At some point, sooner or later, all new parents experience that moment when they realize that this new little life is their unique responsibility. It can be a bit surreal. Holding your little one, it strikes you that a tremendous gift has been given to you, a gift that brings with it significant and life-altering […]
I was warned. My mom used to complain how “time flies” the older she got. In my youthful mind, with three little ones under my feet, I scoffed. Silly me. Today, January 4, 2013, would have been her 82nd birthday. I guess that has gotten me to thinking of all she wisely told me. […]
Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo, is seeking permission to act as a guardian of a New York State man who is in a persistent vegetative state. Schindler is petitioning New York State’s Supreme County to serve as guardian for Gary Harvey, a Chemung County resident who suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling […]
One day, my 17 year-old strolled into the kitchen after a long day at school, leaned against the kitchen counter and, between mouthfuls of food to appease his growling stomach, said, “Hey mom, did you know that the Pope has Twitter?” “So, I hear,” I replied absentmindedly while chopping vegetables for dinner. “Do you have […]
The Fuse One fist clenches Discharging the universe What thunder! Heavenly bodies hurled! Journeying, spinning, Eternal directed movement. You, the Alpha You make it happen Why do they hide? Why do they cry tears? Tender saplings Shallow and green Long to be Great knotted oaks, Blackened Proven Sentries of love You, the Alpha You make […]
Great change for the good often comes slowly. It creeps up through the cracks in a broken system, and begins to take the place of its previous forms. Slowly, public opinion, public actions, and individual sentiments begin to be formed in a new way. This is exactly what is happening in America today. The Local […]
Love can take many forms. A gentle hand on a feverish brow. A knowing smile across a crowded room. A deep breath that swallows a word best left unsaid. And once, in all of human history, love took the form of a star. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded […]
How’s this for a lead to “Has The Fight For Abortion Rights Been Lost?” by Kate Pickert? She writes: “In January 1973, the Supreme Court made access to abortion a federally protected right. As I write in this week’s TIME cover story, that seemingly decisive victory 40 years ago kicked off a war that the […]
The End and the Beginning (Translation by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh) After every war someone has to tidy up. Things won’t pick themselves up, after all. Someone has to shove the rubble to the roadsides so the carts loaded with corpses can get by. Someone has to trudge through sludge and ashes, through the […]
This past month I’ve been thinking about the difficulties of raising young families. Conversations with friends and family and my own lived experiences have left me wondering how we are supposed to do all that is asked of us in raising a young family. No sleep, diapers, laundry, meals….it’s just crazy hard sometimes! After reading […]
Peering into the abyss of biotechnology, I have often mused that the problem with much of what goes on in fertility clinics and laboratories of the world is a denial of human nature. The denial that living human organisms, regardless of how they are created, are indeed human beings. They are small and immature, but […]
Last night I finished reading Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, M.D (2008). My family physician recommended the book at my annual checkup last month. I told my doctor of my various discomforts and moodiness—I’m pretty healthy, but hadn’t been feeling 100%. He didn’t offer pills or […]
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The Epiphany of the Lord Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6; Matthew 2:1-12) Being Beacons of Christ’s Light in a Darkened World You shall see and be radiant. (Isaiah 60:5) We’ve all had epiphanies—those times when a sudden insight allows us to grasp something we couldn’t understand […]
Homily for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God A new year invites us to think of goals we would like to achieve and resolutions we want to make. In short, it seems to be the ideal time for renewal and commitment. However, in all honesty, do we really expect 2013 to be different than […]
It has been a couple of weeks since the death of Robert Bork, which occurred shortly before Christmas and didn’t really get the news coverage that Bork merited. Bork died at age 85. In 1987, he became a national headline when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court. He was a judicial conservative, […]
2013 is a brand new year, but it also marks the 40th anniversary of the unjust U.S. Supreme Court decisions that imposed abortion on America. Let’s resolve to make this critical year a turning point in our unified efforts to end abortion! If you’ve ever felt called to lead a 40 Days for Life campaign in […]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, “May God bless us and make his face to shine upon us.” We proclaimed these words from Psalm 66 after hearing in the first reading the ancient priestly blessing upon the people of the covenant. It is especially significant that at the start of every new year God sheds upon us, […]
There is something in me which resists popular movies, music, and TV series. That new piece of entertainment that everyone is talking about so often disappoints me by its shallowness or downright offensiveness. “It can’t be good if it’s that popular;” I argue, “we have such abominable collective taste”. A quick view of the cable […]
As the prolife movement contemplates four decades of legalized abortion in the United States and asks itself what really needs doing to halt this hideous scandal, prolifers should consider adding a new word to their vocabulary: ambivalence. According to the dictionary, ambivalence is the state of having mutually conflicting emotions or thoughts about something. And […]
“Is this all there is?” Colleen Carroll Campbell found herself asking that universal question midway through college. Every generation needs to discover the role of faith in their lives and to seek answers to the hard questions such as the meaning of life and the role of suffering. While human nature may remain fairly consistent, […]
Imagine a Kenyan AIDS orphan living in a mud hut with his two brothers and walking several miles to school on an empty stomach. After the devastating loss of both of his parents, facing daily grinding poverty, would he have any energy left to dream of a better future? This boy is not imaginary; his name […]
As a group of crafty Catholic women, joining Pinterest was a no-brainer for many of the Catholic Sistas Ink Slingers. As an Art Major, former Catholic school art teacher, homeschool mother, and now homeschool Nana this was certainly true for me. Therefore, this past Advent and Christmas season brought me to Hobby Lobby more times than I can count. They […]
It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world … ~ The Kinks Through the secular — ”progressive” looking-glass, the term “sexual orientation” has, in a few short years, evolved to accommodate an ever-expanding fruit basket of carnal appetites. First it was “LGB” — liberal shorthand for “lesbian, gay and bisexual.” Then they added a “T” […]
