A must watch video…

This week, Bernie got her A Level results, and achieved 3 A*s (the highest grade). So she will be off to university in a few weeks. A while back, we also celebrated her 18th birthday. All of which put me in a reflective mood. When she was born, her older sister, Antonia was two and [...]

Having finished her A Levels, and being now between School and University, Bernie has just taken off with a friend for a trip to Barcelona.  Naturally as a parent, I have some slight anxieties about this, her first unsupervised trip abroad. My mind rehearses all the things that could possibly go wrong, physically (health, robbery, [...]

Adventures in parenting with a toddler who thinks he’s Spider-Man.

This is where all you Catholic Dads (and others) get to help a brother out. You’ll recall the heart wrenching story of Nub, my Down Syndrome child. He’s the fourth out of six Nodlings and now a healthy and scrappy six year-old. He is progressing in ability and knowledge, and we are making good strides in our communication, both by sign and some words.

However, this does not seem to extend into staying in the bed at night. With any other kid, that’s simply annoying; with Nub it can be dangerous.

What’s a father to do?

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

The relationship between Pope John Paul II and his father was one for the ages. There is so much for us to learn from them.

When Pope John Paul II was nine years old, his mother succumbed to a weak heart and damaged kidneys, leaving the future pontiff alone with his father and 23-year old brother who was in medical school.

I’ve been reading a book entitled “John Paul II: A Life of Grace” by Renzo Allegri, which tries to tie together all of the remarkable and providential occurrences in the Holy Father’s life. In the chapter describing the family’s life after Emilia Wojtyla’s death, Allegri paints a beautiful and stirring portrait of Pope John Paul II’s father, Captain Karol Wojtyla, Sr.

Fathers have a great deal to learn from this saint who was martyred when she was 11 years old.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

July 6th is the feast day of St. Maria Goretti. She is the patron saint of young women.

She grew up a farm girl in rural Italy at the turn of the 19th into the 20th Century. When she was 11, a 19-year old boy living in the same house as her family started making advances on her. She kept refusing him.

Finally, after six months, the boy cornered her and forced himself on her, brandishing a knife. She didn’t give in. He then stabbed her repeatedly.

Help your boys become Battle Ready by having them put on the Armor of God each day, literally.

We must see our life as Catholics to be something of great importance, and not simply something that we do on Sundays. The Devil doesn’t take days off, and he strikes when we least expect it. His hope is that we approach each day thinking about him less and less, because it is then that he can most easily get to us – when we least expect it. “Putting on the Armor of God” in a very literal sense will help our boys develop the mindset and understanding that each day is a Battle and that we must enter each day – BATTLE READY!

As I wrote two weeks ago, Ant (my eldest daughter, 20) and I have been on pilgrimage to Chartres. We were blessed with good weather, neither too hot nor too wet for the arduous march from Paris to Chartres, and with great company. I was sad that the other children couldn’t come this year, but [...]

How we dress is reflection of our spirtuality. We need to teach that to our teenage daughters.

Stairway to Heaven is a weekly feature exploring how to live our Catholic faith in our culture.

I was at our parish festival this weekend. On Saturday night, I worked one of the booths in the kids’ area.

About 9:00, the teenagers started gathering. At one point, I’m guessing we had at least a hundred milling around.

I have never been uptight about what others were wearing. But, I’m changing. I guess I’m a little more attuned, especially to teenage dress, because of my soon to be pre-teen daughter. I’m paying closer attention to the signals that the culture is sending her and the signals that she is sending the world.

Always teaching your kids to pray

I am sure the vast majority of us pray with our children.

It could be grace before and after meals or a morning offering or three Hail Marys before bed.