On Ash Wednesday, I attended the St. Francis de Sales School Mass in Spooner. Our pastor, Fr. Phil Juza, asked the students to answer a question – if Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas, what is Lent a time of preparation for?
There is something about witnessing a grown man’s tears. Even a single escaped droplet traces his cheek like an exclamation point, deeply impressing whatever circumstances or moral-of-the-story that brought him to the verge of choked emotion.
It’s been one of those days – the kind where what you thought the day would, or should, look like is nothing like what it actually does.
Vocations Director for the Diocese of Superior Fr. Thomas Thompson regretted having to admit that some people have told him they do not like praying the diocesan prayer for vocations, in particular the line, “Bless our families, bless our children – and choose from our homes those needed for your work.”
As a parent, I have learned when one of my kids has a meltdown or is feeling very afraid, the most effective thing is to just quietly hold them and reassure them they are not alone and everything will be OK.
“Retreat” is one of those words in the English language that has a number of meanings – defined by words associated with war, retirement, seclusion and insanity.
If I’m totally honest, Mother’s Day is my least favorite “Hallmark holiday” of the year.
What does it take to get excited about Lent?
Sharing advice as a fellow kidnapping survivor, Elizabeth Smart has spoken out on Jayme Closs’s courageous escape to freedom and what lies ahead. In one interview on NBC’s The Today Show, she said, “As big as this feels right now, it doesn’t have to define her life,” and added “You don’t go back to the old normal, there’s only a new normal.”
Saturday morning I took off my wedding ring to make gingerbread cookies with the kids. Given their ages – 6, 5 and 3 years old – you can imagine there were a handful of times I wondered if the effort was worth the memory-making tradition.