Writer's Wednesday -- Tertullian

"That's impossible!"

To which Tertullian (third century) would have said, "That proves it!" As a matter of fact he did say, in De Carne Christi, "Certum est quia impossibile est" (It is certain because it is impossible.) That line may not work every time, but it's still true that the apparent impossibility of a truth of Christian mystery is not an automatic arguement for its rejection. Faith goes beyond reason.

----The Catholic Source Book (2000).

Among Women Podcast #18

To listen, click on the link above.

This week at Among Women, Pat shares about the amazing life story of modern American saint, St. Katharine Drexel of Philadephia, a woman of wealth and privilege... who gave it all up at the prompting of a pope to become a missionary. She not only founded a religious order, but founded over 60 Catholic schools in America, with ministry to the most needy in mind.

Pat also interviews Melissa Weiksnar, who shares some of her own amazing journey, as she describes God's call in her life moving her beyond a successful corporate career, to using her gifts in the Cristo Rey network, bringing a college-prep Catholic education to those in need.

The first word in the Catechism is the word "FATHER"

Read my article at the link above.

Summer Conferences at Franciscan University!

Going back to my alma mater in a week's time... to attend the Applied Biblical Studies Conference and the Defending the Faith Conference.

If you are going, let me know!

Among Women Podcast #17

Among Women gives a little background on St. Patricia, (one of my patron saints) and then we converse with Gina Loehr, who shares about her book Real Women, Real Saints: Friends the Spiritual Journey

Writer's Wednesday -- Benedict XVI

Openness to life is at the centre of true development. When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man's true good. If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away. The acceptance of life strengthens moral fibre and makes people capable of mutual help. By cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens, and instead, they can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity, respecting the fundamental right to life of every people and every individual…

The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa. This invites contemporary society to a serious review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world, is prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences. What is needed is an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles “in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments…

The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when “human ecology”is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits….

If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society.

The greatest service to development, then, is a Christian humanism that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God. Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity. On the other hand, ideological rejection of God and an atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today.

A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism. Only a humanism open to the Absolute can guide us in the promotion and building of forms of social and civic life — structures, institutions, culture and ethos — without exposing us to the risk of becoming ensnared by the fashions of the moment.

Awareness of God's undying love sustains us in our laborious and stimulating work for justice and the development of peoples, amid successes and failures, in the ceaseless pursuit of a just ordering of human affairs. God's love calls us to move beyond the limited and the ephemeral, it gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all, even if this cannot be achieved immediately and if what we are able to achieve, alongside political authorities and those working in the field of economics, is always less than we might wish. God gives us the strength to fight and to suffer for love of the common good, because he is our All, our greatest hope.

----Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. These excerpts are from paragraphs 28, 51 and 78.

Catholic Writers Guild coming up in NJ --Aug 5-7

There's still to attend the Catholic Writer's Guild Conference in Somerset NJ. I'll be there! I hope you might be too! Get the details here!

Stop the Abortion Mandate NOW! Listen this Thursday!

GET ALL THE DETAILS HERE!

This national webcast will include Catholic and Christian pro-life leaders like Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women of America, Tom Minnerty of Focus on the Family, Margarie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Doug Johnson of the National RTL Committee, and Congressmen Chris Dodds (NJ) and Joe Pitts (PA).

In all my days, I'm not sure I've ever seen such a collaborative group in one place.

Umbilical Cord Blood Banks and Why We Need Them!

Full disclosure: I'm a breast-cancer survivor. I'm also a Christian who is strongly pro-life. So when I see steps in medicine that help fight disease while not offending my pro-life values, I have to stand up and applaud.

Here in Boston, we've got our first public umbilical cord blood bank.

The Physician for Life website offers all these explanations as to why this is important, but it boils down to that stem cells collected from umbilical cord blood from a donated cord after the birth of a baby is an ethical way to harvest stem cells for the prevention and curing of diseases.

You can also check out the cord registry site here. But more important, >here is the list of over 60 diseases that have been treated using cord blood since 1988.

Donations centers for cord blood listed here.

It's NFP* Awareness Week!

*NFP = Natural Family Planning

Hello folks, and welcome to the joy of sex for Christians (and anyone else who'd like to refrain from the moral and physical dangers of contraception!)

Now that we've got your attention... enjoy these links about this subject:

An overview from the US Bishops

The Couple to Couple League

Faith and Family Live does a weekly discussion every Wednesday on this. See a sample here.

~~~~

Church teaching has long guided the approach to NFP... to read some, try these links:

Humanae Vitae also known as "On Human Life."

Evangelium Vitae also known as "The Gospel of Life".

Vacation, Rest and Relaxation for the Glory of God

My latest article from Today's Catholic Woman. Click on the title link above.

Writer's Wednesday -- Benedict XVI

Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness … is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. ….

All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ…and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us.

In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan.

-----

Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. .. according to the teaching of Jesus… It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones). ..

For the Church…. instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything because… everything has its origin in God's love, everything is shaped by it, everything is directed towards it. Love is God's greatest gift to humanity, it is his promise and our hope.

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Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion.

Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.

In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite.

-----

A Christianity of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pool of good sentiments, helpful for social cohesion, but of little relevance. In other words, there would no longer be any real place for God in the world.

---Pope Benedict XVI's new social encyclical Caritas in Veritate ("Love in Truth.") The quotes above are excerpts from paragraphs 1, 2, 3, and 4.

[Photo credit].

Among Women Podcast #16

Join us for this week's Among Women podcast. Topics include how women can change the world. Plus Pat offers a brief reading of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI's new social encyclical Caritas in Veritate.

"Blessed are They" features Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's feast day (today), and "Among Women" discusses Christian service and "action" with Franciscan sister and professor, Sr. Joan Mueller, author of "Living a Spirituality of Action: A Woman's Perspective".

The Domestic Church (and House and Garden)

My latest on CatholicMom.com is linked above.

(True confession.... this was inspired by the combox over at Faith & Family Live... but I had way too much to say to fit in that forum!)

About persevering in faith....

My article at Today's Catholic Woman.

Wading into the Catechism

Today, I'm featured over at Faith & Family Live!

Writer's Wednesday - Blessed Mariam Baouardy

My enraptured spirit contemplates all you works.

Who can speak of You, O God so great!

Omnipotent ONe, my soul is carried away!

His wonderful beauty delights my soul.

Who can tell what the Almighty looks upon?

One look!

You who gaze at me, come to me, a little nothing,

I cannot remain here on earth, my soul longing.

Call me close to You, awaken me.

You alone, my God, my All.

The heavens, the earth, the sun rejoice at your Name so great.

I see You, supreme goodness: you gaze is maternal.

My Father, my Mother, it is in You that I sleep,

It is in You that I breathe. Awaken!

My soul is mad with yearning, it can do no more, take it.

When will we see Him forever world without end!

----A hymn of praise from Blessed Mariam Baouardy;

excerpt from Rhonda Chervin's Prayers of the Women Mystics.

Among Women Podcast #15

This week's episode features some thoughts about Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, and also a book giveaway of her writings. Among Women's guest is writer/blogger Kate Wicker. Kate and Pat discuss the struggles and joys of mothering young families.

Envoy Institute Conference is next weekend!!

Sign up now for Envoy Institute's Answering Atheism and the Culture of Doubt! Great speakers include Patrick Madrid, Dawn Eden, Ken Hensley and more.

Still Proud to be an American

Among Women, runner up to Catholic Moments (and all is right with the world!)

Who could complain coming in second to the incomparable Lisa Hendey of the Catholic Moments? Not me! Lisa has been a source of inspiration through my entire initiation into the podcasting world. It is a pleasure to be in her good company. Indeed, I'm her fan. But I'm most honored to be her friend.

Thanks to those who took the time to vote!

(And yes, AW also placed 4th in both the "Best New Podcast" and the "Most Spiritual" categories.) Again, thanks to you! Click on the title link above to see all the results.

I've been writing about faith lately

Here's a few recent article on Today's Catholic Woman regarding the characteristics of faith:

"What Does Our Faith in God Imply?"

"Faith is your RSVP to God"

"The Duet of Faith and Reason"

Twick or Tweet!

More scary than halloween.... I'm now on Twitter.

Writer's Wednesday - Edith Stein

When the bride gives her consent at the wedding.... she becomes a special organ in the Mystical Body of Christ.

The Church subsists on the life of grace streaming from Christ... it transmits to ever new members in perpetual fruitfulness. So is the woman -- as a visible symbol of the Church -- called to increase the number of God's children by imparting natural life and the life of grace. She is, in consequence, an essential organ of the fruitfulness of the Church. She is strengthened by grace for her vocation, as long as she does her utmost to remain a living member of the Church and to lead a married life in the sense of the Church.

--- Edith Stein, Essays on Woman, Collected Works.