Catholic Journal Prompts: Love Edition

Keeping a Spiritual Journal has been one of the most fruitful practices I have ever undertaken. The ability to articulate my prayers, struggles and victories on paper has added a depth and honesty to my prayer life. An added benefit is in looking back on my past journals and seeing the ways God has worked in…

3 Methods of Prayer

Before I start, let me say one thing: discovering how to pray is a lifelong adventure and the methods I describe below are a starting point, a map that can point us in the right direction. Let us also remember that prayer is not rigid and full of formulas we must use. If we restrict ourselves to saying “100 Our Fathers…

In Praise of Catholic Homesteading 

When the Papacy is vacant the whole Church looks longingly for a puff of smoke from a little chimney – the household of the Church feels lonely without Papa.   When it comes we rejoice, because our father has come home. When I see puffs of smoke from little homesteads in the countryside I feel the…

St. Thomas Aquinas: Prayers Before and After Communion

I recently stumbled upon these two prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas to be said before and after receiving Holy Communion. As with much of the Angelic Doctor’s writings, his words have the ability to stir one’s heart to more fully experience the depths of the mysteries he is writing about.  What a gift to the…

A Dumb Ox

Today is the feast day of one of my all time favorite saints. A saint who forged the principles of Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. He is honored as a Doctor of the Church, and considered the Church’s greatest theologian and philosopher. He was an Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest. An immensely…

Beer, Sex, and the Quest for Happiness

What is the one desire you and I all share? What is the one thing we want above all else? Happiness. The desire to experience lasting happiness is universal. Almost everything we do as human beings can be traced back to our quest for it—and perhaps no one understands this better than those in the…

Journey Through RCIA – Sacraments of Healing

For a non-Catholic learning how to see the world and Christianity as a Catholic, the term “sacrament” can be a large ominous hurdle. My own struggle with it came from an ignorance of what the Catholic Church meant by sacrament. The term sacrament means “outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification”.…

7 Ideas for Giving Your Children a Vocations’ Mindset

I’m honored to be participating in a blog series hosted by Gina over at Someday Saints which is focused on vocations and how Catholic families can foster vocations within their domestic churches. Stop by Someday Saints to read other entries in the series and be sure to share your own ideas in the comments below!  For…

Outside the Walls: January 26th, 2015

Featuring: The Tulsa March For Life Bishop Slattery’s Remarks St. Timothy’s Feast Day St. Basil the Great’s greatest fear. The Dignity of the Human Person

SHOCKING! Science and Religion are Compatible!

Gerald Schroeder is a scientist with over thirty years of experience in research and teaching. He earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with his doctorate thesis being under the supervision of physics professor Robley D. Evans. This was followed by five years on the staff of the…