March 2013 Wallpaper
We had wanted to include the start date for the papal conclave on this one, but the Cardinals are taking their sweet time arriving in…
read moreFreshman Survival 2013 — A User’s Guide
The next few months are anxiety-filled times not only for students but for parents and high school educators as well, as they begin finding out…
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Renewing the Spirit: A Catholic Guide to Overcoming Career Burnout
As the holiday season draws nearer, so do my responsibilities as a mother and college professor. Meeting work deadlines, traveling for business, attending committee meetings,…
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Community Service: How You Can Act on Catholic Social Teaching Every Day
During my many years of volunteer service (primarily in hunger relief organizations), I’ve witnessed a frustrating phenomenon. While people (admirably) tend to focus on opportunities…
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Bless Us, Oh Lord, for These Thy Gifts: The Holiness of Mealtimes
A few years ago, I was asked to sit on an alumnae panel at my high school to talk about life in college and beyond.…
read moreThe Papal Succession Obsession
Every day when I wake up, I fumble for my phone right from bed so I can check The New York Times and get a grip on reality. When I woke up last week and saw that the pope was resigning, I thought I’d lost that grip. Everything I thought I knew about Catholicism — where tradition is tradition is tradition — was upended.
It didn’t take long to tumble down the endless chute that is the papal succession obsession. What did it mean that the pope would resign at such a tumultuous point? Who would be the next pope? What country would he be from? What kind of changes would he make? …
read moreFast Pray Give
Traditionally, Lent was a time for personal conversion leading up to Easter, during which Christians practiced the spiritual disciplines of fasting, praying and almsgiving to strip away all that is unnecessary and become more mindful of their ultimate dependence on God. Let’s recapture the true meaning of Lent in ways that are actually relevant to your life. Each day throughout Lent, starting on Ash Wednesday, the calendar’s link for that day will become active, revealing a Daily Jolt for spiritual contemplation relating to Lent, and new and practical ideas for fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
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