Everyone Needs Another Mother
As my son prepares to leave home for college in just a few months, I feel a bit lost. Who’s going to be there to say, “It’s late and time to get to bed. Put those things away now. Are you feeling OK?”...
View ArticleAbout seeing… REALLY SEEING
When a child comes into being, he is truly in his parents and they are in him. There is a union that is powerful and provides an important life lesson. When the child is two years old, he imagines the...
View ArticleSeven Steps to Combat Grocery Checkout Lane Smut
I was unloading a mound of groceries onto the conveyor belt during a recent trip to a major superstore when my 7-year old said, “Mom, the baby is looking at something inappropriate.” Since I was...
View ArticleCreating Summer Family Memories
One summer I encouraged Catholic moms to be mindful of their prayer schedules when changing over to a new season. I gently but straightforwardly reminded, “While making plans for our families this...
View ArticleOnce Upon a Time, there was a Banana in the Kitchen…
“Once upon a time, there was a banana. And he lived in a kitchen…” So began the story my eight-year-old daughter Angela wrote yesterday for a homeschool writing assignment. I laughed and laughed, a big...
View ArticleParents of Large Families: Ours is a Public Ministry
I went to the dentist last week and when it was my turn to have my teeth cleaned, the energetic 23-year-old hygienist made small talk as she prepped the room for x-rays. “Your husband was just in here...
View ArticleHow to Keep Your Kids Catholic
I don’t remember much of the arithmetic or history my fifth grade teacher, Sister Matthew Marie, a religious with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, taught us. But I do remember that when she needed...
View ArticleWe Teach Our Children That God Loves Them
As responsible and caring parents, we teach our children that God loves them. We also teach them to pray and to go to God with their needs. But how do we explain those times when God lets them suffer...
View ArticleWhen My Martha Tendencies Highjack My Desire To Be Like Mary During Advent
I woke up one morning recently and panicked about my failure to “plan” Advent. After a few hours of agonizing about an approach, I concocted a plan of attack. “If we get an Advent wreath, make a...
View ArticleWhat You Need to Know to Become a Holy Family
The Feast of the Holy Family celebrates the holiness and joy of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of Nazareth. It’s place on the liturgical calendar is the Sunday following Christmas, unless...
View ArticleOn Slaying Dragons And Other Noble Pursuits
A Lesson In Motivating My Boy Child To Choose The Good In the three minutes we had been sitting in our church pew, Christopher, my five-year old, had managed the following: He “accidentally” tore...
View ArticleMass without My Kids: Not All It’s Cracked up to Be
Every so often, I find myself at Mass without my kids. And it never fails to shock me that…I’m just as distracted without them as I am when they’re with me! I wrote this piece back in 2007, when I only...
View ArticleWhy Pornography is Not Good For Married Couples
February is for Lovers. It is the reason that the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey is opening in theaters on Valentine’s Day. The producers hope that sweethearts will celebrate by watching sadomasochistic...
View ArticleTry Hard, Love Much
“She tried hard and loved much.” Not to be morbid, but I hope that can be truthfully put on my tombstone. I’m not planning on dying any time soon, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Over the...
View ArticleFour Critical Principles for Catholic Fathers
“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” (Pope St. John XXIII) I often feel completely lost and befuddled as a Catholic father in today’s world. How do I...
View ArticleOne Family’s Novena to Italy—Day One
Travel Journal Day One, May 7, 2015: Leaving Bismarck, North Dakota through Chicago to Rome. I have to admit I never really thought that I needed to see Italy or Rome or the Vatican to deepen my faith....
View ArticleOne Family’s Novena to Italy—Day Two
Travel Journal Day Two, May 8, 2015 arriving in Rome, the Eternal City. Touching down at the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport this morning felt like a blessing beyond surviving twenty hours in the air and the...
View ArticleOne Family’s Novena to Italy—Day Three
Travel Journal Day Three, May 9, 2015 — Rome through the ages. It is impossible to see all the sights that Rome has to offer. But we tried to see as many as possible on our first full day here. We...
View ArticleOne Family’s Novena to Italy—Day Four
Travel Journal Day Four, May 10, 2015 — The Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel The Vatican Museums were established over five hundred years ago by Pope Julius II after the discovery of just one...
View ArticleOne Family’s Novena to Italy—Mother’s Day in St. Peter’s Square
Travel Journal — Mother’s Day at St. Peter’s It was a Mother’s Day to remember for my lovely bride Patti Armstrong as we attended the Latin Mass at St. Peter’s and then, like tens of thousands of...
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