The cold weather in recent months seems to have brought a flurry of news stories about embryos. In October the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the inventor of in vitro fertilization. In November the journal Human Reproduction published a study in which researchers at the University of Barcelona implanted silicon […]
Abortion, family planning, and sexual education will be vigorously debated in the upcoming UN Commission on Population and Development. The theme of this year’s commission is “Fertility, Reproductive Health and Development.” The initial draft of this year’s outcome document was released last week and as expected, the text is rife with references to sexual and […]
While an editor busily pruned my first book, I traveled to Washington DC’s Studio Theatre after work each week. How exhausting it was to schlep downtown on those nights, especially when it snowed! After a 30-minute hike from the subway, I’d enter the classroom, lie down with my back touching the floor, begin breathing exercises […]
Fraser Clarke Heston is the son of the late actor Charlton Heston and his wife of over 60 years, Lydia Clarke. Fraser directed his Oscar-winning dad in several films, including the recently released DVD set, Charlton Heston Presents The Bible. Fraser also played the role of baby Moses in The Ten Commandments. I recently spoke […]
“Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.” I memorized those Latin words when I was in first grade. Yes, in first grade. I was 6 ½ years old. Those were the first words spoken by an altarboy in response to the priest’s opening words of the Mass. The priest would make the sign of the Cross […]
The season of Easter baskets and pastel blue and pink and green eggs is upon us, although many of us still have these in the behind-the-scenes preparation stage. We have turned our face toward Jerusalem and the way is not so rosy. Not yet. Not until after Good Friday and Holy Saturday. But who knew […]
I was raised in a very small town, roughly 1,000 people all together, even including the surrounding countryside. To say everyone knew everyone would be an understatement! Despite the small size, and the fact that only 50% of the town is Catholic (Lutherans and Methodists make up the rest), my home parish has sent five […]
Presented in cooperation with Greg Schlueter and JP2Journey.com: The JP2 Generation Tells Its Story, remembering World Youth Day 2002 and the impact of Pope John II. Part Four, Statia (Sullivan) Brown Every morning the WYD participants attended Catechetical sessions with hundreds of others to learn more about our Catholic faith. We heard from different cardinals, […]
When we think about God’s voice, do the Old Testament images come to mind? Do we think only about the prophets of old who seemed able to perceive God’s voice directly? That was then; this is now. God doesn’t speak out loud to people anymore. Or does he? Perhaps he doesn’t come swooping down on […]
One of the most comforting feelings that we can experience is a sensation of peace, or even joy, when we pray. For many of us, this feeling was most pronounced at the time when we first made a decision to commit our lives to the Lord. Unfortunately, equally as common is the feeling of dryness […]
It was the first day of spring in 2005. I was at the florist in the seaside village where I grew up, assembling a basket of flowering spring plants for my sister who had just given birth. To have my hands immersed in budding greenery, inhaling earthy scents, replaced for a few moments the pall […]
My Apologies to Shakespeare and to Jimmy Buffet (But we’re all dhimmis now) Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Uncle Sam, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Uncle Sam And those […]
Years ago, after attending a natural family planning class my husband and I had taught, one of the students called me to tell me why she wasn’t coming to the next class. After a brief span of conversation that let me know she felt very intimate with God, she proceeded to inform me that the […]
On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan, president for merely 10 weeks, stepped outside the Washington Hilton. What happened next was an image millions would soon witness on their TV screens: America’s 40th president raised his arm to ward off a question from a reporter and then, seconds later, bullets crackled the air. Chaos ensued. More […]
When my wife and I found out we were having our first baby, I was ecstatic. The coming of the new baby filled all my thoughts. I got to be a boring conversationalist, with only one topic to discuss. It was uncanny the connections I now saw (which had never been apparent to me before) […]
How curious. At the very moment that the threat posed to U.S. interests by the toxic Islamist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood is becoming ever more palpable, a top Senate Democrat seems determined to suppress Americans’ understanding of that menace. Even the New York Times is now acknowledging the obvious: the principal beneficiary of […]
Senomyx is a biotech company that produces artificial flavors. It enhances the way our food tastes. They are so clever their website states that they “focus on the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients.” Last year another discovery was made, that Senomyx uses, in its research, HEK 293. HEK 293 are […]
“I’m not a priest or a scholar. I’m an actor. I tell stories.” These words spoken by the legendary Charlton Heston summarize the theme of the re-released 4-disc DVD set, Charlton Heston Presents the Bible. The DVD titles include Genesis, The Story of Moses, Jesus of Nazareth and The Passion. In the mid-1950’s, the actor […]
Like many of my fellow business leaders, I do my best to stay current. I embrace social media, read the latest leadership books and stay abreast of trends in the marketplace. And from a workplace perspective, there is one particular conversation topic in full discourse across the country—Generation Y in Corporate America. It should be. […]
Not only does last week’s jihadist rampage against Ethiopia’s Christians highlight the travails Christians encounter wherever Islam has a sizable population, but it offers several insights, including some which should concern faraway, secular nations with Muslim minorities. According to Fox News: Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after […]
Professor Robert George of Princeton University, and co-author of the Manhattan Declaration, is heading to Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas on Friday, July 15 to address medical doctors and medical professionals in a keynote speech on their conscience rights as part of a larger week dedicated to renewing the culture. An excerpt from the Manhattan Declaration, […]
In a 1972 decision widely hailed by the political classes, the Supreme Court opined in Eisenstadt v. Baird, “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right to be free from unwarranted government intrusions into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”1 Imagining that […]
When our children were young, my best friend shared a VeggieTale movie with us saying, “Your kids will love it; mine do!” She was right, not only did they love it, but my husband and I enjoyed them too. The characters are fun to watch and the Bible stores come to life in a way […]
What does “Total Commitment,” mean? Well, the synonyms for “commitment” are: promise, pledge, binder, obligation, dedication, and loyalty. There is an old story about the Chicken and the Pig who were walking along the road. They saw a sign for Perkins Restaurant showing an ad for ham and eggs. The Chicken said to the Pig, […]
