All by Christina JK
If you think children get excited when Santa Claus is coming to town, you should get a load of us Catholics anticipating Pope Francis' trip to the US. Certainly, there are little Catholic grannies everywhere just dusting off the good china, and considering taking the plastic covers off their couches, just in case.
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the art of recognizing these signs, and simply avoiding intercourse during the few number of days each cycle when an egg could be fertilized. Or! If you're trying to make a baby, it's the art of knowing the days on which to have all of the sex.
It takes a moment’s worth of courage to stand on the side of the road, hold a sign and pray, but it takes an entire paradigm shift and lifestyle change to say that—when no one else will—we will help share in the responsibility for the very lives we are trying to save. We will help carry that load.
As I started writing about h… Jenner… I found myself pausing at several H’s, having minor panic attacks trying to decide which gender-specific pronoun to use. Him? Her? H-h-h-h…
This is what we call grace. It’s not always the beauty that you expect, but it is beautiful in its own right.
"It is too easy simply to talk or concern ourselves with the poor who are far away. It is much harder and, perhaps, more challenging to turn our attention and concern toward the poor who live right next door to us."
Reading about how slavery came to be accepted in our own culture's history reminds me once again that truth is not always easy. And I am inspired, because I see that now is as good a time as any to have an unpopular opinion.
It’s not as difficult to believe in the reality of an invisible, inaudible God when I so often find myself needing to believe in an equally real, invisible, inaudible husband.
“A friend of mine was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest up in Atlanta, so I went up and celebrated with him and some of my other friends. It was really awesome.”
“Oh that’s cool!”
“Yeah!”
“Did you tell him to stay away from little boys?”
Stunned and deadpan. “No. I didn’t.”
There is a lot of misconception and liberal commentary talking about how the Church, run by a bunch of men, is trying to control women and isn't thinking about our health. So here is some valid perspective I'd like to add to the dialogue.
I had a moment during Mass yesterday when I was staring up at the high, arched ceiling of the ornate sanctuary trying to decide if I thought it beautiful or tacky (often a fine line) and having the profound and amusing thought/prayer of, "What am I doing in a Catholic Church? ...in Columbus, Georgia? I did not see this coming."
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