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Pope Francis and St. Teresa of Avila have a lot more in common than first impressions might lead you to think.  Click here to read more...

On the October 5th episode of A Seeking Heart with Allison Gingras on Breadboxmedia.com, I welcomed the truly delightful, insightful and sister-in-Christ author,  Sherry Boas : Sneak peek into Billowtail  - a SQUIRREL story!! that I will be featuring in 2016. I have a thing for the scatteredness of a squirrel.  Do yourself a favor and check out the book trailer! Sherry unpacks each of the  5 Lily Books  for us - incredible, thought-provoking must read novels Each is told from the point of person that Lily, a woman with Down Syndrome, has touched  - spanning her lifespan and beyond.  The ripple effect of one life - is incredible.  Her fiction mimics life! For more of the shows notes and TO LISTEN to the podcast - click here !   For more on upcoming books or past guests visit:   A Seeking Heart with Allison Gingras   All rights (text, audio and images) reserved Allison Gingras, 2015 Cover Image - Caritaspress.org / Sherry Boas

I was reminded recently that prayers are very often answered in the most unexpected ways.

My greatest barrier to moving from the safety net belief in God to a relational one has honestly always been fear.  A mix of fears too not a one size fits all fear.   My journey to embracing a more loving and trustworthy idea of God (the true image of God)  - began in 2007, when I began to search my heart for what was missing - and found it wasn't something from within but from above. But first came the apprehension fear - the I've read enough of bio-ops on the Saints to repeat St. Teresa of Avila's admonishment to Christ when she allegedly landed in the mud after her donkey bucked her.   "IF this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them."   Exactly Teresa - fear that if I made this commitment to follow Christ beyond the Sunday obligation (aka keeping perfect attendance just in case this is all real) bad stuff would befall me.  I gave this some real thought too banishing these Saints from my thoughts and prayers because in some twiste

Tact has always eluded me, until I began researching and practicing the virtues. I saved this virtue for discussion until now, because I had much work to do in this area, myself, before I could write about it. Bluntness, or lack of tact, can diminish the quality of relationships. It is confession time for me. I have a classic example of how the lack of tact can destroy relationships. Here goes: While I was still working as a technology audit manager, I was attending one of those “off-site” kumbaya type meetings, where I thought complete truth would be openly accepted... Read more...

(PS for last week’s post: This Sunday’s Plain Dealer ran a story about a man who raised funds for a hospital in his native Congo. His storage trailer with $100,000 worth of supplies burned, destroying everything but rosaries. Wonder if the publisher knew October is the month of the Holy Rosary.)     Two of my ninth graders made a needlepoint illustration of creation. Note the second last square! After creating everything, God rested on the seventh day. For our physical, spiritual, and mental health, we need to rest too. It’s time to reclaim Sunday as a special day of the week, a day of rest and tranquility. Some of us, overwhelmed by the demands of life and work, are in sore need of “a sanctuary in time,” just to enjoy being alive. For good reason the third commandment, “Keep holy the Lord’s Day,” has the corollary: relax and have fun. Click to continue

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.  The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. … continue reading

If ever anyone deserves a bouquet and thanks from all of us it is you Melanie Jean Juneau.  Not only do you manage this particular website so well on our behalf, but you also run a number of other websites too as well as contributing to various other Internet sources.  In particular, I am very grateful for the support and encouragement I receive from you in promoting my posts on Facebook and Google+ regardless whether the subject matter is one on Christianity or a more flippant humourous one. Thank you Melanie. God bless. Vic Moubarak

©Studio-Annika/Getty Images Prayer works. But how? When? To what extent?  These are the questions parents and teachers ask me at every talk I give for the Apostleship of Prayer. And so I tell a story. Join me at Praying with Grace , please!

  The Holy Family of Nazareth is the model par excellence of family life.  With so many questions about the true nature of family life running through the news and the culture, reflecting on God's design for family has never been more critical. This edition of Catholic Journal Prompts features reflections on the Holy Family and how their example can serve as a guide for all families.  As always, each edition of Catholic Journal Prompts features journal starters based on the Scriptures, the writings and lives of the Saints, as well as other personal reflections and a list of resources for further study and meditation. Click here to read more....

IS THERE HUMOUR IN DEATH? THIS ARTICLE IS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO TAKE LIFE AND DEATH TOO SERIOUSLY OTHERS CAN CLICK HERE

Honesty truly is the best course of action. The thing that I like most about honesty is that I never have to worry about what story I may have told in the past, because truth is Truth, and the truth doesn’t change. Therefore, if I live in truth, I speak consistently, and by doing so, I build good character. Through honesty, we build integrity in the eyes of others and with God. Let’s face it, the only thing we get to take with us when standing in judgment before God, at the end of this life, are our sins and our integrity. I don’t know about you, but... Read more...

God's Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;  It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;  And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent;  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;  And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -  Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

There are a lot of things I appreciate and I am thankful for in this modern age, and my iPhone is one of them.  I've heard complaint that the new instagram pictures popping up on Facebook are "depressing" or "too hipster" or "grainy"~ read: just not clear and clean enough for the well-trained eye.  Honestly, though, when I see perfect pictures of seemingly perfect people, it stresses me out. The "Keep it Real" motto that I held onto when feeling threatened by the beast of perfectionism was like a dolphin swimming at me in a sea full of sharks. I'll instagram to that. ;) It makes me think about the late nineties. Sometime in the late nineties, I started seeing brightly colored bumper stickers with the logo “Life is Good.”  Nothing against the makers of these fine logos, but I remember thinking that in comparison with most of the world's suffering, and even my own small teenage version of strife, the way they struck me was glib: vac

Check out Laura Pearl's latest post .   She's giving away a free, signed copy of Erin's Ring, winner of two 2015 Catholic Press Awards!   You won't want to miss this one!    

Without prayer,  nothing good is done......   continue

From  Jesus of Nazareth , Franco Zeffirelli's TV mini-series of 1977. Gospel  Mark 10:17-30  (New Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition, Canada) As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those wh

WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO BE RICH? VERY RICH? BE HONEST NOW ... WILL YOU READ THIS ARTICLE ABOUT BEING RICH? CLICK HERE - YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO ...

"The lack of faith is one of the greatest tasks that the devil seeks to accomplish in individuals… A lack of faith at any degree …” –Fr. Wade Menezes [Homily 10/9/2015] These words recently spoken by Fr. Wade led me to wonder… Just how lacking am I?  To what degree of deficiency could I be suffering from?  After all, with all the concern for vitamin & mineral deficiencies in our world of today — concern for the lack of sufficient nutrients needed for good health and life, and to fight against disease and that which robs us of being all we’re meant to be — could we be overlooking the most important deficiency of all? ... “We have to make an act of the will... Faith does not rely on the passions, emotions, and feelings..." >> Click Here to Read More at: The Way To Nourish For Life >>

A college student put out the word: doing research on Catholic feminists, looking for women to interview. I felt I should talk to her, in case she hadn’t heard that Catholics could be very ‘pro-women’. I stopped by a dictionary to make sure I could accurately describe my (orthodox, Catholic, mom, grandmom, pro-life) self as ‘feminist,’ and found it easy to agree to the terms: seeks equal rights for women and men to vote, study, work. Since her only other respondents had conveyed their sense that the Catholic Church was suppressing (at least) or oppressing women, I was glad to be a counter-point. She was amazed that I find the constraints of the Church freeing and conducive to my full realization as a woman and as a person. Apparently, she’d not heard about artists who see constraints as the very pre-requisite of beautiful new form – invitation to creativity and powerful forward movement. We talked for two hours about how much I love being a Catholic woman! I know I’m

How I would love a Church which is poor and for the poor.”  – Pope Francis Pope Francis consistently proclaims traditional Catholic Social Teaching with joy. Even better, he has joyfully lived out what he has preached for decades.  Ironically, conservative  American Catholics are outraged when they hear Pope Francis criticize individualism and unbridled consumerism. They feel threatened by the pope’s call for government policies which would welcome immigrants into their midst rather than defend their borders. They literally see red, labeling the pope a communist, when he challenges society to care for the poor. Even worse, many traditionalists  have called Pope Francis a heretic who is dismantling their beloved Church.  continue reading

I have often asked the Holy Spirit to shake up my life. I have also learned to be careful of what you ask. The Holy Spirit does not disappoint. He will shake you. He will hold you. He will guide you in all of His ways. Listen to Him. Read More at  Prayerfully Yours

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On Sunday, October 4, the Synod on the Family convened in Rome. As we pray, with trust in the Lord, for real help for the family from the Fathers of our Church, we should do something else as well. The strengthening of the Catholic family must come not just from new directives from Rome, but also from families themselves. You and I, together with our families, can help change the outlook of the Catholic family for centuries to come. Today I issue a call that is the call of Pope John Paul II, “Family, become what you are!” ( Familiaris consortio no. 17). I issue a call for contemplative families. God has been putting this on my heart more and more. I hear from mothers who want to teach their children to pray, but don’t know how. From women whose husbands have abandoned the family and who are trying to raise godly children on their own. From grandparents who grieve that their grandchildren are not being raised in the faith. I do not need to tell you the challenges tha

Beyond the treasures of abundant color, pumpkin lattes and cool crisp days, fall carries the promise to unwind, unplug and connect in a distinct way. With open windows, the tall sheer curtains stirring amidst the early morning breeze lays the invitation to allow the outside in. Beckoned to welcome the sunrise, to encounter the stillness, what a sweeping bequest upon my heart to throw wide the sash and to be open too.  To feel the Holy Spirit’s rousing presence to awaken, both to God at work within but also without in the world around me. Read More..

Pope Francis’s Wednesday General Audience on September 30 focused on his apostolic visit to Cuba and the United States. It was refreshing to hear the pope’s personal reflections on his visit, rather than the opinions of the media. By defining the family unit as the economic measure of society, the pope is espousing traditional Catholic social doctrine. Subsidiarity is one of the core principles which states that human affairs are best handled at the lowest possible level, closest to the people who are involved. Pope Francis also warned against the danger of individualized consumerism, the hedonistic tendency for self-gratification, which creates a “throw-away culture.” The danger is that people will put careers or self-realization before marriage and starting a family. This trend will distort the needs of natural families and represents an “ideological colonization” which will disfavor most human families, especially the poor. read more 

The major relics of St. Maria Goretti, are currently touring the USA as part of a Pilgrimage of Mercy in preparation for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. St. Maria Goretti is one of the youngest saints the church has ever canonized.  I count this young girl among my closest heavenly friends - she is my "go-to" intercessor and her short earthly life is an unending source of inspiration to me. While taking on a Moral Theology course, I have also come to discover that this eleven year old, illiterate, Italian peasant girl - martyr is also an astute moral theologian.  Read more here....

Do You Lie? The Unforeseen Consequences of Lying How easy it is to lie, sometimes for convenience; sometimes to hide bad behavior or embarrassment. When we lie, we begin traveling down a slippery slope. The more we lie, the further we move away from God. Lying easily becomes a nasty habit, a vice, a habitual sin. Lies lead to destruction of relationships with others, but most importantly, it deteriorates the relationship we each have with God. Rather than facing the truth, we see ourselves as we want to, and not as we truly are, in all reality. We even tend… Read more...

October is known as the month of the rosary, no doubt because October 7 is the feast of the Holy Rosary. The feast originated with the Battle of Lepanto when, against all odds, Christians overcame the Muslim forces attacking Europe—accredited to Christians praying the rosary. (Hmm. What would happen if all Catholics prayed the rosary to vanquish ISIS?) The rosary is associated with Catholics as much as the Mass is. It hangs in our cars, and our hands hold it in the coffin. Martin Luther, a former Catholic, did away with many Catholic things, but not the rosary. He prayed it every day until he died. The composer Hadyn prayed it whenever he got composer’s block. It was Pope St. John Paul II’s favorite prayer. After 9/11, he encouraged praying it for peace. When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima, Portugal, she, too, advised us to pray the rosary for peace. To those who think that after the reforms of Vatican II, the rosary is something to be thrown out the window,