When a person complains, his creative abilities break free. But it’s also proof to me that we fallen humans don’t commend people well; we don’t thank them enough; and we pat each other on the back far too little.
Read More »8 Steps to Homeschool Success for Dads
With humor and sound advice, Ed Gudan outlines an 8-step plan to help fathers support their wives & live out their commitment to homeschooling.
Read More »Moderate Consumption: The 3rd Principle of The Simple Life
When I was in fourth grade, I brazenly asked my father to buy me a pair of penny loafers. You see, the penny loafer fad had not fully caught on around my school yet, but I wanted to be among the first to own one. After waiting an eternity for his reply, he answered “Abby, we cannot give you everything… but we will deprive you of nothing.” I didn’t quite understand what my father meant. I figured it was just a nice way of saying “no.”
Read More »God’s Little Flower Cactus: A Harder Path to Holiness
Unlike lovely flowers in gardens, which require constant tending, “gentle dew,” and “spring breezes,” the cactus has a much stronger constitution, for it does not need these things in order to survive and thrive. Because of the toughness of the cactus, it is able to take root and flourish in an environment where nothing can grow without a struggle.
Read More »4 Ways to Stop Blaming Yourself as a Parent
First, stop insisting that you “went wrong” with your kids. I don’t know exactly how Jesus felt when He was betrayed by Judas. But I do know this: I know that Jesus did not wonder where He went wrong with Judas. Jesus didn’t “go wrong.”
Read More »“Why My Child?” – Dealing with a Handicapped Child
It wasn’t until she was almost two, and I was expecting our second child that the first symptoms appeared. Night terrors would wake her, screaming and crying. At first we thought she was unsettled because a new sibling would be arriving soon and that because her father would be going on a remote assignment without us for a year
Read More »Courage, Compassion and Correction: St Alphonsus Liguori on Raising Godly Children
Excerpts from Sermon XXXVI from The Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori, TAN Books and Publishing Children are More than Presents God gives children to parents not that they may assist ...
Read More »Balance – An Alternating Rhythm
In Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s classic Gift from the Sea the author, using the leisure and recollection of a summer vacation at the ocean, reflects on the art of living a ...
Read More »Bad Boys Gone Good
A recent Seton graduate informed us that he had chosen Moses for his Confirmation patron. No, not THAT Moses! There was, in fact, another Moses from the same Egyptian locality who was as colorful a character as the great Patriarch. August 28th could well be termed the feast day for bad boys gone good...
Read More »Obedience: The Bedrock for Harmony and Order in the Home
by Fr Frank Papa | We all are commanded to obey the Ten Commandments because they were given by God the Father to Moses for all of us to obey. Jesus, the Son of God, repeated the Ten Commandments and the requirement for all to obey them. We all are required to be obedient to God’s commandments. Sin is disobedience to the laws of God.
Read More »Spontaneity: Transfiguring the World Through a Compliment
In O. Henry’s short story “The Social Triangle,” Ikey Snigglefritz, a simple tailor’s apprentice, receives his week’s wages and on his way home enters the Café Maginnis. There he accidentally ...
Read More »5 Steps to Teen Motivation
by Sarah Rose | Are your teens always completing their research reports at the last minute, or not completing them at all? Do your teens complain that their school work is pointless? Did you recently begin homeschooling and do your teens miss their old school and old friends? Are they rebellious and disrespectful?
Read More »Mary Magdalene: Standing with Jesus
After Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on that glorious first Easter Sunday morning, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, one of the disciples. Only the twelve apostles were the first official witnesses to Jesus’ Resurrection and His appearances (Acts 10:39-42), but she was the first to tell the apostles that Jesus had risen.
Read More »What if Something Happens? Dealing with the Unfamiliar
Bob Weisner counsels that life is inevitably filled with “somethings” so trust in God and take responsibility for yourself in life’s unfamiliar situations. A friend recently related a rather scary ...
Read More »Bear One Another’s Burdens
A couple of weeks ago I attended the annual conference of the National Stuttering Association in Scottsdale, Arizona. Why anyone schedules a conference in Scottsdale in July is beyond me ...
Read More »“I Don’t Know Much About Art…”
by Jim Morlino | “…but I know what I like.” goes the oft repeated saying. I think there’s actually a lot of wisdom contained there. A piece of art either speaks to you or it doesn’t. Art, at its most basic level is, a primal communication.
Read More »‘Be Nice’: Love in the Face of Sorrow
“But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” Matthew 5:44 Those who would say ...
Read More »Avoiding Foolish Arguments
The Devil thrives on conflict and dissension. Division or “legion” is his name. Whether it is wars between nations, heresy or schism in the Church, or divorce in families, the ...
Read More »Once Upon a Time
When I was perhaps eleven or twelve years old, I happened upon a piece of music called Once Upon a Time. It was from a Broadway play that I had ...
Read More »Children: The Consolation of God
Certain things in life seem common to all men. The physical things are the most obvious: we all need to eat and to sleep, and we all need shelter. But ...
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