Wow, 10 years on Sunday. Can you believe it’s been that long?

This weekend we will take time to relive the moment we first heard the news, when we got the call saying, “Turn on the TV,” or the email reporting that something horrible was happening in New York. I doubt any of us will ever forget seeing the the towers fall.

There will undoubtedly be a lot of media coverage of this 10th anniversary as well, showing the heartbreaking footage from that terrible day. Then, as the new week begins, the footage of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon will be replaced by current events, and our feelings about the attacks will once again become buried under the details of daily life. Everything will go...READ MORE

In light of some of our discussions about the isolation that comes with modern life, especially for people outside the workforce, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some folks who are doing something about it.

One great example is that of the website Faith and Family Live!, the online arm of Faith & Family magazine. For those of you who aren’t already regular readers, it’s a website for Catholic women with the specific goal of building up a sense of community among the readers. Many sites offer helpful information, but Faith and Family Live! takes it step further by encouraging readers to get to know both the authors and one another on a personal level. I’ve been in the web...READ MORE

A British journalist named Jenny Stocks recently went undercover, pretending to be a woman in a crisis pregnancy, in order to investigate the practices of six pregnancy resource centers—some with pro-choice leanings, some with pro-life leanings. Her article about her experience is thorough and balanced, and is a must-read for anyone involved in the pro-life movement. Here were my top takeaways from the thought-provoking piece:

1. Women feel uncomfortable when counselors push for too much personal information. I can see how a counselor could do this in an effort to be friendly, but it’s easy for a woman in such an emotionally stressful situation to feel like her privacy is being invaded....READ MORE

One day last year I was dropping some of my kids off at our parish’s Mother’s Day Out program, and a woman approached me in the hall. “I need help,” she said.

I wasn’t sure what she meant. “The registration office is down that way,” I said, pointing to the Mother’s Day Out coordinator’s office.

A gaggle of moms and toddlers walked between us, pausing our conversation, and I noticed that she looked tired. Her body language was tense. It dawned on me that when she’d said she needed help, she probably wasn’t referring to Mother’s Day Out. “No, I’ve been out of work for a while…” she said. She glanced over her shoulder. “This is a church, right?”

I finally got it. I ushered my kids into...READ MORE