Site Map

Site Feeds

Pages

Categories

Monthly Archives

Tags

All Articles

Poem: "WonderLove"

Poem: “WonderLove”

Jun 12 15 • 0 comments

WonderLove When I softly sing a lullaby alone to you, I wonder if in heaven you can hear. When I whisper that I love you love you now, I wonder if you’ll ever want me near. When I try to touch your tiny cheeks and hands, I wonder if in heaven you can feel. When […]

The Arts: Talent and Discipline

The Arts: Talent and Discipline

Jun 12 15 • 0 comments

The arts can nourish the human heart and soul and help to build character. Whether dance, music, theater, visual or literary arts, students must approach their chosen art-form with commitment, focus and discipline. Talent and Discipline What about talent? Talent is a gift, the source of inspiration and insight and is crucial to achieve excellence. But it’s […]

UN Report Calls for LGBT Rights, Leaves out Same-Sex Marriage

UN Report Calls for LGBT Rights, Leaves out Same-Sex Marriage

A UN report seeking to break new ground for “LGBT rights” left same-sex “marriage” out of a long list of special new rights on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The UN human rights office published its latest collection of UN expert opinions about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights last week […]

Wounds

Wounds

Jun 11 15 • 1 comment

Having my phone fixed a few weeks ago, I had some spare time to walk around by myself in a shopping center I usually don’t patronize. I used to really enjoy shopping. It was a frequent pastime for me and my mom. Now, without her, the bloom is off the rose. Sometimes it’s only a […]

Answering Some Vital Questions

Answering Some Vital Questions

Jun 10 15 • 0 comments

Where do you go when it starts to rain? That and some related “musical questions” have been playing over and over in my mind for the last few months. They have made for some interesting soul-searching. For me, the self-examination began on the road. I have to take three business trips annually, all to Kansas […]

Bruce Jenner: What Does Love Demand? Part 2

Bruce Jenner: What Does Love Demand? Part 2

Jun 9 15 • 5 comments

In Part 1, we talked about how a person knows he’s transgendered. This is important, because we must ask ourselves if as a society we’re going to accept and accommodate individuals’ subjective realities, as we’re increasingly being asked to do with the transgendered. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. Bruce Jenner says he’s a woman named […]

Quantum Mechanics & the Real Presence--Which Reality Do We Believe?

Quantum Mechanics & the Real Presence–Which Reality Do We Believe?

Jun 8 15 • 2 comments

Of Miracles and Mysteries A little over 20 years ago, shortly after I had decided to enter the Church, I was being catechized by a very learned and wise priest (this was before the days of RCIA classes). As a physicist, I was struggling with the notion of transubstantiation — that by the action of […]

Bruce Jenner: What Does Love Demand? Part 1

Bruce Jenner: What Does Love Demand? Part 1

Jun 8 15 • 0 comments

I was 18 when I encountered my first transgender person: Kevin was a sweet young man with a petite frame, high-pitched voice, and feminine mannerisms who hung around the common area of my all-girls’ dorm to avoid harassment and bullying from peers in his all-male dorm across the street. Kevin called himself a “pre-op queen,” […]

Luthers Today

Luthers Today

Jun 7 15 • 6 comments

From Germany yet again today rises the aroma of dissent. Whether this will ripen into schism or outright heresy will be clear after the conclusion of this fall’s Synod on the Family. Some modern-day princes of the German Church and numerous German bishops are, as did Martin Luther some centuries ago, attempting to heretically alter […]

The Right Side of History

The Right Side of History

Jun 5 15 • 0 comments

If any two issues illustrate the awesome power of public relations campaigns to define important cultural and policy debates, they are abortion and gay marriage. By cleverly framing these highly controversial questions in terms of human rights and social “progress,” advocates have cultivated a social environment in which opposition to either makes you a bigot […]

Christian Witness in an Unchristian World

Christian Witness in an Unchristian World

Jun 5 15 • 1 comment

My dictionary defines apologetics as a “systematic and logical defense of Christianity against its detractors and unbelievers” In 1 Peter 3.15, Christians are told to be ready to give a reason (apologia) for their hope in Christ. Apologetics can draw people to Christ as we read in the Book of Acts with Saint Peter on […]

Flannery's Existentialist Stamp

Flannery’s Existentialist Stamp

Jun 4 15 • 0 comments

In one of his last works before his masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky wrote The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. In this story, the narrator goes to another solar system and lands on a planet where the inhabitants are people just like us, but untainted by the Fall in the Garden. They live, the narrator tells us, […]

Trigger Nation

Trigger Nation

Jun 4 15 • 0 comments

Young students obsessed with “triggers” and safety need to take time for some serious self-reflection, writes Peggy Noonan in a witty and slightly-acerbic Wall Street Journal column. Noonan breaks down this call for caution, sensitivity, comfort, and safety in America’s college classrooms. She tells young people they are requiring too much of others and that […]

A Simple Prayer, A Simple Peace

A Simple Prayer, A Simple Peace

Jun 3 15 • 0 comments

On a retreat some years ago, several of us were spending time in prayer together. Each man in the circle took a turn at sharing with God and the rest of us in the group an intention or request or thought that was weighing on his heart and mind. There was talk of family members […]

Ruthless Sympathy

Ruthless Sympathy

Jun 3 15 • 2 comments

What is happening in our country when killing is preferable—and acceptable—to selfless love for the suffering? Too many instances lately shine a light on the depravity of this behavior and on our ever-declining treatment of our fellow human beings whom we call “expendable.” For example, a 7-year-old Massachusetts child is nearly killed and her dad, […]

Poem: "Child of the Cross"

Poem: “Child of the Cross”

Jun 2 15 • 1 comment

Child of the Cross Mother Mary, Witness of the Passion, Suffering witness, Living the Passion, As your Jesus Hung on the Cross. Pray, Mary. Pray, My Mother, Pray for me, Who am so scattered, Distracted and disengaged. Pray every moment Of my life here on earth, That I be prepared for suffering, That I be […]

Movie Review -- <em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em>

Movie Review — Mad Max: Fury Road

Oftentimes I am sure I’m going to like a movie and am very disappointed. Rarely am I sure I will detest a movie and turn out liking it. Mad Max: Fury Road is one of those latter films. Although named for Mad Max, this is not his movie. It’s really Imperator Furiosa’s (Charlize Theron) story. […]

Every Child Has a Right to Be

Every Child Has a Right to Be

May 28 15 • 1 comment

Every child has a right to be. Every child has a right to thrive and reach their full potential, whatever that may be. Adults in their world have a responsibility to make sure every opportunity is available to them to reach their potential. But this responsibility falls primarily with their mother and father. It begins at […]

Is Jesus Christ at Odds With the Catholic Church?

Is Jesus Christ at Odds With the Catholic Church?

May 28 15 • 5 comments

Have you ever wondered if Jesus actually believed everything He taught to those around Him? This is an out of the box type of question but it’s one that is gaining momentum amongst people who wish to defend a personal position contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.  Their method is to use Christ […]

Eternity: A Special Woman's Journey Home

Eternity: A Special Woman’s Journey Home

May 27 15 • 1 comment

On Tuesday morning (May 19), a few hours before my mom, Madge Eisenbath, underwent brain surgery, I went to 7 o’clock Mass at my home Catholic church. I knew my family was in for a challenging time, so there was no better way to prepare. Little did I know … In the first Scripture reading, […]

CL68 - hbrattonb notxt web

God, Beauty, and Symmetry in Science

May 27 15 • 0 comments

“Now, may our God be our hope. He Who made all things is better than all things. He Who made all beautiful things is more beautiful than all of them. …Learn to love the Creator in His creature and the Maker in what He has made.” (St.Augustine of Hippo, Commentary on Psalm 39) “..and there is […]

Time to Fertilize: A Marriage Metaphor

Time to Fertilize: A Marriage Metaphor

May 26 15 • 0 comments

My friend Todd, a landscaper, likes to say, “Stop looking at your neighbor’s yard and fertilize your own.” This is in reference, of course, to those who think the grass is greener everywhere except under their own feet. Couples too often look at their own complicated, messy lives and wrongly presume it’s better with someone […]

A Marian Heart

A Marian Heart

May 25 15 • 0 comments

The other day my spiritual director challenged me to better emulate the heart of Mary in word and deed. As a person who claims to be devoted to the Blessed Virgin, I must admit, there are times my actions do not reflect my belief. From his simple, yet challenging comment, I realized my devotion to […]

Memorial Day

Memorial Day: Remembering Loyce Deen

His name was Loyce Edward Deen of Altus, OK.