When Your Child Is Embarrassed by Faith: A Parenting Moment That Stings
After sitting with the feeling for a minute, I realized this was actually an opportunity. Not to lecture. Not to shame him. But to teach him something he’ll need for the rest of his life: how to handle embarrassment, respect others, and understand faith without fear.
So tonight, after religious ed, I plan to talk with him gently.
When Signs Become Substitutes: A Catholic Battle Plan Against Spiritual Deception
Today, people talk about “finding feathers,” “seeing signs,” “receiving messages,” or “the universe sending signals.” But Catholic teaching — and the saints who fought real spiritual battles — warn us that these curiosities can become traps.
When Zeal Isn’t Holiness: Discerning True Catholic Renewal in a Noisy Culture
Over the past few years, American culture has shifted in a strange way. I keep noticing people — especially far-right voices, influencers, and commentators — suddenly talking about Catholic devotions like the Holy Face, Fatima, the Rosary, or “end times.” Some of it feels sincere… but some of it feels off.
The Devil Targets the Family First: Lessons From the Saints, My Own Story, and the Crisis of Confusion Today
We are living in a time where the family is not merely neglected—it is under direct assault.
And if you look closely, the same three weapons show up again and again:
violence, nudity/shame, and lies.
This is not abstract.
It played out in my own family story.
And the saints warned us it would.
The Noonday Devil: An Old Battle With a New Face, Fighting the Midday Heaviness: A Father’s Prayer
There are moments in the middle of the day when a heaviness comes over you without warning. You’re working, parenting, trying to be faithful, trying to hold your life together with maturity and trust in God—and suddenly a sadness or anxiety slips in. It doesn’t always have a name. It doesn’t always make sense. But it’s real.
If you’ve felt this, you’re not alone. And you’re not weak. In the Catholic spiritual tradition, this has been recognized for centuries. The early desert fathers called it acedia, the “noonday devil” from Psalm 91:6—a kind of spiritual fatigue that tries to discourage the soul when it’s striving to walk with God.
“My Dove, My Perfect One”: How Canticle of Canticles 6:9 Reveals the Beauty of Mary
There is a moment in Scripture where poetry rises so high that it seems to touch heaven. A line so tender, so exalted, that the Church has always heard in it the echo of a woman unlike any other:
“One is my dove, my perfect one is but one,
She is the only one of her mother;
The daughters saw her and declared her blessed.”
— Canticle of Canticles 6:9
On the surface, the Song of Songs is a love poem between bridegroom and bride. But in the Catholic heart, guided by the saints and the liturgy, this verse unfolds into a luminous portrait of Mary, the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, and the masterpiece of God’s love.
When the Spirit Moves Fast: Discernment, Peace, and the Quiet Strength of the Church
Last night in our study group, something happened that reminded me how important it is to anchor ourselves in the Church when things get spiritually intense.
A young woman came in late, breathless from a nearby worship service, full of emotion, full of questions. She had recently felt what she believed were strong movements of the Holy Spirit. People had prayed prophetic words over her. She spoke quickly about visions, diamonds, denominations, and how God “can’t be boxed in.” Underneath her excitement, I could also hear confusion. A kind of spiritual whirlwind.
Then she shared something that shifted the whole room:
She used to read tarot.
She said this felt different now.
She knew—she thought—it was all from God.