When I was a young adult there was a wildly popular book about dressing for career success.  It spawned many copycat books, all proclaiming the benefits of proper attire for everything from boardrooms to schoolrooms.  The premise was that your…

I’m a big fan of dark chocolate so it was with great delight that I embraced the news of dark chocolate’s anti-oxidant properties.  That was all I needed to hear in order to justify my personal intake of the wonderful…

I can say with a fair amount of certainty that my children, now aged 20, 18, and 16, did not see the rules and regulations imposed upon them as they grew up as providing freedom.  Like most kids, and even…

As many of the regular Catholic Exchange visitors may have noticed, there is a book quietly calling for your attention in a number of different spots on the site. The book is Letters to Luke by Joe Holoubek and I recently…

Although there are very few things that people would agree upon, it would seem safe to say that we would all agree that there is no shortage of evil acts in our world today.  And although that statement could be…

During a recent family gathering, my husband, my brother-in-law, and my uncle regaled the gathered group with tales of childhood games.  In particular, one that all three of these men, now in their late 40’s through mid 50’s, played was…

I’ve always been a fairly driven, type “A” personality and have been able to handle, more or less, the demands on my life.  However, in recent years I began suffering from back problems that really took the wind out of…

When my husband and I built our house many years ago I did my best to share the experience with my mother.  But as many mother-daughter relationships go, ours is probably fairly normal.  We have our moments of extreme closeness…

The celebration of women and motherhood is most beautifully portrayed in a new book by Catholic author, speaker, and Catholic Exchange columnist, Heidi Hess Saxton.  Saxton, a convert to the Catholic faith and adoptive mother herself, exquisitely reveals the relationship…

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.  Genesis 1:1-2

From the beginning, literally, the presence of God has…

Love.  What is love?  Is it a feeling?  A fantasy?  A dream?  A reality?  A hoax?  As I see more and more marriages ending with the words, "I don't love you anymore," I am wondering…What exactly is love?

There are so…

By the time a child is but a few years old he recognizes any number of different monikers to which he must answer.  Let's take a look at fictitious Joseph James Baxter.  To his grandmother he might be "Joe-Joe," while…

Mal'ach is the Hebrew word for angels. It means "messenger." The Torah has many instances in which angels interact with man to facilitate God's will. In Genesis, these instances include, but are by no means limited to, the angels who…

As a middle school teacher, I rarely raised my voice to my students.  Throughout the years I discovered many other strategies that kept my classroom humming.  So, one day, when I started barking orders at my seventh grade religion students,…

In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.  ~ John 14:2a

When I was a young parent (well not so young, but let's say a new parent) I scoured books searching for parenting tips and techniques.  I had no siblings…

'Avodah' is the Hebrew word that means both "work" and "worship." Whether in Genesis, where God put man to "work," or in Exodus, when God instructs Moses to approach Pharaoh with the request to release the Hebrew slaves so that they…

When HaShem (God) dictated the Torah to Moses, that Written Law, or Torah She'bi-khetav, made God's laws known to His people.  This Truth, in all its glorious revelation, was to provide the Jewish people with instructions for daily living, how…

When I began working with Catholic Exchange on the upcoming woman's study that will celebrate the 20^th anniversary of John Paul's Apostolic Letter on the Dignity of Women, I knew I wanted everything about the study to reflect a female presence…

Advent is a glorious time to be a Catholic woman.  For the past few years, I have been asked to speak at a variety of different teas and dinners that mark this special season and each one has been a…

Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, often called The Matriarchs of the Faith, provide a remarkable insight into God's commitment to women and His interest in how women play an integral part in His plan for mankind.  These women teach us…

The last of the leaves have finally fallen from the trees.  Actually, a late November rain brought them down and they are now mixed with the snow that has begun to accumulate on the ground making it quite difficult to…

"Be still and confess that I am God!  I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth."  Psalm 46:11

Windridge Solitude is an 83 acre retreat in Lonedell, Missouri that is owned and operated by a new religious community of…

The word mitzvah, writ large and uttered reverently, means an act which I perform because God requires it of me.  ~Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld

Central to Jewish theology is the understanding that man is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)…

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires…

Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.  ~2 Maccabees 12:46

November 2^nd marks the Commemoration of All Souls; the day in which the earthly faithful are called to pray for the faithful departed in…

"Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."  Luke 1:45. 

With those words, Elizabeth confirms what we already know about Mary, the mother of Jesus: that she freely, and without reservation,…

Pray without ceasing.  ~1 Thessalonians 5:17

I was recently reminded of the time, a good half dozen years ago, when I asked my seventh grade religion class, "Who has a parent or grandparent or aunt or uncle who prays 'unceasingly'?"  Without…

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroys, and thieves break in and steal.  But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, nor thieves break in and steal.  For where…

When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, "the first to hear the Word of God."  The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is…

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin"  — Exodus 20:20.

In this particular passage the word "sin" is translated from…

All who are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall come up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of Booths — Zechariah 14:16.

Autumn has always been my favorite…

Love covers a multitude of sins…~1 Peter 4:8

Joining the ranks of thousands of parents last weekend, my husband and I moved our oldest son into an apartment on his college campus.  As we tentatively hand over the reins of his life…

Then he shall slaughter the people's sin-offering goat, and bringing its blood inside the veil, he shall do with it as he did with the bullock's blood, sprinkling it on the propitiatory and before it.  ~Leviticus 16:15

Yom Kippur begins, this…

When John Paul II made his historical trip to the Holy Land in 2000, he called us, as Catholic Christians, to a unity unlike any we may have previously experienced with our Jewish roots and our Jewish brothers and sisters. …

They say, and I believe, that confession is good for the soul.  It is so good that, as Catholics, we include it as a sacrament, as one of the seven means by which we gather the strength to persevere in…

As Catholics, each and every one of us has participated in Masses that have been offered up for deceased members of our church community.  We listen to the names of these brothers and sisters in Christ and, in a very…

Incessant snow can bring out the best and the worst in us. If nothing else, snowbound children are apt to find novel ways to amuse themselves. There are LEGOS to play with, indoor exercise opportunities, public television. Here’s a glimpse…