A nice day. An-ice day. Streets too icy to venture out, so we didn't. ***** We lolled in front of the TV for a design show on HGTV (and unanimously voted the final makeover, "Hideous!") I had a deliciously long phone call with the friend who gave me this coffee cup: I played figurines with Ramona. I...

When Anne-with-an-e was much younger, she was very sensitive. A picture of Jesus on the Cross could reduce her to tears. Singing certain hymns would leave her spent. The idea of forty days of sorrowful mysteries drained her. I sometimes wondered how someone so little could feel things so deeply. Len...

Ramona and I made her tonight. I was going to work, but Ramona was sprawled so pitifully on the floor, lamenting that no one would play with her, that Betsy would never, ever play Science People with her, and that she had nothing to do, and no one to do it with, and, really, wasn't her life just a h...

Atticus was working late last night. Did you know teachers could work until 1 a.m.? They can during speech season. Usually Atticus + working late = working at home, grading essays. Frank McCourt once said something about not having any time to write when he was younger because he was too busy gradin...

Your home decorating tends to revolve around liturgical colors. You say things to friends such as, "You love the Office of Readings? So do I!" Your favorite jewelry involves a crucifix. Your kids yell, "Hi, Jesus!" when you pass a Catholic Church. There's Latin somewhere, in some form, in your life....

When I was received into the Catholic Church fourteen years ago, my dear friend Jack gave me an incredible gift: a crown of thorns. This is not a miniature replica, nor a harmless likeness. It is a real, piercing, terrible, beautiful crown of thorns. Every year, during Lent, it is prominently displa...

Some of our favorite things: The Lamb of God Calendar On poster board, draw a picture of a lamb. (I drew this one freehand, but based it on this one.) Divide the body into squares to make a calendar, covering the entire period of Lent. Every day, Ramona glues a cottonball on that day’s space. This...

Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent, 2009: (Found in its entirety here.) Excerpts: For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. ...We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of...

The short answer is, "Because Mom said so." Mom -- Mother Church -- knows what's best for us. And when we follow her advice, we find that, even if we didn't initially understand the reason, our actions bear good fruit. But, we always want the long answer, don't we? First, occasionally people say, "Y...

A prayer that Atticus found several years ago, and that we try to pray together regularly: Litany of Humility : O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed,Deliver me, O Jesus.From the desire of being loved,Deliver me, O Jesus.From the desire of being extolled,Delive...