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A Tale of Five Kings for Father's Day

A Tale of Five Kings for Father’s Day

Jun 13 14 • 0 comments

My poor Dad. He made a ton of money his whole life. But he never had any. Instead, he had kids. Lots of them. Of course, when I was younger I never considered things from the perspective of my parents. The good things they gave us, as far as I could tell, were like the […]

Seeking Peace

Seeking Peace

Jun 13 14 • 1 comment

Sitting here in the glory of this spring morning, a quiet breeze touches my cheek and tickles the leaves as it passes by. It’s intoxicating fragrance dances in my nostrils. Amazingly I am at peace, sucking in every possible ounce of this moment. I am usually running at breakneck speeds as I untangle, connect, and […]

How God Conquered My Fears in the Holy Land

How God Conquered My Fears in the Holy Land

Jun 12 14 • 0 comments

While I was in the Holy Land, many Scripture verses surfaced in my mind and heart as I stood in the places of the Old and New Testaments. But, the one I found myself recalling most often was Psalm 91: For you have made the LORD, my refuge,             Even the Most High, your dwelling place.      No […]

Stemming the Tide of "Progress"

Stemming the Tide of “Progress”

Jun 12 14 • 0 comments

Many people, when they hear talk of the growing “war on Christianity,” roll their eyes and dismiss the charges as mere political hyperbole designed to fire up the values voters come election time. While it’s true that one’s Christian identity is currently not grounds for explicit political or legal persecution, there is a subtler process […]

UK Embryology Authority's Inconsistent Ethics on Three Parent IVF

UK Embryology Authority’s Inconsistent Ethics on Three Parent IVF

Jun 12 14 • 0 comments

In today’s society everything seems turned around. Black is white. White is black. You would think nothing would surprise me anymore, but it does, especially in the realm of reproductive medicine. The United Kingdom’s authority on reproductive medicine, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has called the creation of embryos with three genetic parents […]

How to Listen When God is Speaking to You

How to Listen When God is Speaking to You

Jun 12 14 • 0 comments

God speaks to us constantly through ordinary events and signs, but we aren’t always listening. We need to open our ears to hear his supernatural suggestions. As Jesus said, “let him who has ears to hear, hear.” How do we fulfill this desire of Jesus? 1. Place ourselves in God’s presence. Don’t be too busy to […]

Connected: Closing Clinics, Aging Abortionists, and Chemical Abortifacients

Connected: Closing Clinics, Aging Abortionists, and Chemical Abortifacients

Abortion clinics are closing all across the U.S., and the number of abortions are down. A lot of the long-time abortionists are getting older and the industry is struggling to find replacements. Yet the number of chemical abortions performed in the U.S. continue to rise and more clinics are adding them to their offerings every […]

Poem: "Lot's Wife"

Poem: “Lot’s Wife”

Jun 11 14 • 1 comment

Lot’s Wife They say I looked back out of curiosity. But I could have had other reasons. I looked back mourning my silver bowl. Carelessly, while tying my sandal strap. So I wouldn’t have to keep staring at the righteous nape of my husband Lot’s neck. From the sudden conviction that if I dropped dead […]

Dads Think Different

Dads Think Different

Jun 11 14 • 0 comments

Picture this. A newborn lies in a bassinet, wrapped tightly in a hospital blanket, with a cute woolen skullcap covering the fuzz of hair on his head. Mom looks from her bed, exhausted from giving birth but glowing as she gazes at the angelic face of her child, pulling on the heartstrings of love that […]

Chiming in on the Church’s Changeless Chant Challenge

Chiming in on the Church’s Changeless Chant Challenge

Jun 10 14 • 5 comments

Normally I attend a parish that has excellent music—the best in town, actually. However, last Christmas Eve I ended up at a Mass that included a strange musical prelude. There were great voices in the choir, but the instruments employed (drums and an electric guitar) were out of place. The pounding and grinding were like […]

Book Review:<em> Chesterton’s America</em>

Book Review: Chesterton’s America

Jun 10 14 • 5 comments

To recommend any book, I should at least be able to say to you that it is a pleasure to read. This book is a pleasure indeed! But saying the least is not my problem with reviewing Chesterton’s America: A Distributist History of the United States. My problem is having the space to say all […]

From the Field: Surrogacy in India

From the Field: Surrogacy in India

Jun 10 14 • 0 comments

I’m writing from Delhi, India, where I’ve spent the last week meeting with various experts and officials that work on the issue of surrogacy here. In short, it’s a booming enterprise, by some reports estimated to be worth $3 billion U.S. dollars. Medical tourism has been popular in India for over a decade now, but […]

Saving the Catholic Internet From Itself

Saving the Catholic Internet From Itself

Jun 10 14 • 72 comments

You may have heard that the blogosphere (the community of Catholic bloggers) has been involved in a bit of controversy lately.  If you haven’t, good for you.  The rest of us lost a week or two of our lives we can never reclaim.  I’m really not interested in rehashing the sordid details of what started […]

A Planned Parenthood Parable

A Planned Parenthood Parable

Jun 9 14 • 1 comment

Planned Parenthood Federation of America is sharpening the arrows in its quiver once again as it takes aim directly at the heart of the Church—the souls of unsuspecting women and their babies. If you don’t believe this, take a look at its recent “Pastoral Letter to Patients” issued by the PPFA Clergy Advocacy Board. The letter tells readers […]

The Source of Our Prayer

The Source of Our Prayer

Jun 9 14 • 0 comments

When we speak of Jesus’ prayer, it is legitimate to put “prayer” within quotation marks. (Benedict XVI did this in Volume I of his Jesus of Nazareth). It is done when we want to highlight the uniqueness of Jesus’ prayer. It was, after all, the human prayer of the Second Person of the Trinity. But […]

Poem: "Just like our Yesterdays"

Poem: “Just like our Yesterdays”

Jun 6 14 • 0 comments

Just like our Yesterdays Today I have found You again, My Friend of a long time. Our paths crossed today again, As they haven’t for some time. You were You, the Lord of Love, And I the sinful man, But You loved me as You always do, Just the way I am. I was so […]

U.N. Committee Opens Door to More Lawsuits Against the Church?

U.N. Committee Opens Door to More Lawsuits Against the Church?

New possibilities opened up for plaintiff lawyers last week when a U.N. committee told the Vatican that clergy sex abuse is torture. Whether an instance of clergy sex abuse is torture “is a factual determination to be made on a case by case basis,” said a member of the U.N. committee against torture on Friday. […]

The Hands of Time

The Hands of Time

Jun 6 14 • 1 comment

As I sat down to type an entirely different article about my 45th birthday, I looked down and took notice of my aging hands. They tell their own story; that’s for sure. There is the scar from the time I wouldn’t listen to my mother and leave the stray cat, Tony, alone, and he scratched my right […]

Be Not Afraid! St. John Paul II’s Key to Building a Culture of Life

Be Not Afraid! St. John Paul II’s Key to Building a Culture of Life

The recent canonization of Saint John Paul II offers an impetus to reflect on both his life and his papacy. The Pope’s leadership of the Catholic Church was exemplified by his signature phrase “Be not afraid!” Yet, what exactly was he exhorting the faithful to face without fear? Pope John Paul II first uttered this […]

God's Enormous Love for Us

God’s Enormous Love for Us

Jun 5 14 • 0 comments

“Lifting His eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, ‘I pray for those who will believe in me’” (John 17.20) Comprehending God’s enormous love for us isn’t always easy.  St. John helps us understand a good measure of it in today’s Gospel, where he presents us with the amazing prayer of Jesus to His Father. What tender words […]

Celebrating Divorce

Celebrating Divorce

Jun 5 14 • 1 comment

“Life is Difficult.” With those three opening words of profound truth, M. Scott Peck began a self-help revolution in his classic, The Road Less Traveled. It is really a provocative opening line for a book, a statement of the incredibly obvious, and yet a revelation. As one of the central institutions of civilization marriage, too, […]

Finding Myself in the Prayers of the Divine Office

Finding Myself in the Prayers of the Divine Office

Jun 5 14 • 0 comments

Back when I saw him regularly, Carl seemed like he never was going to age. Even well into his 60s, he was skinny with little gray in his brown hair and skin like that of a much younger man. He regularly played pickup basketball with men many years his junior. He was one of the […]

Pope Francis: Reject the Culture of Comfort that Rejects Having Babies

Pope Francis: Reject the Culture of Comfort that Rejects Having Babies

Jun 5 14 • 1 comment

Following in the noble tradition of his immediate predecessors, Pope Francis encouraged married couples to have children and be open to life. In the homily at his daily Mass on Monday, the Pope said that the “culture of comfort” seeks to convince us: “It’s better not to have children! It’s better! You can go explore the […]

Misery and Joy in a Lost City

Misery and Joy in a Lost City

Jun 4 14 • 0 comments

Most Americans have heard it reported from time to time that the city of Detroit is like a war zone. Shootings and burglaries are rampant. Fires burn out of control. According to Reuters, “With the city now teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, the futile struggle to contain arson is an insistent reminder of the depths of […]