"Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope"- 1 Peter 3:15
Though there is so much darkness right now, the glimmer of hope for me has been seeing the impressive number of Catholics calling for action in response to the sex abuse scandals. One of the call-to-action efforts I have been particularly impressed by is the movement started by Bonnie Engstrom (A Knotted Life) and Kendra …
My heart hurts. I’m angry and disappointed and sad and a whole bunch of emotions all swirling together in the midst of this horrific scandal. But I also feel like I need to do something. I’m still trying to understand what I can do personally, but for now, I know that I can pray and …
Earlier this week, Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote a piece called “I don’t know how to be Catholic anymore” on Salon. In it, she describes her frustrations with her new parish priest and her beliefs that are different from what Christ teaches (as protected and promoted by the Catholic Church). She wrote a number of concerning …
I absolutely love beautiful Catholic Churches. Obviously, the beauty of the building in no way impacts the grace received from praying and worshipping there, but there is something about beauty that stirs us. There are so many theologians and saints who talk about the power of beauty. During a recent trip to Houghton, I was …
Last July, I joined a new parish. I held immense respect for the pastor. Every homily was awesome, and he inspired a strong sense of community. He had big plans for our parish, and it was clear he was really passionate about serving our community. Though I had been there shorter than many others in …
I’ve written about feminism before (both here and as a guest poster), but I’d like to dig a little deeper into a topic I touched on: secular society’s idea that the Catholic Church Oppresses women. On the contrary, I believe the Catholic Church upholds the dignity of women the best in our broken world. The …
This Lent and Easter Season, I took on the Catholic Answers challenge. As I mentioned in the original post, I was recommending it without reading the books. I felt it was only fair to share my thoughts on the books as I read them (and amend my recommendation if necessary). Scripture and Tradition by Jim Blackburn …
I had been commenting a little on this on Facebook, but a friend of mine sent me this article and recommended I write about it (thanks, Emma!). My Experience in Scouts I think it is important to give you some background of my experiences with scouting. I was in Girl Scouts from kindergarten through high …