Category: Parenting

Your 2016 Handy-Dandy List of Lenten Resources
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Your 2016 Handy-Dandy List of Lenten Resources

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by on Jan 26, 2016 in Cooking & Food, Evangelization, Featured, Men, On Media, Parenting, Women
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Lent comes early this year. February 10th is Ash Wednesday! That’s just three weeks away, folks. So instead of waiting until the last minute and grasping at your old standbys (giving up chocolate or God forbid, coffee), why not plan ahead using our convenient list of resources below? Make this your most spiritually fruitful Lent ever! Reprinted with […]

Family Ties that Lift Us Up
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Family Ties that Lift Us Up

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by on Jan 18, 2016 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage, Men, Parenting
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Jesus’ invitation to discipleship comes with a warning: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:34). He made this statement shortly after Peter confessed him to be the Messiah, and he told his disciples what that role entails. The suffering involved in denying oneself and […]

Christmas Time Out of Time
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Christmas Time Out of Time

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by on Dec 20, 2015 in Columnists, Featured, Parenting
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My five year old daughter and I were playing a guitar duet together. On just one guitar: I fingered the chords, she strummed the strings. While she strummed, she made-up her own lyrics. This is a regular activity for us, and even without guitar accompaniment she loves to “write her own songs.” On the day […]

Learning from the Moms
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Learning from the Moms

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by on Dec 15, 2015 in Featured, On Books, Parenting, Women
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I’m a new priest and I have a lot to learn. Of course, working in a parish affords me many opportunities to work with different and diverse groups of people. A group of mothers approached me a few months ago and asked if I would be willing to lead a book discussion for them. I […]

How to Discern Whether Adoption is Right for You
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How to Discern Whether Adoption is Right for You

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by on Nov 17, 2015 in Featured, On Books, Parenting
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In honor of National Adoption Month, here’s my review of Jaymie Stuart Wolfe’s excellent discernment guide, Adoption: Room for One More?, from Pauline Books & Media. A few years ago, between babies #3 and #4 (or #4 and #5), my husband and I contemplated adopting a baby girl from China. We were moved by stories […]

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 […]

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 […]

Active Parenting and Grandparenting With a Wheelchair
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Active Parenting and Grandparenting With a Wheelchair

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by on Oct 23, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Parenting
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Parenting can be daunting, but it becomes more complicated for a wheelchair user. But it can be done with great success. No obstacle is insurmountable with innovative thinking. And there are many agencies in most communities to teach techniques for parenting to wheelchair users. My children were seven and five years old when I was […]

A Strong and Faithful Love: From God the Father to Our Own Fathers
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A Strong and Faithful Love: From God the Father to Our Own Fathers

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by on Oct 23, 2015 in Featured, Marriage, Men, Parenting
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I once heard a story about a missionary who was working in an impoverished area where fathers were not a part of the everyday lives of the children. When she taught them the “Our Father,” they couldn’t understand what the love of a father was like. So, with the best of intentions, she taught them […]

God is Our Strength: Raising Children After Divorce
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God is Our Strength: Raising Children After Divorce

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by on Oct 13, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Parenting
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My life as a Catholic father has taken some turns I could never have predicted. My divorce, annulment, and remarriage in the last six years changed the straight, traditional path that I always envisioned. However, one thing has been constant and unwavering—my faith in God and in Jesus Christ. In all I have done in […]

Our Imperfect Family Rosary
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Our Imperfect Family Rosary

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by on Oct 07, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, Parenting
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When I was growing up, my immature self believed that the family rosary was something that had to be endured. Through no fault of my parents, the nightly ritual was anything but idyllic. My siblings and I were called into our parents’ bedroom where we knelt facing the crucifix.  My older brother and I would […]

The Cause of High College Tuition
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The Cause of High College Tuition

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by on Oct 05, 2015 in Featured, Humor, On Books, Parenting
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Ah, the autumn is upon us. College campuses are buzzing with activity — as college kids and their parents rack up massive debt to cover the cost of high tuition. The origin of such debt is interesting to trace. In 1987, reports Slate, President Reagan’s secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, published a New York Times […]

Praying Through Divorce - And After: How the Rosary is Saving My Soul
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Praying Through Divorce – And After: How the Rosary is Saving My Soul

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by on Sep 28, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Parenting
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How do you pray when you are angry? How can you pray for those who oppose you? When I can’t find my own words, the traditional prayers of our Catholic faith can help. When I was going through my divorce, I had a very difficult time praying. I wasn’t sure of the words to use. […]

Book Review: <em>Pray with Me: 7 Simple Ways to Pray with Your Children</em>
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Book Review: Pray with Me: 7 Simple Ways to Pray with Your Children

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by on Sep 28, 2015 in Featured, On Books, Parenting
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Pray with Me: Seven Simple Ways to Pray with Your Children (Ave Maria Press, 2015) is a great gift to Catholic parents everywhere. Grace Mazza Urbanski, the director of Children’s Ministry for the Apostleship of Prayer in the United States, has degrees in English and Theology, and is also the mother of five children. She […]

<em>Laudato Si</em> with My Children
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Laudato Si with My Children

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by on Sep 17, 2015 in Catechesis, Evangelization, Featured, Parenting
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Reading Laudato Si was like falling in love. For my husband and me, it brought back memories of the exciting early mornings of twelve years ago. Newly enraptured with Catholic teaching, we would rise early with a pot of coffee and our books – him with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and me with […]

The Pain of Divorce: Annulment Offers Healing and Closure
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The Pain of Divorce: Annulment Offers Healing and Closure

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by on Sep 09, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Men, Parenting
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There’s a well-known quote that I know firsthand to be true: “The best gift parents can give their children is a happy marriage.” The love and happiness shared by parents bring joy to the whole family. Thus when I came to terms with the fact that my first bond did not reflect a happy and […]

Back-to-School Reflections From a Homeschooling Mom
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Back-to-School Reflections From a Homeschooling Mom

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by on Sep 04, 2015 in Education, Featured, Live in Christ, Parenting
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The school year began in the local public schools last week. As I watched the bus drive down the street and saw all the back-to-school photos that my friends put up on Facebook, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. My kids are homeschooled. There is no big yellow school bus for us. There’s […]

Book Review: <em>Catholic Family Fun</em>
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Book Review: Catholic Family Fun

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by on Sep 03, 2015 in Featured, On Books, Parenting
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Catholic Family Fun by Sarah Reinhard is a great book—a great book. Two thoughts kept coming to me as I read it, the first was: Wow! My kids would love this! The second was: Hey! I could totally do this! And having field tested a bunch of things from the book, I’m glad to report […]

Empty School Hallway
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Parochial School Girl Meets Public School World

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by on Sep 02, 2015 in Education, Featured, Parenting
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When our oldest daughter graduated with her 40-person class from eighth grade in parochial school, all the girls hugged each other and cried. She’s entering public high school in a few days, and it’s totally uncharted territory. None of her parochial school friends will be with her, she won’t be wearing her trusty plaid uniform, […]

He Delights in You
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He Delights in You

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by on Aug 28, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Men, Parenting, Women
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Pitter patter the little feet came running from around the corner at the sound of my voice. Being a grandmother is the next best thing to being a mom. While my husband of thirty-five years is always happy to see me, I might think he was after something if he ran to me every time […]

No, Son, You CAN'T Be Whatever You Want
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No, Son, You CAN’T Be Whatever You Want

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by on Aug 20, 2015 in Featured, Parenting, Vocations
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One thing most loving parents say to their kids at one time or another is, “Honey, you can be anything you want to be when you grow up!” I used to think this was a wonderfully affirming statement—until I became Catholic. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. I was married and pregnant with my first child […]

How to Pray with a Toddler
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How to Pray with a Toddler

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by on Aug 04, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Parenting
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Learning to pray together as a couple can be difficult, but learning to pray as a family with a small child is even harder. In the first year of our marriage, my wife and I struggled to figure out how to pray together. Though we’ve made some progress, especially since becoming Catholic, we are still […]

Movie Review <em>I Am Potential</em>
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Movie Review I Am Potential

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by on Jul 30, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Men, On TV and Movies, Parenting
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The new movie, I Am Potential, is based on the true story of the Hughes Family whose son was born without eyes and unable to walk. I almost didn’t want to even tell you that, because I had the experience of coming at the story cold, and was hit by the element of surprise at […]

The First Heralds
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The First Heralds

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by on Jul 30, 2015 in Education, Evangelization, Featured, Men, Parenting
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My husband was watching the morning news when footage of 433 hot air balloons in France lit the screen and he pressed pause, beckoning our daughter. “Look, Maria!” he said. They watched the segment together, but Ted wasn’t satisfied with its educational value, so he found an online video of another hot air balloon, kicking […]