Amid all the bustle of cooking, shopping, and family visits, we need to find a time of quiet and peace, a peace the world does not give. While I was growing up, Christmas was a wonderful time with grand traditions. I…
Nothing Is Lost
Last night I was talking to my dear aunt on the phone and, after telling me that she’s been saying one rosary after another for a special intention, she told me that she thought “Blessed Mother had her earplugs in.” Since…
Forming Intentional Disciples
I read a whole lotta books, but most of them aren’t germane to Catholicism. And if you want a review of Neptune’s Inferno or Korsun Pocket, there are plenty out there that I can’t improve on. On the other hand,…
Fielding Hot Potatoes: Mothers as Evangelists
The time: A weekday morning The place: A parish church The scene: A young mother, holding her baby and leading several older children, is leaving the church after Mass. The mother’s name is Anne Marie. As soon as she exits…
Advent and the Second Coming
Despite what the local radio stations and giant retailers say, we are not yet in the season of Christmas. We are now in that glorious season of Advent. “Advent” comes to us from the Latin word “adventus” which roughly translated…
Hope in the Imperfect
I recently received a class-wide email from another mother of a child in my son’s preschool class. She had joined the class for a Thanksgiving celebration and stopped to ask each child what they were most thankful for. Touched by…
Good for the Soul
For many people confessing our faults to anyone else is not easy. We fear looking bad or what others will think about us. It also makes us very vulnerable to tell our failings to another person. Yet the sacrament of…
Advent: A Season of Hope
Readings for December 9, 2012: Second Sunday of Advent Faith, hope, and love. St. Paul, in I Corinthians 13:13, say these three are the bottom line. They are called the theological virtues, the qualities that make us most like God….
Giving of Ourselves
I recently read an article entitled “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” written by Peter Singer. In the article, Singer suggests that, if all people were to give as much as morally achievable to the poor (he calls this marginal utility), we could…
Gracious Communication in the Internet Age
Today was going along just fine — productive, happy, and relatively stress free — until a certain email crossed my desk. The name and subject of the email will be withheld so that hopefully I can forget this dialogue ever…