Ginny’s Gems

by Ginny Seuffert | Every student must have strong background in both composition and public speaking. The best way to teach your child how to write is to enroll in Seton’s English program and follow the lesson plans closely, but in my experience composition is the last assignment parents and students tackle.

by Dave Armstrong | We can learn a lot from words: especially if we go back to the Latin roots of many of our English words. All Christians are familiar with the notion of God being the Creator. He made all things from nothing (theologians describe this with the wonderful Latin phrase, creatio ex nihilo).

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | The custom of visiting on Sundays and holidays, once a natural part of a human life, has waned in the last fifty years. Visitors feel the obligation to call in advance and ask permission lest they impose or inconvenience their hosts. Hosts who receive visitors sense the need to have ample provisions...

by Christine Capolino | Startling blue skies. Crisp, clear mornings and halcyon spring afternoons. An impromptu game of marbles. Discovering a family of ladybugs on the kitchen windowsill. Jungle animals imagined in drifting cloud formations. Quiet togetherness watering newly planted pansies. Joyful noise in piano and recorder tunes.

by Bob Wiesner | The Te Deum is an ancient prayer of praise, dating to the 4th Century. Traditionally ascribed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, composed to commemorate Augustine’s baptism, scholars now also argue for the authorship of Saint Hilary or Bishop Nicetas of Remesiana. Whoever wrote it, it has a long history in the Church.

John Clark shares ideas for when you've got no time to be in the kitchen, and how to cook meals in less than thirty minutes.

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | The French phrase “déjà vu” (already seen) carries a negative connotation. If something is déjà vu, it means that one has done something, been someplace, or had an experience that he does not want to repeat, revisit, or undergo again.

by Sarah Rose | The month of March is dedicated to Saint Joseph. Chosen by God to be the foster-father of Jesus, Saint Joseph is perhaps the greatest saint, the one person, after Mary, closest to the Heart of Jesus.

by Dave Armstrong | Some things are so obvious that we take them for granted. We don't feel that we need to “argue” them because we casually assume that everyone “knows they are true.” The old Frank Sinatra song comes to my mind: “Love and marriage: go together like a horse and carriage . . .”

Want the latest news from Pope Francis or the Vatican? Ever have a question about a prayer or response said in the liturgy or the significance or historical development of ...

from a Homeschooling Mother | The reason I began to homeschool is not a single reason. I was disheartened at the level of education my eldest son was receiving in the public school. In addition, we were staunch fighters against the so-called “family education,” which was nothing more than a cover and masthead for sex education.

Download this ‘St Joseph’ Crossword! A fun activity to challenge your knowledge of facts and trivia. For all ages! Answer these questions: On Good Friday, we remember Jesus’ ___. | Jesus celebrated the Last ___ on Holy Thursday.

Jim Shanley This past February, our daughter Katie married her fellow Christendom graduate, Peter Spiering. It was one of those joyful rest stops on our family’s journey of life. In ...

by John Clark | Does social networking fulfill man’s need to partake of society, thus removing his binary reduction to man or beast? Is the internet a society at all? These are philosophical questions best left to sociologists. I don’t have the answers. I merely ask them in an everyday, pedestrian sense.

by Mitchell Kalpakgian | In the “Preface” to The Great Divorce C. S. Lewis explains the nature of moral error in the modern world as an endless progression on the wrong road-- the assumption that all roads sooner or later lead to the same destination.

Marc Postiglione unpacks Pope St. John Paul II's encyclical, 'Redemptor Hominis' - 'Redeemer of Man', a message of personal dignity, freedom and truth.

by Kevin Clark | When you first graduate from college, you attend many weddings. For the five years or so after college, several weddings seem to come every year—some weddings where you know the betrothed well and you are actually in the wedding party, and some where you merely witness the proceedings.

by Dr Mary Kay Clark | Contact someone you know who is homeschooling, and see if there is a support group in your neighborhood. Contact people in your parish and tell them that you are looking for a Catholic homeschooling support group. Contact Cecilia at Seton

by Christine Collins | Without fail, it happens every year at just about this time. The Christmas holidays are a memory, winter seems to be lasting forever, and school has been in session since before you can remember. At least, that’s how it feels when March rolls around and all we want is to be sipping iced tea with a novel in the backyard while the kids play in the sprinklers.

by Dr Kalpakgian | By giving Curdie “some” of the truth Irene led him to “all” of it. By giving Curdie time and being content to be misunderstood for a short period, Irene led her friend to the fullness of the truth. To be a messenger like Irene is to speak the simple truth and let God do the rest.