Christianity, I remind myself, is an aspirational religion. I usually get to pray the daily Mass readings in the morning (preferred location: outdoors), or at daily Mass, or both. Today was one of those special days when a confluence of laziness, fatigue, and good fortune conspired to make me miss out on both go-rounds. But all was not lost! 16th of the month means I’d already read and reflected on the Gospel for your CatholicMom.com meditational pleasure. It’s like prepaid... Read more
Congratulations, Manny, who went the extra mile to join the Patheos drawing after Disqus died. I added him and the other readers who contacted me and asked to be drawn, and did the random-number drawing from the whole combined list. Why, oh, why, did the combox break on only the post that I needed a working combox for? I dunno. Manny, e-mail me at [email protected] and I’ll put you in touch with the publisher. Might I remind you, good sports, that the... Read more
Thanks to Sean Alderman for the link to this 2004 article at First Things about the clinical case against gender-reassignment. In it, Paul McHugh of John Hopkins outlines his experience both with adult patients asking for male-to-female sex-change surgery, and with the long-term outcomes of infant boys with ambiguous genitalia who are surgically castrated, given female-like outward genitalia, and raised as girls. The paper is long but eminently readable, and I encourage you to read the whole thing, because he... Read more
UPDATE: Congratulations to Manny (whose comment you don’t see because he had disqus troubles and so was added manually to the list). Tuscany Press is hosting a book giveaway today, here at my place and over at the Catholic Writers Guild blog. Enter both places, there’s a different book being given away at each blog. Here at Patheos, the lucky winner will receive The Cana Mystery by David Becket. You can read the Amazon reviews here. How to enter: We’re doing... Read more
With assorted news articles profiling the lives and stories of various transgender children, the question arises: How should parents respond if their children express a desire to identify with the opposite sex? My comments here aren’t medical advice — and if you are seeking medical advice, know that you’ll get all kinds of answers from the useless or the dangerous to the truly helpful. May the Lord bless you with lots of the truly helpful. Rather, what follows are grounded... Read more
My friend Erin writes: Hey, everybody. My Theology of the Body suspense-thriller available for FREE on Kindle through the end of June 12. It’s called Don’t You Forget About Me. Mary Catherine Whelihan made it out of Walkerville alive once before. Can she pull it off this time? Bullies, sexual harassment, finding a corpse in the local creek…. Cate’s childhood in 1980s Walkerville was murder! So what could possibly tempt her to return? A cryptic email from Eugene Marcasian, MD,... Read more
I’m overdue on writing this post, long since promised to a reader. Just FYI lest anyone mistake me, I procrastinate because this is a topic I would rather not write about. If live-and-let-live were an option, that’s what I’d be doing. But it’s not. We’ve reached a point where Christians in the US are being sentenced to re-education for failing to support same-sex unions. Justify it however you like, the plain truth is that a US judge has decided that it’s... Read more
Received this note from Tuscany Press: Hello Jennifer, I just wanted to let you know that there’s only a few short weeks left before the submission deadline for this year’s Tuscany Prize entries. Last year, a ton of entries came in right at the end including National Book Award Winner Gloria Whelan’s first-place winning short story. Thanks & God bless! Emma Martin This morning I had a chance to look at the anthology of 2012 short story winners, and I’ll say that the... Read more
Later this morning I’m slated to record an Among Women podcast with Pat Gohn, and of course I’d appreciate your prayers that all goes well. In anticipation, here is the second revision of the Lord You Know I Love You retreat workbook. Yours to share and enjoy, so long as you agree to report back if you find any typos. Thanks! Here’s the story behind the retreat: In 2013 I wrote a short column at AmazingCatechists.com that used the Great Commandment as... Read more
The other week we discovered that I am not the only creature about the household prone to insomnia. There’s a resident mockingbird who also sometimes stays up nights. It seems the two of us agree on the worst part sleeplessness, the sheer boredom of it all. I write things, or read things. The bird runs through his entire repertoire. Loudly. For about two hours. The humans are divided: Is this trait endearing, or is it a sign someone ought to... Read more
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