their foreheads as a sign of penitence (Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent). I’d had over 700 hits on the 40-Day Challenge. It seems there are many women who think their marriage needs a “faith lift”! Several women left comments […]

Valley of the Mismatched
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Valley of the Mismatched

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Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” I can only add: “Especially when it comes to pairing socks.” Oh, how the mighty fall. I thought I had everything ready. All the details were attended to and I thought I knew exactly how the next several hours would unfold: exactly […]

Lent, A Time to Listen to God’s Voice
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Lent, A Time to Listen to God’s Voice

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Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3) Then God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other.” And so it happened. (Genesis 1:6) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) While he […]

Music First!
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Music First!

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My husband and I homeschool our children.  This has changed in the last several years from Mom doing all the schooling with Dad’s support, to a true collaborative family effort.  At this point, both Mom and Dad are working, so the structure of “school” has changed.  Mom manages our middleschooler, who now does most of […]

Fasting for Body and Soul
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Fasting for Body and Soul

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I long to take just one little bite as I watch the melted cheese slowly ooze out of the golden, toasted bread.  My children wait with eager anticipation for my famous grilled cheese sandwiches.  The clock reads 12:30, and today is Friday.  On my periodic fast days, I make it a priority to not eat […]