Ginny’s Gems

As pro-life Catholics, Barth and Abbie Bracy don’t want to pay for health insurance that covers elective abortion, but under the Affordable Care Act, they don’t have much choice. The Bracys’ health-insurance plan is set to expire in November, and all policies currently offered by Access Health CT, Connecticut’s health care exchange, include coverage for elective abortions.

Being organized often seems impossible, & moms ask “Why try again?” Here are 3 simple themes broken into 13 easy tips to give you fresh hope and order!

by Dave Armstrong | One of the most fascinating of Luther's beliefs has to do with the question of Mary's Immaculate Conception (her being preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception). Luther had a rather “high” Mariology in many respects.

by Ken Clark | Back in the golden age of Hollywood, major studios made religious movies that actually praised God and religion. Charleton Heston alone seems to have played most of the Apostles and Prophets. Who can forget his roles as Moses in The Ten Commandments or John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told, two excellent religious movies.

Jim Morlino from Navis Pictures, Director of EWTN favorites 'The War of the Vendee' and 'St Bernadette of Lourdes', is helming a new film to be completed by December 2014. "The Sanctuary" is an exciting and poignant, feature-length drama set in 1949 about a group of plucky children who escape the "confines" of their orphanage - only to find themselves lost in a forest of confusion and unrest.

by Abby Sasscer | The biggest change in our family this year is that Baby girl decided that she was ready to sleep in the “big” girls’ room with her sister. My heart is aching from this inevitable change and I’m still not used to seeing all this empty space at the foot of our bed. Sniff...sniff…..

As a homeschooling Mom and a Theology student at Franciscan University of Steubenville, learning new theology lessons is a daily occurence. What is amazing to me is that it is ...

Kids Corner | Download this ‘Glory of Easter’ Crossword! A fun activity to challenge your knowledge of facts and trivia. For all ages! Answer these questions: 1) The Feast of St. Joseph the ___ is celebrated on May 1st. 2) He was bishop of Alexandria in the 4th century; his feast is May 2nd.

by John Clark | In the homeschool world, articles abound about how to teach our children to write well. They tend to cover areas such as how to outline, how to write a strong thesis statement, and so forth. These articles are certainly necessary, but as we teach our children composition, we need to remember another aspect of good writing.

by Pope Francis | The transmission of the faith not only brings light to men and women in every place; it travels through time, passing from one generation to another. Because faith is born of an encounter which takes place in history and lights up our journey through time, it must be passed on in every age.

Some of the best adventures for family field trips are the Catholic shrines located all around the country. These shrines are sometimes tucked into the smallest slivers of land in the middle of cities, surrounded on all sides by soaring skyscrapers. Sometimes they are just off the main highway and millions pass by unknowing each day. And sometimes they are so far down abandoned and forgotten roads that having but a quarter tank of gas seems a potential hazard.

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | In Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Jimmy Burden, the narrator who relates the story of his life in Nebraska and the lives of the immigrant families who settled in the Midwest, recalls an illuminating moment in his study of Virgil at the University of Nebraska.

by Dave Armstrong | Non-Catholic Christians and the secular world have used the Inquisitions, the Crusades, and the Galileo incident, as “clubs” to bash the Church for almost 500 years. I did so myself, in my Protestant apologist days. But such critics almost invariably distort the known facts in order to do so.

Marlicia Fernandez shares ideas on how we can draw closer to Mary, and honor our Blessed Mother during the month of May, Mary's month!

by Monica McConkey | Forty days is a long time! Although our Lenten program pales in comparison to Jesus’ sojourn in the desert, we recognize the struggles of our sacrifices and resolutions and how difficult they can be to maintain for forty whole days.

Kids' Corner | Download this 'The Passion & Resurrection' Word Puzzle! A fun activity to for all ages! Search for these words: Emmaus, John, death, DivineMercy, gardener, Supper, Eucharist, Magdalen, Sunday, Penance, priests

by John Clark | I have noticed a plethora of domestically-relevant articles (such as household tips) lately on this site, and have observed that they are usually written by women. But women shouldn’t have a monopoly on ideas, so I thought it was time to put a man’s perspective on things.

by Mary Lou Warren | Recently I came across a Wall Street Journal article on homeschooling in China which caught my attention. I was surprised at the concept that homeschooling might even be considered in China of all places. Surprise, surprise, according to the article, homeschooling is becoming popular there.

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | The world’s great writers never cease to marvel at the world’s lack of common sense. Why does man, famously identified by Aristotle as a “rational animal” with an inborn desire for truth (“All men by nature desire to know,” he writes in the Metaphysics) demonstrate so many forms of folly that another great writer, Henry Fielding, remarked that a comic writer can never lack material for satire and laughter because “life everywhere furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.”

by Dave Armstrong | The film Noah has made quite a splash. I have not yet seen it, as of this writing. I'm particularly interested in judging how true to the Bible it is. Most Catholic reviewers have given mixed reviews in that regard and also in the artistic sense, with various degrees of approval or disapproval.