We enjoy the sport of rock climbing as a family.  Because granite cliffs are a bit hard to come by where we live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, we most often climb at a world-class, indoor climbing gym about 40…

At 3:45 p.m. I bravely steered the minivan out of our driveway and headed north to Lexington, Massachusetts, in the greater Boston metro area.   Yes, that Lexington.  The Lexington of Paul Revere’s ride, the birthplace of the American Revolution where…

I have been nibbling away at a book titled, The Difference God Makes, by Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.  I say nibbling away because what Cardinal George has to say about the role of the Catholic faith in our modern word…

On Ash Wednesday, we entered into not only the liturgical season of Lent, but also into the 2010 “40 Days for Life” campaign.   In hopes of encouraging as much participation as possible in this important spiritual work of fasting and…

When we only read Holy Scripture in snippets or summaries, we miss some contextual words that can help us better understand God’s love.  For example, it wasn’t until I read the 10 Commandments straight from Deuteronomy 5:1-21 that I…

This time last year some graduate-school friends from Ireland and their three young children came to visit us on the Cape.  It had been several years since we had seen one another, so our time together was rich with recounting…

Thirty years ago I received a Christmas gift that would change my life.  It came from my mother, a woman so artistically gifted and impulsively creative that each year the wrapping paper and bows on the presents beneath our tree…

I live in the zone of overlapping radio waves for K-Love Christian radio station and a National Public Radio station that both broadcast at 91.1 FM. Because of my geographical location, these two stations from polar opposite ends of the…

I heard a shocker the other day.  One evening, while out with a few girlfriends, a man approached my sister-in-law and started flirting.  It had only been a few months since she and her husband had exchanged wedding rings, so…

My job in the economy of our family is to plug the holes of unnecessary spending in order to stretch my husband’s income as far as possible. It’s a challenging position, but one that has become a bit easier since…