Quick reminder: I write about adult topics. If your kid reads my blog, your kid is traveling in grown-up land. Way back a year-and-some ago when I wrote a Christian primer on BDSM, a reader complained, and I paraphrase: She never explained why BDSM was wrong! She just assumed that it was! Today is the day I fill in that blank. Before you begin reading, please refer to the original post for important background info on what BDSM is and how disorders... Read more
Humans, all humans, have a need to feel safe when we go to the bathroom. It’s a viscerally rooted survival instinct. Back when we were young and childless, if a transvestite friend came to the house there were never any issues. But now we have these young Catholics filling our home, lovely children but still growing in their life of virtue, still easily swayed from the narrow road; we have to think carefully about how that affects our social choices. And... Read more
I spent this weekend with as fine a portion of the Knights of Columbus and the Columbiettes as you could hope to meet. Super group, truly a privilege to be among them. Thank you, prayer team, for your support in making this weekend work, you made all the difference. My hosts told me I could use the lunch hour to talk about anything I wanted, so (surprise!) I talked about evangelization. And thus a follow-up, which I’ve cross-posted over at my... Read more
Here in South Carolina we have both Dominicans and Klansmen, but so far there haven’t been any social media panics. I did have a rural Russian Orthodox deacon tell me once that the people at the IGA think he’s with the Klan. But we Catholics know these problems are preventable. Here are our top three tips for how to keep anyone from thinking your Dominicans are really KKK: 1. Have Them Found an African-American Parish. Try to do it during the... Read more
My 8th grader was describing an acquaintance of the same age, and I paraphrase: Her rallying cry is, “Let’s go f*** some sh** up!” She says never posts *full* nudes of herself, so it’s okay. She’s obsessed with having a boyfriend, and she keeps asking me what it’s like to actually talk to a boy. This is the middle school narrative: If you sext, brandish vulgar language, and organize your life around the quest for a boyfriend, you’re the sophisticated... Read more
I’ve got sex on the brain, and before I start into that conversation, I want to lay out a few comments about the limits of modesty. Here’s a quick working definition: With respect to chastity, modesty is the collection of actions we take in order to safeguard our purity. Modesty includes not only the way we dress, but the way we interact with others. There are of course other areas where modesty applies — with respect to our wealth, our... Read more
As learned this weekend: “Don’t make me have to say a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for you.” Learn more about Divine Mercy Sunday here. Artwork: The English dance of death, from the designs of Thomas Rowlandson, (1903), from the Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons. Read more
I would like to tell you something interesting that happened for my Easter present. It was these two things: My parish did not cancel the regularly-scheduled Sunday evening Mass on Easter. I went to it. The whole story isn’t so important, but we must emphasize, concerning #2, that I was not being one of these venerable church-helping souls who ends up at three different Masses on the holiday. Though I be a Triduum-loving girl to the core, and though I... Read more
This Lent I’ve been reading from On the Passion of Christ According to the Four Evangelists by Thomas à Kempis. I keep losing the book, so my progress is slow, and hence this thought for Good Friday from relatively early in the Passion: The populace cried out: We have a law, and according to that law he must die because he has made himself Son of God. Upon hearing this, the governor became frightened and asked: Who are you? The fear... Read more
Every Lent we come around to the reading of the royal official whose son was dying. It’s a study in what it means to have faith in Jesus. Here are my thoughts on that, which originally ran at CatholicMom.com. *** Today’s Gospel: John 4:43-54 How far would you travel to save your child? If you knew the cure was a two day walk away, would you walk it? Of course you would. The royal official who sets out... Read more
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