Welcome to our world

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking How we need to hear from God You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting Welcome Holy Child Welcome Holy Child Hope that you don’t mind our manger How I wish we would have known But long-awaited Holy Stranger Make Yourself at home Please make Yourself at home Bring Your peace into our violence Bid our hungry souls be filled Word now breaking Heaven’s...

Making wrong turns right.

I took a wrong turn yesterday. I was driving to a store I don’t often go to and in my -preoccupied Christmas brain- distraction, I took a wrong turn. Getting back to where I needed to be wasn’t a simple matter because my wrong turn put me on a bypass that didn’t have a turn around or exit for two miles. So I kept going and got off at said exit, but instead of going all the way back around I...

“Dappled Things”

– a new Catholic literary magazine for young adults. Dappled Things is a new literary magazine dedicated to providing a space for young writers to engage the literary world from a Catholic perspective. The magazine is committed to quality writing that takes advantage of the religious, theological, philosophical, artistic, cultural, and literary heritage of the Catholic Church in order to inform and enrich...

A Disturbing Trend?

Recently, some very sad, local news events, sparked my curiosity about the growing trend of teenage blogs. Typing some keywords into Google one evening, I was easily able to find quite a few of these blogs, in fact far more that I expected. . . and some of what I found was rather disturbing. In a relatively short time of searching, I was able to find the sites of at least ten kids I know and while most of the blogs...

Holy Families Make Holy Priests

An article from the Fall 2005 issue of Heart and Mind magazine, written by my oldest son Timothy.“I have recently been accepted by my diocese, the Diocese of Harrisburg, to discern the vocation of the priesthood within the seminary. Support and congratulations have come from all over. Shortly after hearing the great news, I was asked to write an article for a magazine about how homeschooling has affected my...

American Girl vs. American Girls

by Elizabeth Foss Every night, when I put my daughters to sleep, I snuggle next to them under the pink, rose-festooned canopy over their bed. We talk about all sorts of things and I stay until they drift off. During the quiet time before the blanket of sleep envelopes my little girls, I gaze through the semi-darkness at the dolls on the shelves opposite the bed. The dolls are lined up after a day of play, a...

Subsidiarity and the New Orleans Tragedy

“The principle of subsidiarity was evidently ignored by those holding responsibility for the government of the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans. This principle was first clearly defined by Pope John XXIII and then later by the Second Vatican Council. The principle is valid for both the secular as well as the ecclesiastical realm. The principle of subsidiarity is the principle by which those in...

Update on Timothy

I just talked to him a little while ago and he told me he had a rough night last night and spent all of today resting in the infirmary. He gets the pins out on Thursday and should quickly start feeling better from there. Prayers are appreciated.A cute little story I must tell you; When Timothy was home his little sisters Mary and Maggie (ages 9 and 5) thought it their job to take care of him and at one point Timothy...

Morning prayer walk

I’ve started walking every morning and this morning I found the perfect place to walk, destined to be my favorite–a cemetery.Our parish cemetery actually. It’s 2 blocks from my house and very large with lots of paths, no traffic and no exhaust fumes! I am ashamed to admit that in 4 years of living here and passing it almost daily, today was the first time I actually set foot inside. I don’t...

Gone with the water

Published in National Geographic nearly a year ago. . .”It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV “storm teams” warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing...