Several years ago, at a beach outing, I was riddled with questions about Catholics by several non-Catholic moms. It was a get-together with homeschoolers and I was the lone Catholic that day. I no longer homeschool, but I had learned early on that there were some who did not mind Catholics and some who believed…
This is a favorite story from Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart. Billy Lutter tumbled to the wooden floor of his home. His parents picked him up and tried again to help him walk. It was no use. Doctors had been telling the Lutters to institutionalize five-year old Billy for some time. This was 1939…
In my article, Skip Those Red Buckets, I warned of the Salvation Army’s promotion of abortion for babies expected to have a short lifespan outside the womb. The story below is about the very short life of Aaron Schreiner. It was originally published in Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart. Aaron lived for only an hour,…
Out of habit, I still had an extra home pregnancy kit around. When a pink line emerged indicating a positive result, it took my breath away. “Well, okay; here we go,” I thought. I would be 47 and Mark 48 when the baby was due. At ages 50 and 51, we would have a 3-year-old. …
Dear Parents, Buying tickets to take your kids to Miley Cyrus’s “Bangerz” concert was not a waste of money. No, that is too delicate a term. What you did was make a down payment on the sale of your children’s souls. I’m sad that you’ve lost your own and I pray that you find…
“Father, I’m ready to throw in the towel,” Brad stated. “How long am I suppose to take this?” –– A story that shows the power of prayer to renew marriage. Shuffling through the mail, Brad Kremmer pulled out several envelopes from credit card companies and ripped them open. His muscles tightened as he skimmed over…
The Internet has it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Like everything in life, it is a battleground of good and evil, best navigated by staying near to God.
“Hey Patti, I’m getting serious about praying for my family. I’m going to do a 40-day fast and daily rosary, do you want to join me?” My friend Shellie Rusch asked me this recently. She has six kids and we have a spiritual sisterhood in many ways. As a wife and mother of ten, I…
Every Mother’s worst nightmare: “I could not just watch my children plunge to their deaths so I threw my body in front of the vehicle.” “Come on, Mom, let’s go,” my kids begged. It was a typical plea from kids painfully waiting for adults to finish up so they could get on with their own…
Raising a family in a town rife with gang crime was a constant concern for my husband and me. Almost daily there were drive-by shootings and other assorted acts of violence. In 1994, our town, nestled in Central Washington (less than 10,000 population) made the national news for “more violent crime per…
This story was originally published in Amazing Grace for Families. It is an uplifting reminder of how amazing life and love can be. “I can’t do this anymore,” I told my husband Kevin. After three years of painful fertility treatments with no results, enough was enough. The strong medication and the extreme hormone…
He was one of Rochester, New York’s greatest athletes in the 1950s. When I was sixteen years old and in my physical prime, and he was in his 40’s, he beat me in the 40-yard dash like I was standing still. He could have played for anybody. The Cubs wanted to talk to…