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2017

Embracing Parish Life: Step 3—Tithing

| Katie Diltz

I love budgeting. It might be a slight obsession. My friends and coworkers can attest to my willingness to tell anyone and everyone how wonderful and important it is to budget. The first expense category on our monthly budget is “G...

Metaphors in the Catechetical Imagination

| Ronald K. Bullis

Christ and his Church have always used metaphors to fashion and to articulate meaning, to express the inexpressible presence of God, and to communicate his truths,[1] such as “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11, 14). The Natio...

"You can eat with us": On Poverty and Community

| Brad Klingele

Twenty years ago, I asked Paul, the tall, burly, blunt, and opinionated leader of the Catholic soup kitchen, if I could take my youth group to serve dinner.“Nope!” he barked.Startled, I squeaked out, “Um, why?”...

Embracing Parish Life: Step 2—Registering at a Parish

| Katie Diltz

Throughout my 20s and into my early 30s there have been some “defining moments” that have made me feel like I’m slowly but surely reaching adulthood. Getting my car’s oil changed, purchasing and cooking a Thanksgi...

"Parks and Recreation": Icon of Community

| Carolyn Pirtle

Over the past several months, I’ve been rewatching NBC’s comedy series Parks and Recreation, which is, in my opinion, one of the most quietly wonderful shows ever to be on television. Having seen every episode at least once n...

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A Vision of Heaven: Dorm Community as Christian Community

| Renée D. Roden

How good it is and how pleasant when kindred dwell as one. —Psalm 133:1 A wise priest once held up for me, as an image of spiritual maturity, the Gospel story of the Visitation. Luke narrates the story of Mary running…

Goodness Multiplied: An Examination of Christian Community

| Claire Fyrqvist

I was a lone wolf until college. I prided myself on not having a group of friends but many distinctive, particular friendships. I hated following the crowd and I thought of myself as something of an artist. Maybe it was becoming Catholic...

Christian Education and Residence Life

| Anthony J. Oleck

I woke up one Friday morning to shouts and pounding at my door. It was just before 6am, and I leapt out of bed and stumbled across my apartment, opening the door to find two frantic women from Building Services. They informed me that a r...

Mother's Day Quotations: A Bouquet from Church Life

| The Editors

In honor of this upcoming Mother's Day, as well as the ongoing month of Mary, we've rounded up a list of highlights on motherhood from Church Life Journal's pages. We offer the list below as a "bouquet" of quotations offering insig...

Motherhood and the Eucharist

| Madeline Running

Iam a new mother, but each day I realize more and more that the journey into motherhood is a process of becoming. Reflection on this process often leads me back to Our Blessed Mother, who also had to become a mother. As Mary became ...

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Motherhood in Perspective

| Tania M. Geist

One fall afternoon, I was trying to get my two small children ready to go for a walk around the block, and every little preparatory step (socks, shoes, coats, etc.) was taking what seemed an eternity to accomplish. My well of patien...

Beauty, Music, and "The Weight of Glory"

| Carolyn Pirtle

Driving home yesterday, I happened to hear a performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E-Minor, Op. 64 on Michiana’s 24-hour classical music station 90.7 FM (the greatest gift our local airwaves have to offer). If you&#...

No One Saw the Resurrection

| Jane Peters

No one saw the resurrection. We tend to forget this as the sensory richness of Easter floods our senses after a wintry Lent. Yet, the Gospels report only vestiges of the risen Christ: a displaced stone, a crumpled up burial shroud, and a...

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"Repent and Believe": Moral Preaching in the New Evangelization

| Fr. Charles Fox

The Archdiocese of Detroit, to which I belong, has recently taken as a motto for its New Evangelization initiative in the lead-up to a diocesan synod held in November 2016, “Unleash the Gospel.” Borrowing this motto, the idea...

Stories of Grace: Episode 15

| Madeline Infantine

"If I sit in the side aisle of the Basilica, I can see clearly the stained glass window I eyed suspiciously years ago, a window I can now trust like an old friend: each little piece, fit into place slowly and creatively, as light shines ...

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Editorial Musings: Motherhood and the Paschal Mystery

| Tania M. Geist

On the night my first child was born, when she finally came into the light and they placed her onto my stomach, that moment of first seeing her face, right in front of me, was a beautiful shock: her wide open grey-blue eyes looking strai...

Celebrating the Easter Season, Part 3: Dads

| Timothy P. O’Malley

In his book, Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down Across Generations, Vern L. Bengston notes that a father who is actively involved in religious practice is more likely to have children…