The Easter weekend provides an opportunity for some people to travel since they have an extra day or two off work. The “Wandering Pew,” consisting of my husband and myself, usually hits the road at Easter. Of course, that means finding Holy Week services wherever we are. Years ago, we attended Good Friday services at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fayetteville, Texas—a small, historically Czech community between Austin and Houston. The pastor gave a homily that day about... Read more
Abortion is the Devil’s gift to men. It allows them to be promiscuous without penalty; to exploit women while claiming they are empowering them. In a previous blog, I mentioned that NARAL was founded by two men. They wanted all men to be able to take advantage of the sexual revolution with the assurance of abortion as a backup to contraception. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/musingsfromthepew/2021/10/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history/ The goal was to change the culture from shotgun weddings to the attitude of the character in the... Read more
An article by Peter Jesserer Smith that appeared in the National Catholic Register last month described a terrific idea that I want to promote: repurposing Church-related buildings. https://www.ncregister.com/features/turning-empty-convents-into-evangelizing-young-adult-residences-st-elizabeth-house-models-how Smith’s article focused on the establishment of two residences for young-adult Catholics in vacant convents in Santa Barbara, California. Deacon Chris Sandner looked at the many vacant residences originally built for thousands of priests and religious long ago. According to Smith, Sandler “realized the Church had an opportunity” to turn those rooms... Read more
“Image is everything” we are told by communication experts, and this maxim is largely true. The image you project is what others think is the real you. As Catholics, we need to be aware of our image in a number of ways, including physical modesty. There is modesty that counters pride and modesty that is defined by Wikipedia as “a mode of dress and deportment which intends to avoid the encouraging of sexual attraction in others.” Yet our culture prioritizes... Read more
My husband and I have been on vacation in Central Virginia these past two weeks, so the blog has been quiet while I soaked up a lot of history and a dollop of religion too. We visited the homes of three of our founding Presidents: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. Did you know that Jefferson and Monroe were actual neighbors and that Madison lived only 25 miles away? https://www.monticello.org/ https://www.montpelier.org/ https://highland.org/ A tour of Monticello includes seeing Jefferson’s... Read more
Most Catholics have heard the title “Our Lady of Victory” applied to the Blessed Mother. However, probably few know the story behind this name, yet it involves an important event in history: the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. From 1299-1923, the Ottoman Empire ruled over much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Turks controlled commerce in the Mediterranean Sea and regularly raided the coast of Italy. When this Muslim dynasty... Read more
Lent has begun. We’ve observed Ash Wednesday and the first Sunday of Lent with six more Sundays and most of the 40 weekdays to go until Easter. That means six more meatless Fridays to go. Once again, however, I am hearing my senior citizen friends say, “Not me! I’m exempt.” No, you are not. The Church’s rule is that seniors do not have to fast on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, but they do have to abstain on Fridays throughout... Read more
The suicide rate in America is so alarming that it often makes headline news. We all need to be concerned about halting this self-destructive trend. How? By using the preventive tools we have as Catholics living the faith. A discussion of suicide needs to include both risk factors and protective factors. The risk factors include despair, stress, depression, mental illness, and others. A complete list can be found on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s website at https://afsp.org/ These risk... Read more
It is commonly believed that more intelligent, better-educated people are less religious. However, statistics don’t necessarily verify that notion, and great intellects throughout the ages have been people of faith. Surveys of American adults concerning religion reveal some odd results. While people with college or graduate degrees tend to be less religious in terms of believing in God, praying, and finding religion to be important to them, at the same time, people with higher education attend religious services as often... Read more
It doesn’t take any great powers of observation to notice that there are many more women than men in church on any given Sunday. Why is that? If we want more Catholic men at Mass, what can we do? How important is it for men to attend church? There are a number of possible answers to the “Why” question. Machoism plays a role—church is only for boys and old men; grown men are too self-reliant for church. Also, today’s secular... Read more
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