I couldn't help but notice that there wasn't much secular news coverage of this year's World Youth Day celebration in Lisbon. Maybe it's because the media couldn't twist Pope Francis' words out of context as easily as they usually do with our Holy Father? Throughout...
You might say that I’m a groupie. Beginning when I was sixteen, I attended four World Youth Days: Denver (1993), Manila (1995), Paris (1997), and Toronto (2002). My experience, along with millions of other young people, was transformative. The impact is still felt in...
What is World Youth Day? The first World Youth Day was celebrated in 1984 when Pope St. John Paul II created a gathering on Palm Sunday in Rome to celebrate the Youth Jubilee of the Holy Year of Redemption. It was expected that sixty thousand people would attend, but...
When I was posed this question, I didn’t understand it at first. Not because I didn’t know what gentle parenting was. Before my baby was even old enough to have a tantrum, I had over-read and over-researched and exhausted myself reading the least scary parenting...
An Example of Misguided Therapy The Case of the Pillow-Thrasher At the end of his rope, and feeling entirely frustrated with himself, an ill-tempered man steps into a therapy office in search of hope and healing. A well-meaning but frighteningly misguided therapist...
My mom Rosie, may she rest in peace, worked well into her 90’s. It certainly is impressive, isn’t it? Yes indeed. Almost until the day she died, mom was working as a full-time travel agent, for guilt trips that is. These comments, which...
There was once a young man named Anthony who lived with his sister in a village called Coma in Egypt. The hills around the village were dry and brown against the pale blue sky. However, inside the village was lush and green. Palm trees dotted the horizon and water...
Something special is going on in our country right now. I love it! The entire United States is in the midst of a three-year Eucharistic Revival. Think of the long-term impact! What a beautiful time in our Catholic Church for all its members – the oldest all the way to...
Summer is coming on fast and that means more time with your kids, more time outside, more family time…basically more time! More time together is great in theory, but when we come to it without planning, we can find ourselves sitting around watching a show or listening...
As the school year winds down, Catholic school teachers – heroic leaders that they are – are already planning to make next year even better. Novice teachers have realized how much they themselves have yet to learn, and are looking for new tools and techniques....
When I was growing up, there were no "altar servers," only altar boys. Having been raised in a Catholic religious household, my three older brothers all served as altar boys. When they attended Mass and the priest walked out with no altar boy, one or two of my...
As Mother’s Day approaches, if you have a house full of kids, like I did ten years ago, you may be trying to keep expectations low. You doubt as to whether your loved ones will show you appreciation in any significant way on this day traditionally devoted to honoring...
What use is art? Does it have a value? Is it merely an “add-on”, a luxury item for enthusiasts? These are questions that I often ask myself, especially in our modern society where the monetization of nearly every aspect of existence threatens to squeeze out some...
Those who know me will often hear me speak about “family, faith, and food,” when describing the things which I hold most dear. Some may say that this is more rooted in my culture as an Italian-American than it is in the foundations of my Catholicism, but I don’t agree...
A lot happens between the ages of 12 and 14. I call it the magical age, the ethereal age, the age of heroes and anything’s-possible. We’ve all passed through that moment. For some of us it was just another year, for others it was the turning point that made every...
“Alright kids, why do we go to Mass?” We ask a variation of that question every time we arrive at our parish parking lot, usually sweaty and disheveled from wrangling four (soon to be five) children into the van. A mini call-to-action and reminder of why Mass is...
Parents often wonder when they should begin teaching the Theology of the Body (TOB) to their children…the answer is: In the womb! Yes, that means talking to your unborn child who begins to hear and recognize voices—your body matters to the unborn child. “The Body...
In 2004, I became that convert who immediately jumped, with both feet, into all things Catholic. I was the one running to the Religious Goods store regularly, because, of course, I now needed a crucifix for every room, statues of our confirmation saints, candles,...
When I was young, my parents used to travel a lot, leaving me and my four sisters in the care of my grandmother. What I remember most is sitting in our living room where she would tell us stories written by her about each of her grandchildren, through which she would...
As Millennial parents, my husband and I have grappled with the issue of moderating screen time for ourselves and our children. Whether we want to admit it or not, the technology is inescapable, but that’s all the more reason to take seriously our responsibility to...
It was December 24th, 2019, and I was on my way to Rochester, Minnesota to serve at the Christmas Vigil Mass at our co-Cathedral for my Bishop, John Quinn. I showed up early to get things set up, but I was distracted like a teenage boy trying to clean his room. My...
While death was not a part of God’s original plan for the world, due to the fall of mankind with Adam and Eve, it is a sad reality of the world we live in. As Christians however, we do not believe that death is the end. On the contrary, our death on earth signifies a...
I don’t have time to pray I have almost always struggled to feel like I pray “enough.” Believe it or not, the last time that I could definitively say that I didn’t struggle with that was before I had kids. I have 5 kids now and we also have some neurodiversity in the...
“What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it is a wonder.” - G. K. Chesterton As a child, I remember exploring in the woods for hours with my cousins, playing in the creek and climbing trees. I would get lost in my imagination and in the beauty of it...
911 Lone Star lead actor Rob Lowe stars in Netflix’s latest movie, Dog Gone. It’s one of the first feel-good movies of the year based on a true story of a father and son who search for a boy’s lost dog along the Appalachian Trail. Catholics will enjoy two saintly...