Lifting Your Spirit!

As an author, I often feel like I am taking one step forward and two steps back. I’m sure the millions of other authors out there, who write books that haven’t sold millions of copies (yet) or been made into movies (yet) or reached the New York Times Bestseller List (yet) feel the same way.…

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Raising the Bar…

I’ll never forget when my husband was going through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation) program with our church to convert to Catholicism (and marry me!) and I attended meetings with him as one of his sponsors, what the priest, Father (now Monsignor) John Hopkins, said in response to a question raised about “why become…

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Being freed from financial worry

This is the time of year when we usually sit down to do our taxes…never a fun thing of course. So what do taxes, finances, or money have to do with spiritual matters (which is usually what I write about)? Didn’t Jesus say “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s? 

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Blessed are they…

I was proud of those who marched Friday in the 45th annual 2017 March for Life, and proud of those who had the courage to speak out against abortion. In Sunday’s Gospel reading in mass from Matthew Chapter 5, Jesus gives us the beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are they who hunger…

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Religion and Politics…

Are you pro-Trump or anti-Trump? Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Are you unsure about which side you’re on,  or sure but afraid to speak out for fear of being unpopular? Today more than ever before with the recent inauguration of our new US President and the protests that have followed, people seem to be speaking…

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How Do We Stay Excited?

So…Christmas is over, the anticipation of looking forward to the New Year is already waning, it’s the dead of winter in many parts of the world (including where I live in Maryland), and perhaps the road ahead, continuing to take the steps needed to achieving the goals you set and reaching your finish line, seems very long.…

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Are there wise men today?

This past Sunday was the feast of the Epiphany, one of my favorites in the liturgical year, celebrating when the three kings, or wise men, traversed from afar, following the star to visit the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Christians believe that the Epiphany means the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the…

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A New Year…Full of Unknowns

As an eternal optimist, I have always loved New Year’s Day…(and still love New Year’s Eve, even though I celebrate it sober today.) A whole new year ahead, full of promise. A clean slate to look forward to filling with new dreams, goals and adventures. Yet, in mass yesterday, I heard the priest talking about…

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Make it last…

The day after Christmas…are you tired, worn out, a little bummed out after all the hype? Hopefully you’re not taking back gifts at the hectic mall you were just in days earlier! After all, it is, in the original Christian celebration, only the second day of Christmas (you know, from the Twelve Days of Christmas,…

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Quiet in the storm

So often, especially in the Christmas season, we want to be seen and heard…to be the life of the party or to be thanked (and praised) for the gifts we give that we picked out so carefully and spent so much money on, for that special dish we made, or for how amazing we look…

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