It’s late August. The days are growing shorter, the nights are growing cooler, and children are preparing to go back to school.
One can’t help but notice that change is definitely in the air. Yes, change. It’s one of the great things about being a Catholic school teacher or principal (and there are many!).
When I do presentations on in vitro fertilization, audience members sometimes ask whether test tube babies experience psychological problems as they grow up.
Although they clearly face elevated health risks for a number of diseases and physical disorders, the psychological effects on these children have not been thoroughly studied.
For some students, going away to college is often viewed as a chance to be liberated from their parents and the restrictions of family life.
One such parental rule that is exercised in many Catholic homes is the one about Mass attendance. I can still hear my own father and mother saying to us when we would rather stay in bed on a Sunday morning, “As long as you live in this house you will go to Mass.” Does this sound familiar?
If you have ever experienced your children at play and shuddered when their speech sounds like a close imitation of your own, you will understand my story. (e.g. “Don’t make me tell you again!”) All parents recognize this as a red flag, warning them that “little pitchers have big ears.”
But what happens when they grow up and write books based on the family, and you are forced to come face to face with the imperfect parent-in-training that you were?
All close, meaningful relationships need special or quality times when the people involved can be together for an extended period of time without a lot of interruptions.
People in significant relationships need time set apart from every day life to enjoy each other’s company and to deepen their knowledge of one another.
As we enter another campaign season, candidates and others are sharing their views on the role of government at the local, state, and national levels.
This year especially, the role government plays in society is a hot topic of discussion. In many races candidates are making it the defining issue.
On August 15, we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven. Mary’s Assumption is God’s response to her committed discipleship, expressed through her motherhood of Jesus, and other graced ways that she did God’s will.
The feast of the Assumption is the oldest Marian feast in the liturgy. On November 1, 1950, in Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII declared Mary’s Assumption “to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Our sacred scriptural traditions convey the message that we humans were created by a loving Creator-God and assigned the mission to prosper, to steward all the resources of the planet, and to subdue, or cultivate the earth. And God has said he will provide food for our subsistence.
Bishop Giampaola Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has recently written, ” . . . People’s fundamental orientation toward the created world should be one of gratitude and thankfulness. The world, in fact, leads people back to the mystery of God who has created it and continues to sustain it. If God is forgotten, nature is emptied of its deepest meaning and left impoverished.”
I could get lost trying to find my way out of a paper bag, so I use a GPS for successful navigation. So long as I tell it where I want to be, it gets me there with step-by-step directions and even detours if I come up on obstacles like construction or closed roads.
I can view my whole route in advance, make changes should I stop along the way, or even change my destination mid trip! I don’t have to constantly monitor it — it updates as we go and keeps me informed of the right direction.
The ways in which we act out our Christian charity in the Church, for the love of God and neighbor, is evident in a number of ways throughout a given year.
Often it is through volunteering at our parishes or parish-related projects — things we feel attached to and with which we want to assist in a specific way. Other times it is through monetary donations to similar local campaigns, projects, or funds, benefiting things that we know, in faith, we need to support. Always, it includes our prayers!
