Thoughts on the Vicissitudes of Michael Voris & Co. UPDATED

Actually, I have none. Really. I mean stuff like this happens all the time to me. I'm a father of three children and they are all the time doing stuff that a) I don't know about; b) I don't approve of; and c) that I didn't teach them to do. Guess what? I love them anyway.

Recognizing Grace in a Manual Transmission

This past week, I've been on vacation. Actually, it's been a "stay-cation," with me working on little projects around the house. The repairs to our home after the hail damage (from the storms back in April) needed to be managed as well. And then there was my car.

Because Family Has No Perfect Picture

There are neat people everywhere. Yes, you have them in your parish too. And they are outside your parish as well, waiting for you to invite them to join the family. Or to expand your own family, like one of my fellow parishioners has done.

Best. Photograph. Ever. The Incredibles in Action!

Credit: Mark Gormus/Richmond Times Dispatch

Ordinarily, this isn't the kind of post I write. But this is no ordinary photograph. This is family, fun, baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. It's also too good not to share. Life doesn't end when you have children. It begins! And you have some cool people to share experiences with too.

FYI, Dad called the ball. Just sayin'. See the video clip at the link here.

With Gratitude to Grammy

The strong scent of lilies yesterday afternoon transported me back to my childhood and Easter season Sundays with grandmother and the rest of my extended family. Forty years ago, I was a little girl, the youngest of four siblings who piled into a station wagon and traveled many Sundays after Mass across Hudson River's Tappan Zee Bridge with our parents to spend the afternoons with my dad's parents.

Someone at my parish this weekend donated a bouquet of lilies to rest at the feet of the statue of Mary near the altar. I sat in a nearby pew at the 5 p.m. Mass.

To Train My Family to Pray, And Lead Them By Example

-Feast of St. Peter Chanel 

Joe Six-Pack, USMC here. Yesterday my family put into practice prayers that they learned a long time ago. You see, a line of storms was forecast to hit our area, and everyone took them seriously.

Wednesday nights are when many parishes hold their C.C.D. classes for the kids. That's an abbreviation for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes. The teachers called the house and informed us that due to the weather forecasts, classes for tonight would be cancelled.

Because Sometimes Jesus Wears Polyester Shorts

Guest Post by Dwija Borobia

How do I make seeing the light of Christ entertaining? That's what I've been wrestling with in my mind. I can't just say "When we moved to rural Michigan, we basked in the light of Jesus" and then stop.  I can't even say "and he had a white beard," because most people imagine Jesus with a beard, and so it's still not funny. How about this: When we moved here, we saw the light of Jesus and He was wearing polyester shorts. Also He was a woman with red hair (who we'll get to on another day).

Thanks to My Sisters

Guest Post by Julie Cragon 

One of the greatest gifts God has given me through my parents are my sisters. I hope someday my four girls feel the same way. Whenever I feel overworked, they seem to set me straight. Whenever I feel like I want something more or something that someone else has, they put life back in perspective.

Because He's Going to Show Me Even More Than I Can See

The past 24 hours I have spent curled up under blankets, either in our family room or in our bedroom. I am overcome with fatigue and fever and  I've been drinking diet ginger ale and orange juice and praying to feel better soon.

My beloved husband and our sweet sons have been taking care of me, offering me glasses of water, lunch from the deli and kind words. (No, that's not me in the photo. I am not so young, nor do I apply my eye makeup so well!)

Because God's Not Gonna Call You on the Phone

Dwija Borobia, 30, her husband, and their four young children decided to buy a house - sight unseen - in rural Michigan off the internet. Here is a piece of that story.

Guest Post by Dwija Borobia
 
First, a digression. For years my husband and I, who had settled in California, tried to move back to Texas. I love you, Texas, my sweet Lone Star state, what with your awesome, chops-bustin' people and your biggy biggness and your superfine economy.

You have my alma mater (and high school, too.Yes, east Dallas is how I roll) and the best Mexican food this side of Mexico (go to Danal's, eat their salsa, and think of me).

For Your Lenten Friday Night at The Movies III

Today is a Feast Day (and all that this implies)! What better way to celebrate than with burgers and hotdogs on the grill followed by a movie about the greatest game ever invented? Is this heaven?

If it's still too cold to think of grilling where you live, than live vicariously through me and my family. We've been playing baseball since March 14th (my sons team is 5-1 so far) and enjoying every minute of it. Except it was a bit chilly yesterday (shiver me timbers!).

Because I Am Called To Answer

This weekend we discovered my husband no longer has the biggest feet in the house. Our 14-year-old does.

This weekend that same son and I head to New York, to spend time with my mom, and with my 81-year-old dad, a retired surgeon struggling with a puzzling host of health problems, including the waning of memory. I remember clearly my mom and dad visiting St. Peter's University Hospital in New Jersey soon after our son was born with a seizure disorder, how my Harvard-and-Columbia-educated father reassured me as only a father can. I remember standing, bewildered, in the neonatal care unit and my father looking around and telling me my son was in the best possible hands.

For the Psalms and Spring, Family and Sports

—Feast of St. Buonfiglio Monaldo 

It is getting ready to be a very busy time for me and my family. That's because Spring is just around the corner, and around my house this means our children's sports teams will begin hitting the ground running.

Not everyone gets involved in such things as sports for their kids. Not every child enjoys organized soccer, or baseball, or softball, volley ball, basketball, horse riding, or any of the other myriad possibilities to turn your child's attention to.

For Faith In Action: The March For Life (Part II)

Chapter 3: The Youth Mass for Life.

When the idea to come to the March for Life came over me (see embedded link above), I knew that I wanted to attend Mass before the march began. I remembered where the Wee Kirk on the Hill is, and I also remembered a few other parishes from our trip back in the summer. I went to the March for Life website and clicked on the Factsheet to see if anything was planned worship-wise.

A Question For Readers: Faced With Overhearing Racist Remarks, What Would You Do?

—Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus 

Between Christmas and Epiphany, my family took a vacation. Days of pleasant family togetherness were marred only once: by comments my teen-aged son and I heard in the lobby of a chain hotel in central Virginia. He and I were  working at the hotel computers, around the corner from the reception desk. A white clerk behind the desk was telling jokes to another white clerk - using liberally the "n word" as punch lines. I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. I am still struggling, as a Christian, on how best to respond.

Because He Feeds His Lost Sheep

We tried. God knows we really tried. My family and I were driving south from New Jersey and into a blizzard. We had planned to stop for 11 a.m. Mass at St. Anthony of Padua parish in Wilmington, Delaware's Little Italy neighborhood. I had the directions penciled in my Liturgy of the Hours and had even googled a restaurant where we could eat lunch after. But then, I missed the exit on I-95.

For the Love of Saint Andrew: A Christmas Novena, Day 16

I tend to pray this Novena while commuting to work. Something about driving highways makes me meditative. I have been trying, as I pray, to offer up my suffering to ease someone else's and I have been picking a different person each day.

I discovered, however, that what I consider suffering many would consider blessings. Take my annoyance at driving behind a slow-moving truck. It's a bother, yes. But another way to look at it is - hey at least I have a working car and a job to drive too. So many people don't.

I was feeling kind of inadequate about what I consider suffering until a wise, young friend from School of Community suggested it's pretty easy to be noble in the face of supreme suffering. She pointed out that it can be tough, really tough, to seek Christ as we labor through our daily discontentments.

For the Love of Saint Andrew: A Christmas Novena, Day 12

Feast of Pope Saint Damasus I

Guest post by Julie Cragon

Last Christmas, I watched a young couple holding a newborn and playing with young children at a Christmas party. I knew the couple wanted children and was having a difficult time. They have seen doctors and talked to many people and even thought about adoption. I have stayed out of the conversation because they and their family have “thought of and tried everything.”

For the Love of Saint Andrew: A Christmas Novena, Day 11

Feast of Pope Saint Gregory III

Guest Post by Julie Cragon

I was first introduced to the Christmas Novena to Saint Andrew in 1987. After a couple of years of trying to conceive, my husband and I found out we were pregnant early in the year. Along with my two sisters and a sister-in-law, I would have a new baby in November. Unfortunately, we lost our child in late April. By October and November, when the other new little ones were born I was beginning to wonder if we would ever have children.

For the Love of Saint Andrew: A Christmas Novena, Day 7

Feast of St. Nicholas of Myra 

Call me dangerously distracted, but not until I saw this lovely acrylic painting by Roger Hutchison, a parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina, did I realize why the Saint Andrew's Christmas Novena also is a novena for couples trying to conceive. How obvious this now all seems.

Mary, a poor unwed teenager, spent the weeks before Christmas Day anticipating the birth of her son, a son conceived "by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary."