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Daily Reflection: 31 December 2023
When I was working at a juvenile detention center, I would often have to make house calls. Teens that were on probation had to be checked in on from time-to-time. I never went into a house that was healthy. By that, I mean, it was always a home where one parent was missing, the house…
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Daily Reflection: 21 December 2023
My priest the other day said in his homily that “we try so hard to manufacture joy.” “True joy, though, comes from being in the presence of holiness. We have a tendency to think of John the Baptist as being severe and yelling ruthlessly about repentance, but we forget that he was a joyful man.…
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Daily Reflection: 17 December 2023
All throughout history, since Christ’s coming, man has been trying to downplay who He is. There’s been heresies that deny His divinity. There’s been heresies that basically deny the Incarnation because they deny Christ’s humanity. There are those that deny His existence. Today, Jesus is mostly just a great social justice advocate. In many ways,…
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Daily Reflection: 14 December 2023
Last night, my family was watching some “man on the street” episodes from PragerU. Before I begin, yes, I know “man on the street” things don’t show it all. I know they select out ones that cause controversy. I know there are people who give good answers that are edited out. I know. Anyway, the…
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Daily Reflection: 13 December 2023
The first Catholic Church I ever stepped into was in my hometown in Kansas when I was a young girl. It was a small little church—Sacred Heart—that was, sadly, burned down by an arsonist. I went to that church because I’d had a sleep over with my best friend. It would be another 15 some…
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Daily Reflection: 12 December 2023
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn. Pray for us, that like you, all might be open to life no matter how scary or unexpected a pregnancy might be. May we be people that know it is better to bring life into the world than extinguish it. Pray for us, oh Holy Mother of…
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Daily Reflection: 11 December 2023
My priest, who is from Kenya, in his homily yesterday said to us, “In my country there is a proverbial saying which goes: Don’t pray for the rains until you’ve cultivated the fields.” The point of the saying is that you need to prepare first in order to receive the blessings you ask for well.…
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Daily Reflection: 10 December 2023
My family watched “A Christmas Carol” the other night and afterwards my husband and I started talking about its lessons. My husband said, “You know, I’ve never noticed it before, but Scrooge encapsulates so much of our modern-day ways of living.” “What do you mean?” “Well, the prevailing messages of today are live for yourself.…
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Daily Reflection: 8 December 2023
God has done a lot of things that are difficult for people to believe in because they defy the laws of the natural world. The laws He set up, mind you. He created the universe and everything in it out of nothing. He parted seas. The Incarnation—God becoming man. There’s all the miracles of Christ.…
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Daily Reflection: 7 December 2023
Years ago, I was watching something like 60 Minutes ( Is that still on?) and they were doing a story on a convicted murderer in prison who had found Jesus. As I watched, though, it was quite obvious that the man didn’t understand what being a Christian really meant. Over and over again, the interviewer…
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Daily Reflection: 6 December 2023
When I was a girl, on Christmas Eve, I’d sleep in my grandparent’s drafty upstairs bedroom with my cousins and siblings. Most of us never slept; our anticipation over Santa was too exhilarating. So, we’d lay there in the dark singing every Christmas song we could think of, while we listened for any sound of…
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Daily Reflection: 5 December 2023
Right after my husband got commissioned, we moved to Ohio for our first duty station. I was struggling to find work in my field, so in the meantime, I worked as a substitute teacher. That can be a very interesting job. One day you’re with giggly kindergartners and the next day you’re with surly high…
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Daily Reflection: 4 December 2023
At that point in my life when I turned my back on God, my thought process was, “I can handle my life on my own. You allowed harm to come to me, so clearly you aren’t interested in helping me. I’ll take it from here.” Instantly, I set out on a path to save myself…
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Daily Reflection: 3 December 2023
We watch a lot of things. We watch our phones like zombies. My hairdresser said to me the other day, “At Thanksgiving, I came into the living room and every single person was on their phone. Nobody interacting, nobody building memories. This isn’t right.” We watch sports with a passion that cannot be matched. We…
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Daily Reflection: 1 December 2023
Today, Catholic Pilgrims, I’m excited to share with you the Saint’s work I’ll be reading for Season Four of my podcast “Journeying With the Saints.” Very early on last year, I was pretty positive that I would read Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitations of Christ.” For some reason, I had always thought that Thomas a Kempis…
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Daily Reflection: 30 November 2023
There’s something special about the Sea of Galilee. As you walk along it, you can see so many scenes from the Bible play out in your head and the geography of it all starts to make sense. But, most of us won’t walk along the Sea of Galilee and none of us were called from…
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Daily Reflection: 29 November 2023
For the past few months, I’ve noticed that someone I care about over on my personal Facebook account has been posting post after post of the most anti-Christian stuff. Usually, I let the offensive material pass by my eyes and I ignore it even though the posts are always full of hatred for Christians. One…
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Daily Reflection: 28 November 2023
My son was talking to one of his classmates at jujitsu the other day and the classmate said something to the fact that it was Christmas time. To which my son said, “No, not yet.” The other boy was thoroughly confused and my son said, “It’s not even Advent. Thanksgiving is first.” He came home…
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Daily Reflection: 27 November 2023
One of the things that drew me to Catholicism was the intellectual side of it. This was no superficial practice of the faith where everything was watered down and made easy on the ears. I truly had never encountered such rigorous intellectual thought in my upbringing and into my twenties. Reading some of the early…
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Daily Reflection: 26 November 2023
We like Christ as Savior, as it shows His deep love for us. We like Christ as our friend, because a good friend, in our mind, backs us up in all we want to do. This is probably the most popular view of Christ because our modern world likes to just make Christ a buddy,…
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Daily Reflection: 20 November 2023
“Let’s get with the times.” Today’s first reading from 1 Maccabees was very relatable to the times we live in now. There are some Israelites who are trying to get others to “get with the times.” These men break God’s law and they want to get on board with what the pagan Gentiles are doing.…
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Daily Reflection: 17 November 2023
I have something important to discuss with you all, Catholic Pilgrims, as we head into the weekend and prepare for Thanksgiving. As we know, when God created the universe, He set it to be governed by laws. Just as there are physical laws in the natural world, and moral laws in the spiritual life, there…
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Daily Reflection: 15 November 2023
Last week, I went to help load up bags of Thanksgiving food for the needy at church. It was a whole production and many retirees were there. As I looked around, people were smiling and joking with one another. Everyone was energized to put the hundreds of bags together. You could just tell that everyone…
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Daily Reflection: 13 November 2023
If someone feels excluded from the Church because it won’t embrace their sin, that is not a problem with the Church. Jesus never came and said, “Go about and form the Faith to your likings. I don’t want you to ever feel bad about anything you do.” Instead He said, “Things that cause sin will…
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Daily Reflection: 12 November 2023
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in 10 years of writing on here is to wait to give my thoughts on a subject. When I was younger, I was always quick to give my thoughts and opinions on things before I had all the information or even just a little bit of information. Consequently,…
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Daily Reflection: 10 November 2023
The word hero gets thrown around a lot in our day and age. “Hero” is used to describe athletes, famous people, and those that parade themselves around trying to get attention for playing the victim in some way. These are not heroes. There has to be the element of sacrifice involved in order for someone…
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Daily Reflection: 7 November 2023
I was watching a video the other day of Lila Rose, a prominent pro-life advocate, having a conversation with a group of women. The conversation centered on chastity and Lila, very charitably, shared with the women the desire God has for their relationship with men. One woman, who clearly disagreed, defensively spoke up and said,…
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Daily Reflection: 6 November 2023
When I was maybe ten years old, my mom called me from her work down at City Hall and said, “Amy, there’s an elderly women down the street whose husband passed away. She needs help going through his things, so I need you to go down and help her.” I was a bit shocked by…
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Daily Reflection: 5 November 2023
Several years ago, my family was stationed in Las Vegas. The Air Force Ball is in September and, having not been to one in years, my husband and I decided to go. We bought our tickets, got all fancied up, and set off to the dinner and dance. In my pride, I stupidly thought that…
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Daily Reflection: 3 November 2023
I woke up this morning and saw many of the headlines from the news and just wanted to crawl back in bed because literally everything seems like a dumpster fire. I think we all feel a bit tense and weary as we hold our breath waiting for the next bad thing, and the next bad…
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Daily Reflection: 2 November 2023
keep this shelf up like this all the time. I pass it often and when I do, the pictures of my grandparents always pricks my heart just a little. The loss of a loved one in your life is so bittersweet. Bitter in that the pain hurts and their presence is gone. Sweet in that…
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Daily Reflection: 1 November 2023
From someone who lived a majority of my life never knowing the Saints, I am so grateful to have them now. I used to believe that when we died, we became angels and just drifted up to Heaven where we might “watch over” our loved ones but really have no effect on their lives. In…
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Daily Reflection: 31 October 2023
I’ve always wondered what it must have been like for the astronauts who walked on the moon when they returned back to earth. That first night back in bed did they think to themselves, “A couple of days ago, I was walking on the moon and now I’m back on Earth where life carries on”?…
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Daily Reflection: 30 October 2023
I briefly saw this headline the other day that stated: Professor Studies Free Will and Discovers It Doesn’t Exist. And with that, we are relegated to either robots or purely animals, no different than a sloth or a caterpillar, or a computer. I didn’t even bother to read it, because sometimes, you just don’t have…
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Daily Reflection: 26 October 2023
Recently, my family toured the USS Alabama in Mobile, AL. My son absolutely loved being on the big battleship and seeing what life would have been like for the sailors. We talked a lot about how his great-grandpa served on a big ship, too—the USS Jackson. When we saw this room, the chapel, he got…
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Daily Reflection: 25 October 2023
I’ve been teaching my son how to play the piano and he’s been pretty lazy in practicing. So, I asked him yesterday, “Do you want to learn to play an instrument?” “Yes.” “Okay, if you do, you know you have to practice. So, why haven’t you been doing that?” It took him awhile and then…
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Daily Reflection: 24 October 2023
I was listening to the podcast from fellow-convert, Justin Hibbard, yesterday. He runs the “Why Catholic” Podcast, which I highly recommend. In yesterday’s podcast, he was discussing the four marks of the Catholic Church: It is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. These are the marks of the true church founded by Christ and they must…
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Daily Reflection: 23 October 2023
One of the ways our leaders—media, governmental leaders, and academics—foster a divide between citizens is through greed. All wealthy people are demonized as being hoarders of money; they are depicted as sitting around on their mounds of gold, refusing to even flip one coin to a poor person. To be sure, there are stingy rich…
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Daily Reflection: 20 October 2023
I was at Daily Mass on Wednesday and when I arrived, I knelt down and prayed, like I always do, that God would calm my heart and my mind and help me to be fully present. I sat down and Mass started, but just as it started a car alarm started going off. It wasn’t…
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Daily Reflection: 19 October 2023
Yesterday, I went to see what was the first picture I ever posted on my page. This is it from August 14, 2013. I didn’t write anything. It didn’t get any likes. Nothing. Back then, I called my page “Passionate Purpose,” which was often taken in the wrong way. As I looked through my first…
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Daily Reflection: 18 October 2023
A couple weeks ago, two women showed up at my door to evangelize. They were very nice and started off the conversation by saying, “We are going around trying to get people’s opinion on what they think the Kingdom of God means.” I said, “Oh wow, that’s a big question! Well…” And before I could…
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Daily Reflection: 16 October 2023
Back in DC, when I used to drive my daughter to track practice, we passed a church that displayed every sign and flag of the times. I think you catch my drift. Plastered all around the church was social justice warrior messaging and not a single thing—not one thing—that clued you in that the God…
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Daily Reflection: 15 October 2023
I saw a meme the other day that said, “Everyone is born an atheist. You have to be indoctrinated into believing there’s a god.” I despise bad logic, so it took a lot of restraint not to comment on this. Babies hardly know anything at birth other than the sound of certain people’s voices and…
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Daily Reflection: 12 October 2023
There are a few people I’ve been praying for, for years now. The difficult truth is that with some of the people I’ve been praying for, the chances that I will know if my prayers have been efficacious are slim. I have zero contact with them. They were once mortal enemies in my life and…
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Daily Reflection: 11 October 2023
The first wave of feminists, who fought for basic standard equality rights, were not wrong in their desires. Something happened, though, after that first wave that has been a scourge to womanhood. See, there comes a point in each woman’s life where she clearly recognizes that she is the more vulnerable sex. It’s the reality…
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Daily Reflection: 10 October 2023
Several weeks ago, my husband and I started watching a documentary. It wasn’t inherently bad but there came a point when I knew it wasn’t healthy for us to watch it anymore, especially myself, as it was causing a lot of internal strife. I thought I was strong enough to handle it on my own,…
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Daily Reflection: 5 October 2023
As many of you know, my “Journeying With the Saints” podcast started by reading St. Faustina’s Diary. I had tried to read it on my own, but just couldn’t hang. Then one day, while living in Turkey, I got the idea to read her diary for a podcast. And so, with having zero clue what…
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Daily Reflection: 4 October 2023
A snapshot of my spiritual life: Late teens: I had basically nothing to do with God. No church, no reading of the Bible. Nothing. Early twenties: Mostly the same as my late teens. Rest of my twenties: Trying to figure out my faith life as I now had a daughter and I didn’t want her…
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Daily Reflection: 3 October 2023
This is the inside of the church located in the City of St. Jude. If you remember, in 1934, Fr. Purcell came to Montgomery, Alabama to serve the black community. He had five dollars in his pocket. Thankfully, the bishop of the Diocese of Mobile helped him purchase 54 acres of land on which to…
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Daily Reflection: 2 October 2023
“Belief in the existence of angels is an article of faith.” —CCC 336 As I said the other day, I’ve always had a fascination with angels. However, it wasn’t until becoming Catholic that I understood more fully their role. In much of the Protestant world, the belief is, what is in Heaven is in Heaven…
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Daily Reflection: 1 October 2023
In 1934, having come to Montgomery, Alabama with little more than five dollars in his pocket, Fr. Purcell organized the construction of The City of Jude, a “city” built to meet the needs of black people in the south. It had a hospital, a school, a home for disabled children, a nursing school, two convents,…
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Daily Reflection: 29 September 2023
absolutely love the angels, Catholic Pilgrims. I find them fascinating and, also, comforting—it’s a relief knowing they are around to guide and defend us. The St. Michael Prayer is one of my favorites and I say it pretty often when I need to be strengthened. The way angels are depicted in the Bible is quite…
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Daily Reflection: 28 September 2023
One time when I was a kid, I decided to start a secret club. Without much thought into what exactly its members were going to do, I threw out the news that a secret club was starting in my backyard. Soon, several kids found their way to my yard wanting to be a part of…
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Daily Reflection: 25 September 2023
This weekend, my family and I watched “Big Fish” starring Ewan McGregor. Cool fact: A lot of the movie was shot here in Alabama. The movie came out in 2003 and I remember watching it then and not liking it. But, this weekend, I thought I’d give it a retry and then we could go…
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Daily Reflection: 22 September 2023
Can we finally declare Fall is here, Catholic Pilgrims? Each and every day, so many of you show up to read my—sometimes lengthy—posts. Brevity is not my strong suit. As much as many of you say you learn from me, I learn from all of you, as well. I make it a point to read…
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Daily Reflection: 21 September 2023
When I was a teenager and was fighting one time with my mom about having to go to church, I said, “Everybody there is a hypocrite! Why would I want to go some place filled with a bunch of hypocrites?” “Do you think you’re going to find a church not filled with hypocrites? Are you…
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Daily Reflection: 20 September 2023
Sometimes, you can’t win with people and that’s okay; we just have to recognize those that have no desire for fruitful conversation. I’ll give two examples: Yesterday, on one of my accounts, a person showed up that was very anti-Catholic. Their tactic was what I call “Bombardment of Issues.” Instead of addressing one issue they…
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Daily Reflection: 19 September 2023
I’ve been reading a book called the “The Dictator’s Handbook.” It’s required reading for my husband’s class that he’s in and he wanted me to read it so we can talk about it. Plus, I like studying human behavior and it’s a good look at those in power. I don’t agree with everything it says…
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Daily Reflection: 18 September 2023
I found a tiny chapel on a hike yesterday. It’s more like a little church designed for children, so I look like a giant next to it. Nearly every time we are physically sick, we pray and pray for the ailment to leave us. Nobody wants to stay suffering through cancer, the flu, bodily injuries,…
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Daily Reflection: 15 September 2023
In my late teens and through my twenties, my understanding of what the Christian life entailed was wrong. It was my understanding that Christianity was sort of a blanket that protected you from all suffering. Consequently, when some tough suffering came my way, I thought God must have abandoned me and must not really care…
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Daily Reflection: 14 September 2023
Within the span of a week, I’ve seen a shocking number of videos of people-mostly women-extolling the joys of living a self-centered life. I shouldn’t be shocked, but there seems to be a deluge of them recently. Our culture is centrally focused on the self. Self-care Self-affirmation Self-discovery Selfish. Oops, did I type that out…
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Daily Reflection: 13 September 2023
One of my least favorite phrases on earth is “you do you.” It grates like nails on a chalk board. It’s akin to saying “There’s my truth, your truth, no truth, all the truth, whatevs.” Now, if it was a phrase used to concede to a person’s opinion on favorite soda, favorite color, where you…
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Daily Reflection: 12 September 2023
Have you ever played the game with your kids where you try to see if another name fits you? I’ll ask my kids, “Do I look like a Sarah?” “No, not at all.” “What about a Becky?” “No, only Amy fits you.” My sister and I are named after characters from the book “Little Women.”…
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Daily Reflection: 11 September 2023
Tragedies are complex events: At the time, you think you’ll never, ever forgot the moment, but as time crawls on, the memories of the tragedy start to fade into the background of history. This is the first year since 9/11 where my social media feeds weren’t loaded with pictures of that fateful day. In fact,…
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Daily Reflection: 10 September 2023
Our idea of love in the modern world is 1 cup of niceness and 10 cups of “do-whatever-you-want-and-I’ll-hold-your-hand-as-you-slip-into-self-destruction.” Too many demand that nobody ever tell them that what they are doing is wrong and too many go along with this. Consequently, we have very spiritually, emotionally, and physically unhealthy people simply existing because everyone around…
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Daily Reflection: 7 September 2023
Many of us have experienced having a sin so great that we feel we are doomed. We wrongly believe that God won’t love us anymore and we might as well just set off on our own, sentenced to a life without God. We view ourselves marked as the big sinner. This is how I felt…
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Daily Reflection: 6 September 2023
If you’ve noticed like me, not too much in the world seems to be “bearing fruit and growing.” Everything seems sickly to a certain degree. Our educational systems. Governments and leaders. Sports. Cultural values or lack thereof. Cities. You know what I’m talking about. To add to this, there is a real fear about everything.…
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Daily Reflection: 5 September 2023
If old churches could talk… This past Sunday, my family attended Mass here at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Atlanta. It hasn’t always gone by this name, but received its name change in 1898. The usher we met at the church knew that we were visitors, as he’s been attending the…
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Daily Reflection: 30 August 2023
We often forget that Jesus reprimands pretty hard at times in the Gospels. As I’ve noticed, we tend to read these passages where Christ calls out the Pharisees and scribes, with our arms crossed as we say, “That’s right! Call ‘em out! The hypocrites!” Then we go about our business sure that we are in…
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Daily Reflection: 29 August 2023
St. John the Baptist was put to death because he spoke truth. It’s always amazing to me the lengths people will go to in order to block out truth. So whetted are they to what they want to believe or what they want to do, people will gravely sin just to avoid the truth. Which…
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Daily Reflection: 28 August 2023
I once wondered, “If I ever tried to run for president, what would people dig up from my past in order to try and discredit me?” Well, there’s a lot of fodder there and so I concluded, I’d be canceled within about two seconds of my announcement. I’m not looking to run for president, but…
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Daily Reflection: 25 August 2023
I am a hard-headed, opinionated person. I will dig my heels in if anyone tries to make do something I don’t want to do. The medical community loves people like me. I will passionately defend the things I like and love. I was telling my son yesterday that a lot of my prayer time goes…
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Daily Reflection: 24 August 2023
Starting with television and then moving into the age of social media, we have seen the desperation with which people want to be seen. Television and movies brought more people fame, which caused more people to want to be famous. Not everyone, though, was going to make into movies or television. Social media changed all…
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Daily Reflection: 23 August 2023
I have a very strong sense of justice. I imagine that if you asked one of my loved ones to describe me, at some point they would say, “Amy has a very strong sense of right and wrong.” “Give to others what is due to them” is a strong mantra within me. If people need…
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Daily Reflection: 22 August 2023
On the Feast of the Assumption last week, a respectful dissenter showed up and asserted a lot of wrong things about Mary and one of them was this: “Mary is not the Queen of Heaven.” Because many of us live in modern Western American culture, I completely understand why this guy believes this. 1. In…
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Daily Reflection: 21 August 2023
Today, I embark on my 14th year of homeschooling. I’ve graduated my two oldest, so now, it’s just my big dude and me. Fourth grade, here we come! So, I thought for the start of the school year, I’d share a bit of history about this abandoned convent and school behind me. In 1907, Father…
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Daily Reflections: 17 August 2023
One of the most frustrating things about having an online presence is when you share something beautiful and meaningful and the kill-joy shows up. I’ll post a picture of a beautiful church and off in the corner behind a wall, the head of a guitar will be poking out and someone is going to ignore…
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Daily Reflection: 16 August 2023
I was listening to Jeff Cavins this morning give his reflection on the Gospel reading for today. He asked the question, “Would you rather give correction or receive correction?” Uh, easy. Give it. And I think most all of us would say the same thing. My husband is in the military, as you know, and…
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Daily Reflection: 15 August 2023
Today is the day, when I am again compelled to share my favorite painting of Mary as she is assumed into Heaven. It is found in The Cathedral of San Pedro de Los Milagros in Colombia and the artist is Juan de Jesus Munera Ochoa. I have stared at this painting many, many times. I…
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Daily Reflection: 11 August 2023
Today is the Feast Day of St. Clare of Assisi and here is Mission Santa Clara de Asís in Santa Clara, California. I was at Daily Mass the other day and I was inundated with negative thoughts. First, I started stressing about the state of our country. Then, I started stressing about a personal issue.…
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Daily Reflection: 10 August 2023
I watched a video this past week from a young ex-porn star bragging about how she’s already been divorced at least two times, possibly three. It was unclear whether the third engagement ended before or after marriage. She went on to give marriage “advice,” telling women to dump their man if he isn’t giving them…
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Daily Reflection: 9 August 2023
In the readings for today, we have two totally different mentalities. In the first reading from Numbers, the children of Israel are camped outside the Promised Land and a group of guys go to scout things out. They come back with some good news and some bad news. Good news: The land is full of…
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Daily Reflection: 8 August 2023
Today is the Feast Day of St. Dominic. St. Dominic was known for his preaching and intellectual rigor. I used to belong to a church that was led by Dominicans and their homilies were intellectually intense. I appreciate St. Dominic and his order because I cannot stand bland, trite, watered-down Christianity. St. Dominic preached against…
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Daily Reflection: 7 August 2023
When I was a kid, I’d sometimes go to Mass with my best friend after a Saturday night sleepover. As a side note: I wasn’t Catholic then and the Catholic Church my friend went to in our hometown was burned down by arson in 1996. From what my young mind can remember, it was a…
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Daily Reflection: 6 August 2023
The Church of the Transfiguration. Beautiful churches are a draw for me. I know that many people grumble and gripe about the grandeur of many of our Catholic Churches, but I need them in my life. We have enough ugliness in the world, I need a place full of beauty. Each time I walk through…
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Daily Reflection: 4 August 2023
It’s Friday, Catholic Pilgrims! I thought today was a good day for some musings on living just over a month in Alabama. 1. It is a true struggle not to say “Alabama” like Forrest Gump does when he yells, “Greenbow, ALABAMA!” 2. I have not yet heard “Sweet Home Alabama” for which I’m thankful. It’s…
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Daily Reflection: 3 August 2023
Recently, when people find out I have two adult daughters who are out of the house, I’ve had a number of those people say, “Oh man, I can’t wait till my kids are gone.” Then I look at their kids and they are little. There’s a lot of years to go and these parents are…
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Daily Reflection: 1 Aug 2023
August is already here, Catholic Pilgrims. When I was younger, my dad always told me that the older you get the faster the trips around the sun become. I didn’t understand him then, but I do now. Wheat is talked about a lot in the Bible. We’ve been reading from Matthew 13 in the daily…
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Daily Reflection: 31 July 2023
It’s not often that I showcase a church that isn’t Catholic, but today, I must make an exception. The church you see below is the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church founded in 1877. Now, based off the name and the fact that I’m in Montgomery, Alabama now, you probably are like, “Well, that’s Dr.…
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Daily Reflection: 26 July 2023
This is St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem near the Lion’s Gate. Growing up, I didn’t once think about the fact that Jesus had grandparents, or even that Mary had parents. I mean, I knew she did but I never wondered about them. Upon becoming Catholic, I was introduced to the Communion of Saints and how…
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Daily Reflection: 25 July 2023
I always cringe a bit when I read today’s Gospel passage. James and John’s mom has no qualms asking Jesus to give her boys honor and power. I have to wonder, did they cringe? Were they embarrassed? She just marched right up to Jesus and said, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one…
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Daily Reflection: 24 July 2023
When we visited St. Mary’s Church in Fairfax Station, the church that became a field hospital during the Civil War, my son wanted to take a picture from the perspective of the priest. This church is mostly used now for special occasions and because of this fact, Jesus was not in the Tabernacle, so I…
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Daily Reflection: 23 July 2023
In the first parable we read today in Matthew 13:24-43, the Master of the field is the Son of Man—Christ. I was reading some commentary on this passage from Fr. Simeon and he pointed out that the servants are panicked over the weeds that have been sown in the field alongside the wheat. They want…
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Daily Reflection: 21 July 2023
A funny story for this Friday, Catholic Pilgrims. Several months ago, I was at Mass on a Friday at Old St. Mary’s in Alexandria, Virginia—the oldest Catholic Church in Virginia. We all stood up when the priest said, “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours…” At this moment the priest had his arms…
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Daily Reflection: 20 July 2023
My priest recently said, “The world tells you to do whatever makes you feel good. This is wrong. Instead, we are to be good.” For those of us that have tried to follow the world’s advice of “feel good at all costs” know that this causes a certain heaviness. The things that are always encouraged…
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Daily Reflection: 19 July 2023
Yesterday in the car driving back from daily Mass my son said to my husband and me, “You know what?” “What?” “Going to daily Mass in the morning makes a light shine on your whole day.” At that time, Jesus exclaimed, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you…
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Daily Reflection: 17 July 2023
My family went to the 12:10 Mass at St. Peter’s Catholic Church this past Friday. It’s the oldest Catholic Church in Montgomery. After the Mass, the other congregants swarmed around my family wanting to meet the newcomers. “You must be military,” one guy said to my husband with a smile. I laughed and said, “Are…
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Daily Reflection: 16 July 2023
Today’s Gospel reading is a clear indication that the “once saved, always saved” doctrine doesn’t hold water. Jesus’ parable of the sower of the seeds shows us that seed can be scattered and it can take root for a bit, but then something gets to the seeds—something attacks one’s faith life. Now, some might say…
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Daily Reflection: 14 July 2023
Back in 2019, I did a year-long walk through the Book of James. It’s my favorite non-Gospel book of the NT. My followers encouraged me to take my weekly posts and compile it into a book. So, I did. It’s called “Reflections on the Book of James.” I just revamped (or my husband and daughter…
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Daily Reflection: 13 July 2023
We’ve been reading through the story of Joseph, son of Jacob, in our daily readings recently. And, no, I don’t like “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” I have a high cheese detector and this is a cheese-fest extravaganza. Back to Joseph. Families are messy. They just are. Comprised of sinful humans, nobody has a…