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All Articles
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Dear Anthony, I’m getting married in June to the most wonderful man in the world! But we are having a disagreement about how to handle our last Christmas as a non-married couple. We can’t make it to both our families, but we cannot agree on whose family we should be with. I assumed he would […]
Poem: “Construction Sunday–Fourth Sunday in Advent”
Construction Sunday–Fourth Sunday in Advent The waiting and watching are soon to stop. God calls us to get busy building this Sunday A dwelling for His son. An ark in a tent Is too temporary, unfit unwelcome For Him who will reign over The House of Jacob. Forever requires More than polished cedar or golden […]
Poem: “Ever Green”
Ever Green December twenty-second Three days before The Fest. I sit in coal-black Morning, Waiting for my guest. Examining My conscience, I spy the dinge and dirt The howling wind And icy sleet Intensify the hurt. So out into The dark, I trod in sleety snow, Searching for The evergreen Of hope the Christmas glow. […]
Down Syndrome: Toward More Successful Advocacy
As word spread of a new non-invasive, highly accurate prenatal test for Down syndrome, MaterniT21, the headlines could hardly have been more sensational: The End of Down Syndrome! Will We Cull Those with Down Syndrome? Are Kids with Down Syndrome on the Road to Extinction? This mainstream response seems to suggest a terrible acknowledgment of what happens […]
God’s Hero for Our Time? Yes, It’s You!
The Holy Scriptures contain examples of simple, even lowly men and women, who said a heroic yes to God. And always it cost them dear. Think of the humiliation Noah underwent as he built that ark and his neighbors laughed at him. Think of Moses who at age 80 was called away from home and […]
The Wait is Almost Over!
“I can’t take waiting any more!” My nine-year-old son emphatically announced. “I want to open my presents.” “But that is what Advent is for. It is a time of waiting,” I responded, attempting to reinforce a bit of religious instruction in the midst of the whining. “Advent is twenty-eight days of torture!” I don’t think […]
Christmas is a Celebration of Human Dignity
Reflections on the miracle of Christmas abound during this final week of preparation for the arrival of the Baby Jesus—our King of King and Lord of Lords. But clearly not everyone is sincerely celebrating the miracle of life and the gift of the human being. We live in a time of heightened threats against those […]
Poem: “Stainless Steel”
Stainless Steel There is a perception, That Jesus’ conception Is the Feast on December the eighth. But such, is deception, It’s about the reception, Of her soul, stainless steel of the Faith! Hilary M. Flanery
Where’s the Pizza?
There are times when I dream of a simple life on the prairie with a family, a horse, a dog, a fiddle and a house with a wood-burning stove. And this particular Friday night before Christmas was one of those times. Daughter #2 had an annual Christmas slumber party with some old homeschooling friends, and […]
Trashy Novels Move Over: An Interview with Ellen Gable
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 Salvation Army Loses Its Sight
From the time of its founding by William Booth, the Salvation Army sought to help the poor, homeless, destitute and outcast. Booth endured beatings and humiliation for fearlessly proclaiming Christ, Who was born into the world through a poor, homeless, unwed teenager. The Salvation Army loves the unlovely. Which makes the latest news about the […]
Christmas, Christians, and Christ
Some years ago, a class of students was asked to write about the meaning of Christmas. One student wrote, “Christmas is when Christians celebrate Christ.” The teacher liked the paper, but asked the student to change that one line to “Christmas is when people celebrate love.” What, some may wonder, is the difference? After all, […]
Poem: “Morning Star”
Morning Star The silver medal which I wear Weighs not more than dragonflies, Or less, perhaps, the wings, a hair, The azure facets of their eyes Heavy weight there is in loss, The Virgin Mary and the Cross, Easy and as light as love Saint Joseph and the Spirit Dove Heavy as the wooden bar, […]
On Vaclav Havel—and Chris Hitchens
Vaclav Havel is dead. Among other forces and powers, he is among the seven individuals most responsible for peacefully ending the Cold War; the great liberators who brought freedom and democracy. They are Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa, and Havel. With Havel’s death, a majority of […]
Practical Distributism: Subsidiarity and Social Security
Distributism includes the principal of subsidiarity, the idea that the family is the basic unit of society and higher levels of societal organization (city, county, state, federal) exist to support the lower levels without the authority to usurp their roles and rights. The higher the level of societal organization (government), the lower its scope of […]
Cinema’s Role in The Great Conversation: An Interview with Henry Russell, Ph.D.
Henry Russell, Ph.D. is a classics educator, headmaster of St. Augustine’s Homeschool Enrichment Program (founded with his wife Crystal), and president of the SS Peter and Paul Educational Foundation. He is known particularly for The Catholic Shakespeare Audio Series. His writings have been published in various journals. ========= Stan Williams: What do you make of […]
Occupy as Cheer for Christmas: Occupy Seattle, Part 3
Provocation does carry consequences: First the Seattle government sent its riot police to drive Occupy Seattle out of its campsite at a downtown park, Westlake Center, and subsequently from its campsite at Central Seattle Community College. Adapting imaginatively to the new situation, Occupy Seattle took the initiative. On December 12th, hundreds of marchers barricaded entrances […]
You Don’t Move to D.C. to Get Married?
“You don’t move to Washington, D.C., to get married, you move here for your career.” Huh? What? I spotted this line in a new Washington Post article about the supposed plunging popularity of marriage in the U.S. If you have not seen the piece – you can find it here. In general – I think […]
The Big, White Tablet
This morning began as any normally abnormal one around the Fenelon Clan abode – with me taking my handful of horse-pill vitamins, one agonizing swallow at a time. They say you can’t buy health in a bottle. Maybe so. But, I figure it’s like taking out an insurance policy: You go for years wasting your […]
Good Thing Baby Jesus Wasn’t Claustrophobic
One day last year around this time, my then-4-year-old daughter and I stopped by a local Catholic store to pick up a gift. As you can imagine in a Catholic store during Advent, there were several Nativities on display. While I was browsing the candles, Vaughn was enjoying the Nativity scenes. I noticed she was […]
Medical Journal Says Nuns Should Use Oral Contraceptives for Cancer Prevention
On December 8, the Solemn Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the British medical journal, The Lancet, published a most puzzling commentary, in which a clarion call is issued for the Catholic Church to provide all nuns with oral contraceptives in order to prevent cancer. Australian researchers Kara Britt and Roger Short make their recommendation based on the […]
The Perfect Family’s Christmas Letter 2011, Part 2
We flew straight from Sweet Briar to London for Kate and Will’s wedding. I’m so glad I saved my garter — it was perfect for her! Speaking of perfect, what a grand excuse to hold Johnny’s 12th birthday at the London Zoo! Camilla graciously offered us her estate for the party but Johnny thought that […]
Poem: “A Jubilee Year!”
A Jubilee Year! You asked: Is Jubilee Duggar’s funeral creepy? Perhaps it’s creepy depending on whether or not it’s your fetus. Is holding the hand of your child creepy? The fact that Jubilee had passed on from Time into Eternity, means she’s a Saint. Is holding the hand of a Saint creepy? But: In a […]
Poem: “Winter Morn”
Winter Morn A very pale Blue slate-gray, A puff of Powdered cloud. Glassed-limbs crackle Stiff with age Then snap – And boom quite loud. Tree trunks black In shrouds of ice – Branches split And splinter. November sleeps December wakes To the eternal Advent of winter! Hilary M. Flanery