The North Star Catholic / OPINION Archives - Page 21 of 29

Fertility restoration brought life, strengthened our faith

Just prior to my fifth pregnancy, my husband Alex and I decided that we would close off our marriage to new life. With a vasectomy on the calendar, our daughter Bethany was conceived, and Alex went through with a sterilization that cost about $800 and took an hour. And that was it. No longer would we ponder the possibility of new life each month in our marriage; our family had grown even beyond what is considered a normal size and we certainly had plenty of children already, right?

Jesus makes absolute, universal claims like no other

Some believe it is arrogant to say that Jesus is the Savior of the world — the only name by which any can be saved. Such statements are narrow and dangerous, we are told, and they offend and alienate others. Past generations might have held such a view but we live in the modern world in which our neighbors are secular or Muslims or from various faith or non-faith backgrounds.

Longing for God

It has often occurred to me that the longing for God — for the sacred — is one of humankind’s deepest primeval yearnings. We obviously know that we are not our own creation but that a divine power has made this deep mystery possible. Hence the normal response is to find words of gratitude amid an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

EDITORIAL: Prioritizing sacred art

Given that the mission of the Catholic Church is to inspire and invite people into a deeper love of God in all his beauty and splendor, perhaps even frontier churches should reconsider ways to foster the vital role that sacred art has played since the earliest days of Christianity.

Answering the challenge to help those with disabilities & their families

Family Disability Services is a very special program of CSS that supports and serves individuals and families with special needs. You may have known it previously as our Respite Program. It provides services for children and adults with developmental disabilities and offers support for their families.

Don’t let regrets linger

If you were presented with a time travel machine, in which you could journey back and forth to moments in your life, would you travel back and change anything? It’s a preposterous but intriguing question, and it came up at a family birthday party. By the time the conversation ended I realized the discussion became less about science fiction and a little bit more about our spirituality and themes of guilt and regret.

Analysis: Time for Alaska to rethink ‘right to privacy’ relating to abortion

Most states took Roe as the final judicial word on abortion. Alaska was no exception. No one expected that a judge would use the right to privacy in Alaska’s constitution to further liberalize abortion, firstly because the United States Supreme Court had the opportunity to do so, and did not.

Alaska ‘homeless’ shelter offers ‘safe, functional home’

Here at Catholic Social Services, we recently received a letter from a former client. At an unexpected crisis point in his life he found himself homeless and with nowhere to turn. He turned to the Brother Francis Shelter, but he came to us with low expectations and filled with fear of personal danger, as well as fear of being judged. His experience changed his view of shelters and of being homeless.

Selma march changed nun’s life

If you were a religious sister in the 1960s, garbed in a long black serge habit, tucked away in a Catholic community which revered you, you were treated with deference. But when Sister Hogan marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, the crowds of screaming protestors on the street near the Edmund Pettus Bridge told a different story. And the folks at the airport as she headed home to Detroit glared at her with eyes livid with contempt.

Living through ‘desolation in faith’

My time in Russia has been a time of great faith building and a time of great faith testing. I have been in a crisis of faith on a number of occasions and each time the Lord shows a way through it. I bless the Lord for this knowledge and want to share some with you because there are many of you who are in a crisis, coming out of a crisis or ready to go into a crisis and have no idea what to do. I have cried out so many times these words: “God help me!”