By Sheri Wohlfert When I was a little girl, a new school year came with some guarantees: a new dress, new shoes, new pencils and some excited sleepless nights. This new school year is teeming with uncertainty instead of familiar guarantees and expectations. In the face of this uncertainty, here are some strategies to help [...]
By Dr. Cathleen McGreal Children do get exposed to violence. How many murders do you think children will observe on television by the time they complete elementary school? According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children who are daily viewers of four hours of TV (non-educational programming) will see about 8,000 murders! Video games become more [...]
Story by Sheri Wohlfert As Catholic parents, we have the privilege of leading our children to Jesus. We get to share the story of his love, mercy, redemption and salvation. Our children are a gift, and it’s our job to set them on the path toward heaven. God uses us as instruments of his grace, [...]
By Cynthia Kaan Many families experience divisions at one time or another — disagreements about holidays, inheritance, perceived parental favoritism and more can lead to periods where someone in the family is not speaking to someone else. Especially as we approach the holidays, how can we move beyond those divides and press the reset button? [...]
Story by Joe Pisani Every morning, I start my day by praying the daily offering and the Liturgy of the Hours, but then I make a major miscalculation. I leave behind the spiritual realm and jump right into the morning news … and my inner peace is disrupted. It’s the same old stuff, which is [...]
By Father Charles Irvin Great flood of killing has inundated the world in which we precariously live. Killing human beings is as easily justified as eating between meals. Pope John Paul II points out that we live in a culture of death – “we” including people all over the world, not just Americans. War, abortion, [...]
Story by Peter Burak What we look at has the power to change us. Our eyes are like portals to our imagination. Seeing something has a unique ability to stimulate new thoughts, clarify former ideas and significantly alter our perception. To gaze upon the Grand Canyon, the face of a child or, more problematically, images [...]
By Michelle DiFranco A couple of months ago, it all began. Cancellations of large events, followed by cancellations of schools and then … the cancellation of Mass. News of the pandemic was changing every minute for the worst … it was something that, for most of us, felt unreal. I vividly remember one day needing [...]
By Elizabeth Johnson The long, hazy days of summer may be “ordinary” time in the Church year, but the liturgical calendar for July and August reads like an All-Star line-up of the saints, including some heavy hitters like Mary Magdalene, Benedict, and Maximillian Kolbe. Here’s a look at some of the key players on [...]
By Father Dwight Ezop It usually happens sometime during the first week of June each year. I find myself excitedly thinking that summer is finally here and that things will slow down just a little bit around the parish. After all, by then, most of the major parish events of the spring have been [...]