Does NFP Ever Really “Fail?”
Dr. Jean Rioux is a professor and chair of the philosophy department. He and his wife, Maria, raise their nine children in a renovated farmhouse a few miles outside Atchison. A graduate of Thomas...
View ArticleGay Marriage? Contraception? Kinda the Same Thing.
Unsurprisingly, it’s hard to find modern pictures of anonymous large families. I was reading Matt Walsh’s piece on the unfortunate hypocrisy of pro-traditional-marriage divorcees when my memory kicked...
View ArticleREVIEW: I’m Bernadette!
When I was a girl, the library bookmobile used to park about a block away from my house on Saturday mornings. I would walk over with an old stack of books, return them, and spend an hour or so combing...
View ArticleHigh School Q&A: Engagement and Prayer
My classes recently covered topics regarding the relationship between the body and soul, plus marriage and sexuality (you can read most of the lecture here). I made it a point to speak candidly and...
View ArticleWhat to Expect When You’re No Longer Expecting
A few months back, I wrote a piece on here announcing our joyful expectation of our eighth child, entitled “What to Expect…When You’re Expecting for the Eighth Time.” It was fun, a little silly, and a...
View ArticleBishop Duca Blasts Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition
Apparently it’s big news today that the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition has hit the shelves. My wife and I heard some talk about it on the radio and I remember thinking how disgusted the female...
View ArticleLent with Littles
It’s almost that time again. That’s right folks: Lent will be here in exactly one week. If you’re at all like me, and by that I mean a fairly busy mom to a decent size family, who homeschools and...
View ArticleThe Feast of The Annunciation: Mama Mary Loves Us!
Today is the Feast of The Annunciation of Our Lord. It holds particular significance for me because it is the anniversary of the day my wife learned that we would be parents for the first time. My...
View ArticleA Confession about Confession (A Book Review)
I have a confession to make. It’s something I’ve learned about myself over the last couple of years of having children who have reached the age of reason: I’m terrible at going to Confession. Over...
View ArticleLittle pro-life victories
About a year ago, I was prompted to write this post when I discovered a little bit of anti-child internet technology that catered to the opinion that kids are ridiculously expensive buzzkills. There is...
View ArticleMoments of Grace in Teaching: Generosity or Obedience
We don’t use Lifeteen resources at our school, except that we like their pretty thorough examination of conscience. As we have a penance service tomorrow, I was going over it with students, which lists...
View ArticleSt. Thérèse, Jane Austen, and Raising Saints
I have been thinking a lot lately about raising a holy family and what it takes to do so, especially when there are so many negative influences in our society. I want to keep my little girls safe in...
View ArticleCatholic Family Vacation Bucket List
When I was younger, I traveled a bit. I went to Paris with Opus Dei in 1997 for World Youth Day and then to Rome, first in 2000 for World Youth Day again and then in 2001 as part of a course I was...
View ArticleNatural Family Planning Needs a New Name
Family by Chris Sigmon. Used under Creative Commons. I was sitting in my pro-life, NFP promoting doctor’s waiting room, leafing through a secular magazine. Ever since I started having children, I have...
View Article10 Tips for Not Breeching Birth & Baby Etiquette
Baby Murphy #4 My wife delivered our 4th child last week. Like all pro-life Catholics who’ve been blessed by God with more children than bedrooms, we get a little nervous and perhaps even...
View ArticleFor My Friends About To Become Moms
I have a lot of pregnant friends right now. It’s basically amazing. This summer and late fall there are going to be so many brand new babies I’m going to want to play with! I won’t pretend to know...
View ArticleAppreciating Life: Musings on Conception and Miscarriage
There has been a great deal of talk on Truth and Charity lately about babies. I attribute this to the long, very cold winter that most of us here in the US have experienced. Think about it: long,...
View ArticleWhat Fulton Sheen Would Say About Elliot Rodger
Elliot Rodger is the name of the young man who, last week, stabbed and shot people in a horrible killing spree. The awful massacre at Isla Vista has made many people think and write about how the...
View Article8 Ways to Build Unity in Marriage
Summer happens to be anniversary season in our family. We just celebrated my parents’ 34th wedding anniversary last Friday and my husband’s and mine on Saturday, plus other anniversaries take place...
View ArticleJoin Us in a Novena for Your Marriage
Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin I have been writing a lot recently about holy families and holy marriages, taking much of my inspiration from the example of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, who were the...
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