We have a great group of readers at YIM Catholic, many of whom have been offering excellent comments. It seems only right to highlight some of these. This week, we’ll showcase a comment by James, written in response to a post about a woman who has fallen away from the Church. The woman told us that this was largely because of what she considered poor pastoral advice in the wake of Vatican II. In his comment James wrote: There must... Read more

Posted by Webster On the Feast of the Holy Family, here is what Pope Benedict recalled about his own family. There are thoughts here for those of us who ask ourselves how to be good Catholic parents: My father was a very upright and also a very strict man. Be we always sensed the goodness behind his strictness. And for that reason we could basically accept his strictness without trouble. From the very beginning my mother always compensated for my father’s... Read more

Posted by Webster In October, I called a temporary halt to these weekly good-news summaries. But with visions of Mary over Egypt making news during the final days of Advent and with two air disasters averted on the day we celebrate Our Lord’s birth among us, this week all but screams: Good News! Even an attack on Pope Benedict was foiled. There is a great line buried in Mark Shea’s reflection on the Mary-over-Egypt phenomenon, and it could apply to the... Read more

Posted by Webster As Frank wrote here and here, Mass is Mass, wherever you go. But man—the local variations! For Christmas, Katie, Marian, and I attended Mass in a parish near my mother’s home in Vermont. From the modern interior of the building to the setting of each prayer to a Christmas melody, it was a bag of new tricks for this old dog. Sorry, but after four weeks without a Gloria, I don’t want mine set to “Greensleeves.” And... Read more

Guest post by EPG (With Webster on vacation, one of our more dedicated YIMCBC members has offered these excellent notes. If you are just coming aboard, you can catch up with our discussion by clicking on—Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5.) Chapter 6, “The Paradoxes of Christianity”In the first five chapters, Chesterton described the development of his personal creed, and how he gradually began to see that the things that he came to believe on... Read more

Posted by Webster No recent post has received more comments than one titled “Because Catholic Men Are Just That.” It raised many questions, which received a number of good answers. If you haven’t done so, check it out. As I head for the hills of Vermont, a new question occurs to me, a question for women as well as for men: Are Catholic men and women comfortable with their respective roles as they have evolved within the Catholic family during... Read more

Posted by Webster The Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat, was still echoing in my mind and heart as I woke up this morning, after we sang it in choir on Sunday. Then, at 7 am Mass, Father Barnes began the Gospel reading: Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior— When I told my sister, also Mary, that I was converting to Catholicism two years ago, she asked me to define... Read more