DAILY DEVOTIONS, LIFELONG FAITH

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06 Mar, 2004

Adult Spiritual Formation and Catechesis: Can Sunday School Help?

Missing Sunday School The small groups are made up of students with varying aptitudes and abilities. Inevitably, my students who are weak in a subject such as algebra gain enormous help when they are allowed to work with students who have a more highly developed skill in this area. As a former Protestant Christian, I

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19 Feb, 2004

Eating Children Alive: Why Catholic Schools Matter so Much

America got a wonderful present this Christmas past. On Christmas Eve, 2003, Catholic news services reported the findings of a special commission investigating Catholic school resources. The commission found nearly two-thirds of high school catechetical materials used throughout the United States are trash. The Heart of the Church That is, these texts are not in

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27 Dec, 2003

Loving a Church, Living the Faith: A Response to Andrew Sullivan

On October 20th, 2003 an article appeared by Andrew Sullivan in the New York Times lamenting the alleged fact that the Catholic Church “has gone beyond its doctrinal opposition to emotional or sexual relationships between gay men and lesbians to an outspoken campaign against them.” This article, entitled “Losing a Church, Keeping the Faith” also

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22 Dec, 2003

Join the College of Athanasius

I know a director of religious education (DRE), in a reputedly orthodox diocese, who taught adults movingly and repeatedly about the problems with contraception. In fact, parishioners were actually acknowledging and repenting of the sin. With the arrival of a new pastor, that all stopped. What are We? The new pastor, reputed to be a

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20 Dec, 2003

Don’t Let the Grinches Steal This Christmas

This holiday season, The Cat in the Hat, the film version of the Dr. Seuss classic, is a box office hit, despite mixed reviews. I have to admit that my favorite Dr. Seuss movie, however, is How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I’m not talking about the more recent Jim Carrey version, but the older, animated

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19 Dec, 2003

Model of Charity

Saints make the perennial timeliness of the Gospel come alive. Each one is like a living parable of that phrase in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). Today, just like two thousand years ago on the roads of Palestine, Christ is walking at our

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19 Dec, 2003

Our Crying Need for Hanukkah

On Nov. 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision committed an act of raw judicial tyranny. Read the decision and the dissents and it will be clear that there is absolutely no justification in the Constitution of the state of Massachusetts for this unjust usurpation of legislative authority. Tyrants Hiding Behind the

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19 Dec, 2003

Christmas or Not?

Last week, I was spit-fire mad. Stomping around the house, I was prepared to ram Christmas down America’s politically sensitive throat. I’d heard enough of the ACLU’s whining, tolerated too many Americans insisting simple Christmas decorations violated, offended or threatened their ethics. For the last year and half, I’ve lived in Shanghai, China, under Communist

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18 Dec, 2003

The Spirit’s Gifts

One of the achievements of Vatican II was a renewed appreciation of the Holy Spirit’s activity in all aspects of Christian life. Though we Catholics typically think of the sacrament of confirmation when considering the work of the Holy Spirit, the Council makes clear that the Spirit is integrally involved in every sacrament. Indeed every

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18 Dec, 2003

The Women of Middle Earth

In the midst of piles of Lord of the Rings merchandise on every shelf, Tolkien’s wisdom is applied to just about everything — Tolkien and industrialization, Tolkien and communism, Tolkien and religion, etc. What’s surprising, especially in today’s hypersensitive post-Gloria Steinem world, is the dearth of commentary on Tolkien and women. The Bittersweet Complexities of

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18 Dec, 2003

Abortion: Disturbing Numbers

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published its latest survey on abortion in the United States on the day after Thanksgiving. The survey, reporting legal induced abortions obtained in the U.S. in the year 2000, contains some eye-opening findings you will not likely read in the mainstream press. Keep in mind that the survey presents