Ginny’s Gems

In Polish culture, Christmas Eve is the highlight of Christmas, and is celebrated with prescribed traditions and dishes of Wigilia, the Christmas Eve vigil supper in Poland. “Wigilia” comes from the Latin verb vigilare, “to watch”, and literally means “eve”.

In the “Armor of God,” with which we are all called to equip ourselves (Ephesians 6:10-18), the Word of God is the “sword of the Spirit.” Daily, reverent reading of Sacred Scripture can help us to immerse ourselves in the mind of Christ and cultivate our personal relationship with Him. It can also help us to develop a living, breathing, personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, the Author of Sacred Scripture.

My family loves the British Christmas tradition of miniature mince pies, which consist of tiny butter pie crusts filled with mincemeat, a combination of dried fruit, candied peel, spices, and brandy.

As soon as my baby girl turned seven months old, I started feeling ill. And it wasn't the typical "I'm coming down with a cold" kind of ill. I was having a very difficult time breathing. As a busy mom, I dismissed it as the usual effects of sleep deprivation. I went to the hospital just to be sure, but they sent me home after all the test results came out normal.

Sometimes it seems like the work for Mom is never ending in our large Catholic families. By Thanksgiving, the first quarter assignments have been completed and the homeschooling is clipping along nicely. Then Bang! Along comes the Christmas season, doubling the work load but halving the class time! It’s more than a little discouraging!

Download this 'First Christmas' Word Puzzle! A fun activity to for all ages! Search for these words: Stephen, Conception, Original, Advent, Diego, manger, Wise, Bethlehem, Shepherds, Herod, John, pink, Innocents, Guadalupe...

Someone mentioned to my wife lately that she doesn’t usually read my fatherhood/homeschooling columns because I use too many sports analogies. For instance, over the years, I have written that baseball is like “raspberry sorbet for the mind;” I have said that life is about “how many shots you take, rather than how many baskets you make;” and I recently wrote that being a good father was like being a “hockey goalie,” and so forth.

Members of a family know each other too well to be fooled by brother’s daydream to be a millionaire, sister’s fantasy to be a great actress, or grandson’s ambition to be a professional athlete. The family teaches humility, self-knowledge, the art of the possible, and the way things are.

I am convinced – utterly convinced – that if we all got together more often in order to celebrate the simple occasions in life, we would be a happier people. Each generation seems to be growing more and more isolated than the generation that preceded it. American society is fast becoming an isolated society.

There is currently a program on network television called Undercover Boss.  If you haven’t seen it, the premise is that the CEO (or another high muckety-muck) of some large company ...

A rather staid church found itself actively confronting a world which they had tended to ignore, even to shun. Pink Mohawks and chain-bedecked leathers began to be seen at Sunday worship services. A new energy and purpose steadily grew among the congregation; they were forced out of their insular attitudes and petty prejudices in order to confront the vast question, “What does it mean to preach to the whole world?”

As we move toward December, we all think about Christmas. It’s a busy time, and it’s easy to put off schoolwork. However, students in high school don’t have as much leeway as elementary students.

Kevin Clark shares 6 home-based and parish focused ideas for celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas with children.

In Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken,” a traveler recalls a moment in his life when he reached a crossroads. He comes to a turning point on the journey and pauses to consider which path to follow. Both roads have fair prospects and great allure.

The study of a foreign language is an important component of a good education. Many studies have been done that confirm this. A research report “Regarding World Language Education: The Benefits of Second Language Study,” was published in 2007.

Have you ever been asked by an evangelical Christian if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? What do you say? My answer is simple: Yes. I have indeed committed my life to Jesus Christ and invited Him to be my Lord...

Eight years ago, our sewer line backed up and caused a small flood in our basement.  Gray water had entered the garage and the playroom.  Our insurance company required us ...

Download this ‘The First Christmas’ Crossword! A fun activity to challenge your knowledge of facts and trivia on Christmas. For all ages! Answer questions like: 1) Catholics celebrate the feast of the Immaculate ___ of Mary on December 8. 2) The feast mentioned above means that Mary was conceived without ___ sin.

The weather is changing and the holiday season is upon us. Decorations have been up in stores for weeks, a bright mishmash of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas displays to entice the consumer to buy, buy, buy. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hoopla and the craziness and lose the true meaning of what we are celebrating.

In Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows Mr. Toad, the owner of Toad Mansion and the great traveler on the Open Road who is always on a new vehicle going to faraway places, cannot comprehend how Mr. Rat can find contentment in a simple cottage on the river where he dwells all year and never explores the wider world of new sights and foreign lands: “You surely don’t mean to stick to your dull fusty river all your life, and just live in a hole in a bank, and boat. I want to show you the world.”