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Love Your Enemies: The Forgiveness Dare
This Lent, I decided to do something different. I decided it was time to start working on loving my enemies: both past and present. I was inspired by the words of Cardinal Robert Sarah in his book The Power of Silence: “The devil invites mankind to rebellion and disorder…he sows discord and incites us to pour out our hatred upon each other…(but God) teaches us to pray for our enemies. He constantly murmurs, ‘The disciples of my beloved Son have no enemies. Your heart must not have enemies either.'” Cardinal Sarah The words, “Your heart must not have enemies either” were especially challenging to me. The dialogue began, “Really, Lord, no enemies?” What about (fill-in-the blank?) surely you weren’t talking about that guy? Surely he deserves my hatred. And don’t get me…
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Attending the World Gathering of Families and Papal Infallibility
I am Catholic — like really, really Catholic. I’m also Irish — well, technically Irish-American — but that’s practically the same thing in my book. Which is why, when my niece happened to ask us if we were going to attend the World Gathering of Families in Dublin, it set us on a trajectory which we hadn’t anticipated. All of a sudden, we found ourselves booking flights and cars and Airbnb’s and 8 months later, we were in the middle of Dublin, alongside a sea of people, on the way to the Festival of Families. It was an amazing night. The Riverdance troupe almost brought the house down and Bocelli…
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Hiking Croagh Patrick and Discovering the Real St. Patrick
Find yourself at a typical bar or pub in America on St. Patrick’s Day, and many a person might be surprised to discover that St. Patrick was not actually a beer guzzling leprechaun. It isn’t likely to win you any friends at the pub on St. Patrick’s day — but it is a point worth making. In fact, Patrick was an amazing warrior of a man. His memory deserves to be kept alive because he had an heroic love for people that once oppressed him — and that love helped transform an entire nation of people. So go ahead, enjoy a pint or two on St. Patricks’ Day — but…
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Making Sense of Suffering
I begin this post on a day that I am wrestling to make sense of the tragic death of a young mother — a faithful Catholic, getting ready to jump into her minivan of little kids and head off to Ash Wednesday Mass. There are no words. Please pray for her soul and for her family. I must admit my first response was “Why her”? Why does a beautiful young mother with young children who desperately need her, tragically die on the way out to Mass? It just doesn’t make sense. Her mother and father are model Catholics, faithfully living out the Gospel and serving the poorest of the poor.…
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Lent: What’s Love Got to Do With It
“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,There’s always laughter and good red wine.” Hillaire Belloc I just love this quote for so many reasons. Of course, I would add “strong espresso and Prosecco” to Belloc’s list, but Belloc’s point, I believe, is that the truly Catholic man or woman knows the secret to living well. If that quote doesn’t resonate with you, then maybe it’s because too many Catholics have never fully embraced what it means to be Catholic. Too many of us have been influenced by the extremes of Puritanism and Hedonism — and in the process we have failed to truly live like Catholics. Which is why many may…
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Holding on to Hope
Oh February! It has come close to getting the better of me on several occasions — bouts of sickness, exhaustion, little sunlight and motivation — but I am happy to say I think I’m going to make it through! How about you? If there is anything good to be said about February, it is that February is the month that I grow the most in the virtue of hope. Like any virtue, hope can only grow when it is tested. More specifically, it can only grow when we are tested, and so I guess I should be thanking February for always making me exercise the virtue of hope in new…
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The Winter of Our Discontent…a.k.a How to Make Good Choices in Life
“Now is the winter of our discontentMade glorious summer by this sun of York;And all the clouds that lour’d upon our houseIn the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” William Shakespeare, Richard III Can somebody please make it stop snowing? Really! I’m absolutely done with all the cold and the slush and the ice? How about you? For those of us in the Midwest, summer is but a figment of our imagination — a promise of better days, soaked with sunshine and berries and every good thing. February, on the other hand, is the absolute worst of all the winter months — and so we buckle up and we grow…
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A Call to Honesty: Art and Architecture
“We’ve had enough exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a thousand tongues – I see the world is rotten because of silence.” St. Catherine of Siena I should begin this post by saying I am no art expert. I am just a girl who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, subjected to the typically horrendous art, architecture and music that made its way into many Catholic Churches in those decades. Even as a small child, I had a strong visceral reaction to it. I sensed there was something off, something discordant about it. Then I went to Europe and was immersed in beautiful art and architecture — and…
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Taking the Time to Be Renewed
That time I hiked Croagh Patrick in Ireland, looked down upon all the beauty below and had a pretty good idea why St. Patrick decided to spend 40 days in prayer and fasting here. 😍 Don’t get me wrong. It is cold and windy and the conditions on top of this mountain were quite extreme — but Patrick knew the value of sacrifice, of mortification, of taking time away from the world around him so he could be with God — and God alone. Patrick loved the pagan world around him, and wanted to bring the Light of Christ to them — only he was well aware of all of…
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Rooting Bitterness Out of Our Lives
“The devil invites mankind to rebellion and disorder…he sows discord and incites us to pour out our hatred upon each other…” ~Cardinal Sarah~ I have had to work through some things this week. I have had to work through anger and sadness and repulsion at the meanness of men. But one thing I have learned in life is that I can not stay in that place of anger. I have learned that I must allow that anger to move me to the right and proper action and then I must let that anger go. Because if we don’t let that anger go, it will begin to fester like a thorn…
