2016-04-30T07:52:07-04:00

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. – Mother Teresa In those first weeks and months after a spouse walks out of a marriage, experiencing extreme emotions is as inevitable as the tide rolling in. Shell-shock and numbness take hold, and as my friend, Bill, described it, “Those are just gray, colorless days.” As time passes, many people tend to regain their emotional balance and despite their woundedness, are able to take steps forward. But some people... Read more

2016-04-27T11:05:17-04:00

We are living in the age of the broken heart. What can we do to help people heal? A friend of mine recently revealed to me that her husband had left her a few weeks prior. For obvious reasons, I was shocked and dismayed, but more so because she hadn’t told anyone what had happened and was struggling through her grief all by herself. And not doing a very good job of it, she assured me. It breaks my heart to... Read more

2016-04-25T20:26:36-04:00

There is a billboard in my town that gets a strenuous reaction out of me every time I pass it. It presents an image of a beautiful, voluptuous woman in a tiny black dress that reveals bulging cleavage, every possible curve, and legs up to the dangerous point. The slogan reads: “My little black dress doesn’t mean, “Yes.” Of course, in my mind, I always shout back, Then don’t wear your little black dress! Everywhere you turn, there is sex.... Read more

2016-04-20T17:42:13-04:00

Total despair. That’s how I felt one dark, frigid evening as the Connecticut snow swirled outside my apartment window. I was beside myself with despair and didn’t know where to turn. No, suicide was never an option for me, but I felt sorrowful to the point I understood why some people choose that route. I’d never felt such anguish in my heart before going through my divorce, and honestly, it was all my ex-spouse’s fault. I fought for the marriage, he... Read more

2016-04-13T23:28:38-04:00

It always surprises me how quickly people who go through a separation and divorce run right into the arms of someone new and “fall in love.” Many times, they are already contemplating when the right time would be to introduce their new partner to their children before they’ve even signed the divorce papers. But on the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been there, I know what it feels like to be rejected and denegrated by the one who... Read more

2016-04-09T11:45:24-04:00

At last we have it… the long awaited papal exhortation that concludes the 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family, Amoris Laetitia. Some are calling this document a catastrophe, while others take a much lighter, cheerful stance . The USCCB has officially dubbed the document, “A love letter to the Church.” It’s important to listen to our canon lawyers, bishops, and theologians, but since I am none of these, I want to talk about it from a lay person’s view;... Read more

2016-04-06T18:51:02-04:00

I never felt called to become a nun, but there was a time in my life where I felt convinced God was trying to tell me to become one. It was about 6 years after my divorce. I had been through the annulment process and received a decree of nullity some years before, but I had no luck finding the right guy and was pretty frustrated. I had also been told by doctors, after an invasive surgery to correct a problem... Read more

2016-04-01T14:02:52-04:00

“Go deeper.” That was my spiritual director’s response when I showed him the “Program of Life” I had written for myself while I was on spiritual exercises some years ago. A Program of Life is a simple structure to aid one in improving her spiritual life. It consists of identifying one’s root sin and 5 ways it manifests itself in one’s daily life, then divising 5 practical ways to overcome those manifestations. I had worked hard on mine, but this priest... Read more

2016-03-29T12:26:26-04:00

Easter Sunday was a joyous occasion for me and my family this year, but I knew a lot of people who did not have that experience due to life circumstances that had caused them great suffering. A family who had lost a child in a car accident, a friend who had no where to go but a battered women’s shelter, and another friend whose husband had announced last Christmas he was leaving her after 18 years of marriage, all experiencing... Read more

2016-03-26T09:52:04-04:00

It is finished (John 19:30). No one can escape the finality of those words. Jesus of Nazareth is dead. It seems strange to think the people of that time could have so blindly missed the fact that Jesus loved them? He healed them, fed them, taught them, raised them from the dead, and in the end, gave every last drop of blood for them. How could they turn away from his love and treat him so cruelly? If you’re divorced,... Read more


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