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Moms, Teach Your Daughters Well

Dec 6 11 • Victoria Garaitonandia Gisondi • 0 comments

One morning last winter I was driving my teenager to school and she asked me the question I had been dreading and avoiding . “Mom, did you wait?” I debated whether I should lie and preserve her image of me as a good example or tell the truth. I told her the truth. Not only […]

Grant Us Thy Peace

Dec 6 11 • Ebeth Weidner • 0 comments

There are days and then there are days. Have you ever felt like there was so much to say and do, and not enough time, concentration, or energy to accomplish half of your expectations? Lately, during my daily chores, blog ideas, article notes, and lessons pop into my head and I rarely write them down. […]

Christmas for the Unborn

Dec 6 11 • Fr. Frank Pavone • 0 comments

Christmas is universal. “Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…A Savior has been born for you” (Luke 1:10-11). Christ the Savior becomes man precisely for all who share human nature. He excludes nobody. The good news of Christmas is for all people of all times […]

Poem: “Cowbirds”

Dec 6 11 • Pavel Chichikov • 0 comments

Cowbirds Cowbirds chatter, black winged clouds, Thousands, fruit that sits in branches, Flocks that wheel above in crowds If this planet were a tree And there were far and near observers Would we seem the same as these? Cowbirds chitter, wheel and curse, Descend and roost where they find room, Cowbirds of the universe In […]

Ban Sex Selective Abortions in the U.S.

Dec 5 11 • Steven W. Mosher • 0 comments

Nearly nine out of ten Americans oppose abortion for reasons of sex selection, but such acts of gender violence are neither illegal nor uncommon in our country. Permissive abortion laws and high-resolution ultrasounds make it easier than ever for parents to target and eliminate unwanted daughters (or sons) before birth. Until the recent spate of […]

Advent Meditation: The Villainy of Man, the Nobility of God

Dec 5 11 • Philip Primeau • 13 comments

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). “O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness, and Your mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can […]

The Santa Debate: Don’t Believe the Hype!

Dec 5 11 • Christine Capolino • 0 comments

Yes, the to-Santa vs. not-to-Santa debate within the realm of our Catholic Christian community is fresh, real and has turned heated. How did this develop? I believe that just as suddenly-well-meaning friends and acquaintances exhibit concern over homeschooled children ‘missing’ a grand social experience, as in some variation on the well worn and ever predictable: […]

Why Does the Catholic Church Oppose Embryonic Stem Cell Research?

Dec 5 11 • Rebecca Taylor • 0 comments

A reader recently asked the following fantastic question about the Catholic Church teaching on embryonic stem cell research: While my views in connection with research are opposed to those of the Pope and the Catholic church, I am very open to dialogue. Simply for the sake of clarity (and not in any way seeking to […]

Poem: “We Wise-men Three”

Dec 5 11 • Thomas A. Flynn, LC • 0 comments

We Wise-men Three The rarity of that burning star, Object of my study for days, Beckoned my soul to a journey far, Beyond my imagining gaze. Embarking with convoy twenty strong, And the sole star ever in sight, I trespassed lonely deserts long, Still unsure of my flight. Not alone was I in my cosmic […]

Poem: “The Way”

Dec 4 11 • Pavel Chichikov • 0 comments

The Way Stand straight up and then look down, It is a long way to the ground, Big we are the upright, proud, Deep the impact, long and loud Better not to be so tall That devastating is the fall, The arch of heaven curving near That we must stoop to enter, clear The narrow […]

This Is a Great Opportunity

Dec 3 11 • Robert J. Gieb • 2 comments

Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, the new English translation of the prayers we pray in the Mass started being used in the United States. Interestingly, the prayers on which the translation is based are not new. They are essentially the same official prayers of the Latin Rite which we have had for decades. Go to the […]

Mary Biever Offers Living Proof a Difficult Childhood Can be Overcome

Dec 3 11 • Mary Kochan • 4 comments

Did you have a difficult childhood or do you know someone who had a difficult childhood? What difference does it make, anyway, to one’s adulthood, what kind of childhood is in the background? I think we can use the analogy of constructing and furnishing a house, for constructing and furnishing a “self.” A reasonably happy […]

Theology Lessons from a Two-Year Old

Dec 3 11 • Jake Frost • 0 comments

Human beings have a desire to impose order on the universe. But much like a parent’s desire to impose order on their kids’ toys, it often goes unsatisfied. With the toys, at least we have a fighting chance (depending on the age of the kids and the volume of plastic flowing in from grandparents – […]

Prepare Ye the Way

Dec 3 11 • Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. • 0 comments

Advent is a time of joyful anticipation. For someone even bigger than Santa Claus is coming to town. The human race has been waiting a long time for his next and final visit. Actually, it waited a long time for the first visit. Things had gone awry quite early in the history of the human […]

Poem: “Alert Sunday- First Sunday in Advent”

Dec 3 11 • Philip Kolin • 0 comments

Alert Sunday–First Sunday in Advent Alert Sunday. The greeter has smiles on his palms as he Opens the church doors. Welcome to Advent! A shorter version of Lent in December, he quips. A chorus of coughs and women’s high Heels parading across the floor tiles Help me stay awake for 8:00 a.m. Mass. I never […]

World AIDS Day and Down Syndrome: Killing is Not a Cure

Dec 2 11 • Leticia Velasquez • 2 comments

One of my pet peeves was brought to mind by World AIDS Day. Not that I oppose finding a cure for HIV. I was a social worker when AIDS emerged in the eighties. I helped a young man with HIV who was kicked out of the Greenwich Village loft that he had shared with his […]

‘Tis the Season for Repentance

Dec 2 11 • Agnes M. Penny • 0 comments

Implementing the new translation of the Mass on the first Sunday of Advent is excellent timing. After all, Advent is an opportunity to consider the spiritual life and make improvements where necessary. The revisions of the Mass are useful starting points when pondering the state of our souls. Perhaps the change most relevant to spiritual […]

The “Wrong Side” of History

Dec 2 11 • Joseph Backholm • 0 comments

Countless times I have been warned about how miserable I will be when I discover that civilization has passed me by, while I sit, frothing from the mouth, beating my cane against my rocker, clinging to archaic notions about sexuality and marriage. So, for those inclined to issue the same warning again, or for those […]

Do We Take Our Voices to Heaven?

Dec 2 11 • Lisa Mladinich • 0 comments

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, […]

House Investigates Obama Admin Decision to Deny Bishops Grant Over Abortion

Dec 2 11 • Chelsea Zimmerman • 0 comments

Yesterday the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a two-hour hearing investigating whether the Obama administration denied grant money to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops because of its religious objections to abortion. Under the Bush administration, the bishops received a five-year $19 million grant to help victims of human trafficking. The grant was first […]

Poem: “I Saw a Baby”

Dec 2 11 • Pavel Chichikov • 0 comments

I Saw a Baby I saw a baby at the stream, Perhaps or maybe not a dream, Who played with water, thrust his hand Into the pool, the golden sand And then scooped up a golden fish, This is my life, he said, to bless Or throw again into the pool, To swim from what […]

Homosexuality/Pedophilia Correlation?

Dec 1 11 • Robert Struble, Jr. • 15 comments

Our decadent society is, alas, now forcing us to look full in the face of yet another moral abomination, namely pedophilia. Child abuse, says Pope Benedict, “affects every level of society.” In a speech to a delegation of American Bishops on November 26th, the Pope addressed the issue of pedophilia, expressing his hope that the […]

Homosexuality and the Church Crisis

Dec 1 11 • Brian Clowes • 3 comments

Abstract: Due to clergy sex abuse scandals centered primarily in the Northern hemisphere, the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church has been subjected to an opportunistic siege by prominent individuals and organizations who see the chance to advance their goals, including the ordination of women and the suspension of the requirement for priestly celibacy. […]

Walking in the Truth: The Second and Third Epistles of Saint John

Dec 1 11 • Rev. Tucker Cordani • 0 comments

I rejoiced greatly to find some of our children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father — 2 John 4. The English poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973) defined poetry as “memorable speech.” A poem depicts reality by using dense language constructed around vivid images in few words. In a word, poetry means thrift. […]