Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Deep in the night, while most of us are asleep in our beds, the mother of a teenager I know begins her 10-hour shift stocking shelves at a discount store. She starts at 2 a.m. At noon, while many of us are taking a lunch break, she is leaving work and driving to other people's homes to make extra money cleaning them. She's usually asleep when daughter returns home from high school. The daughter has about three hours between returning home from school and heading to a store, where she works four hours every weeknight. Her father's workday begins at 7:30 a.m. and he is home by 6 - after she has left for her job. Her older sister, with whom she shares a bedroom in the family's apartment, works 40 hours a week at the same discount store as the mom and takes one class a semester at a community college. The family rarely is awake at the same time, and seldom eats meals together. Read more here....

I wasn't familiar with the movement called Rachel's Challenge until recently, when the public high school where I work sponsored a speaker from the nonprofit organization. The father of Rachel Scott, the first victim of the Columbine High School shootings on April 20, 1999, started the group to promote his late daughter's two-page Code of Ethics, which she wrote a month before her murder. The code challenges people to be kind. Priest friends and psychologists have told me that the death of one's child is a loss that is impossible to "get over." It is hard to consider how Rachel Scott's father feels, knowing his 17-year-old daughter was gunned down for no reason except she was sitting outside eating lunch in the sunshine with friends. Read more here...

A beautiful reminder for us today... Find more reflections and tips for enriching your faith over at www.trulyrichmom.com :-) For a peek at a Catholic Filipino homeschooling family's life, click  here .

Apologies! I keep pressing share on blogger intending for it to go on my blog & it ends up on ACWB!.. I have to check the box more carefully. Sorry about the nuisance because some topics aren't really for the ACWB. Anyway..while I'm on! The posts on here are very inspiring..anyone who hasn't posted for a while..cmon!! God bless Jackie

My blogging friend, Judy, has an inspiring blog, A Thankful Woman's Book of Blessings . Join her every Wednesday in giving thanks for the many blessings we receive from God. Write a list of 5 blessings and then link to Judy's blog. Thanks, Judy, for helping me keep an "attitude of gratitude!" :) I am thankful for:  1. We have had so much rain this week. More rain than I can remember in a long time. However, I made it safely home from work, driving through flooded streets and low visibility. And there is something comforting about sitting in my chair at home, listening to the rain falling outside my window. Very cozy. 2. The blogging world. My blogging friends. Some new friends I have "met" recently. Sharing our faith. Supporting each other. And giving thanks! 3. I had some quiet time to pray last weekend. Time to pray and read and write. A peaceful time to treasure. 4. There are a lot of devotionals to choose from these days, including some for the Nook...

I was inspired by the post about "hairy men in tank tops" to say a few words about one of my heroes - Onslow from the BBC TV comedy show, "Keeping up Appearances" I like Onslow because even though he usually appears as a "slouch" - a real couch potato if ever there was one - and has, apparently, no sartorial ability to speak of, he has an uncanny ability to see through falsehood, hypocrisy and fudge (not the edible kind!). He likes beer but is never inebriated. He like watching the "telly" but doesn't take much notice of what is on, he rarely if ever panics and never swears (his usual negative comment is, "Ah! Nice!"). I regard myself as an unofficial member of the equally unofficial Onslow Appreciation Society. if he came to my church he would undoubtedly offend people by his lack of any proper dress code, and I would suggest that he wore a suit. Knowing Onlsow I know he would agree because, deep down, he respects other people, esp...