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It's fall. I absolutely love the beauty of this season. It’s quiet and peaceful. I find it a good time for me to reflect on days gone by and those yet to come, before the hustle and bustle of the holidays begins.   I like to be a little selfish during this time of year…

I'm just trying to make sense of it all. I can't seem to wrap my head around what happened.                                                                          My heart aches and my eyes are swollen from hours of tears…

With Thanksgiving around the corner, and Christmas not far behind, thoughts of gratitude and giving are close at heart. For those of modest means, the holidays are also a time to be mindful of money, to keep within a budget. But let’s face it, the pressure to spend is sometimes overwhelming. While mulling over the…

As we wait for the letter to come in the mail my anxiety grows stronger. When I lay my head on the pillow at night I find my mind racing with crazy thoughts, making it difficult to fall asleep. I can feel how restless I am as I toss and turn, to only wake-up tired.…

There is something special about fall.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     I am reminded of it whenever the first leaves begin to fall, when the first hint of crispness fills the air, and when I read the magnificent words of poet priest Gerard Manley Hopkins: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.  It will flame out, like shining…

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In my lifetime as a Catholic, and particularly as a Catholic writer and journalist, I have been called a lot of things. Often I am charged with being a bleeding heart liberal, other times a right-wing conservative. I’ve been called a heretic, a Jesus freak and a Church lady.  I’ve been accused of having delicate…

As I sat down to order breakfast in our local diner, I remembered a time years ago having dinner here with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. They ordered their perfect meal from the senior menu, but when I attempted to do the same, I was looked at with furrowed brow by the server.…

Inevitably, while sitting at my computer trying to write, e-mail notifications distract me.  “Let me just respond to these few,” I think, because, of course, they’re important. Behind me, the phone rings every few minutes, some calls I take, some I let go to voice mail, certain to store them in my mental “things to…

Near the end of the beloved Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Christmas Carol,” the cold heart of Ebenezer Scrooge is transformed and he exclaims, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” That was London in 1843 and Dickens was writing about making Christmas something joyful for those in…