Two years ago during Lent, I embarked on a forty bags in forty days project. The idea, which came from Faith and Family, was to rid one’s house of forty bags of excess material goods – ideally through giving items away, although some items definitely deserve a place in the trash. I’ve decided it’s time […]
I’ve been battling this same problem for years now: the papers on the dining room table. You see, we have an 8 person table, and usually 4-5 people eating, so I’m able to use one end for the mail. And it piles up, and around, and occasionally down…as paper clutter will do. So yesterday a […]
I sit here amongst a discombobulating array of items that all beckon my attention. Butz, the bird annihilator has bagged the catch of the day and the remains lie strewn all over the front room. I have already performed the grisly task of dislodging bird pieces from the table and now feathers which used to […]
Time has gone by quickly, but it has been eight years since I started working as a Catholic writer. In that time, my mission has remained the same – I have always wanted to help women find God in the everyday busyness of their lives. I walk in those shoes. I know how crazy life […]
When you stop to count your blessings, do not forget to give God a big thank you to for all the difficult people in your life. Those cranks that cross your path and darken your doorway are just bursting with the potential to bless you. Every person who provokes you is an opportunity, but it […]
Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So […]
The Culture of Death reminds me of the dragon from the Book of Revelations; it is an “enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns” (NIV Rev 12:3). Two items in this week’s news reveal just how the Culture of Death masquerades as something supposedly good as it rears two of its ugly heads—the […]
Some of the worst feminists are men. The classic feminist is a woman, of course. She emerged as a public spectacle about a century ago and has become something of an institution in our own time—thanks to the state-supported propaganda of our public schools and the history-by-pictures that passes for education. She is pictured as an […]
Like any good Catholic kid growing up in the ’60s, I had favorite saints, those holy people who brought me comfort and fed my curiosity and imagination. How I loved the Blessed Virgin Mary! Then there was Saint Anthony, who stood there in his plaster glory, with all the old ladies standing around the base […]
Readers on my Facebook page got into a discussion one day recently about the CNN “Belief Blog.” The general consensus was that it’s actually more of an “UN-Belief Blog”: The point of the feature seems to be to identify a particular teaching or practice of the Catholic Church that is unpopular this week, then pontificate […]
Two years ago, I asked many people, both young and old, what they were thankful for in order to compile a list of 100 reasons to be thankful, even in hard times. While some time has passed since I put together that list, times are definitely still hard and the list is definitely still relevant. […]
I like to think of myself as a low-key, even-tempered, patient woman. I also like to think of myself as a fast runner. Unfortunately, neither of those statements is actually true. First, we’ll address the issue of my athletic prowess. I have run several races, including the following distances: 5K, 8K, 10K, half-marathon, and 25K […]
I had one of those days last week. The kind that starts out with a bad hair morning and snowballs into: I have no cute clothes, I’m a lousy writer, I’m a bad mom, etc. Naturally, this “I’m-Not-Good-At-Anything” day morphed into a “She’s-Good-At-Everything” day. Yes, the green-eyed monster reared its ugly head. [Please note: in […]
I’ve long been confused by the story of Martha and Mary from Luke 10:38-42. It reads: As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what […]
In August, when HBO released a documentary about feminist icon Gloria Steinem, critics knew in advance what to expect. HBO executive Sheila Nevins made it clear that the finished product would be not biography but hagiography, “an inspirational film about St. Gloria,” as she put it in one interview. The film lived up to its billing, […]
We all feel tempted to quit sometimes. Whether they are related to relationships, parenting, or work, there are moments in life when we simply want to throw up our arms in frustration and give up. And, sometimes, we want to blame God. After all, God allowed circumstances to be so hard. Obviously, God doesn’t want […]
If knowledge is, as they say, power, then you will find great empowerment in Teresa Tomeo’s latest book Extreme Makeover (Ignatius Press, October, 2011). Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture offers an excellent combination of facts, statistics, and personal testimonies to make this the sort of book that any reader […]
It happens every year: after weeks and weeks of summer break, there are times when I just can’t take one more minute of family “togetherness.” The bickering. The teasing. The incessant need to be entertained. Sometimes I let the kids out of the car at the bottom of the 500-foot driveway and make them run […]
A few days ago, I logged on to my Facebook account and saw a desperate plea for help. A husband left his wife and children. A concerned friend and Good Samaritan decided to request donations for the abandoned family. The message came soon after I talked with Joe Patch IV of Spirit & Truth Live […]
Any man who will spend a Saturday afternoon on his hands and knees, digging around the shelves of a musty, chock-full thrift shop is a hero. At least he’s my hero. In fact, I think it might make him a canonizable saint. A few weeks ago, I begged my husband to accompany me to “The […]
“[S]ome things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice” Ayan Hirsi. In her best-selling autobiography, Infidel, Somali-born writer, politician, and activist Ayan Hirsi catalogs a lifetime of grievances against the Muslim culture and religion. Throughout the book, Hirsi laments the West’s reticence to deal honestly with the egregious […]
Whenever there is another story on the news involving a woman who has killed her child, I do everything I can not to listen or I change the channel. If I do learn any details (which seems to happen inevitably since every few months there is another incident and the media loves to give us […]
When I get invited to speak at women’s events, by far the most popular topic is my “Embracing the Matriarch Within” presentation. This is due, in no small part, to the fact that the topic literally animates me while I speak. In fact, if someone were to tie my hands together and mark an “X” […]
If you have access to the April 29 issue of The New Republic, take a look at a long review of several new books on abortion. The work of Christine Stansell, a professor of history at the University of Chicago and herself author of a history of feminism, it’s worth reading on several counts. Full […]
