How can your family find healing, strength, and protection in the sacraments? They can learn how in the book, Seven from Heaven (The Crossroad Publishing Company) by Elizabeth Ficocelli. As a matter of fact, that question is the exact subtitle of her book. “God’s powerful presence in the seven sacraments is the reason they hold […]
Dear Anthony, My pastor is skeptical that long distance relationships can have the personal and practical growth to move toward marriage. My fiance lives in California, and I’m in Canada. He first wrote me on AMS nine months ago. We met the first time two months ago. A month ago I flew to California for […]
When my wife and I were dating, she would travel quite a bit as a part of her job. On one occasion, we had a conversation about whether she would be able to attend Mass on Ash Wednesday during her travels. She explained that where they stayed in the city she was going to, there […]
What can a homeschooling mother of seven children possibly do to touch our entire nation? Pray? Sure. Raise responsible, future citizens? Of course. Found a national organization and make a video with well over 2 million views that can impact the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election? It’s what Adriana Gonzalez of Florida did. Yet, […]
If we look at the four components of God’s love for us (free, total, faithful, fruitful) and compare God’s love to marital love, we can discover how to live the Sacrament of marriage as the ultimate expression of spousal love. Free: We need to be able love our spouse freely. If we ask for conditions, […]
Recently, I noticed that our editor had put out a call to some of our female columnists to address a newly released study by the Archdiocese of Baltimore about Catholic women and contraception. Suffice it to say that the survey of Church-going Catholic women found that a substantial minority were in agreement with the Church’s […]
I do not belong to that subgroup of women who have immaculate houses. In fact, those types of houses (and women) scare me. If I walk into a house and it feels like a storefront window, or a hotel suite at the Sheraton, I begin to feel a little bit uneasy. Not only that — […]
Dear Anthony, The way you speak about marriage, I think I can say I have never seen it in anyone’s marriage, least of all my parents. All my family’s marriages were bad, unhappy. So, how can I expect to be happy? And please do not mention God! Sadness is the key to being truly happy. […]
Rugby is a game played by most boys in New Zealand in their childhood, though some don’t want to play it at all. A significant section of the community have always preferred to play a different sport, like soccer. But Rugby gets all the status in New Zealand, commanding all the respect. So much so […]
There seems to be a growing idea in our world today that we don’t actually need men for much more than their “contribution” to the furthering of the human race. This idea has become so prevalent that an opinion piece about it has made its way to the New York Times. Greg Hampikian, the author […]
There is nothing quite like being in love and sharing a loving relationship. You often hear about finding “true love,” but we seldom stop to think about what that means. To consider this properly, you need to know a little something about true love. What makes it true? There is much to say about true […]
We have been teaching NFP for nearly 28 years. We have volunteered much of our time preparing and teaching classes of many couples over the years, as well as lecturing to marriage preparation courses and youth group meetings, but let me share with you what we have gotten out of it. Admittedly, when we first […]
I recently read an article written by a Protestant about modern worship. The author explored all the new ways, through technology and media, to keep the members interested in the worship service. The article was about how to keep the attendees feeling like they had a good God experience, new songs, new music, new films, […]
Those pushing the redefinition of marriage insist that all they want is equality. After all, aren’t persons with same-sex attraction equal as human beings to those without. Why should they be discriminated against? Of course they are human beings with all the rights of other human beings. The problem is not that the people aren’t […]
Dear Anthony, I’ve recently started dating a girl who everyone says is wrong for me. They don’t like that I broke up with a girl who seemed perfect for me in order to date this girl I’m seeing now. I keep telling people opposites attract just to get them off my back. But honestly, I […]
In my position with the Diocese of Toledo, I get to instruct people on the joys of Catholic marriage: The two become one flesh. Marriage is gift of self. My path to holiness is through my spouse. Marriage is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. As Christ died on the cross for his bride the Church, […]
President Obama’s announcement this May that he supports same-sex marriage underlines the urgent need for the Church to launch a massive new program to educate Catholics on the nature of sacramental marriage and on the vast difference between a marriage like that and civil marriage. The Church should also continue to participate in the debate […]
When she was a precocious preschooler, the daughter of my cousin was famous for begging to sit in the front seat of the family car. As the youngest of four children, she was unlikely to have that privilege, even if she was large enough to safely sit up front. She begged anyway. The story goes […]
Fr. Carlos was a dear family friend and spiritual director for both Mark and I before and also after we were married. German-born, but having been stationed in Argentina for fourteen years, Fr. Carlos had an amazing German-Latino accent that was endearing and sometimes frustrating to those who didn’t know the origin of his unique […]
No matter how many times I attend Mass, I still rarely attend with the presence of mind to realize I am attending a marriage ceremony. This is the most central and important aspect of my Christian life, and it just doesn’t occur to me that this is a wedding taking place. More specifically, the Mass […]
About a month ago, I went to see the movie The Vow fully prepared for it to be an overall disappointment. It certainly delivered, except for one scene that actually makes the movie worth seeing. The mother tells her upset daughter that she stayed with her husband after learning of his lengthy affair because she […]
It’s official. Brad and Angelina are engaged, succumbing to pressure from family members to finally tie the knot. Back in the day, that pressure would have come from a worried mother, or more likely, a protective father and the business end of shotgun. But this is 2012. The family pressure to marry comes, in this […]
Last year, on one of the morning shows, a couple was asked to carry a camcorder around while they debated and discussed their decision to have a vasectomy. After the births of three boys — the youngest only a few months old — they made the decision to go ahead and have a permanent solution […]
If you haven’t yet seen the film October Baby yet, find the time to do so. I can’t recommend it strongly enough. It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to critique the film or focus on the obvious pro-life aspect of the story (that’s for you to discover for yourself), […]
