MADISON — Almost 7,500 students attend Catholic schools in the Diocese of Madison. That leads to a rough estimate of almost 100 students per school.
When you compare that number to the more than 300 students in more than 85 families who participate in the Holy Family Homeschoolers (HFH) program in the diocese, one can see it is a viable and growing option for families.
MADISON – On Saturday, Sept. 14, groups of pro-life Americans participated in a National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children to honor the gravesites of the unborn who were victims of abortion.
The Day of Remembrance was conducted at 39 different gravesites across the nation, and was held on September 14 to mark the 25th anniversary of the burial of several hundred children in Milwaukee.
I remember how Dad liked to plant a garden. First, he plowed and harrowed God’s good earth. This made the soil more receptive to receive and nourish seeds.
Next, he skillfully tied a string between two stakes to help make the rows even. We children watched with awe as he reverently planted seeds in the garden’s rich soil. This was sacred time.
We waited patiently for plants to push through the soil. Finally, one memorable day we discovered a shoot that had risen from the earth. We joyfully raced to be first to share the good news. Now whenever I see a garden, I think of Dad.
Some mothers claim that they would do anything for their children. Stephanie Decker, a 37-year-old Indiana mother, demonstrated this in a heroic way.
On March 2, as a tornado crushed her family home, Stephanie covered her children with her body to protect them. Debris from the tornado caused her to lose part of both legs while saving her children from the deadly 175 mph tornado.
Someone wrote that a mother carries her child in her womb for nine months and in her heart for the rest of her life. Conceiving, carrying, and giving birth to a human being is as close as any person can come to the act of creation. After birth, motherhood continues through nurturing, sacrificing, loving, and ultimately letting go.
Q I come from a family of five — three boys and two girls. Mom is still living, dad passed away several years ago. We have always been “worriers” — with my mom setting the standard.
One of my sisters has just been diagnosed with a serious disease and does not want mom to know because she will worry. I think she should know what is going on but I am the only one. Is it a good idea to hide this information from mom to “protect” her? (A son in Portage)
Violence seems to dominate the news recently in our state, nation, and world. A man shoots a young intruder hiding on his porch. A neighborhood watch vigilante kills a young man who is walking down the street. An American soldier kills civilians — including children — in Afghanistan.
What are we to make of this senseless violence? What is the world coming to and what — if anything — can we do about the violence that pervades our society?
A few years ago, I spoke with a young man preparing to get married. His aunt told him that she thought he and his fiancée were too financially-strapped to have a child, and that it wouldn’t be fair to bring up a baby in poverty. Keenly aware of his joblessness and his minuscule bank account, he concluded she was probably right.
The young man and his fiancée were ready to tie the knot in a few months and they expected that she would be at the infertile phase of her cycle around the time of their honeymoon, so they would be able to consummate the marriage while avoiding bringing a child into the world.
They agreed they would use Natural Family Planning (NFP) after that to avoid a pregnancy. A few years later when they felt financially secure, he told me, they would have their first child.
During the holidays I love hearing from old friends, voices from my past; Charlotte, a “mother’s helper” who lived with us for her senior year of high school and now has grandchildren of her own; Tom and Betty, who taught with Bob in the ’50’s and shared our laughter and tears.
They were the short term relationships, the layers of love that add flavor and richness to our lives. The long term relationships were the foundation.
I thought of the analogy as I was making my seven layer taco dip for a New Year’s Eve party.
Once I met a woman who had worked for years in fashion and modeling. Unsurprisingly, she was strikingly attractive.
She was accompanied by her teenage daughter who, by contrast, was rather unremarkable to look at, maybe even a plain-Jane.
After spending time with them, I began to sense that the mother, whose life had largely revolved around her appearance, seemed to look down on her daughter, perhaps unconsciously, because of her average appearance.
In a recent column, David O’Brien, the associate director of religious education for lay ministry in the Archdiocese of Mobile, Ala., recounts the story of Agnes and Jake, devout Catholics who conceived and delivered four children during the first five years of their marriage.
Agnes described how Jake, “wanted to be a good father and husband, and he couldn’t see how that could happen if we continued to have more children. In short, he was getting a vasectomy.”
Agnes had a strong Catholic formation, and understood that married couples should not engage in sexual acts that have been intentionally blocked or “rendered infecund.” She struggled with Jake’s new stance, and dug her heels in.
She wondered how she could possibly be an authentic witness to the Gospel “if within my marriage, I was no longer open to life? How could I minister to other women and encourage them to be bold in their faith if I wasn’t living it myself? And what do I teach my children about marriage and sex when their father and I weren’t aligned?”
