Fill These Hearts: God, Sex and the Universal Longing

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As much as some staunch Christians might want to deny it, the topic of sex is a biggie for most people.  While they might not question that God gave us a drive to reproduce, what some stumble upon is integrating this primal desire with their Christian faith.  Thankfully, there are some great authors who can [Read On]

Walking Toward Eternity and Growing Closer to God in Lent

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Follow my blog with Bloglovin Lent flew by this year and I failed to share all that happened for me.  I have had some definite eye openers and have been growing closer to God.  Participating in our parish’s MOMS Group study ~ Walking Toward Eternity: Daring to Walk the Walk has been one of the key [Read On]

The Church: Unlocking the Secrets to the Places Catholics Call Home

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason [Read On]

Catholics Come Home ~ FIRST Review

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason [Read On]

The Children’s Bible Catholic Edition

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While there are an abundance of children’s Bibles, it can be a challenge to find one for Catholics.  While we’ve found a few for the middle school and high school years that we like, we had not seen a children’s Bible sitting on the shelf of a bookstore.  Scandinavia Publishing House released The Children’s Bible [Read On]

Songs on Love based on 1 Corinthians

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The second reading at Mass this weekend is 1 Cor 12:31-13:13.  Part of this reading is a standard selection for weddings as Paul talks about love.  Of course, when taken as part of the whole Scripture you can see how he is referring to the body of Christ rather that just marital love.  It seemed [Read On]

Celebrating Epiphany as a Family

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Tomorrow is Epiphany, the last day of the Christmas season for most Christians.  Aside from going to Mass tomorrow, I have been contemplating different ways we can spend our time celebrating epiphany as a family.     Un-decorating the Christmas Tree One thing that will most likely happen is taking down the Christmas tree to [Read On]

Never Hug a Nun by Kevin Killeen

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Today I get to share about another novel reflecting upon life as a young Catholic.  This particular book has a young boy (2nd into 3rd grade) living in the suburbs of Saint Louis during the 1960s.  (Kevin Killeen is also a guest poster on the blog today.)   About Never Hug a Nun AUTHOR’S MISSPENT [Read On]

Remembering Saint Nicholas

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The past few years, I’ve shared about about celebrating the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas.  Last year, I even shared some neat images of Saint Nicholas from around the world. Well, the day has arrived and this overscheduled mama really dropped the ball. NO shoes or stockings were left out for the boys to get [Read On]

Life Your Living by Jesse Manibusan

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This past summer, I was incredibly blessed to meet Jesse Manibusan at the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in Anchorage. He gave a few talks for the teens which I attended as well as a concert.  I also had the privilege of chatting with him for a bit between his sessions.  I loved the few songs [Read On]

DISCOUNT CATHOLIC PRODUCTS PIN-A-WIN SWEEPSTAKES 2012, #PinAWin, #DiscountCatholic

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Pinterest can be so much fun and I love cataloging products or articles for future reference.  I’ve done a few pin to win sweepstakes entries in the past. Today, I wanted to share with my readers about a sweepstakes sponsored by Discount Catholic Products.  Instructions are in the graphic below and it is super simple [Read On]

Table Grace Dice, ends 8/22

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I love the opportunity to review different Catholic products when they come along.  Integrating our faith in all facets of our life is my goal.   Table Grace Dice provide an interesting way to get the kids a bit more engaged when it is time to say a prayer before eating.   A different prayer [Read On]

Wordless Wednesday ~ Catholic Ninjas?

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Some day soon I hope to write up about attending the Alaska Catholic Youth Conference a few weeks ago.  But, until then, I thought I’d share a photo of me with a few religious that attended the event in our Catholic Ninja poses.  J wasn’t sure what to think.    

Generation Next: A Catholic Guide to Financial Freedom for Young Adults

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Now that P’s in high school, I’ve been giving more consideration to what life skills he needs to acquire before leaving the nest.  Among the different ones I think he should have, you’ll find financial skills.  Some things like balancing a checkbook might seem simple to an adult. But if you haven’t been taught how [Read On]

Can you hear the crickets? Or, where did Laura go?

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Put my name on the ‘bad blogger’ list when it comes to planning out posts when I know that I’m going to be off the computer. I was so busy getting the posts set for Monday that I ran out of time to write anything else. Where have I been? Well if you were checking [Read On]

Music to remind us that Christ is the Good Shepherd

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Last weekend, the Gospel reading at Mass had the theme of the good shepherd. Gospel Jn 10:11-18 Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the [Read On]

40 Days of Prayer for the UNITY of ALL Women, born and unborn

40 Days of Prayer for the Unity of ALL Women

From today (May 1) through Saturday, June 9, I am joining others around the world in 40 Days of Prayer for the UNITY of ALL women, born and unborn. Join us by praying along with us and help spread the word…all it takes is a push of a button, a simple Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest [Read On]

A Little Guide to First Communion

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For most Roman Catholic children, second grade is an exciting year.  They are finally considered at the age of reason by the Church and can receive two Sacraments for the first time ~ First Reconciliation and First Communion.   By far, I think most kids are more focused upon making their First Communion than the [Read On]

St. Joseph Red Vinyl Sunday Missal

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Years ago, you might have found people bringing their own copy of the Missal to Mass.  Over the years, it seems to have lost some ‘steam’ with Catholics.  Part of that shift might be the prevalence of the tissue paper thin yearly books containing the readings and music for the parish.  I had years of [Read On]

He Is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!

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Our family wishes all of our readers a glorious Easter celebration today. John 20:1-9 On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012~ Awaiting Easter

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We are just hours away from Easter and it seems like Lent actually flew by at a good clip this year. I’ve done well with my coffee fast, just having a cup on Sundays as they are outside of Lent.  I even did something that surprised me yesterday… a water with squirt of fresh lemon [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ Remembering The Last Supper

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Holy Thursday has arrived and we now reflect upon The Last Supper. That night, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples and established how we are to celebrate The Eucharist. Some of my Christian friends are having Seder meals at their churches in remembrance of Christ’s last meal.   Our lady’s group at St. Andrews [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ The Summons

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For the youth retreat this past weekend, I had the task of selecting a few songs to lead prior to a few speakers.  The overall theme was on the Miracles of Jesus, but I elected to pick a song that really spoke to me about Christ calling us as his disciples.   I thought I’d [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ Holy Week is Here!

Holy Hill Station X: Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

Yesterday was a full day for me at church.  Palm Sunday is one of the 4 times when the church sees more people.  So, I agreed to play piano for the children’s choir that day as well as on Easter Sunday.  I was so grateful that my husband could bring me to the church for [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ We Are Many Parts

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Last week, I shared about how we are all one family. One song found in our hymnals at church that kept coming to mind for me on this theme  is We Are Many Parts by Marty Haugen.  So, I decided to dig into the Scripture that inspires this song.  Part of it was discussed at [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ All One Family

By Gustavo Facci from Argentina (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Along with my concerns over different threats to religious freedom, I have also been preoccupied over how we treat others. It is easy to say that we are all brothers and sisters, but it can be a challenge to act accordingly. By Gustavo Facci from Argentina (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons There were 2 [Read On]

Easter Fun from Wee Believers

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This past fall, our family was blessed to do a review for Wee Believers. Now we feel doubly blessed as we have been able to review 2 of their newest products available just in time for filling your Easter baskets.  Read on for more about these Catholic toys.     Easter 15- Piece Magnet Book [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ Day 23: Being a Unique Child of God

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This Lent I have enjoyed spending more time in prayer and Scripture reading.   This has always been a goal of mine each year, but one activity has helped really take it to the next level.  That is being an active participant with the Truth Pursuit team preparations that P is attending.   This past week [Read On]

40 Days of Seeking Him Lent 2012 ~ Day 22 Forgiveness and Humility

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Right now I feel like I have a LOT of posts in my brain and not enough time on the computer to get them all out! Today, I was reading the daily Scriptures and boy was there a theme of forgiveness running through it.  That is not a great surprise given we are in Lent [Read On]

A People of Hope by Archbishop Timothy Dolan In Conversation with John L. Allen Jr.

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I have to start off this review by saying I hear about (now) Cardinal Dolan on occasion at our current parish.  Our pastor has a personal relationship with him having been a parish priest while Cardinal Dolan was the Archbishop of Milwaukee.  Matter of fact: if you go like the St. Andrews of Eagle River, [Read On]