Speaking at the Faith of Fire Catholic Family Conference at St. Mary in Anacortes this weekend!

I gave two talks this weekend for the awesome Faith on Fire Catholic family conference; for the kids and youth I gave a vocation talk we called “Your Amazing Future: Preparing Yourself for Your Own Happily Ever After.” For the women, I gave a talk called “Women of Mercy: The Dignity and Vocation of Women and the Year of Mercy.”

Continue reading “Speaking at the Faith of Fire Catholic Family Conference at St. Mary in Anacortes this weekend!”

Synod on the Family

Pope Francis opens the Synod on the Family

Here is the English translation of the Final Report of the Synod on the Family from October of 2015!

And here is an excellent presentation on the same by Dr. John Grabowski.

My own Prezi slideshow from my talk on the Synods on the Family is here. I gave this talk to the UW Newman Center in November of 2015, and a slightly edited version to Legatus of Portland (January 5, 2016) and Legatus of Seattle (January 6, 2016).

 

 

Your Place in the Domestic Church

“The work of evangelization begins at home.” –Pope Francis, April 2014

These are the resources included on the handout for the talk I gave at Holy Rosary, Edmonds on Sept. 19. The talk provided lots of practical ways to live out the liturgical year in the domestic church. You can download a PDF of the handout here, but all the live links are below. Continue reading “Your Place in the Domestic Church”

The Work of the Synods on the Family: 2014-2015

The pastoral needs of the Family in the world today are the focus of the two synods of October, 2014 and October, 2015. On February 4th, 2015, I presented a talk outlining the work of these two synods, as well as a little explanation about the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

This talk was a real high for me. Over 900 feet high, to be specific! I spoke in the swank Columbia Tower Club to the Seattle chapter of Legatus, a group of Catholic business leaders and their spouses. What a fun group they were!

Here is the Prezi slideshow for this presentation:

Towards the Ordinary Synod on the Family: October 2015

The Dignity and Vocation of Women

What a joy to speak on the Feminine Genius with the St. Rita’s Court Catholic Daughters of America! This presentation was given at St. Mary Magdalen parish in Everett, WA on January 31, 2015.

References are included in the Prezi slideshow, here:

Slideshow for Talk on the Dignity and Vocation of Woman

I also spoke about the amazing study group, Endow (click for link), and the stunning Humanum video series (…and that’s also a link).

I recommended the website Culture of Life Africa, where you can find An Open Letter to Melinda Gates, by Obianuju Ekeocha

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Marriages

This presentation was given at Holy Family Church in Kirkland, WA, on August 5, 2013.

View the Prezi slideshow here.

The Benefits of Marriage:

Why work on strengthening marriage? Husbands and wives enjoy better physical health, quicker recovery from disease and injuries, longer life, greater incomes and household wealth, greater mental health and happiness, and greater satisfaction in their sexual lives than their single, cohabiting, or divorced counterparts. Children growing up with their married mother and father are happier, do better academically, have fewer problems with drugs, delinquency, and early sexual activity, and have more successful marriages of their own than those raised by single, unmarried, or divorced parents. Married households have more resources to devote to the community in volunteer and service work.

Marriages facing serious trouble can find great help in the Retrouvaille program

The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Marriages:

1. Develop Good Communication Skills

2. Work Together on Money Management

3. Learn how to Manage Conflict

4. Share Faith and Values

5. Respect the Sanctity of Sex in Marriage

  • Premarital sex and cohabiting are linked to higher rates of divorce
  • They are correlated with higher rates of infidelity in marriage, another big factor in divorce
  • Pornography use is also cited as a major factor in divorce
  • Chastity is the virtue of using sex as God intended: exclusively with your husband or wife to celebrate a total mutual self-giving in a faithful, life-long and life-giving covenant.
  • No matter what choices we’ve made in the past, Christ can always give us the grace to be made new in Him. He can restore our dignity and help us grow in chastity, healing the effects of sin and giving us the power of His own love to strengthen, purify, and elevate the love we share with our husband or wife in our marriage today and in the future.

6. Practice Natural Family Planning rather than contraception to space births when necessary

  • The levels of intimacy, communication, respect, self-control, and mutual responsibility required by NFP draws couples together. Here is a great post about the benefits in marriage of using NFP from the husband’s perspective (he and his wife switched to NFP from the Pill after several years of marriage). And some more testimonies of NFP couples.
  • Some data suggests that couples practicing NFP have a divorce rate of 0.2%. Conservatively adjusted, still less than 5%.

7. Grow in Holiness and Virtue

  • Draw on the power of the Sacraments to connect with the Source of Love (God Himself!).