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Embrace Your Femininity…Don’t Erase Your Femininity.
I know that we live in a world that doesn’t always appreciate the contribution that women have made to culture and to history — but frankly, that doesn’t erase the beauty and gift that women are to the world. Yes, men are a gift as well — but they are a different kind of gift — and perhaps the best way to have a more profound appreciation for both sexes is to recognize those differences and embrace them. To be a woman is to be a creature entirely different from a man, so much so, that many a philosopher has explored the beautiful differences that go all the way down…
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Winning at Life
Spoiler Alert: This is not a “how-to” post — I am no expert at winning at life. One thing I’ve observed, though, in those truly happy people I have encountered in life seems to be the willingness to let go of control and even of one’s own plans for their life and to be open to the plans that God has for them. It seems that those who are docile to the Holy Spirit — docile to allowing God to lead them through all the twists of life and trust Him in the midst of it — these are the people who are more disposed to not only finding joy…
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Why Sharing the Faith With Our Kids is Essential
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope the past few weeks have been full of time with family and friends. Today, I shared over on social media my reaction to when I hear a parent saying they don’t want to “impose” their faith on the their kids, and instead will allow them to choose the faith when they’re older. To be honest, I think most parents who share this opinion have the best intentions for their child. They feel it wrong to impose their faith on their kids, as if it were some sort of assault on their free will and liberty — but I’m sorry to say that…
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Preparing Our Hearts and Our Homes for Christmas
I love Christmas, and honestly, I love the preparation of Christmas — at least I love it when I don’t feel the pressure of time slipping away before I’m ready! Every year, Joy Sunday is a big day for us. We get our Christmas tree, blast Christmas music as decorate the house, and get everything ready to celebrate BIG with our family and guests who come to visit over the holidays. It’s a lovely tradition and we all look forward to it. This year was a little different. We have two children away at school and there was a packed Gaudete Sunday weekend with end of semester activities. Instead of…
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Letting Go of the World’s Ideas of Perfection
“I often think that the ideal of our perfection that we set up, and often go through torture to achieve, may not be God’s idea of how He wants us to be at all. That may be something quite different that we never would have thought of, and what seems like a failure to us may really be something bringing us closer to His will for us.” ~Caryll Houselander~ Letting go of our false ideas of “perfect” might be the most difficult thing about being a human being — for many it is a life-long struggle to let go of what the world is saying we ought to be, and…
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A Saint is a Sinner Who Loves
“A Saint is a Sinner Who Loves; It’s that Simple. Catherine Doherty Right now, I’m in the midst of a little Advent Retreat, but I wanted to share this quote I came across in my reading this past week. It is not to be misunderstood as some sort of license to keep on sinning — but rather, it is meant to be encouragement to never give up trying to LOVE with all that is in you. It is in loving others, that we can become better than we once were. It is loving that our cold hearts of stone can be melted and molded into the beautiful, life-giving hearts that…
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Getting Ready for Advent
Hello all, just jumping in here with a friendly reminder that Advent is upon us! As a mom of a biggish family, I thought I would share my #1 tip for making Advent a little bit more prayerful and a little less cray-cray. Drumroll please…..my life changing advice is try to get all your Christmas shopping done before Advent begins…seriously it can completely transform your Advent experience! I know that this may seem like a little thing, but believe me, it makes a big difference. All of that thought and effort early means the kids are not obsessing over gifts and you are not obsessing over gifts and you have…
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An Unexpected First Communion and “Becoming” Greek Orthodox — Part 2
If you haven’t read Last weeks post to understand the background and the differences between the Greek Orthodox Mass and a Roman Catholic Mass, you might want to go back and check that out. In a nutshell, we found ourselves with no Roman Catholic masses available on the Island of Santorini, but a very active Greek Orthodox church. In this scenario, a Roman Catholic is allowed and encouraged to attend the Greek Orthodox services and even to receive communion — if the Greek Orthodox priest will allow it — as we share this Sacrament in common with the Greek Orthodox. The only catch is many Greek Orthodox will not allow…
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An Unexpected First Communion and “Becoming” Greek Orthodox – Part One
Okay, I guess I should say up front, that — spoiler alert — our family is still Roman Catholic, but after having spent a week and a half in Greece and experiencing their different rite of worship, we feel a kinship with them that we hadn’t before felt. Maybe I should begin by saying that the Greek Orthodox are Catholic, but they are Eastern Catholics who split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 (not to be confused with Byzantine Rites that are Eastern Catholics who recognize the Pope), and there is a history of tension that still exists between them. This tension is over a few differences, including but…
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St. John Paul II and Seeking Jesus
Today is the Feast of St John Paul II. Honestly, he is one of my favorites! To encounter JPII was to encounter a true Father. He had a special love for young people — and we felt that love with every event, every word directed towards us. He understood our search for meaning and purpose and happiness in our lives — and he had a way of helping us understand that Jesus was the source of all of it. He understood our restlessness, and he met it with the TRUTH — he was willing to speak the truth, even when it was difficult or unpopular — and that truth SET…
