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Would You Just Calm Down With All Your Piety Already?
When I was a little girl, around four and five, I had a best friend named Jessica. The day I had to move away, we vowed that we would always be best friends. My family moved about two hours from her and, as is normal, our friendship faded away like the Beatles on “Hey, Jude.”…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling In Montreal, Canada
My family and I recently grabbed our passports and headed off to check things out in the land of our northern neighbor–Canada. My oldest recently graduated and we wanted a fun way to celebrate as a family. We love to travel and explore, so we thought Montreal would be an interesting place to check out.…
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Who Needs Church Anyway?
I’ve decided on a new way I’m going to live out my marriage. Here are my thoughts. My husband knows that I love him. I mean, I tell him pretty frequently, so he should have no doubt. However, I’m gonna propose that I move to a different house. I’m an independent woman and I need…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Anni from ​A Beautiful Camouflaged Mess
Can you believe we’ve gone through a whole year of the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series? The time has flown. My last interview is with one of my favorite bloggers out there. Anni from A Beautiful Camouflaged Mess rounds out the year for us. I’m so excited to feature her! Anni is a military…
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Do Catholics Even Read the Bible?
Back when I was a Protestant, one of the many things I believed about Catholics was that they didn’t read the Bible. I believed that the Catholic Church didn’t even want Catholics to read it. I heard that Catholics chained Bibles down in their “Dark Age” churches. I’d heard that the Bible just wasn’t that…
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The Year I Saw Santa Claus and the Thrill of the Season
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was a magical night. Some of my dearest memories are from those special evenings with my family. Everyone would show up at my grandparent’s house before dinner was ready. The house always smelled like heaven–baking food, pine, and candles. My grandmother always had the house beautifully decorated and…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Beth Anne from Beth Anne’s Best
Here we are at the end of November, but before we fully usher in the Advent season and December I want to bring you November’s interview for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. This month, I bring you Beth Anne from BethAnnesBeth.com. Beth is a blogger, but she also has another talent that she…
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A Late Night Conversation With My Teen Daughters About Abortion
Tonight, I mindlessly looked out my living room window for about 30-minutes trying to figure out how to start this blog. Honestly, what more can be said on the topic of abortion that hasn’t already been said? Is there anything new I could possibly bring to the conversation? Don’t I wish I had the magic…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Leslie From Life in Every Limb
Fall is here and that means it’s time for October’s interview for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. This month, I’m happy to bring you Leslie from Knoxville, Tennessee who runs the website “Life in Every Limb.” I got acquainted with Leslie on social media probably about three years ago and I’ve always enjoyed…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Dan Mattson from the Documentary “Desire of the Everlasting Hills”
The male interview for September is Daniel Mattson. The first time I ever heard of him was when my husband and I watched the free documentary “Desire of the Everlasting Hills.” It’s a very well done documentary that talks with three different individuals who struggle with same-sex attraction but are now committed to living a…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Jennifer of Fiore Design Studio
September is here! Fall is in the air and we have a new voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. Jennifer of Fiore Design Studio joins us this month and I’m excited to feature an artist. I can’t draw a straight line, so I’m always so expressed with those that create with their…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Laura From A Single Drop In the Ocean
Can you believe that August is already here? The summer definitely flew by, but before the summer completely winds down, I’d like to introduce August’s interview for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. Please meet Laura who is the face behind the website “A Single Drop in the Ocean.” One thing I really admire…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Desiree From Green Catholic Burrow
We are nearing the end of July, but before we do, Desiree from the Green Catholic Burrow is here to tell us why she loves being Catholic. Desiree is a recent convert to the Catholic Faith. As I read her answers, I had to go ask her one more question: What was it that converted…
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Q & A: Does the Church Only Allow Catholics to Marry Other Catholics?
A few weeks ago, I was asked about my thoughts on whether Catholics should marry people who aren’t Catholic. Since I’ve been moving, I haven’t had the chance to really sit down and write my thoughts out. I’ve finally found a few moments between the boxes, painting, and organizing our new home. First, I wasn’t…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: My Husband, Dustin
{UPDATED} So, I roped my husband into being July’s male voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. Part of the package deal of being the spouse of a blogger is being interviewed from time-to-time. Lol! Truly, though, I wanted to share Dustin’s thoughts on Catholicism because he is one of the smartest people…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Amy from Prayer Wine Chocolate
June’s female voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series is totally awesome because, like me, she is named Amy. All people named Amy are automatically awesome people, right? Amy is the founder of the website prayerwinechocolate.com. She is just an awesome woman who writes a lot about her journey of adopting three beautiful children.…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling To Las Vegas
I will never forget how I felt when we crested the hill that overlooks the entire city of Las Vegas back in December of 2015. I’d been to Vegas a few times before but now I was coming to live here. After coming from my beloved Virginia, it felt surreal to see all the lights stretched…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Fouad Abou-Rizk of Humanitarian Prayers
Don’t you just love when you find great people doing great things? Of course you do. That’s why you are going to love reading May’s male voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. His name is Fouad and he is a Lebanese-American living in Winston-Salem, NC. I came across Fouad when he joined a blogging…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Kedon from Kid Catholic
I’m so excited to bring you April’s male voice. Kedon is the youngest person I’ve interviewed. I was first introduced to Kedon when I opened my Seton Homeschooling Magazine a few months back. His family was the featured family for the month and I discovered that Kedon runs a Youtube channel where he speaks about the…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Michelle of the Give Him 5 Ministry
(Update: Michelle passed away on July 10th, 2018. If you are reading this, please offer up a prayer for her and her family.) I’m so happy to bring you April’s featured woman, Michelle, of Give Him 5 Ministry. Michelle was prompted to start her ministry to encourage people to give Christ at least five minutes…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling At the Grand Canyon
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I If the sum of all our praises still falls shyThen we’ll sing again a hundred billion times. God of Your promiseYou don’t speak in vain, no syllable empty or void. For once You have spoken all nature and science follow the sound of Your voice. –Hillsong  …
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Joseph From Kansas City
I’m so excited to bring you March’s featured guy, Joseph. His wife, Chloe, was January’s female voice on why she loves being Catholic. I was listening to a podcast they did together on Chloe’s podcast “Letters To Women” and I found myself smiling the whole time listening to them share their love story. While listening,…
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How The World Gets God’s Unconditional Love Wrong
On social media there is a figure who calls himself “God.” I’m not sure who is behind this persona, but I’ll just refer to that person as “he” to make things easy. This person that presents himself as “God” is not a believer. Recently, I saw a meme by “God” that attempted to speak about God’s…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Laura of Healing Heart of Jesus
It’s so easy in this world to become jaded and think that everything is going to the dogs. The news makes us think that people are becoming worse and worse. Then you read about someone like March’s featured lady, Laura, and you feel renewed in your faith in humanity. Laura runs the website Healing Heart of Jesus…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling in Phoenix, Arizona
A big ole seguaro cactus. Native to the area. This past week, my daughter’s gymnastics meet saw us rolling down the road through the Sonoran Desert to Phoenix, Arizona. We didn’t have much time in Phoenix, but we did hit up some pretty cool spots and if you are a Catholic Pilgrim traveling there, I…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Br. Anthony Freeman a Seminarian in Rome
Update: Br. Anthony Freeman passed away on April 2, 2018, on Easter Monday. He died peacefully in his sleep. I know that I am not alone in saying that he will be missed. Thankfully, we have all gained a powerful intercessor. Please pray for the repose of his soul and for his family members and friends who…
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Believe It or Not, I Fell In Love With Going to Church
After my middle child “retired” from gymnastics, she wanted to try out different sports. She chose volleyball first and after learning the game, she was invited onto the traveling team. She was pretty excited, as was I, seeing as I played volleyball growing up. The coach set up an orientation meeting with the new parents…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Sara from To Jesus, Sincerely
This February, I want to feature one of my favorite bloggers. Sara from To Jesus, Sincerely, is the real deal. She is open, honest, vulnerable, and amazingly faithful. She encourages me in my walk of faith and I so enjoy what she brings to the table. Sara is a prayer warrior and IÂ have found much…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Todd From Massachusetts
For my featured series on “Why I Love Being Catholic,” I really wanted to express some guys’ voices on here about why they love being Catholic. So, each month, I hope to have a woman and a man answer that question for us. Men see things in differently and have different ways of conveying their experiences and perspectives.…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Chloe from Old Fashioned Girl
This year I’m featuring Catholics and asking them why they love being Catholic. The first gal up this year is Chloe. Chloe and I became connected when she interviewed me about miscarriage on her podcast “Letters to Women.” I found out she lives in Kansas, my home state. Her husband went to Kansas State University, which…
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Advent Prepares Us For The Joy Of Christmas
When I was young, my grandmother would always invite two of my cousins and me to her house right after Thanksgiving to help her decorate for Christmas. We’d go for the whole weekend and we would be busy little elves the entire time making the house beautiful. The first chore was always to dust and…
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Why I’ve Struggled to Call Myself a Feminist
It wasn’t until I entered college that I really heard the term feminism. My degree is in criminology which is within the sociology department. I had a few classes that were downright hostile to anyone who was more conservative in thought. Since I have always been one to speak my mind, it brought me into…
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The Fear of Being Replaced in Your Spouse’s Heart
When I was a teenager, I watched Braveheart for the first time. In the beginning, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) falls in love with a beautiful peasant girl, Murron. Early on, the two lovers are sitting on a hill and the way that William talks to her and looks at her sure makes…
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A Christian’s Life Should Look Different Than a Non-Believer’s
When I was in college, I became acquainted with this one particular girl. If you directly asked her, she’d tell you she was Christian, but I noticed some questionable things about her. She was nice, energetic, a decent person. She could make anyone laugh and always had a story to tell. Though she would have…
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We Must Smother Evil With Beauty
As a criminologist, I’ve dealt with my fair share of horrific things. I’ve been plunged deep into the evils of this world and I’ve seen evil stare me straight in the face. No, literally, I’ve interviewed a serial killer. For my Master’s work I chose to specialize in sexual violence crimes, so you can imagine…
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The Road that Led Me to Become Politically Independent
For most of my life, I identified as a Republican, that is, until several years ago. Did I switch to the other side and become a Democrat? No, not by a long shot, but I have been on an interesting, eye-opening journey. Up until a few years back, if my husband and I were in…
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When I Put God First In My Marriage, Nobody Competes For My Love
Many years ago, my husband was trying to explain to someone how your relationship with your spouse, if you have one, is more important than any other earthly relationship. The other person quickly said, “No, it’s with your kids.” To which my husband said, “It doesn’t mean that you love your kids less, it’s just…
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Having A Baby Young and What It Has Meant For My Life
I had a hunch that I was pregnant, but seeing that I was a young, unwed college student, I just wanted to live in a state of denial. Once the morning sickness really hit hard, there was no denying it anymore and I took a pregnancy test. Sure enough, it was positive. I was beyond…
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Q & A: Help! What Are Some Practical Ways To Live a More Christian Life?
Question: I feel like things are unraveling in our culture and I just don’t know how to live a Christian life well. I feel like there are outside influences everywhere and I’m not sure how to combat this. I can’t seclude my family and live like monks, so what are some practical things I can do?…
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Q & A on Baptism: A Protestant’s Question on the Validity of Baptism
Question and Answer I recently received a question from a fellow Protestant with regards to Catholic Baptism. Â I thought it was a good question and thought I’d answer here in case anyone else was wondering. Question: Â Is there a reason why Catholic Baptism is not submersion? Â If you had a submersion Baptism, is that not…
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Our Blessings Are Meant To Bless Others
“You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produced thanksgiving to God” 2 Corinthians 11:22 In this life, there will be those that are blessed with much and those that will have little. Â We must never make the mistake of thinking that because we have been given much in the…
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The Beauty in Sacrificing Our Bodies for Love of Another
I love beautiful things.  Mostly I love finding beauty in human stories; those stories that bring tears to our eyes, because they are so good, so true….so beautiful.  I love listening to my grandmother read a poem or a card received from a loved one.  If it moves her, tears well in her eyes and…
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A Protestant’s Plea: Will You Catholics Please Just Stop Praying To Saints Already?!
“Catholics pray to the dead and that’s a grave sin.” “Catholics pray to saints because they are worshipping them. Worship is for God alone.” “Catholics practice the grave sin of necromancy when they pray to dead saints, which is strictly forbidden in the Old Testament.” (Sigh) You know, I used to believe these things, too,…
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When the Major Political Parties Have Become Unacceptable
About four years ago, my family stopped watching television. Â The main reason we stopped is because we were paying a lot of money for something we never got to use. Â My children are gymnasts and we spend a lot of time away from home, so it didn’t make sense to keep paying for something…
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Question and Answer: What’s Up With Catholics and Birth Control?
Question:  Does the Catholic faith view birth control as optional or completely discourage it?  Are condoms, pills, IUD’s, permanent (tying of tubes, vasectomy) procedures all shunned?  If so, why?  Does it have to do with Catholicism believing Christians need to populate the Earth?  Why aren’t there huge Catholic families anymore if birth control is forbidden? Answer:…
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Give Yourself Away This Lent
Lent. Eh? Unless you are Catholic or Orthodox, chances are, the arrival of Lent on Wednesday didn’t even hit your radar. I know that some Protestants do recognize it (as the church of my youth did), but for the most part Lent is regarded by many as primarily a Catholic tradition. Hold on. Come on…