Broken Resolutions

January is my least favorite month, followed closely by February. In fact, the only reason I dislike them in that order is because in January there is still February to endure. I have never liked the cold of winter, the inconvenience of snow, and the long wait for the sprouting...
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Our Fellow Pilgrim

    The death of Pope Benedict XVI on December 31, 2022, brought an end to the earthly pilgrimage of this great servant of the servants of God. Joseph Ratzinger’s sacred journey to eternal life began at the baptismal font of his parish church in Marktl, Bavaria, on...
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Giving Till It Hurts

    One day, a priest of my acquaintance heard the voice of a young woman through the screen of his confessional: “Father, tomorrow I will have an abortion. I know that it is wrong. Can you forgive me in advance?” The priest was stunned. “Dear child,” he said, “wh...
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Not Done with the Pro-Life Movement

    “I’m done with the pro-life movement.” I heard that trope all too often this past fall, as erstwhile prolifers washed their proverbial hands of responsibility for the failures and foolishness of so-called pro-life politicians in this year’s midterm elections. The...
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“There’s Nothing Wrong with This Child!”

  A brilliant novel from 2021 that is mostly about life lived in “the portal,” that is, on social media, makes, mid-course, a dramatic turn and engages the world of the flesh. The sister of the unnamed female narrator conceives a child who is prenatally diagnosed with a...
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Constitutional Miscarriage

    Having grown up in Michigan, I tend to follow Michigan politics. This year, the state’s midterm election ballot carried a proposal known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, which sought to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. Here is...
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Love Favors Life

  What is the meaning of love? Ask ten people and you will receive at least ten definitions. Ask a Biblical theologian or a Greek scholar, and you will get a dissertation on different kinds of love found in ancient texts. A high-school student will give you an earful about...
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Notes on Advent

  Four Sundays on the Church’s liturgical calendar are dedicated to prayerful expectation of God’s coming among us as a newborn child. We are full of joy as we prepare to celebrate his birth, an event that forever changed our world for the better. Those who are blessed to...
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The Spiritual Law of Gravity

  Catholics call the month of November the “month of holy souls.” It is our annual commemoration of the dead. The month begins with All Saints’ Day, which is our celebration of the citizens of Heaven. On the day after, All Souls Day, we remember all the dead, especially...
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Where Women Fear to Tread

  There is a quote going around the internet attributed to Margaret Atwood, which says, “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” It is an easy enough assertion for the pro-life movement to dismiss, coming as it does from the...
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