The death of Terri Schindler Schiavo in 2005 is a distant memory for most Americans. But for the family that spent seven years fighting Terri’s estranged husband and the court system to stop the starvation of their daughter and sister, recollections of the 13 days Terri lingered without food or water before finally succumbing to […]
How many times have you heard someone ask the question: “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” “Why am I here?” Too many to count, right? It seems too, that it is not a simple answer they want, but a large, extravagantly specific answer. They want answers directly from the source; definitive […]
If you haven’t noticed, the traditional practice of Eucharistic Adoration is making a comeback. Many were given the impression in the seventies that adoration was passé, a relic of pre-Vatican II spirituality. But all the Popes since the Council have emphasized its importance, and in this year of the Eucharist we see more and more […]
It is a Catholic tradition to acknowledge and honor the unselfish and holy life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. One way of doing that is for a family to plant, maintain and enjoy a Mary Garden. In the Middle Ages, missionaries and travelers spread stories across Europe about flowers named after Mary and various times of […]
There is beauty in the world. There is peace in the world. There is joy. In fact, there’s lots of it. Only, there’s lots of other stuff too. Sometimes trying to recognize the good things is like trying to find the right web-site. Your search returns 6 million hits. So where’s the one you want? […]
Hypermiling is the way to drive now. I drive the “family car” which is an SUV and more than once I have been told that there is nothing you can do to get more gas mileage out of those things, alas! But believe me when I say this: I got another 93 miles out of my gas […]
“Liberal” and “conservative.” The definitions of these terms are seldom stated. Usually they are just presumed. Often people call “conservative” those who like old-fashioned things and “liberal” those who favor the latest ideas, trends, and values. But for the Christian, the ultimate question is not personal preferences of style, or whether something is old or […]
Valley Park Middle School is in the news again. Some weeks ago, this Toronto, Canada, school was highlighted for allowing Muslim students to hold a 30-minute prayer service in the school cafeteria during class time each Friday afternoon. That brought an initial wave of uproar from both sides of the debate regarding the permitting of […]
Move over, Sarah Palin. Michele Bachmann is the new bogeyman — er, woman — of the left. She opposes pornography and abortion. She’s stingy with the taxpayer money entrusted to her. There are even rumors that she gets headaches — really, really bad headaches. As for her family values, well, yes, Bachmann and her husband […]
When I decided my daughter’s first birthday cake would be a carrot cake made with whole wheat flour, I should have known God’s humor would one day smack me. Though I have relaxed, when my children were babies, I was a nutrition Nazi. Processed foods didn’t touch our table. When my daughter was three and ate […]
At one time or another, we’ve all dreamed of a perfect world. Imagine a company where everyone is productive, a government full of honest politicians, a church where all are saints. Dreaming about such things is natural; expecting such things is dangerous. Unrealistic expectations lead to discouragement, despair, even cynicism. That would be bad enough. […]
She was the perfect villainess: a callous, self-centered, derelict mother straight out of central casting. When her toddler daughter disappeared, she partied for a month without reporting the child missing. Then she blamed everyone from a fictional nanny to her own parents for the demise of the little girl whose remains eventually were found rotting […]
Pardon my exasperation, but there are times when the elitist views of the mandarins who set rules for the rest of us from the federal bench and other similarly exalted vantage points are indeed upsetting. As an example, consider the Supreme Court and its decision last month on selling and renting violent video games to […]
A citation and 93 days in jail. That’s what planting veggies in your front yard could get you, at least in Oak Park, Michigan. Ridiculous, you say? Hardly; it’s a reality, and it’s happening to Julie Bass. Julie and her family live in an average neighborhood in an average home in Oak Park, and a […]
I wonder how many people who criticize the Casey Anthony jury have tried to get out of jury duty when they were called. There was a time, before I served on a jury, when I was one of those whose life was so busy there was no way I wanted the inconvenience of it. I […]
With liberal activists emboldened by their recent legislative victory in New York (where a same-sex “marriage” bill was passed into law on June 24th) one can reasonably expect to see efforts redoubled to further promote the “gay rights” agenda nationally. With this in mind I’d like to offer some observations. Victory for Freedom? In […]
Peoria, Mobile, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlantic City, and now Milwaukee, my home town, has been plagued by violent flash mobs. And that’s just in the past week. Flash mobbing initially began as an experiment in social networking. On June 17, 2003, a crowd of about 100 people, drawn by text messages, emails, and blogs, gathered in […]
I’ve always loved gardening. Seeds I’ve planted include carrot, cucumber, and of course, zucchini. In each case, I’ve planted seeds in neat rows, expecting nearly all of them to sprout and yield fruit. But the farmer in Jesus’ parable (Mat 13:1-23) uses the broadcast method. Lots of seed cast everywhere. And predictably, many of these […]
In the political battle that ended last week with New York’s legalization of gay marriage, Catholic defenders of man-woman marriage found themselves pitted against an unlikely batch of adversaries: fellow Catholics. Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who, like his father, has spent his career touting his Catholic credentials while ignoring church teachings that clash with his […]
The troubled academic study of the Middle East and Islam by Americans is changing in fundamental ways. I offer some thoughts based on 42 years of personal observation: From Western offence to Islamic offence: Muslim relations with Christians divide into four long periods: from Muhammad’s hijra to the First Crusade, 622-1099, during which time Muslims […]
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 […]
Some of the perks of being a Catholic blogger all these years have been the friends I’ve acquired and the lessons learned from them. Stamina, fortitude, and grace, are the gifts of these friends during my short career as a writer of which I am forever changed. One of these new friends is Donna-Marie Cooper […]
In May, a Toronto couple made international news when they revealed what they’re not revealing: the gender of their baby, Storm. Parents Kathy Witterick and David Stocker claim they want their baby to grow up free of the constraints gender identification implies. That way, despite the fact that the child is anatomically well-defined, Storm can […]
The Fourth of July is one of my favorite days. Living across the street from a public high school field from which the town fireworks display was launched each year made it extra special, as did the presence of many relatives and friends who would come to our house to celebrate the day (as well […]
