My Catholic Life

My latest episode of "Showing Up Catholic" for the Vericast Network "Mercy and Reconciliation" During Lent we contemplate the mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection. Mercy is an essential component of that mystery. Mercy is at the core and center of the Gospel message. In this episode, Vickie examines what our most recent Popes have said about mercy. She discusses as well the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a means to experiencing God's mercy. Watch it here

A blog post I wrote for Vericast.net In the Christmas Present    Tim, Wilson and Father Paul Nicholson discussed some current attitudes about Christmas and the need for us to reclaim it. We attempt to reclaim the day, the season and even the greetings of Christmas from the secular that endeavors to wrap it in relativism, social cohesion, consumerism, commercialism and the narcissism of self.  Yet our attempts may prove themselves powerless if we are not, at the same time, responding to and actively reflecting the essence of Christmas ourselves Read entire article here

Prayer warriors are called warriors for a reason. We understand that for, although we are in the flesh, we do not battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our battle are not of flesh but are enormously powerful, capable of destroying fortresses. (2Cor 10:3-4) There is nothing passive about those who war in prayer but they do understand the dynamic of our total dependence on God. Read the rest of the article on Catholic365 here

Guess who I am using for my inspiration today? The Guess Who, that’s who. And if you know the Guess Who then you know from my title that I’ll be working with two songs from the playlist. Anybody here see the noise, see the fear and commotion? I think we missed it Anybody here see the love, see the hate being motioned?   Anybody here see the noise, see the fear and commotion that is surrounding the Synod on the Family? If you are following the media and the bloggers it is hard to miss it.   There is noise, there is commotion but most of all there is fear. The extreme progressive side is afraid that the Church is going to tell us to put a muzzle on our sex lives. The extreme radical traditionalists are afraid that the Church won’t tell us to put a muzzle on our sex lives, thus leading us into apostasy.   Those in the middle are being encouraged to perceive the Church as a completely human institution, a government just like any other government.   By...

Have you ever noticed that people will sing along to a song and not really pay attention to the lyrics? Sometimes you are singing the words correctly but don’t realize that the subject of the song is just wrong.   It’s got a good beat and a catchy refrain that hooks us in. We don’t even realize what we are singing about. We kind of mindlessly sing along. Other times we are singing lyrics that we just think we are hearing and don’t stop to think that they don’t even make sense.   It doesn’t always occur to us that the lyrics that we are singing have to be wrong because they just don’t fit the song. Again, we just keep singing along. There is a song that was sung by Creedence Clearwater Revival called Bad Moon Rising. There is a lyric in that song that goes don’t go round tonight. It’s bound to take your life. There’s a bad moon on the rise. You don’t know how many people that have mistaken “there’s a bad moon on the rise” as “there’s a bathroom on the right”…and they sing...

You can find this blog on the Vericast Network http://www.vericast.net/blog/2014/08/26/attitude-gratitude/

the woman who willingly demeans the nurturing instinct and tries instead to deny, or to cancel, or to destroy her own unique biological capability, creates a new model, a female being, one who hasn't changed into a man, somehow never quite grows into a woman and becomes, in a metaphysical sense, a little less than human - Dr. Mildred Jefferson Originally, I had considered writing a totally different piece than this one. This brouhaha over the Hobby Lobby decision with its subsequent talk of a "war on women" had me all stirred up. I was going to write something smart, witty and satirical using the very anthem of the feminist movement "I Am Woman", as sung by Helen Reddy, to show women the we, ourselves, have been the perpetrators of our own war on women. I would have made comparisons between the stereotypical 50's housewife and our current pearl clutching fear. I would have done a clever play on the word ewe to demonstrate how mindlessly we have followed ce...

Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues and you know it don’t come easy. You don’t have to shout or leap about you can even play them easy. You know being Catholic don’t come easy. Sometimes the hardest part of it is being Catholic among other Catholics.   I’ve got to give it to the Catholic bloggers and podcasters. Me, I'm kind of chump change next to a lot of the others. My blog is a little quirky so I think I only draw a handful of people who get me and dig the song lyric shtick. I have yet to set off a firestorm of controversy or com box hostility. There was that one time when someone on twitter linked to my blog trying to get their friends to chase me down with torches. Nobody bit on the invitation though so all was well. Twitter trolls are a rather cowardly lot. Maybe I have just been too mild mannered and need to pump up the jam just a little. But then like the song says, you don’t have to shout or leap about you can even play them easy. I have...

The Church has released a couple on interesting documents this month that coincide with each other. The first was a document by the International Theological Commission clarifying  Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church. The second was the working document for the Synod of the family this October. Although the documents are interesting in and of themselves, their relationship to each other is what is of most interest. (Personal sidebar: Both documents are rather long, by the way, which the Vatican is wont to do) Last year Pope Francis called for an Extraordinary General Assembly, or Synod, of Bishops to meet in October of 2014 for the purposes of addressing the challenges the Church faces concerning the family. This Synod would bring together the presidents of national bishop’s conferences, the heads of Eastern Catholic churches and Vatican officials. This is to be followed up by the Ordinary General Assembly, or world Synod of Bishops, in October of 2015. This Synod ...

Theodor Seuss Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, wrote many well-known children's books. Two of those books, "Horton Hatches an Egg" (1940) and "Horton Hears a Who" (1954), are often depicted as having a pro-life theme.   In his mind a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps Pr 16:9   People in favor of abortion argue that Theodor Geisel was not writing about babies in the womb when he wrote the books and that he had no intention of sending a pro-life message. In fact, it may surprise many people to know that Mr. Geisel may very well have been, himself, pro-choice. He didn't really speak out strongly about it one way or another while he was alive. I have read, however, that he was liberal in his thinking and that he didn't like that the pro-life movement was using the line "a person's a person no matter how small." It may be that he even threatened to sue a pro-life organization to stop them from using it on their s...

Yesterday an internet friend of mine tweeted “How many of you would remain faithful to your spouse after a civil divorce? I have for 8 years. I keep my promises.” I tweeted her back to let her know that I had been doing the same for over 14 years. There were some twitter trolls who then attempted to have a field day with that, ridiculing us and even posting obscene remarks about our sex lives or the lack there of. But in all of that there was one legitimate questions.   “Just curious. Why would you do this? What would it accomplish?”    I didn’t answer him at the time, not sure how to give a proper answer to that in 140 characters. As you can see it took me way more than that in the length in this blog. Now, though, after having written all of this I might simply have said “Because it is the best witness that I can give in the name of God and of Jesus Christ. It is the best way that I can demonstrate the divine life and love that is contained in the sa...