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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…
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We Begin Again
There is something about confession — something completely transformative — and yet so often we find ourselves going through the motions of a confession without really resolving to try to change moving forward from that moment of grace and forgiveness. It’s not to say that we won’t fall into the same sins again, but we should never accept those sins as part of who we are and we should never give up trying to put them in the past and keep them there. We are not our sins — not our sexual sins, our anger, our hatred or addictions — I could go on, but you get the idea. The…
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Athens, Wildfires & Praying from the Heart
We live in a culture in which a lot of really good and decent people remain silent about their deepest held beliefs — while overly outspoken (often narcissistic) men and women make a living off of filling the world with inflammatory and offensive content, instilling fear and division wherever they go. Perhaps those people who make a living off of riling people up have turned us off to the really important truth that we have a duty to share the Gospel with the world around us. Perhaps we’ve accepted the fact that we can’t do much to stem the tide and to share the good news with a world that…
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Trying to Get Back Into the Pace of Life and Some Quotes that Keep Me Going
Hello everybody! I’ve been trying to get back to regular posting over here, trying to find my pace in every day life, and trying to readjust to school beginning next week. Suffice it to say, I’m still working on finding the rhythm that will work for myself and the family. I’m going to try to post an actual post next week, but here’s some quotes I’ve been sharing over on my public pages on Instagram and Facebook. Speaking of that, I’m also trying to find the balance between posting over there and writing here….often I find myself posting there every day and then trying to write weekly over here…which has…
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Shaking Off the Shroud of Fear
This last year and a half has been very interesting, to say the least. Though, to be honest, if you look at history, what we’ve experienced the past 18 months is not really all that unique and not anywhere close to the worst pandemics we’ve had to deal with. Perhaps the difference is that we have white-washed death and dying to such an extent in our culture that many people have actually forgotten that one day they will be dead and buried — 6 feet under — and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change that reality! Perhaps we’ve all become great, big control freaks and finding ourselves…
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Lots of Changes Happening
This week, we drop two of our kids off at school and will return to the final days of summer — with two less children in our home! So many emotions happening right now! I am so happy that my kids are going to great places, but I also really just wish we could always live together at home as a family. Forever and ever. Amen! But, I know that is not how it was meant to be. Our kids were meant to go off and do things with their lives — things that could bring them to far off places, without us! I’m just so grateful for John and…
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It’s Been a While and Where I’ve been
Well, hello there! It’s been a while! Truth be told, it’s been one of those summers where I was just keeping my head above water. We had graduation parties and home improvements and we were getting ready for an epic family pilgrimage adventure, following the footsteps of St. Paul in Greece. I have to admit, I lost a lot of sleep over this trip. I can’t explain it but to say that the world has gone a bit crazy and to leave the shire that is our home and step into the craziness of bureaucracies and rising covid numbers in far off lands — in the middle of this never-ending…
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How Denying Communion to Somebody Can Be a Merciful and Loving Act
Okay, going to say this up front, “YES!” to deny somebody Communion can actually be the most loving and merciful act a Bishop can do. Now, hear me out on this one. There is much discussion right now about the Bishops coming up with a united message and policy in regards to approaching a public figure who is persisting in serious sin in a public way and then presenting themselves for communion. To be honest, in many ways, this question was already solved about 2,000 years ago with one of our very first priests and Bishops, St. Paul. That’s right, he addressed this very question because he saw people getting…
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The Importance of Summer Days
Ah, summer, I just love summer! For me, just the word SUMMER makes me smile. It brings to mind images of sunshine, sundresses, laughter, celebration, swinging on porches while crickets chirp nearby and epic family adventures. How about you? I suppose if every day were as carefree as a summer day, summer wouldn’t be as special as it is — but every day is not like a carefree summer day — and that is why summer has a special place in my heart. When I talk about Heaven with my kids, it is the days of summer that most quickly come to mind. When I envision the place that God…
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To Be a Woman is a GIFT
To be a woman is a GIFT, and I just wish every woman would realize just how much of a gift it is. I wish I could convince her that her femininity and her unique feminine genius should be cherished and embraced and shared with others. There are some forces in the world that seem to be intent upon hiding the glory that it is to be a woman — who try to keep women from truly embracing what makes them different from men and instead tries to force us into some warped idea of what it means to be a woman. They stand to benefit from manipulating women into…
