Maria von Trapp, Former Atheist, to The Sound of Music, to the United States

Von Trapp family rehearse in 1936

Early on Saturday, March 12, 1938, German tanks and armored vehicles crossed the border into Austria, encountering no resistance. German newspapers printed a phony telegram supposedly from the new Austrian chancellor claiming German troops were necessary to restore order. In reality, it was an aggressive take over. 

Make a Holiday Bucket List

        Thanksgiving has become a faded memory as the tinsel and Christmas cheer takes over. With only a month to celebrate, it can feel overwhelming trying to fit in every holiday activity possible. We may not be able to knock everything off of our to-do list so perhaps make a holiday bucket list is in order to get the most out of December. 

An Everyday Hero

Does anyone wake up and think they will be a hero that day? But there are defining moments when heroism presents itself without no warning. Chet Czubko experienced such a moment on the morning of October 20, 2003.

Planned Parenthood Preaches Against Violence. Give me a Break!

  “Any country that accepts abortion. is not teaching its people to love but to use any violence to get what it wants.” -St. Teresa of Calcutta

Violence is an interesting word when used by Planned Parenthood. You'd think it would not be on their list of approved words for messaging along with: safety, human rights, life, murder, and anything else contrary to their bottom line of killing innocent lives. 

Return to Halloween

            I loved Halloween as a child.  It was a custom I initially continued with our children but then backed off amid warnings that it was an evil holiday.

Pray to Archbishop Romero During Persecution

             The political stage is not just heating up, it’s boiling over.  We are seeing mob violence push people out of restaurants and disrupt proceedings.  And let’s be honest, this isn’t about mere politics. The anger and vitriol that pits left against right is rooted in moral issues; especially with abortion and traditional marriage.

St. Therese of Lisieux and Roses

Have you ever prayed to St. Therese and received roses?  I did once.

  I never asked for a sign of roses before, but one time after finishing a novena, I told St. Therese it would mean a lot to me to receive them as a sign that my prayer request would be granted. 

Gender Deniers at Colorado Hospital

   When you have to check to see if an article came from the Onion, and it turns out to be true, that’s when you know the world is going crazy.  

            Children’s Hospital Colorado announced that it will no longer identify its patients as male or female on their wristbands in an effort to support gender-diverse children. 

St. Januarius's Blood Liquifies Again!

Good news!  

St. Januarius’s blood liquified again this year. We can sorely use the example of courage this bishop showed at his martyrdom in 305 A.D.

Eight Ways to Be Successful Now and Forever

        If I had to choose between becoming a New York Times best-selling author but lose my soul, or to never get published although achieve great holiness, I would have to choose the latter.  No doubt, it’s the same choice you would make. 
            But what if instead of heaven and hell, the choice was between heaven and purgatory? Would you choose success in this world in exchange for delaying heaven? Please don’t tell me you are thinking it over.

Open Letter to Priests, by Kevin Wells

             August 15, 2018

Dear Wounded Fathers,

On this brokenhearted day, your minds should turn to Ars, that small and despairing French town. The response to this swallowing red-tide of Church evil can be found in there. There, in the secret of its wavy countryside, your comeback lay. 

What to Do If Your Children Leave the Church

Recently, a priest friend shared with me that some of his siblings have left the Church. Father was raised by devout, Catholic parents and is a gentle, humble man, clearly in love with God, and he himself is loved by many.  So, why can’t he open the eyes of his siblings?

How Can Anyone be Surprised Church is Prolife?

 Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer at Salon and a self-proclaimed Catholic who walked out of Mass last month because the priest was prolife. “The fight for abortion means finding a new place in my faith,” she wrote.  

Her July 29 article “I Don’t Know How to be Catholic Anymore,” was intended to grandstand against the Church, but every serious Catholic knows, she didn’t know how to be Catholic before that either.

Pray with Angel Who Comforted Jesus

           

Praying with the angels is a celestial blessing available to us. We have complete access to all the angels and saints—our family in heaven—to intercede and pray with us to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. We can even pray with the angel who ministered to him as he prayed for us in the Garden of Gethsemane.  

Multiply Your Prayers

  We can tap into the power of God through prayer and also offer them towards others.  “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,” (James 5:16).

 I don’t think anyone should spend the day getting on every prayer list known to man, but why not multiply and fortify our prayers?

Normal Emotions Don’t Need Psychiatric Drugs

    As U.S. psychiatrists administer more psychiatric drugs, Americans are less mentally healthy than ever before. I am not addressing serious mental illnesses, but rather, the increased use of psychiatric drugs to cover up normal human emotions and evidence that the drugs themselves can cause harm.

Kicking Jesus Out a Compliment to Catholics

When the Red Bank Baptist Church in South Carolina voted to remove a statue of Jesus, the Catholic Church was complimented.  It was in response to complaints that the statue was too Catholic looking—an intrusion on their kind of worship. If an image of Jesus with outstretched arms seems Catholic, I say, Amen to that!

Should the Vatican Solve Child Poverty?

             

     

A Protestant pastor posted this meme: 

"THE VATICAN OWNS $25 BILLION IN PROPERTY AND $10 BILLION IN ART – AND YET CANNOT SOLVE CHILD POVERTY."

 We’ve  heard it before and will hear it again, so be prepared with an answer. 

Loving the Rapist's Child by Heather Gemmen Wilson

It had been more than a year since Casey was stillborn, and it seemed Steve and I would never be able to have the third child we wanted so badly. 

I sat in the doctor's waiting room, like so many times before. The nurse knew how hard we had tried since losing Casey. I guess that's why she just couldn't resist giving me a sly grin while practically singing her words, "The doctor will be right with you … and I think you'll like what she has to say." 

Father Peter Mary Rookey and his Miracle Prayer

Every now and then I learn about something and wonder: Why didn’t I know about this before?  Father Peter Mary Rookey falls into that category.  I learned about him after coming across the “Miracle Prayer,” written and promoted by him while he was alive. Although we cannot assume anyone is in heaven unless they are canonized a saint, (so we should still send up a prayer for them) it seems from Father Rookey's life that he would be a powerful intercessor.

Our Lady of Walsingham

 

           

 The Blessed Mother has numerous titles to extoll her divine attributes. Many derive from Church-approved apparitions.  
In England  there is only one title to honor Mary based on an apparition-related occurrence in 1061.   It was then that Lady Richeldis de Faverches prayed to God asking how she should honor the Blessed Mother.

Mother’s Day, Our Lady of Fatima, and 2 Birthdays!

This year, May 13 is both the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima and Mother’s Day.  In our family, my husband Mark and our son Jacob celebrate birthdays on the same day.  

It’s especially significant to Mark and me because at that time, we did not understand Church teaching on life and were contemplating no more children. (We ended up with the blessing of 8 more. including 2 from Kenya, and one miscarriage).  A priest that was also a doctor who served at our parish at the time and was also my doctor, had told me that it was not realistic to follow the Church on everything.  

A Daughter Finds Healing Forgiving Her Mother

 Ruth Knutson is the wife to Dr. Ron Knutson, an anesthesiologist in Bismarck, ND.  Together they have five children.  No one would suspect such a poised and joyful person to have had a childhood full of extreme abuse and neglect.  But Ruth points out, “It’s what we do with the rest of it that is our story.”

I Was Already Boycotting Starbucks

Starbucks has been in hot water lately. Two black men had asked to use the restroom at a Starbucks while they waited for a friend.  The manager told them it was for paying customers only and called police who proceeded to arrest the men for trespassing. Since not all suspected loiterers get arrested at Starbucks, people are stirred up. 

The Catholic Church on the End Times

Looks like we missed the rapture. I hate it when that happens!  

Christian numerologist David Meade was quite certain that on April 23 the end times would commence, ushering in a rapture, a 7-year tribulation, and a 1000-year reign by Christ.  You would think that these occasional would-be prophets would know that "of that day and hour no one knows;" therefore, "be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming,” (Matthew 24: 36-44).

Transform the World Through Women's Prayers

Women are not just like “one of the guys” and that is our strength. Evil forces within our culture belittle the beauty of our creation and have brainwashed many to deny who God made us to be. Jesus told us that the greatest among us would serve the rest, (Matthew 23:11) yet society has come to undervalue the powerful ways that women nurture and serve their families and communities. 

10 Ways to Welcome New Catholics; Over 30,000 Entering the Church This Easter!

While we continue to hear about fallen-away Catholics, more than 30,000 will enter the Church during  the Easter Vigil Masses in the U.S. this Saturday. That’s enough for a small city!  

Austin Bomber and Judas Hid Their Hearts Well

At the Last Supper, there was a mystery among the apostles.  When Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me,” the apostles were mystified. “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” they asked.

Two Supernatural Experiences Associated With Padre Pio's Relics

        Saint Padre Pio bore the stigmata—the wounds of Christ—on his hands and feet for fifty years. The twentieth-century Italian Franciscan Capuchin priest also had the gifts of reading souls in the confessional, visions, bilocation, healing, and prophecy. At the time of his death at the age 81 in 1968,  thousands from around the world were flocking to his remote Italian mountain village to attend his Masses,  go to confession to him, or ask for his prayers for healing and conversion.

Letter to Georgetown President: You Have Been Entrusted with Much

By writing to the Georgetown president who publicly honored a rabid pro-abortion US senator and also by praying for him, I desire to perform a spiritual work of mercy. I encourage everyone to be bold, be prayerful, and to love much—both God and neighbor—as you shine your Catholic light before all.  

Not the Right Kind of Catholic Parent

Here we go again: Mean, bad, unchristian Catholic school officials fire much-loved teacher.  Jocelyn Morffi, the Miami first grade teacher of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School was terminated upon returning from her February 3, wedding to another woman. She wrote on her Instagram account: “In their eyes I’m not the right kind of Catholic for my choice in partner.”

The Prophecies and Miracles of Pope Paul VI

When Blessed Pope Paul VI wrote his encyclical Humanae Vitae on July 25, 1968, he neither claimed to be a prophet or saint. Time has proven him to be both. 
His predictions of what marriage and society would suffer if the use of contraception became widespread has come to pass. And now, a second miracle has cleared the way for his canonization. The  Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the miracle  by a unanimous vote on February 6. Both miracles involved the healing of an unborn baby. 

May Pro-abortion Senators Out of Touch with Americans Never Win Another Election!

              

Please take notice! Our country officially stands out as one of only seven countries in the world that permits the killing of a viable, pain-sensitive child in the womb after 20 weeks. We stand with China, North Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Vietnam. In France, Italy, and Germany, abortion is illegal after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Light Shone at End of Nassar Tragedy

At the end of the tragic story of depravity of Larry Nassar, the MSU gymnast doctor who sexually abused girls and women for over twenty years, Rachael Denhollander shone a great light. She spoke of justice, not revenge, and of repentance, forgiveness, and God’s mercy.

Former Catholic Tries to Evangelize Me on Twitter.

I made a new friend on Twitter today. He  noticed I was Catholic and challenged me.  I’m not one for debates via social media.  It can get long and tiring  but sometimes, things just need to be said. 
I don’t know how to convert people—I’ve tried—but I’m wise enough to know that it’s God who changes hearts and minds, not me.  I just need to speak up when called upon. “…always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3:15).  

Printer That Inadvertently Sent “Battle Ready” Brochures to Same-Sex Couple Being Sued

Was it a mix up or an attack? Rather than the wedding brochures they expected, a same-sex couple received 80 brochures reported to be from Battle Ready that spoke of sin, lust and temptation.  The Australian couple filed a lawsuit in United States District Court in Massachusetts against the printer, Vistaprint.

How the Devil Uses Religion

  Only a sliver of a fraction of people are attracted to evil for evil’s sake. The rest are fooled. Cunning is the devil’s game.

It is in the murky margins outside of religion where religious folks, or those who are “just spiritual,” imagine they are following a greater god. Every rebellion against the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church is done under cover of improvement. It doesn't work that way. I’m not saying non-Catholic religions are evil; I’m saying evil is alway afoot when rejecting truth.

Torn Between Two Loves

I first met Kim Heilman as the newly married, Mrs. Heilman, Old Testament religion teacher at St. Mary’s High School in Bismarck.  She had a BA in Art History and English literature and an MA in Catholic studies and had lived through cultural relativism, coming out on the other end embracing her Catholic faith. It was a journey, however, in which she had to break off an engagement and cling to Catholic teachings no matter the cost.
          I am condensing Kim's story here, which first appeared in Amazing Grace for Families book. She writes at: Musings from the Home.

A Word from Humility Experts

         It seems that the dumbest mistakes occur on the heels of pride. Humility and obedience to God’s Church, with over 2,000 years of getting it right, are the way to go. We avoid a lot of buffoonery this way. There are times that people think we are fools because of our values, but we know the company we keep. Better to be a fool for Christ than for the world.