I didn't jump on the #metoo bandwagon not because I have not been sexually harassed. By God's grace, I have never been assaulted or raped and it is only His grace that I give credit, because there have been times I sensed very real danger, but got out of it quickly. Yes, most women in the military …
The Blood, We Thought It Was Some Kind Of Fluke
Two months ago, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to my husband yelling for me. He was standing over our sink coughing up blood. He had coughed up blood a few years ago and had a lesion on his lungs, but it healed. We thought it was some kind of fluke. It wasn’t. It was …
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Catholic Exchange: Men Are in Desperate Need of the Church
I realize that I didn't post my Catholic Exchange piece from last week to the blog. Here it is: Our culture launches a brutal assault against men. It comes from two different fronts with seemingly contradictory attacks. The first is the radical form of feminism that has grown in prominence over the course of the last …
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Catholic Exchange: Healing the Wounds of Rejection
It happens to every penitent who frequently seeks forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. We trudge, once more, to the confessional door and upon our entry, lament to the priest that we are once again confessing the same sins. It’s been a week, a month, a year, and it’s the same sins. We are tired …
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Holiness is the Answer to Evil
Yesterday I decided to briefly post some of my thoughts on the recent horror that occurred in Las Vegas on Facebook. In typical fashion, the abominable event has turned into a chance for political grand-standing. As a human being and as a Catholic, I have grown tired of this typical fight that inevitably does us …
Keep Getting Back Up
I realized that my writing may make people think I have it more together than I actually do. The thing about writers is, we see great truths--especially in the grips of suffering--and want to share those insights with others. That doesn't mean we've actually mastered what we write about. I am no exception. I have …
Catholic Exchange: How is Mourning Blessed?
This week we will examine the second Beatitude: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). This Beatitude may in fact be the hardest for Fallen human beings to understand. Suffering, pain, and affliction are aspects of the human condition. We have all experienced—or soon will—the devastation of losing someone we …
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Catholic Exchange: Finding Laughter and Joy Amidst Suffering
I will continue my series on the Beatitudes and the work of Servais Pinckaers next week. My husband was in the hospital for 2.5 days with a partially collapsed lung, so I was unable to delve deeper into the Beatitudes. Since I spent more time in the hospital with my husband this week, I thought the topic of laughter …
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Catholic Exchange. How are the Poor in Spirit Blessed?
Last week we began taking a look at the Beatitudes and how they serve as a roadmap for finding happiness in this life and in the next. It’s now time to turn to each of the individual Beatitudes in order to consider how we are called to live our lives in such a radical way. The …
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Catholic Exchange: Made for the Happiness Found in the Beatitudes
We are made for happiness. At the deepest level of our existence, God has made us to be happy. This happiness, we must remember, comes from God alone. He created us to find our total and complete joy within the Blessed Trinity. Everything else we experience in our daily lives is a shadow of the love …
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