After my last post on pornography, I felt it was only fitting that I follow that up with my take on the new movie by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, called “Don Jon”. If you haven’t seen the trailer, it’s about a young man who is into fast cars, hookups and porn. Oh, and he claims to be… [Read More]
Have you read Lumen Fidei yet? Part III: Faith in Relation to Love and Truth
I’m still working on reading it myself! As we follow our Pope in all his tweets and homilies, and that beautiful and authentic interview released last week, and how the media responds, etc, let’s take a break from the sound-byte surfing and dive back in to the deep end – to continue our slow process… [Read More]
Relationships 101: The #1 Way the Internet is Messing Up Your Love Life
Part Four of “Relationships 101”. See part three here. We left off the last post with the number one way the Internet is messing up your love life. Remember what it was? It has become so pervasive that about 30,000 people use it EVERY SECOND (Daily Infographic, 2013). It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that has been around… [Read More]
Lumen Fidei: Part II, We Have Believed in Love
(This is the second reflection over Lumen Fidei in a series. This installment covers Chapter One: We Have Believed in Love. For the introduction, please see Lumen Fidei: Part I, Illusion and Illumination). Introduction We received a perfect inspiration to return to studying Pope Francis’ encyclical, Lumen Fidei, The Light of Faith, during last Sunday’s mass…. [Read More]
Prayer and Self Confidence: An Interior Reflection
What does it mean to be humble? What kind of self-denial (Lk 9:23) does that entail? Is the desire for humility contrary to that of self-confidence? Is one good and the other beautiful? I’d like these thoughts to continue in the Comment section. Does prayer nurture my humility? It would seem so – that the… [Read More]
Erroneous Eros…
In the last column “Quid Amor? (What is Love?)”, I wrote about the different loves as explained by C.S. Lewis and by the Holy Scriptures. Love is so much more complicated than being a simple emotion without reason. According to Lewis there are four loves; Storge, Philia, Eros and Agape. Each love plays an important… [Read More]
Quid Amor?
Love, an emotion? a feeling? What is love? Today many people, when they think of love think of it as an emotion or a feeling. For them, love is possible of fading or dying. Love, for many, is just a state of mind that one can fall into or fall out of. But is this… [Read More]
Chastity: Getting Real with Something No One Likes to Talk About
This blog starts with a definition, followed by a confession: Firstly, I want to define chastity. If you look up the definition of “chastity” in a dictionary, the first few definitions will say something like “abstaining for all sexual intercourse” or “see – chastity belt”. Not exactly the definition I’m going for here. If you… [Read More]
Don’t Call Me Crazy: A Christian Response to the Stigma of Mental Illness
“That’s so crazy!” “You must be crazy…” ‘Crazy’ is a word we hear thrown around often in our culture. We even have multiple variations now, with ‘craziness’, ‘crazy sauce’ and ‘cray cray’ floating around online and in person. I myself am guilty of using this word flippantly to describe anything from intense stress to something… [Read More]
Don’t Let Your Children’s First Communion Be Their Last
Sometimes words just hit your heart, right where it matters. This past weekend was officially “First Communion Weekend” at our house. It’s a date we’ve had circled on the calendar for months. There were lots of preparations—the clothes, the party afterward, the invitations, the family travel schedules and, of course, the Sacramental preparation. During the… [Read More]
No really, I’VE GOT THIS: The Perfectionist’s Struggle of Letting Others Help
Before you begin this blog, please answer the following questions (to yourself, or out loud if you like that kind of attention): 1. Would you consider yourself a ‘perfectionist’? 2. Have you ever been accused of being an over-achiever? 3. Are you one of those people that says “I’m fine!” in response to everything? If… [Read More]
What Love Really Means (Review: “The Four Loves”)
Love is complicated. After I came back to the Church, I realized that the world’s definition of love wasn’t going to cut it. I knew that it had to be more than just a feeling, but I was still confused. How could I define something so powerful, so sacred, and so broadly applicable to everything… [Read More]
The Challenge of LGBT Friendships
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” -Matthew 16:14 Jennifer Fulwiler wrote an article several months ago documenting a conversation she had with an old friend who had chosen an “alternate” lifestyle. She handled it remarkably well and admirably defended her Catholic faith throughout the awkward affair. However, the… [Read More]
Getting Over Myself: Battling the Ego in Relationships
You know that moment when you realize that you’re wrong? You’re looking at someone, or maybe you’re by yourself in the car or at work, and it hits you: you messed up. You made a mistake. You did or didn’t do something, and as a consequence, you’ve hurt someone else. As the reality hits you,… [Read More]
What Love Is
Hey. Wanna try a little experiment? Search the Internet for the definition of “love” and see what you get. I tried this just recently and discovered something rather incredible. Specifically, I wanted to know what our society thinks love is. We as Catholics know that society’s understanding of love is pretty screwed-up, but I wanted… [Read More]
NBC’s ‘Parenthood’ Addresses Teen Pregnancy and Abortion
In its four season history as a television show, NBC’s Parenthood has addressed issues that are honest, relatable and believable. From addiction to special needs children to infidelity to being a single mother to cancer to infertility issues to adoption to a soldier’s return from Afghanistan and more, Parenthood has not shied away from tough… [Read More]
My Top 5 Reasons to be Married
No One Wants to Get Married Anymore. Look at what our culture sees as entertaining. I know for women, it seems fun to buy clothes from certain stores, not being anchored down by a man, and having the freedom to see whoever you would like. Being independent and successful are also factors that rate a… [Read More]
Why I Believe in Gay Equality
First things first: I apologize for my extended hiatus from posting blogs. Let’s just say a lot of very significant and life-changing things happened to me one after another. Second things second: I’d like to return to my regularly scheduled programming by speaking about a rather snaggly issue in our state/country/world at the moment: gay… [Read More]
Perfectly Imperfect
Pinterest is a dream come true for the aspiring perfectionist. If you have not encountered pinterest yet, it is a virtual and endless pin board where people can post and save photos of projects and ideas. (Be prepared to stay up until 4 am creating your pin boards, by the way). I was browsing the… [Read More]
In All Circumstances Give Thanks
That’s all for today, friends. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Catholic Frenemies
Towards both God and others, at times we’re like Peter, at other times like Paul, sometimes we’re like John and even other times we’re like (doubting) Thomas. But what worries me the most is when we’re like Judas. Because when we’re like Judas, we often act as a frenemy. Frenemies. We all have them. Sometimes,… [Read More]
Beauty of Truth Podcast – Ep 13 What is the purpose of sex?
Ep 13 What is the purpose of sex? Questions 1. Why can a celibate priest teach about sex? 2. So what is the purpose of sex? 2. Is sex is about love, why should there be any restrictions? Catechetical Moment CCC #2333 Living the Truth How can we embrace our sexuality in… [Read More]
Death & Your Marriage
This may be a little unusual for someone to admit, but, I’m not afraid to die. And I even look forward to death one day (not in a “I want to die today” type of way but in a “I look forward to being in God’s presence for eternity and in communion with the saints”… [Read More]
Tech and Catechetics
Our youth live in a world of extreme media consumption. Many of us today are never phased by the amount of time we spend staring at a screen or the amount of screens we have in front of us any given time of the day. It is unmistakable that our American culture is over-saturated with… [Read More]
When Words Distort
I’ve always been fascinated with the power words have to convey subtle shades of meaning. People are usually considered good communicators when they are able to “get to the point” without cluttering the air with lot of unnecessary words. There are times, however, when we deliberately avoid being direct. More often than we realize we… [Read More]
Not a Nice Place
Ever since Sunday I’ve been in a tangle of practical must-take-care-of-it tasks in the aftermath of getting rear-ended at a stoplight. Thanks be to God I was fine, and so was the other driver. Anyone who has been in a wreck knows that the mountain of things to deal with after it happens only prolongs… [Read More]
Beauty of Truth Podcast – Ep 9 What’s the meaning of Baptism?
Ep 9 What is the meaning of baptism? Questions What can physical water do for a soul? Why do Catholic baptize babies? If we are baptized, why do we need to go to confession? Catechetical Moment CCC #1279 Living the Truth How can I live out my baptism? Hosted by Casey… [Read More]
Overcoming Failure in Evangelization
There is nothing sadder than seeing someone turn away from Christianity, especially from the Catholic Church. It breaks my heart every time. Even more so when they are friends or family. It’s a God given right to choose not to follow Jesus, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. “If there were no God, there would… [Read More]
Ten Tips for Dealing with Anger in Marriage
We may not like to talk about it, but if you’re married, you’ve been there. How do we deal with our anger in marriage? How do we argue? How do we reconcile? We all have different ways of handling our differences with our spouse, but here are a few things I’ve learned over the 13… [Read More]
How Far Is Too Far?
There are some questions that never seem to get properly answered when you ask them. “Daddy, why is the sky blue?” “Mommy, where do babies come from?” “Aunt Edna, could you help me reconcile the thermodynamic principle of entropy with the theory of evolution?” But the one that probably most frustrates high school teens, and… [Read More]
When to Shepherd, When to be Sheep
Last Sunday’s readings were full of shepherds – bad shepherds who didn’t care for the flock, the Lord our Shepherd who would leave us wanting for nothing, God’s promise to send a good shepherd who would care for his people, and Jesus’ gaze upon the people, who moved him, because they “were like sheep without… [Read More]
Basic Biology for the Dating Catholic
So you’re Catholic? Good. And so is SHE? Well, well, well. Even better. You know the “she” of whom I speak. Your heart’s beating a little faster just thinking about her. Perhaps your palms are sweating and you need to wipe down your keyboard with a Wet-Nap. But where do you start? How do you… [Read More]
Media Discernment and You
I have a love/hate relationship with the media. I am Catholic and I am committed to my faith, but I work with many non-Catholics and with Catholics who are seeking direction. Being a good evangelist means I have to keep track of what’s going on outside the Catholic bubble, to follow the Bible’s advice to… [Read More]
Marriage & Saltwater
Catholics believe that it is impossible for people of the same sex to marry each other. This particular Church teaching is one of the most often attacked from without (and, unfortunately, dissented from within). In order to better understand this doctrine, I would like to focus on one particular aspect of this doctrine: the necessary… [Read More]
Holiness: The “Problem” with Catholic Virgins
I have bad allergies. Really bad. So bad that when I finally started seeing an allergist a year ago he told me there are about 4 weeks in the year, two in the summer and two in the fall, when I’m not allergic to things in there air. But I didn’t realize my allergies were… [Read More]
The Silence of St. Joseph
I have a friend who does quite a bit of public speaking about marriage. Having heard him a number of times, I can usually anticipate his jokes long before he makes them. He pokes fun at the quirks that enter marital relationships and the way that our culture views marriages. “I might be the one… [Read More]
“The Perfect Love” just in time for Valentine’s Day
So today is Valentine’s Day. I remember when I was in middle and high school, my group of friends would go bowling and bring fancy decorated bags/boxes for later exchanging those little pre-maid valentines you get at Wal-Mart. Of course, later on, I would sort through them looking for one from whichever guy I was… [Read More]
Our Lady of Guadalupe “Patroness of the Unborn”
In 1531, the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe brought an end to human sacrifice all over the Americas. Before she appeared to St. Juan Diego, cruel human sacrificing rituals were performed on a scale never approached, even remotely, by other peoples of the era. Many methods were used. In one of their religious ceremonies,… [Read More]
The Greatest of These is Love
The key to raising Missionaries, Martyrs and Saints is Love. As St. Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians Chapter 13, we can do all the right things as parents, have the most efficiently run home on the block, provide our kids the best education, use the right form of discipline every time, always have the… [Read More]
