Category: The Catholic Family

A Child Is Never a Burden
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A Child Is Never a Burden

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by on Mar 12, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Parenting
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The stories of heroic mothers rarely appear on the nightly news, even when they include prominent figures like Genevieve Shaw Brown, Travel and Lifestyle Editor for ABC News. Genevieve recently wrote about her infant son, William Michael Brown, who has Down syndrome. The Browns knew prior to his birth that he would be born with […]

Snow Angel
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Snow Angel

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by on Mar 06, 2015 in Featured, Parenting, Women
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It always makes me laugh to think of my fellow Southerners panicking at this time of year when the forecast is for snow. It is very typical for us to get a small dusting (or perhaps even more than a dusting!) right about now. But it seems that everyone forgets that tidbit of information and […]

WHO Researchers Urge Cheaper Abortion Above Safety
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WHO Researchers Urge Cheaper Abortion Above Safety

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by on Mar 05, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured, Health & Fitness
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As part of an ongoing effort to maximize the international availability of abortion, researchers collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) released a study arguing that clinical follow-up after a chemical abortion is unnecessary, and that foregoing it could “save resources.” “This study was done in accordance with the WHO safe abortion guidance, which recommends […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: Discovering Her Feminine Beauty
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Ode to Feminine Genius: Discovering Her Feminine Beauty

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by on Feb 20, 2015 in Featured, Parenting, The Feminine Genius, Women
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A few months ago, my oldest daughter turned thirteen. Having my firstborn become our first teenager seemed almost anticlimactic; an especially precocious child, Honor has always seemed far older than she is. On paper, she’s in the 7th grade, but most of her homeschooling is from high school and college textbooks. Her height (5’5?), poise, and ability […]

Five Things to Do This Valentine’s Day Regardless of Your Status
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Five Things to Do This Valentine’s Day Regardless of Your Status

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by on Feb 13, 2015 in Dating & Singles, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Not everyone loves Valentine’s Day. Some do because they are in relationships or it gives them an excuse to eat chocolate. Others hate it because they will probably stay home alone watching Netflix awhile their friends with significant others go out. Instead of wallowing in that funk, whether single or in a relationship, spread the […]

Pink Hearts and Green Aliens
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Pink Hearts and Green Aliens

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by on Feb 13, 2015 in Featured, Parenting
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Valentine’s Day is a big deal around our house. Our first child was born on Valentine’s, and she loves all things pink, pretty, and frilly. And chocolate. She loves her princess shoes, sparkles, fancy hair doo-dads (she’s also asking me for hair rollers, and she’s only five), hearts, ribbons, make-up, purses, clothes (the more sequins […]

Transforming Prayer for Married Couples
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Transforming Prayer for Married Couples

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by on Feb 13, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage, Men, Vocations, Women
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If someone told you that there was something you could do for as little as five minutes per day to virtually assure that your marriage would last unto death, wouldn’t you do it? Well this is it! Pray together daily. Marriage is not a couple, but a trinity. The third person is God. We need […]

On Being Invisible
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On Being Invisible

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by on Feb 11, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, Parenting, Women
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Recently, a Facebook conversation turned into a discussion over when we feel “invisible” while driving. It started innocently enough. I commented on how people seem to “not see” me when I am driving our family vehicle (which happens to be a 12-passenger van). My mom said she feels invisible when she drives their white car, […]

Why Settle for Shades of Grey?
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Why Settle for Shades of Grey?

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by on Feb 06, 2015 in Featured, Leadership, Marriage, Men, On TV and Movies, The Social Order, Vocations, Women
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Remember the scene in the movie The Passion of the Christ when the androgynous, almost-beautiful-but-not-quite Satan character is carrying a baby, and when the face of the baby is revealed, it turns out to be old, ugly, and creepy rather than a sweet baby face? This was confusing for a lot of viewers, and when […]

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How to Celebrate St. Valentine’s Day Like Adults

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by on Feb 06, 2015 in Featured, Marriage
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Men, you are being bombarded with advertising telling you that your wife would love to have a Teddy Bear for Valentine’s Day.  Here is a little flowchart to help you decide if you should get your wife a Teddy Bear.

Why Unemployed Men Don’t Do Housework
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Why Unemployed Men Don’t Do Housework

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by on Feb 04, 2015 in Featured, Humor, Men
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Women have long been annoyed that they do more housework than men, as demonstrated by many studies, but now they are really steamed. Last December, The New York Times reported on a regrettable trend. The number of men between the ages of 25 and 54 who are unemployed is at all-time high: 16 of every […]

A Need We All Have
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A Need We All Have

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by on Feb 03, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Education, Evangelization, Featured, Those in Need
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I love music. I love good music. I really love great music. But it truly is in the ear of the beholder as to what makes good or great music, isn’t it? I mean, I love The Allman Brothers; many people don’t like the bluesy sound and long jams. I love the work of the […]

God's Gift: Husbands Should Reverence Their Wives
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God’s Gift: Husbands Should Reverence Their Wives

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by on Feb 03, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Marriage, Men, The Feminine Genius, Vocations, Women
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It can be quite tempting for husbands to misuse their authority as the head of the household in relating to their wives. Within my own therapy experience, I have seen men misquote Scripture as justification for disregarding their wives’ opinions and wishes. The fifth chapter of Ephesians is a popular source for this kind of […]

Women, The Cosmos, and Cosmetics
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Women, The Cosmos, and Cosmetics

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by on Jan 31, 2015 in Featured, The Feminine Genius, The Social Order, Women
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Any writer or speaker who offers his opinions on a topic does so with the implicit promise that he is an expert in the subject and can offer insight not generally available to the general public. But I am forced to take a different tack, since I am about to opine on a subject—two subjects, […]

The President Undercuts Stay-at-Home Parents
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The President Undercuts Stay-at-Home Parents

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by on Jan 30, 2015 in Featured, Government & Politics, On the Job, Parenting
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President Obama’s State of the Union address was predictable for a President nearing the end of his second term. It was filled with lots of partisan legislative ideas that will never see fruition in a Republican Congress. It hearkened back to his original campaign ideas of bringing Washington together, which comes off as amusing when you […]

Organizing Your Kitchen
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Organizing Your Kitchen

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by on Jan 27, 2015 in Featured, MyChurchParish.com, Tips, Tools, Tech, Women
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With Christmas busyness behind, the yard in winter dormancy, and tax season still far enough ahead not to be urgent, it’s that time of year when thoughts turn to home organization. Our God is not a God of confusion and disorder, but a God of peace (1 Cor. 14:33). Order brings peace to our minds and […]

Three Keys for Couples
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Three Keys for Couples

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by on Jan 21, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage, Men, Parenting, Vocations
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Years ago, I shared a memorable conversation with Catholic author Taylor Marshall while we both worked at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. Taylor told me about some advice that, in his words, an “old, crusty Episcopalian priest” had given him shortly before his wedding: “The keys to a good marriage are threefold: to […]

The Travesty of Two Daddies
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The Travesty of Two Daddies

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by on Jan 19, 2015 in Featured, Government & Politics, Law & Justice, Men, Parenting, The Social Order, Women
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Every once in a while, I come across a story that stops me in my tracks. Like the Italian high court’s decision to overturn a pedophile’s conviction because his 11-year-old victim says she’s “in love.” Or the Australian judge who pointed out that easy access to abortion and contraception may lead to the legal sanction of incest, as it […]

On Handwritten Letters
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On Handwritten Letters

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by on Jan 19, 2015 in Education, Featured, Fiction
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I received an unexpected postcard in the mail the other day from an old friend. It made my day. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a handwritten letter from a friend — it has to be 10 or 15 years. What’s worse, I can’t remember the last time I wrote one. The reasons […]

Incest: The Next Frontier in ‘Reproductive Freedom’
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Incest: The Next Frontier in ‘Reproductive Freedom’

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by on Jan 19, 2015 in Featured, Marriage, The Social Order
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Like a plastic Piggly Wiggly bag fluttering about in the alley, those untethered from God’s natural law are violently tossed to and fro by the gusting winds of moral relativism. Jenny Kutner is one such Piggly Wiggly bag. A 20-something assistant editor at Salon.com, she describes herself as “focusing on sex, gender and feminism.” By […]

Our Catholic School Family
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Our Catholic School Family

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by on Jan 15, 2015 in Education, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Parenting
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As Catholic Schools Week approaches in our diocese, I find myself reflecting on how we ended up choosing Catholic school for our children. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com Catholic school was not really on our radar when we started our family. My husband and I both grew up going to large public schools and did […]

Using the Catholic Faith As Part of Recovery
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Using the Catholic Faith As Part of Recovery

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by on Jan 13, 2015 in Featured, Health & Fitness, Those in Need
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Being Catholic is a walk with resolutions. Every confession and examination of conscious ends with the resolve to do better. Although real changes don’t come easy, we rely on God’s mercy and begin again after each fall. But add in an addiction and failing becomes habitual and can cause a person feel like he is […]

Blessed Mother Knows Best
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Blessed Mother Knows Best

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by on Jan 09, 2015 in Catechesis, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Men, Parenting, Vocations
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Passing on the faith at home with Marian piety During his installation at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago last November, Archbishop Blase Cupich challenged those in attendance to pass on the faith to young people through their “authenticity of life, where words match deeds.” The message was not just for Catholic teachers and youth ministers, […]

The Inhuman Relationship of Mary and Joseph
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The Inhuman Relationship of Mary and Joseph

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by on Jan 08, 2015 in Dating & Singles, Featured, Marriage
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Every year at Christmas time I think of the many people who experience a more acute loneliness that the season has a way of drawing out of those who are literally alone or feel alone, even among their friends and family. It’s an inescapable desire to have that one special person with whom you can […]