Here is an excellent article on the challenge to effectively communicate what research says about corporal punishment and to help parents do an even better job without it. The author is a researcher at the Columbia Univ. School of Social Work. We found that children who were spanked by their mothers at age 5, even relatively infrequently, went on to have higher levels of behavior problems at age 9, even after taking into account other family risk factors that also... Read more
On our radio program, More2Life, Lisa and I regularly get call from parents struggling with one issue or another. Although the advice we offer is always tailored to a family’s particular circumstances, we often start by asking parents to join together with their children to seek God’s guidance on the best way to proceed. The deafening silence this advice is often greeted with at first is a sign, I think, of the struggle many Catholic families have with the idea... Read more
People always ask me that question. They expect me to say, “poor communication” or “infidelity” or “addiction” or some such. Although these are all challenges, the real problem is something deeper. Here’s an article from Together for Life taken from Lisa and my latest book, Just Married: The Catholic Guide to Surviving & Thriving in the First Five Years of Marriage. In fact, the most common reason for marital break-ups actually cause all of these problems and more. The biggest contributor to marital problems... Read more
The Christophers website shares some thoughts from my book on what it takes to have an exceptional marriage. For any marriage to work, spouses have to step into it with one absolute in mind: no matter what, we stay together. From that place of certainty and security, couples can navigate the rough spots and know that they will come out safely on the other side. So what’s the secret to a truly happy marriage? Therapist Gregory Popcak set out to... Read more
Join us in this webinar today and learn how to share the Catholic vision of love & marriage more effectively! Webinar Registration Everyone uses the word “marriage” but it seems to mean a million different things to a million different people. Today it seems that many couples don’t believe marriage means anything anymore. In this marriage-hostile environment, how can the Church effectively promote what makes Catholic marriage both different and more desirable than any other kind of relationship out there? In... Read more
There are some relationships we shouldn’t try to save. Oddly, sometimes the least healthy relationships are the ones we’re most anxious about letting go! This article can help you discern whether you’re in a toxic relationship with a poisonous person. 1. It seems like you can’t do anything right – The other person constantly puts you down as not good enough. They mock your personality, and you feel ashamed most of the time. You only feel pardoned when you take... Read more
Today on More2Life Radio, we had a Family Fiesta, celebrating all the good things about our listener’s families and working through the struggles that stop them from enjoying family life as much as they’d like. A big part of the conversation were the importance of family traditions, opportunities to gather together and celebrate everything that makes your family a treasure Here’s a great article from the Art of Manliness about the importance of traditions. It offers some great ideas for... Read more
I had to post this truly touching review from the Snoring Scholar of Lisa and my new book Just Married: A Catholic Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the First 5 Years of Marriage. oh, the things I would’ve missed if I hadn’t read Just Married: The Catholic Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the First Five Years of Marriage, by Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak (who’ve written about 100 other books, and are professional marriage people, and have a radio show, and all sorts of... Read more
HUGE NEWS! Here’s reporter, John Thavis, on the announcement. Pope Francis has decided to devote the next Synod of Bishops to family pastoral issues, setting the stage for a far-ranging discussion that is likely to touch on questions concerning divorced and remarried Catholics, cohabitation and annulments. The synod will take place in October of 2014, and by then we may see other changes in the synod’s format that give its deliberations more weight. Here is the report from the Official... Read more
There was a terrific article in The Atlantic last week on the growing awareness and promotion of Natural Family Planning by secular medical professionals (who prefer to refer to it as Fertility Awareness Based Methods–FABM). Really good piece. …surveys conducted by physicians at the University of Utah show that when natural fertility-awareness methods are described to women, 25 percent say they would strongly consider using one as their means of birth control. But thanks to its glaring image problem and a... Read more
Faith on the Couch
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