Living The Faith On A High Wire: January 2013

Words of Wisdom from Mother Teresa...

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

--Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, most humble servant of God, author and founder of the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order with over 4500 nuns around the world, which adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and tending to "the poorest of the poor." For over 45 years she tended to the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India, won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and was considered by millions as one of the most admired people of the 20th century.

Jan

A Conversation on the Psychic and Talking to the Dead...

“I really want to believe,” she confessed with sincerity, during a kiddie party for two boys in my son's kindergarten class, after telling me she was going to see a nationally known psychic medium that night at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach.

Our friend admitted to being a longtime fan of the "Long Island Medium," Theresa Caputo, who has a "reality" show on TLC, and that all she was hoping for was to "get a message from her parents."

To be honest, I was a bit thrown aback.

Jan

A Day in the Life...

One recent weekend, my eight-year-old daughter comes up to me in our kitchen as I was clearing the sink and, without any prompting, she proceeds to show me the difference between the "shuffle” and the "jerk,” which is basically the shuffle with the jerking of the head, as she sang, “Party people in the house tonight. Everybody going to have a good time."

Nice; I was really wondering about that.

It's really great to know those ballet dance dollars are really paying off....

Jan

Legendary Coach Urges Catholics to Come Home...

Remember the old E.F. Hutton commercials of the 1970's and 80's? You know, the ones where the announcer would say, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."

Well, a national non-profit Catholic outreach group is hoping that former Notre Dame Football Coach, Lou Holtz, has the same effect on inactive or disenfranchised Catholics.

Jan

Meeting Joe Black During Christmas...

As everyone knows, one of the certainties of life is that from the time we are born, we are on a progressive (or regressive if you prefer to call it) collision course with death.

And, as often happens, it strikes at the most inopportune time. Take the man in the coffee shop (Brad Pitt) in one of my new favorite movies, since I saw it for the first time recently, Meet Joe Black (yes, I shed a few tears). He gets a new job, moves to a new city and just meets probably the girl of his dreams.

Jan

Salve Regina, Mother of God...

So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. (Rv. 12:17)

I remember an exchange I once had with a cousin, who had left the faith of her childhood for a non-denominational Christian tradition, vividly.