CatholicAnchor.org For over 28 years, I have been actively helping women choose not to abort their child and assisting women to heal if they make a tragic choice. I have been enriched by these women and have such admiration for so many. The situation they found themselves in was usually difficult. I could deeply empathize…
CatholicAnchor.org The elderly lady was perched high in the stylist’s chair. A large mirror echoed back to her that day’s trim and curl on her thinning white hair. Pretending to be absorbed in a worn copy of a beauty shop gossip magazine, I listened in as, in a booming voice, which probably indicated hearing loss,…
The middle schoolers spent three days sledding, playing in the snow, warming themselves around a campfire, competing in ping-pong and carpet ball and taking in spiritual inspiration.
For centuries such ceremonies took place when the last beam was erected atop a building. Since there are no major beams in the new rectory, attendees signed a large piece of wood paneling.
Life is short — the years and decades, peopled with children and loved ones, recede into history before we have time to properly savor them . We know this — we feel the occasional pangs of life slipping through our fingers. But just for good measure, the church reminds us again, even as we prepare to celebrate Christmas.
When children are young we rightly strive to guard their innocence and form a kind of protective sphere where they are somewhat insulated from the harshness and vulgarities of the larger culture. This period, however, is fleeting — the bubble will eventually burst and our children must face the difficulties of the world.
Our closest friends have seen our virtues and our warts, our acts of kindness and our petty pride. Hang out with someone long enough and you notice the fruits of their life. In these cases, it is not enough to think of evangelization as reacquainting a once Christian culture with the long-forgotten Gospel.
If a young Catholic reaches adulthood with a poor understanding and personal appreciation of how the sacraments infuse her life with the grace of God, then she will feel little reason to go to regular confession, attend weekly Mass, marry in the church, baptize her children and bury her loved ones with the aid and guidance of the church. The question for many is, “What difference does it make.”
To think that God merely populates seminaries by sheer force of his will, or only calls men in private visions and inner stirrings is a misconception which does not reflect the experiences of the vast majority of seminarians and priests.
The grittiness of Catholicism, in which Lent began with priests etching black ashen crosses on the foreheads of a billion or so men, women and children, will culminate in the holiest week and the grandest liturgy of the year — the Easter Vigil Mass.