Association Of Catholic Bloggers

============================================================================ There is nothing more haunting on a chilly northern night, than to catch a glimpse of  the brilliant northern lights. All over Canada, even in Eastern Ontario, we will catch a glimpse of them once again, even more colourful than usual for us in the south of the country. I have glimpsed the aurora borealis a few times. The vibrant hues are fleeting. Colours of green, red and purple quickly waltz across the sky, but it’s one breathtaking moment I will never forget. Yukon Artist Libby Dulac: northern lights  kiss in her painting “Light of Life” Apparently, if you are quiet and attentive in the Canadian countryside, it is possible to not only see the Northern Lights but to  hear  them.  According to a friend, the aurora borealis  sounds like a  whispered zing .  To me it seems like it would be like listening to an  echo of the divine, singing joyful praise through the universe. “The voice of the auro

 Here we are in the second week of January and I have seen a constant flow of blog posts about New Year's resolutions and new things to try in the new year. While I really like setting goals, I really don't care for making New Year's Resolutions. They rarely, if ever, last and it just gives me a feeling of defeat and failure. I prefer to look to each new week as a fresh start. Each new month I love seeing the fresh calendar page, nice and clean. Lamentations reminds us that God's mercies are new each morning , so why would we wait for January First to roll around each year, to start fresh? In an effort to regroup and remind myself of the goals I began at the start of the school year, I came here to reread my post on goals and simplifying. I thought I'd re-post as January seems to be a time to restart, reboot and refresh. You can find the post here . Gods blessings to you in the new year~ Jen

Catholic Mom of 10: To the Brink and Back : To the brink & back again…. I woke up one day & didn’t like my husband & children. There was a great big brick wall... Continue reading here

Among the few short words that Jesus spoke from the Cross were the words about His mother: "Behold your mother." He gave me His mother. The mother of God was now, by God's decree, the mother of a sinner. In her heart is Jesus--only Jesus. With her as mother I share her one love: Jesus. Marian consecration, Mary in our lives, couldn't be more straightforward, but it requires the trust of her heart, the knowledge of who She is. I couldn't ever put her in the wrong place unless I first misunderstood who She is, if I first didn't lack in trust of her. Knowing her, loving her, trusting her as my own mother is sharing Jesus with her. Jesus gave her to me. What a precious gift! Ave Maria!

Never having entered religious life, I haven't experienced a potential nun's journey toward a cloistered world. But oh, I have daydreamed it.  Not in the sense of dreaming with desire, and not exactly daydreaming with dread, but with a sense of wondering.  How would it feel, I've asked myself, to make a serious, determined decision to leave the world and enter a life lived totally for Christ.  Not just partly, not mostly, but living for Him totally.  Fully embracing His will with no compromise, no watering down what He asks of me; "yes" with no ifs, no ands, no buts.  Entering the world of His will, and turning my back on all that tries to lure me away from Him. "Most people cannot leave the world in a bodily sense, but every follower of Christ who is serious about genuine growth must leave the spirit of the world."  (Thomas Dubay SM, Fire Within, Ignatius Press, 1989, p. 81) Am I serious about genuine growth?  I ask it of myself.....

You know that tug when God puts something on your heart and you know you need to respond. Well, this tug leaves me asking for your story. If you are a Natural Family Planner, I would love to hear your positive experience with NFP. You can post your stories as little or as often as you like. To reading more click here.  https://www.yearsofmilkandhoney.blogspot.com

14th century:Holy family and the Presentation … Since preschool, society has pushed you to excel, to rise above your peers.  You were groomed for success, to get into the best universities and snatch the most prized careers. Well, it is nice to have confidence, to fulfill your dreams, and have a sense of satisfaction in your chosen field of work but that will not make you happy. Just take a look at the generations that have gone before you.  The all too common mid-life crisis is a testament to the failure of a life focused on career advancement to the exclusion of family. Men and women bemoan the fact that they did not have time for nurturing and loving their spouse or children. All too often, family life crumbles to ashes, sacrificed on the altar of success. As for childcare, society relegates this arrangement to women who are often treated as second class citizens. I want to yell out as loudly as I can  that raising children is definitely not a default chore for women wh

As a Billings Ovulation Teacher sometimes I want to just grab a hold of some women and say "please come to me, I can teach you about your fertility." Now of course I could never actually do that or else I would be "the crazy lady who wants to know about my vaginal mucus". I have to build a relationship with a women before we start talking about her vulva. However, there's so much ignorance out there about a woman's cycles, not only among some of our medical practitioners but among women, that at times I can't help myself. There are women, all the time, that have no problems bringing up their family size and their own fertility with me. I guess when I have my 5 little ducklings waddling behind me, I'm already an open book about my fertility. The proof of fertility knowledge is in my brood. So when these women open up about their difficulty trying I almost always give them a short Billings lesson, right then and there. It doesn't matter if we'

The Golden Calf by Tissot   Have you discerned what you are too attached to ? Are you ready to begin working on those inordinate attachments? Let’s take the first step together, by looking at the reasons we are attached to things other than God.   Why am I doing this? This week I sent family members a copy of the family tree I created for my dad. Genealogy is a favorite hobby of mine. One relative emailed back that he was too bored with it even to finish the first page. “Can you explain to me why this interests you?” he asked. “I just don’t get it.” We emailed back and forth a bit as I told him how I loved family and history. I still don’t think my answers satisfied him. I would not have written about this, except that the genealogy bug hit me again. It’s been a while since I’ve looked at my mom’s family, I thought. I’ll just do a quick search to see if there’s anything new. Before long, I had spent all the time I should have been writing my book (and mor

More Resolutions?!  For the sake of SPIRITUAL “Health & Wellness”, there are!  Fresh from 1/9/2014... Good for body, mind, & soul.  Good to both keep and give away! Fr. Wade’s “ 10 WAYS TO LOVE ” or “ 10 SOCIAL RESOLUTIONS ” to help live the 10 Commandments… in order to cast out all unfounded fear – fear that leads to slavery – because God wants children, not slaves [Romans 8: 15-16] – from Fr. Wade Menezes Homily [EWTN Mass]:  1 . Listen without interrupting. [Proverbs 18:13]    2 . ... ► Click HERE to read more at The Way to Nourish for Life ► [ Note : Addendum posted 1/11/2014 to include Fr. Wade's List of 17 Virtues.]

The Archdiocese of Chicago will  close six schools this year .  Despite the immediate uproar of parents and the usual snide comments from the trolls that the sex scandal that rocked the church is to blame, I can tell you what really closed those schools:  Low enrollment. Unfortunately I've been involved in the closing of two schools while my kids grew up.  When enrollment drops below 300 it's time to panic and no one seems to know what to do about it. To read more, please click here .

The Baptism of Christ , El Greco, painted 1608-28 [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                   Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel  Matthew 3:13-17  ( New RevisedStandard Version, Catholic Edition , Canada)  Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.   John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”   But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented.    And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened   and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him;   and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son,   with whom I am well pleased.” To

‘Whoever flees from prayer flees all that is good.’ St. John of the Cross Prayer. We often think of prayer as something difficult, especially contemplative prayer. If we read the classics, written by the saints, it seems to take years of arduous training to pass through gradually ascending levels to reach the pinnacle of prayer, complete union with Christ where we can say with St. Paul,“No longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.” Yet after living with children for 34 years, I have good news, tidings of great joy for you. If I allow myself to relax and surrender control,  like a child trusting in her heavenly Daddy, I discover that it is God who heals, purifies and transforms me into His presence on earth. This process is all about Him, NOT me. My efforts, discipline, asceticism will not earn me union with God. This is not a competitive race to see who will succeed. This is a difficult concept to grasp for the modern Western mindset. I experienced  an eurek

I am a woman who desires men, but I don't define myself that way. Who I am depends equally as much on the parents who raised me, the town where I grew up, and the schools I attended. I am an introverted and somewhat socially awkward intellectual, who likes Renaissance music, science fiction, and macaroni and cheese. I am all of these things and I like all of these things completely apart from my heterosexuality. I could identify myself as a Virginian born-and-bred or a New York transplant, as a blogger or a lawyer or a stay-at-home mom, but these categories don't constrain or pigeon-hole me. On a deeper level, I am a former WASP turned Catholic convert. I am a baptized Christian who bears on my brow and in my soul the seal of Him who died. I am bound to my husband through the Sacrament of Matrimony, and in some mystical way we have been made one. On a still deeper level, I am a creature of God brought into existence out of love and because He has a special plan for me. S

I'm fairly new to the Catholic blogging world, and I love it!  Although I've been a blogger for 8 years, I've never written a Catholic blog before.  My other blog is called, " For the Love of Beads."  In the secular part of my life, I make lampwork glass beads, polymer clay beads, fiber beads, metal beads, I crochet and make jewelry.  I have been a contributor to many nationally known beading magazines.   This Catholic blog, His Unending Love , came about because the Holy Spirit would not leave me alone!  He pestered me until I began to take His dictation.  I have dedicated my blog to Him, and when I write, and there is peace, I know the inspiration  and dictation comes from Him.  Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!  Hope to see you soon at His Unending Love.

I have a real life incident seared into my memory that has become a symbol for a common type of piety that I call a  false martyr complex. A dear friend stood in a communion line, head bowed, shoulders slumped, one  arm across her chest with her hand clenched as she struck her heart. At first appearances she was a picture of perfect piety, a soul in torment, burdened by her sin, suffering in reparation.  Yet, she had stood like this for years if not decades with little change.  As I stood in the opposite line, I did something spontaneous and rather shocking; I bent my knees, leaned over, caught her eye, smiled and waved! My child like behaviour actually worked momentarily. She straightened up, smiled, with twinkling eyes and snapped out of her false, martyr complex for a few minutes at least, nearly laughing out loud in church. My friend was not as holy as she appeared to be, even though she lived a devout, disciplined, ascetic lifestyle. Her life was a daily round of mass, ros

We’ve been told they are “magic” words. A few simple words uttered with sincerity that can actually make all the difference. They can really be magical. Please. Thank you. The weight that each carries is immense; implies so much. Please: I trust that you hear me. I believe that you care enough to consider what I’m about to say. My faith is such that you can alter something for me. You, to whom I am speaking (or writing), have a power that I am asking to use. The ability to make an important difference in my life is in your hands. Thank you: You have made a significant difference for me. You cared enough about me to do something important for me. I am so grateful to you. My life is better because of you. The time you gave to me for this mattered—maybe more than you can ever know. Wow, right? In 2014 let us all consider how easy it is to spread a little magic and truly make the world a better place. Thank you! Cheryl Dickow       www.BezalelBooks.com        

Victor S E Moubarak Occasional contributor to this Blog, and published writer, Victor Moubarak was born at an early age as a baby a long time ago in a far away northern land where men were strong and big and tough and women told them what to do. He soon realized he was born into poverty when his mother carried him around in a supermarket plastic bag instead of a pram. Like many children Victor learnt a lot from his parents. They taught him quickly the love for adventure. He used to come home from school and find that they had moved house. Undeterred by these setbacks Victor never knew the meaning of failure; he always had to look it up in the dictionary. As a young man he determined to do well in life and decided to get on the stage … the first one out of town. He joined a traveling theater and performed many times as the front end of a pantomime horse; but he decided to quit whilst he was ahead. In life Victor has faced many ups and downs, especially when working

Eurasian Skylark   [ Wikipedia ] The other day  I posted  videos of jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin in very different interpretations of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. In the 1970s these two made some recordings of standards together, one of them Hoagy Carmichael's  Skylark . Here is a link to their beautiful rendition of a beautiful melody. (For some reason I'm unable to upload the video itself.) Stephane Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin, 1976,  photo  by Allan Warren [ Wikipedia ] Johnny Mercer wrote the  lyrics . The song is interpreted here by English singer Dame Cleo Laine and flautist Sir James Galway from Northern Ireland. Here is the link to the video . Skylark   [ Wikipedia ] You can see the original post on Bangor to Bobbio , with the videos embedded.

Hi, my name is Melanie Jean Juneau and I have been the administrator of this site since the summer. I dutifully introduced the first five new members to ACWB in the summer but then I pettered out. Pam just gave me a brilliant idea. She just posted an article today entitled, Yes, I'm Catholic...Really! I want to invite all new writers to introduce themselves and their blogs,then leave a link to their blog so that we can visit.If you are comfortable, a picture of you or a snapshot of your blog would help us connect and relate to you. I introduced myself five or six months ago but here is a short bio to start our new series. Melanie Jean Juneau is a petite wife, writer and mother of nine kids who blogs at  joyofnine9 .The very existence of a joyful mother of nine children seems to confound people. Her writing is humorous and heart warming; thoughtful and thought provoking with a strong current of spirituality running through it. Part of her call and her witness is to w