It didn’t take […]
Category: Guest column
Thanksgiving and autumn harvest reflections
As nature decorates the hillsides with the beautiful autumn leaves, our thoughts turn to the harvest.
No mere artist can model the natural hillside of trees in arrangement and color, nor the bounty that feeds all creatures.
God is revealing himself to people and gives us abundant reason in which to see, honor, and be grateful for the order in nature.
As we behold this autumn of 2010, let us stop to praise God not only for the beauty we see in nature but also for his providential care through crops — corn, soybeans, squash, pumpkins, and all — each of which has a color, form, and purpose.
Why does the Church continue to engage the secular media and is it worth it?
About two and a half years ago, I posed a very similar question here in the Catholic Herald, and it is time we revisit this question.
Let’s get straight to the point. Recent stories throughout the world on the Catholic Church and even local interactions with the secular media make one wonder if it is worth the Church continuing to work at maintaining relationships with the traditional media or whether it would be more effective to direct our time and energies in different and non-traditional avenues.
Loving the Church and your faith
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| Olivia Knier |
It’s hard enough to practice your faith these days, it’s sometimes even hard to do the bare minimum of attending Mass each Sunday.
How could people possibly learn to LOVE their faith?
It’s possible: here’s how.
Aging in retirement: Should I get long-term care insurance?
As we get older and our health declines, the greater the chances are that we will require home care, nursing home care, or other assisted-living arrangements. This care is quite expensive, and Medicare, HMOs, and Medigap don’t pay for it. You might want to look into purchasing long-term care insurance (LTCI) to protect your assets in case you need long-term care.
Holy purity: Know more than a list of no’s
In their budding youth and possibly without their full knowledge, teens are forming their personalities, habits, ideals, and the very essence of who they are right now.
Thus, it is essential for them to form positive, pure habits now. Would their future husband or wife be able to meet their current date and look them in the eye? It’s a pertinent question to ask.
Holy purity: Know more than a list of no’s
In their budding youth and possibly without their full knowledge, teens are forming their personalities, habits, ideals, and the very essence of who they are right now.
Thus, it is essential for them to form positive, pure habits now. Would their future husband or wife be able to meet their current date and look them in the eye? It’s a pertinent question to ask.
The sacred act of eating
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.”
Using a financial GPS
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.
Local men sponsor six seminarians at World Youth Day
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!