One morning last spring, I caught my older daughter flipping through a diocesan newspaper while eating breakfast. I had to smile. On that particularly morning, she wasn’t officially Catholic. She entered the Church later that day at the 2:30 Mass at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis, Missouri. It was Pentecost Sunday and soon, my second child would be entering the faith I had chosen less than a decade earlier. (more…) Read more
It will probably go by without much notice. A few will post about it on Facebook, and some from my generation will feel a slight sorrow at his passing, but nothing like the way it went when Philip Seymour Hoffman died or Paul Walker or Heath Ledger . . . . . . or John Belushi . . . or Marilyn Monroe The list of tragic deaths in Hollywood is quite lengthy – and covered ad nauseam by the media. But when a... Read more
Because you asked . . . Recently, I have had a number of people ask me how I became a Catholic writer – and whether I had any tips for them. The easiest and best answer is that God wanted me to do it. He gave me the desire. Whatever talent I have is because He put it there. He opened the doors. He matched my writing to the needs of editors so that what I wrote matched their publication... Read more
I spent the morning reading the last three Presidential Addresses at the National Day of Prayer Breakfast (2012, 2013, 2014). I liked most of what I read. I don’t usually follow the President’s speeches at functions like this, but a Facebook friend of mine mentioned something the President said in this year’s speech, and I wanted to check it out. My friend posts about as many pro-LGBT postings as I do pro-Catholic postings. I hope my friends won’t judge me... Read more
This morning, I let our labradoodle (Max) out of our daughter’s bedroom and walked behind him down the hall. He paused at the guest room door and sniffed. He never does that. This morning, something was different. My grandson, little Omry Dennis, was asleep in there. And Max knew it. It reminded me of something I saw posted on Facebook a couple of days ago – a post about how to find a lost dog and then the list of... Read more
I don’t know very much about Boomer Esiason because I’m not a big football fan. I know, one shouldn’t admit that in the final days before Super Bowl Sunday. But I saw an interview on Real Sports the other day about Boomer Esiason, and I can’t get it out of my head. Boomer Esiason played for the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals. Today, he is a NFL commentator and analyst. In the late 1980s, he attended a... Read more
The first Catholic by Grace article ran in The St. Louis Review in May of 2005. There is such wealth in the writings of both early and recent Church fathers. I am the daughter of a Protestant minister, a recent convert to the Catholic faith, and it saddens me that the lives of these holy men and women never reach the eyes and ears of Protestant laity. I must ask myself for what purpose are these things hidden? The only... Read more
Because I’m getting my second crown today, I swiped this article from my old blog [catholicbygrace(dot)blogspot(dot)com] and I am reposting it here. So you have a tooth that’s needing the final restorative measure. A crown. You have exhausted the filling option. You aren’t quite needing a root canal. But the thing needs a major overhaul. And you’re scheduled for a crown. First a drill around the tooth, removing all the minor repairs and existing decay. Then a temporary crown.... Read more
It’s one of Spock’s favorite lines. “According to my calculations . . .” I finally watched the second Star Trek movie with the young version of Kirk and Spock and Bones. I’ve been thinking about Spock’s line and how it applies to sainthood because – let’s face it – by all calculations, it is unlikely that any of us would become saints. We are a messed up lot – this human race. What are the chances that a total sinner... Read more
I attended an ecumenical prayer service for Christian unity in 2011. A Baptist pastor, United Church of Christ pastor, United Methodist pastor and our parish priest took part. As we prayed together, my heart went out to the Protestant ministers. I see them, and I think of my dad, the Protestant minister. Simultaneously, I find myself overwhelmed by the great divide and the burning desire within me to be able to share in a meaningful way what I have come... Read more
Denise Bossert
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