It’s NFP Awareness Week. We are aware. Fifteen years aware, which I think in NFP years is about 387 years. We’ve used NFP both to conceive and to avoid pregnancy. It works, and it’s good for your body and good for your marriage. NFP can also be frustrating, and there are some things you can do to make it less frustrating and more successful. Hence my list of NFP tips. I’ll start with #1 today and work my way through... Read more
Julie Davis comments on the Parable of the Sower: Listening to the Gospel reading last Sunday with the parable of the sowers, this was the very thought that ran through my head. Yes the soil may be packed down hard from people walking on it, but if someone hoes it up, adds some compost, and the soft rain falls? Then it too may be fertile. To which I’d like to add a thought. Years ago, when our then-pastor preached on... Read more
Over at Amazing Catechists today, I argue that what we teachers wear to class matters. As always, it’s not a fashion talk: No one looks to me for wardrobe advice, except maybe if they’re required to do a character sketch of frumpy middle-aged absent-minded housewives. But even I know that what we wear when we teach matters. If someone like me gives serious thought to clothing before I teach, that means it must be important. First thing is making sure... Read more
Catholic Writers Conference registration is still open, and the schedule of events for the conference is here. As you can see, it’s pretty much a wonderland of Catholic writing fun. I love this conference, and recommend it to anyone interested in writing who is able to attend. Yet more details, including information on pitch sessions, can be found at the conference main page. I will not be in Chicago, see “recent illness”, but my publisher will be. So you can... Read more
Thrilled to see that the Among Women Podcast Pat Gohn & I recorded is now posted and ready for your listening pleasure. I have not listened to it yet, you’ll have to go check it out yourself to find out exactly how fabulous it is. I seem to recall I said my usual things, such as, “You have to actually believe the Catholic faith.” Told people to evangelize, maybe? Stuff like that. Great conversation. If you ever get an invitation... Read more
16th of the month, and that means I wake up pre-prayed. (Just kidding! Just kidding!) This morning at CatholicMom.com, I latch onto this bit of the Gospel: I thank you Father that you have hidden these things from the learned and the wise, and revealed them to the childlike. And then I ask myself, “What does childlike mean?” Since I have both children and a teenager, I am eminently qualified to answer this question: As a child, we learn what we’re taught.... Read more
The boy and I stayed up late last night watching I Confess, long overdue and hands down one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. [Note, the wikipedia link includes the complete plot synopsis, so don’t read it until you’ve watched it.] I had not watched the film sooner because I thought Hitchcock = Too Creepy for Me, but it was fine. Mature themes and violence, suspense in the many-plot-twists meaning of the term, but not a scary movie. Having just... Read more
Thanks to Kathy Schiffer for pointing out the link to this study, which reports a difference in the way Catholic and Atheist brains work in the face of a moral dilemma. I’ve only looked at the abstract, and of course one must never overdo in one’s inferences. There is a Bible verse that relates to this phenomenon, one that the spouse made it his goal to memorize years ago when he first became a Christian: Do not be conformed to this... Read more
My children expressed interest in making movies, and we’ve been slowly assembling the necessary equipment. Cameras, editing software . . . by the start of the summer, they had everything they needed to get going on YouTube except one thing: Now there’s no excuse. If they have to borrow money for college, it’s their own fault. Serious post over at Kathy Schiffer’s on the effect of social media on your relationship with God. I’ll put my answer here later today... Read more
My spouse writes: Have you ever thought you were filling a unique niche? http://www.phatmass.com/ Love at first listen. If your poetry brain was made happy years ago by Sir Mix-A-Lot, but now you need something your catechist brain can love, too. From the website: With orthodoxy, charity and humility, phatmass will infiltrate the entire planet earth with Catholic propaganda. The “phat” in phatmass stands for “Preaching Holy Apostolic Truth”. Founded in the year 2000, we are an online community, infiltrator... Read more
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