The Gift of Faith: A gift for my daughters
Advent marks a new beginning for the Church. A new calendar year. A new season of awaiting the birth of our Saviour. With all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations, there is the inevitable attention to gifts and what will Santa bring this year. My...
Women and Careers: The World According to Fulton J. Sheen
I’m in the throes of moving for the second time in less than one year. While packing our bookshelf up once again, I came across “Love, Marriage and Children” by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. I don’t know about you, but it usually takes me several enjoyable hours to pack up...
Don’t Miss Grace Filled November
When fall arrives I often think about how important it is to reflect on significance of November. At the beginning of November we celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day and Remembrance Day follows soon thereafter. These three days remind Catholics to be united in...
A Mother’s Role in Her Children’s Relationship With God
This past Sunday, my family celebrated my baby girl’s baptism. So, you can imagine all my worries on the Friday and Saturday before the big day. How much food should we order? Will everyone fit in our cozy little home? What cake flavour will the guests enjoy the most?...
Halloween can be a Catholic teaching moment
I was taken aback in early October when I went to a local drug store to pick up some medication and was confronted with rows and rows of Halloween merchandise. Even with trick-or-treating just around the corner, the costumes, candies and other accessories...
New Traditions are Hard to Start
By the time my husband John and I were married four years we had two children. One thing we struggled with over the years was merging our different backgrounds to create our own family traditions. For instance, how to celebrate a birthday. I have my own ideas about...
Celebrating an Important Birthday
Did you know that Catholics celebrate Mother Mary's birthday? It's a feast day in the Catholic Church that can be made into a whole lot of fun for kids. Formally it's called the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. A few years ago, I went all out and got an ice cream cake...
7 Tips for a New School Year
Fall is coming. School has already started for some and is still to begin for others. Often times fall can be a major source of stress, especially for moms. New activities starting, homework, car pools, religious education, and on and on. So what’s a busy family...
Don’t Worry, Be Happy … Sing the “Ave Maria”
He is a gentle, happy man. A ten-time Grammy Award winner, a virtuoso vocalist and conductor, Bobby McFerrin is best known for his 1988 hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Bobby McFerrin’s peaceful, joy-filled improvisations well up in a heart that is attuned to...
Why We Need Our Friends
“I really don’t like my husband much these days,” the young wife complained to another married woman. “Don’t worry, it’s a ten-year marriage thing. It’s not your relationship, it’s the stage your relationship is in,” the older married woman counseled. In these days of...