Category: Columns

On
Sr. Margie Lavonis

Who has a vocation?

Cutting Edge by Sr. Margie Lavonis

During January, most dioceses in the United States celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week.

This is a good time to think about vocations and who has one. Who do you think has a vocation? If you answered that everyone has a vocation, you get an A.

Receiving our vocation

So often we hear people limiting the term “vocation” to the priesthood and religious life. I hear many people, especially parents with children in Catholic schools, complain that we just don’t have enough vocations, but in truth we each received a vocation when we were baptized.

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Sr. Margie Lavonis

Christ bids us to come – and go

Cutting Edge by Sr. Margie Lavonis

I have a ritual I practice on New Year’s Eve or day, depending on what is going on in my life. I take some quiet time to review how God has worked in my life over the past year.

Last year I recalled a journal entry that summarized a talk I still remember. It was given during a day of prayer. The presenter, a wonderful Holy Cross priest, made a simple but profound statement. He said that Christian discipleship can be summed up by two words — “Come” and “Go.”

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Olivia Knier

Christian feminity: Living like Our Lady in modern times

With Christmas festivities underway and family gatherings abounding, Christ’s birth is any Christian’s central focus.

Olivia Knier

Surely this focus has brought about some thought on the Blessed Virgin’s important role in the Christ Child’s life.

The simple, yet difficult role she held in His time can hardly be paralleled with such a fast-paced culture as ours is today, can it?

With the role of women in society changing rapidly, it’s easy to lose sight of where women should stand. Involvement of a woman in society today is different from that of Jesus’ time, but still centers around the same characteristic: primary focus of service to the family.

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

The lasting spirit of Christmas

During World War II near London, on Christmas morning, some lonely American soldiers looked for a Mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

As they searched, they discovered an old gray stone building. Carved over the door were the words, “Queen Anne’s Orphanage.” They knocked and a matron came to the door. She explained that the children were orphans whose parents had been killed in bombing raids.

Sharing the Christmas spirit

The soldiers went inside as the children tumbled happily out of bed and hurried into the gray guest room. There were no Christmas trees, crib, or presents.

 

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On
Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer

An ‘angel’ for the missions every day: Work and witness of Religious Sisters in the Developing World

Propagation of Faith by Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer

In our world today —perhaps in our own lives — there are times it seems that not too much “good news” exists.

We hear of war and natural disasters around the globe. At home, we may be afraid as we face a loved one’s illness, or financial difficulties.

In those moments, we call to mind the angel’s announcement that first Christmas, taking comfort in the message of God’s love, as it supports us every day through life’s challenges.

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On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Humans in ‘frozen orphanages’ need protection

A key argument in the embryonic stem cell debate — widely invoked by scientists, patient advocacy groups, and politicians — involves the fate of frozen embryos.

Barack Obama put it this way in 2008: “If we are going to discard those embryos, and we know there is potential research that could lead to curing debilitating diseases — Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease — if that possibility presents itself, then I think that we should, in a careful way, go ahead and pursue that research.”

The head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, embraced this same line of reasoning by

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John Huebscher

A Christmas gift: civility in public discourse

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

Anyone familiar with the recent election campaign or with the “reader comments” that accompany editorials and news articles knows that civility is often the first casualty in debates today.

Nearly anyone who makes a public argument finds his intelligence questioned, his motives impugned, or his basic decency assaulted. Some critics will even doubt the patriotism or Americanism of their opponents. Others call their opponents bigots or racists.

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On
Audrey Mettel Fixmer

Bob’s last Christmas: a holiday to remember

grand mom

When I look at the pictures taken last year on Christmas Eve, they bring tears to my eyes and a smile on my lips.

Our family gathered as usual: eight of the 10 children and 12 grandchildren and great-grands who live in the area, not in Grandma’s house or Aunt Krissy’s, but at Countryside Nursing Home in Jefferson. Since Grandpa couldn’t join us, we joined him in the beautiful parlor with its huge fireplace and Christmas tree.

 

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