Forgive me for geeking out a little bit here. I studied English and education in college, and I used to be an English teacher, so it’s safe to say that I like reading. In particular, I like stories. For my writing here at ATX Catholic and for much of my pleasure reading, I cover a… [Read More]
We Are All Teachers of Virtue (A Response to Archbishop Cordileone’s “Knowledge, Virtue, and Holiness”)
You may remember the news headlines about Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. They focused on the bristling of some archdiocesan school teachers at the prospect of having to sign a statement affirming their support of the Catholic faith. As a former Catholic high school teacher myself, I thought it was much… [Read More]
Vincent Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait – Nov 5
Vincent van Gogh is a definitive artist that is often only remembered for his brushstrokes and Starry Night. Like many other great artists, his story and personality is often over-simplified and forgotten. At one point in his life, van Gogh had tried a life as a preacher, but the Dutch Reformed Church didn’t find him suitable… [Read More]
The Presence of Mary
Mary has a presence all her own. I didn’t always know that – I didn’t always know her. I remember distinctly the first time I really felt her near. I was on a silent retreat, the first I’d ever attended. It was a 3-day experience of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. During the Exercises, you spend… [Read More]
On the education of children
Often I wonder if my writing isn’t just redirected self-therapy. Journaling sent out into the digital cosmos. A way of expressing my emotions, reading them, and moving on. Sometimes I wonder, but today I am sure. Last week I completed the enrollment of all four of my children in our local public schools. I made… [Read More]
Who is she to you? Mary as Educator of the Masculine & Feminine Soul
Who is she to you? Who is Mary to you? How do you relate to her? Perhaps the first relationship that popped into your head was Mother. But have you ever considered her a Teacher? What about as someone who can teach us about gender? About growing up as a teenage boy or girl? About… [Read More]
A Proposal to the Youth (Review: “YOUCAT, the Youth Catechism”)
I’m a little late in the game, but I’m also right on time for the Year of Faith: I finally took a deeper look into the YOUCAT*. Released to coincide with the last World Youth Day (WYD) and distributed to all official pilgrims, the YOUCAT was written to transmit content based from the Catechism of… [Read More]
Thrive – Adult Education Nights
Despite seemingly endless debates and legislation on sex education, teenage pregnancy rates and the spread of STDs doesn’t seem to be getting any better. As a society, this is causing us to completely freak out about the future of the individual lives of these students as well as the future of our society as a… [Read More]
Why We’re Here
Volunteering for education-related ministries is one of the ways that I’ve learned the most about our faith. This school year is my first year volunteering with high school teens. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I kept the slate blank to let God fill in the details with the wonderful people involved in… [Read More]
Happy to be a Dummy (Review: “Catholicism for Dummies”)
Most people don’t know that I haven’t been this religious all my life. I experienced a major conversion in my first year of college that brought me back to the Catholic faith of my middle school years and my first year of high school. At around that time, I combined my love of learning with… [Read More]
The Case for Homeschooling
Not once did I ever envision myself, our kids, or our family, as homeschooling material. It didn’t fit with my upbringing or my childhood experiences. I grew up in both South Austin and a small town in East Texas and went through public school, including a public university. I held many of the negative stereotypical… [Read More]
