Will This Advent Be Different?
There’s an old saying: “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.” God wants Advent to be a time of preparing our hearts to receive MORE from Him. MORE grace. MORE blessing. But it’s so easy for us to fall into the same old ruts that fails to…
Read MoreSecond Week of Advent: The Week of Peace
The theme for the second week of Advent is peace. Too often our understanding of the word “peace” is limited to worldly peace – the absence of war. But the word peace – as proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus – has a much more spiritual significance. “Glory to…
Read MoreThe Virtue of Prudence – No Margin Ned: Family
The virtue of prudence is the virtue of knowing what is good and making a plan to attain it. Aside from our relationship with God, there is no greater good than our family relationships. Pope John Paul II called the family the “school of love.” It’s the main place where we learn to love selflessly…
Read MoreWhy Do We Pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary?
One question I get most often form non-Catholics, but also sometimes from Catholics, is why we pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the saints. Redeemed Into the Family of God The simple but really, really important answer is this: we pray to Mary and the saints because we are all the Family of…
Read MoreHuman Virtues: Forming Intellectual Virtues Can Be Fun!
When we think of human virtues, we often think of the moral virtues – the ones that help us to choose what is good and to strengthen our character. In fact, the moral virtues aren’t all that popular. Hopefully that is changing. But the intellectual virtues – the ones that help us to know and…
Read MoreWhere Are All the Catholics With a Living Faith (Where Are YOU?)
If Catholics were really had a living faith they would be an unstoppable force for good in the world. But the sad fact is, most Catholics are not living as disciples of Jesus. Do you want to miss the opportunity of a lifetime? The Current State of the Church I know it sounds judgmental for…
Read MoreChristian Friendship – Do We Choose Our Friends?
“It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends.” — Henri Nouwen Two ancient pearls of wisdom seem to contradict each other. On the one hand, we hear that we should choose our friends wisely. On the other hand, there is a general belief that we don’t choose our friends.…
Read MoreSocial Skills – Don’t Let Selfishness Destroy Your Relationship (Danger!)
Cultivating and nurturing good Christian friendship is an important part of Catholic spiritual growth. To be truly effective at nourishing our friendships, we need to be aware of the influences and attitudes that can damage our relationships. This is one of the social skills we need to develop in all of our relationships. Selfishness is…
Read MoreChristian Friendship – How Friendship Feeds Our Faith
There are many benefits to cultivating a good Christian friendship, from making us smarter to making us better people to teaching us how to love. But there is one benefit of relationships that exceeds all others. As important as friendship is, it is not an end in itself. It cannot bring us perfect happiness in…
Read MoreChristian Friendship Keeping Us Accountable and Making Us Better (Sometimes Despite Ourselves)
Christian Friendship Keeping Us Accountable and Making Us Better (Sometimes Despite Ourselves) by Jeff Arrowood
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