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Good Shelter Work

I acted the devil’s advocate. “So here we are, driving to the animal shelter to volunteer when people are hungry. Shouldn’t we be helping at the Food Bank?” I grinned so she knew I was playing a bit. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. She pursed her sassy, fourteen-year-old lips and dodged. “Well, you can go […]

Movie Review: Full of Grace

Full of Grace is an art-house, indie film about the last days of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Bahia Haifi) on earth. The story is interwoven with the plight of Peter (Noam Jenkins) who–although the Church is growing–is faced with heresy upon heresy, distortions of the Faith in thought and practice (“they are picking apart the […]

Five Big Pro-Life and Pro-Family Wins in 2015

The year just ended will prove to be a significant one for the United Nations. Two much anticipated agreements were finalized, one on development and another on climate. For life and family advocates they were both overall wins, although not complete. Here is our list of the best moments of 2015. New UN Development Goals […]

The Epiphany Star

My five year old daughter told me: “Dad, I know what you call stars that draw a picture: consternations.” I chuckled, but thought: No dear, a consternation is when you refuse to eat your dinner for no good reason. I also overheard her explaining to her four year old sister: “The word asteroid has two […]

A Spoken Word Poem: “Ocean”

Christmas in a Stricken Community: Where was God?

Living in a community stricken by scores of deaths each year from pills and cheap heroin of unprecedented potency, the question of where God was is raised in thousands of hearts in unfathomable grief. Our young people are getting addicted and dying in epidemic proportions. These are good kids, from good homes, good schools, good […]

Poem: “Sensitiveness”

Sensitiveness Time was, I shrank from what was right, From fear of what was wrong; I would not brave the sacred fight, Because the foe was strong. But now I cast that finer sense And sorer shame aside; Such dread of sin was indolence, Such aim at heaven was pride. So, when my Saviour calls, […]

A Figure Of Deep, Genuine Mercy

The figure of the Pieta resides on the top shelf along the southwest wall of my living room, just a little higher and to the left of our 40-inch TV screen. Next to it stands a clear glass angel. Another foot-and-a-half to the left is a tall grey cross, the base of which proclaims “All […]

Modest but Meaningful Protection from Human Embryo Genetic Manipulation

Genetically-manufactured babies, gene-manipulated human embryos, human-animal chimeras, human clones—all science fiction, right? No, these various types of laboratory-manufactured human embryos are already reality. Last spring, Chinese scientists announced they had experimented with genetic manipulation of human embryos, and scientists in the U.S. want to join in the experiments, also recently approved in law in the […]

Seven Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions

I think most Catholics in the world would love to grow in their relationship with Jesus. People have a genuine desire to grow in holiness, even if they are not able to articulate their desires for it. On New Year ’s Day many people re-evaluate their lives. They examine how their lives were in 2015 […]

In Bethlehem Then and Now, ‘Jesus is the Door to Peace’

By Oliver Maksan JOSEPH AND MARY quietly rocked the child. Shepherds gathered around them. Children in costumes were enacting the Nativity of Jesus the subterranean chapels tucked away into nooks and crannies under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. A silver star marks the birthplace in a grotto right nearby. The young actors that […]

Christmas Fulfills Promise to Adam and Eve

St. Ignatius was bishop of Antioch overseeing first century Syrian Christians and was a disciple of the Apostle John. He wrote a letter to the Christians at Ephesus as he was being transported to Rome to face wild beasts in the arena. Ignatius wrote, “For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord […]

Poem: “My Cry, Your Heart, My God”

My Cry, Your Heart, My God Reaching for You in the Night, I marvel. What worlds my prayer spans! The darkness of Space and Ages Is penetrated by Your Light, Pierced by my cry of recognition. My will, like Longinian sword, Penetrates Your Heart, Tapping perpetual Springs. Hallowed walls of Flesh part To welcome me, […]

From Loathing to Loving the Rosary

One of the things I love about Advent and Christmas is the extra emphasis on the Blessed Mother. As a motherless Catholic, it’s been easy to embrace Mary as my own mother and I always love hearing the Scriptures about her this time of year. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. For most of my years […]

The Holy Family: The Reason for Christmas

Do you love Christmas? Before you answer, I don’t mean the nearly 4 weeks of frantic shopping or the crazy parties or the frenzied family gatherings or the warm, gushy feelings we get from receiving presents. I mean the real reason why we do those things in the first place. Do you love the real […]

Christmas Letters From the Middle East

Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako I—celebrating Christmas in ‘silence and amidst tears’ The feast of the birth of Christ is one of the greatest feasts celebrated by millions of Christians around the world and particularly in Iraq. But this year Iraqi Christians will celebrate Christmas in deplorable circumstances, one the one hand because of the deteriorating […]

It Is Good to Be Seen

It is that time of year again, the time when we gather together to remember our blessings and bestow gifts upon one another in celebration of our Savior’s birth. It’s easy to get caught up in the secular world of stress, worrying, and over-buying, but as Christians it is important that we remember the reason […]

A Christmas Hero: John Bruchalski, MD

I read a story this week about a doctor who changed his attitude toward abortion some years ago. His name is very familiar to those of us who are residents of Northern Virginia: John Bruchalski, MD. He is the founder of the Tepeyac Family Center. This change of heart wound up changing his entire life—and […]

Christmas Time Out of Time

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 […]

In Year of Mercy, Catholics in Middle East ‘will pray for Daesh’

By Oliver Maksan The Holy Year of Mercy, solemnly inaugurated by Pope Francis in Rome Dec. 8, 2015—on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception—is being hailed by Catholics throughout the Arab world International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) gathered some impressions. Father Dankha Issa is a Chaldean monk in Alqosh. Last […]

A New Dawn of Reproductive Freedom in China?

Under China’s new two-child policy, forced and coercive abortions and sterilizations will continue, according to a panel of experts on China’s one-child policy who testified in a hearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on Capitol Hill last Thursday. Experts believe abuses will continue. Due to 35 years of stringent population control, China’s rapid […]

An Unholy Alliance: When Mob Forgiveness Meets Selective Grace

A small town in Missouri recently came under fire for rallying around an accused child sex offender and shunning the abuse victim—even after the offender pleaded guilty in court. “If it takes a village to raise a child,” said a local prosecuting attorney, “what is a child to do when the village turns its back […]

Do You See Your Neighbor?

Let’s reflect upon Luke 7:36–50: “A Pharisee invited him to dine with them, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.” Are we not all sinners in vital need of God’s mercy? […]

Movie Review: The Letters

The Letters is another film about the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (acted with aplomb by Juliet Stevenson) — specifically that part of her life where, posthumously, personal letters that revealed her prolonged dark night of the soul surfaced. The stunning revelation is chronicled in the book Come Be My Light–The Private Writings of […]