Never Keep Secrets
My wife and I were expecting our third child. It was a very exciting time and to make it more special, I thought it would be best to keep the sex of the baby a surprise until delivery. I enjoyed going...
View ArticleChildren & Parenting
On their wedding day, the bride and groom are asked: “Will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?” Dreaming together about the children...
View ArticlePractical Help from Elizabeth Ministry
“Infertility Journey: Making Faith-Informed Decisions Under the Guiding Hands of God” “Prenatal Testing” “Our Unborn Baby Has a Problem” “Mourning a Miscarriage: Prayers for a Couple Grieving the Death...
View ArticleA Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy
Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Ind., 2012; $14.95 The only companions I recall from the days of my own pregnancies were my husband, a woman friend a couple years older and a book about the Lamaze method...
View ArticleLoving Parents After Miscarriage
Note: the following is re-posted with permission from the USCCB Life Issues Forum. A friend who recently lost a child through miscarriage called to express disappointment that she didn’t know where to...
View ArticleThe Week We Were Pregnant
Stacey’s cycle was off-kilter last month, and when we couldn’t ignore it any longer, we made a big step and bought a pregnancy test. Every marriage has a few memorable “freak-out” moments, and taking...
View ArticleJune 24, 2014
John the Baptist leapt in the womb when Mary greeted his mother, Elizabeth. What a joyful scene! Pray for couples expecting children today, and for those who await this blessing.
View ArticleA Bittersweet Bucket List
Usually when people say that a goal is on their “bucket list” it means that sometime in the as-yet-unplanned, perhaps even distant, future, they’ll hopefully get around to doing something they always...
View ArticleDoes the Pill Impact Attraction?
A new study calls into question how women’s attraction to men might be changed by the birth control pill. LiveScience.com reported the findings from the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of...
View ArticleOn Changing Plans
It’s been a year since we began writing School of Agape. In that year, Anthony and I reflected on our own vocation stories, mused on what it might mean to become a family, realized soon after our...
View ArticleChildren as Commodities?
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is your pilot speaking. … I have two pieces of news to report, one good and one bad. The bad news is that we are lost. The good news is that we are making...
View ArticleAddressing Infertility with Kindness and Compassion
What do infertility specialists tell couples? Hoping to find out firsthand, I called the number in a newspaper ad and joined an open house at a fertility clinic. I am sure that I was the only Roman...
View ArticleHope for Married Couples Who Want to Have a Child
Alone in the bathroom, staring blankly at the negative test, you tearfully ask yourself, “Why am I not pregnant yet?” Later, you may find yourself talking to your doctor about a “take-home baby” and...
View ArticleExpectant Joy: A Prayer of the Domestic Church Celebrating the Gift of Life
When I was in the second half of my thirties and my two children were bracketing their tenth birthdays, I felt a growing desire for daily prayer with Scripture. Figuring my parents would know where to...
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