Happy Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola! He’s touched my life in many ways through the years. I attended a Jesuit high school for a year and a half, and had my intellect opened to the connections between art, literature, religion, and history during my collegio classes at Seattle Prep. When I moved to Anacortes part-way through high school, a wonderful old Jesuit serving in the San Juan Islands, Fr. Steckler, gave Catechism lectures at my parish. Blew my mind! I had no idea there was such depth and richness, such a coherent, logical system, such beauty, truth, and goodness illuminating the truths of the faith. May he rest in peace. What a great man. At that time, Fr. Spitzer also gave a talk at my parish about Marian devotion. (Before he made it big.) Later, Fr. Spitzer would be the president of Gonzaga University while I was there. Continue reading “Awesome Discipleship Program Based on St. Ignatius”
NFP Awareness Week – Hormonal Contraception Linked With Depression
July 23-July 29 is the USCCB National NFP Awareness Week. This is a great time to raise awareness about NFP in your ministry or parish.
The Pill has been correlated with higher risks of certain forms of cancer, blood clotting, and lower libido. This new study from Denmark finds its correlates with increases rates of depression, especially among teen girls. Shouldn’t they develop a way for couples to manage their fertility in a way that respects womens’ bodies and doesn’t harm their health and wellbeing? They did! It’s called NFP.
Mary Magdalene: Telling the Story
Saint Mary Magdalene,
who by conversion become the beloved of Jesus,
thank you for your witness that Jesus forgives
through the miracle of love.
You, who already possess eternal happiness
in His glorious presence,
please intercede for me
so that someday I may share in the same
everlasting joy.
Amen.
For years, I have been captivated by the person of Mary of Magdala. I’ve dreamed of writing a picture book to tell her story to a new generation. This dream was conceived several years ago when I attended St. Mary Magdalen parish in Everett, where I was, for a time, the “Troop Shepherd” for my daughters’ American Heritage Girls scouting troop. I spoke to the girls about this incredible woman, and was amazed at what I found as I researched my little talk for them. Mary Magdalen was a wealthy, independent single woman living in first-century Palestine–a woman of influence. A woman broken, and healed, and made new. A woman of whole-hearted passion, energetic and practical, but full of longing, like the Bride in the Song of Songs. A woman to whom Jesus revealed the heart of the mystery of his mission: to offer us a share in his Sonship of His Father. She was a woman of dignity sent on mission. She is woman who shows us how to live the new evangelization and the feminine genius.
Grandparents are a Treasure
Photo: Shuttershock
“Tell me about your grandmother,” the director of vocations for an East Coast diocese asks the young man sitting on the other side of his desk for his initial interview at the chancery. He leans back in his chair to enjoy the response, knowing already what it will be.
“Oh, she is the most incredible woman,” the young man instantly lights up. “My grandmother is really special to me, and she is so strong in her Catholic faith. In fact, I think I owe my vocation to the priesthood to her,” he reflects. The vocations director nods knowingly. Every candidate for the priesthood that has come into his office has said the same thing.
Wine Out of Water
Photo: Courtesy Carrie Anderson
“We had been craving community at St. Monica [Parish on Mercer Island], just wanting some kind of couple’s group,” Bill recounted. “Father Freitag was talking about the dissolution of marriages. … Divorce after divorce. It was on his heart that we need prayers for these marriages, and they need help. So it was something that was on our heart,” he told me.
Inspired during eucharistic adoration together, Bill and Carrie Anderson gathered a group of six couples from the parish to meet regularly for dinner about two years ago. They share wine, laughter and fellowship. After dinner, they pray a rosary. They meet in the spirit of the wedding at Cana, as indicated by their name, WOW: Wine Out of Water. (see John 2:1-11)
A Better Way to Care for Women’s Health
Bella has painful and irregular periods.
Anna suffers from endometriosis.
Marylin deals with polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Pamela has acne.
They were all prescribed the birth control pill to control their symptoms.
But there is a better way! A way consistent with the dignity of women and authentic sexuality, a way that treats underlying causes and respects a woman’s total health, a way free of the Pill’s risks of depression, weight gain, nausea, cancer, blood clotting and early abortions.
Godparents and Grandparents, Give Gifts that Grow Faith
Photo: Janis Olson
When I was a little girl visiting my wonderful Catholic grandmother in Edmonds, she would often send me home with the gift of a few volumes from Father Lawrence Lovasik’s Books of Saints series. I would pore over them, admiring the color illustrations of the holy men and women. I took note of their feast days and areas of patronage.
My grandma still never fails to give meaningful and beautiful Catholic gifts for all her family’s baptisms, first Communions and confirmations. These gifts have blessed our domestic church and inspired our spiritual life. With Easter, first Communion and Confirmation season upon us, I offer a collection of faith-building gift ideas for grandparents and godparents, aunties and uncles, catechists and parents.
Continue reading “Godparents and Grandparents, Give Gifts that Grow Faith”
The Liturgy of the Hours in the Domestic Church
Photo: Shuttershock
After turning off the lights in the kids’ rooms at nighttime, Andrew Casad and his wife, Michelle, pray their own ad hoc version of the Liturgy of the Hours’ night prayer together with their school-aged children, Miriam and Joshua. It is the last thing they do together as a family before the children go to sleep. Andrew observed that he and Michelle found, accidentally, that this family prayer ritual “can create a sense of structure.” Night prayer imparts a peaceful, calming sense of closure to the end of the day. Continue reading “The Liturgy of the Hours in the Domestic Church”
Couple Prayer with Scripture
Photo: Shuttershock
Two couples share about the power of praying together with the word of God.
You never know when a tentative new habit of couple prayer will turn out to be a lifeline. A reader recently sent me the following:
“About a year ago, shortly after our 49th wedding anniversary, my husband and I began somewhat hesitantly to pray a kind of evening prayer together right after dinner, right at the dinner table and before cleaning up the kitchen. It proceeded in fits and starts until we found a way of making it feel right for us.
“In our case, that meant he would bring out his Bible and devotional book, an ecumenical one particularly good for a ‘mixed’ couple (he is Lutheran and I am Catholic). He would lead us in two or three brief readings of Scripture and meditations, which had impressed him in his own morning devotional time.
The Challenges – and Blessings – of Bringing Kids to Mass
Photo composite: M. Laughlin/Shutterstock
Six tips for heading off toddler terrorism in the pews
“My brother set the Advent wreath on fire.” Jennifer Fulwiler is a mom of six young children and the author of “Something Other Than God,” which chronicles her conversion from atheism to Catholicism. A year ago she invited her blog readers to share their worst experience taking children to Mass, and she received scores of stories in reply. Stories of toddler terrorism, untimely bodily emissions and utterly mortifying utterances, and yes, even a flaming Advent wreath. As I read through them, I was simultaneously reduced to helpless tears of laughter, bonded in warm and knowing camaraderie with all my fellow Catholic moms and dads in the trenches, and sighing in relief (at least my children have never run careening away from my grasp toward the altar during Mass — yet!).
Continue reading “The Challenges – and Blessings – of Bringing Kids to Mass”
