Add “Obedience” to the long list of Christian topics I write about but personally stink at. It’s an aspirational faith, and anyway, if my writing does nothing else, it amuses the people who know me in real life. When I first became a parent, the concept that my children should obey me, and that I should teach them to obey me, was utterly foreign. I knew you wanted the kids to behave well, but I wasn’t so sure that I... Read more
My first luminous mystery this week went to Margaret Rose Realy, the Catholic Gardening Lady. She’s the author of A Garden of Visible Prayer: Creating a Personal Sacred Space One Step at a Time, which is the book that helped me create what you see in this very attractive cell phone photo. I think of her a lot this time of year, because I pray poorly indoors, so I end up going outside, and sometimes even end up in the... Read more
In the busyness of Holy Week I forgot to tell you my Gospel reflection for Matthew 26:14-25 went up last Wednesday. Interesting writing thing to know about: The way these work at CatholicMom.com is that you get your assignment and submit six months of reflections at a time. Which means that you aren’t necessarily in the season when you’re writing. And it means that when they finally go live, you get to see a bit of what you were thinking... Read more
From the inbox: Compass Media, the creators of Visual Latin are running a sale now through April 30th. The sale includes some of their online courses in addition to their DVD courses. I’ve used Visual Latin with the middle schooler, and we liked it. Well-suited for parents who need to learn along with the student, and thus need someone else to be the instructor. (Note that if you are using the course for a co-op, you need to purchase the... Read more
The first Sunday after Easter is “Divine Mercy Sunday”. It’s new observance, since the devotion itself only dates from the 1930’s. (God’s mercy, of course, is much older. Eternal even.) You can learn how to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and pile of other stuff, here. The Chaplet is my go-to recommendation for prayer for folks who either: Are too recently arrived from the anti-Mary corner of Protestant-world to be comfortable saying all those Hail Mary’s in a regular... Read more
We have a tradition of turning off the lights on the evening of Holy Thursday, and not turning them on again until after the Easter Vigil. We don’t go so far as shutting off the main breaker, though we’ve threatened to do so if children get sneaky. In the interest of safety, candle-esque night lights and flash lights are fair game. It’s a custom that serves us, not us the custom. Thus, accommodations for unusual situations: This year a boy... Read more
Another great piece from The Federalist, this time from an atheist: I am an atheist, which puts me firmly on the secular right. There aren’t a whole lot of us, but we’re out here, in some surprising places. Yet I consider the current campaign against religious liberty—the attempt to coerce Christians into providing service to gay weddings or to provide abortifacient drugs to their employees, against the dictates of their faith—to be a deep cultural crisis. On the difference between... Read more
I was watching a detective show recently (doesn’t matter which one) featuring a smart, competent, nerves-of-steel female lead. A genuinely likeable character. I was irritated that while the male characters all dressed like the serious business-types they were, there seemed to be a mandatory minimum of exposed flesh for all their female colleagues. It was as if the female characters were being cast for their cleavage. I like detective shows, so I set aside my feminist indignation and watched anyway. ... Read more
We’ve been graced with a delightfully candid neighbor boy, and a few years ago he asked us point blank, “Are you poor?” No, most certainly not. The appalling situation in which some of our children must share a bedroom not withstanding, let’s be clear: I live luxuriously. Hot water, indoor plumbing, coffee, books, very many shoes . . . everywhere you look, my home is the very picture of superabundance. Elizabeth Scalia shares a letter from a mom who actually... Read more
I don’t go in for the whole “strong language” defense of everyday profanity. Sam Guzman makes the case for not cussing here, and it’s good enough for me. My own conversion to the anti-profanity league is more historical than apologetic. I grew up in a non-cussing household, not because we were anything amazing, but because back then most folks did. The occasional strongish word was let loose when tempers flared, but overwhelmingly my parents kept it civilized, and kept us... Read more
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