This is a guest post by Kelley of Over the Threshold in the Women Speak on NFP series. In this series you will hear from women using various methods of NFP, some to avoid pregnancy, some trying to conceive, and their experiences. This series is not meant to be a substitute for any method of training in NFP! If you are interested in one of the methods introduced in this series, please contact a … [Read more...]
Women Speak on NFP
It's NFP Awareness week, so I thought I'd run a post from the archives with the links to all the posts in the Women Speak on NFP series. I learned so much from all the women who shared their stories at Carrots about their experiences with Natural Family Planning and I hope the resources in this series will benefit many families. As a Catholic woman seeking to follow Church teaching about … [Read more...]
Trembling at Confession
As we approach Holy Week, I’ve been thinking about all my friends and readers who are going through RCIA this year to be confirmed this Easter. Are you afraid about making your first Confession? I was. I was terrified. I was so excited to be confirmed, but the anxiety of making that first Confession loomed over me. It felt like an excruciating torture I was going to have to endure before being … [Read more...]
Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part IV: “My Body Isn’t Broken,” The Church and Contraception)
Another post about birth control, Haley? Really? It's true. Sorry, folks. But I think Catholic teaching on contraception is really crucial to understanding the respect for womanhood that the Church affirms. This is Part IV of this series, so be sure to read about how Marian doctrine, the Catholic understanding of vocation, and the female saints and doctors of the Church empower women before … [Read more...]
Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part III: Female Saints and Doctors of the Church)
So we’ve talked about how Marian doctrine taught me to celebrate my womanhood and how the Catholic idea of vocation honors women. But I want to share with you how learning about the saints and doctors of the Church taught me to love the diversity and strength of women in the communion of saints. In Part II I shared how before converting to Catholicism, I felt that my gifts didn’t fit in … [Read more...]
Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part II: But Women Can’t Be Priests!)
Last week I shared how understanding the Marian doctrine of the Catholic Church empowered me to celebrate my femininity. If you missed Part I: The Blessed Virgin Mary, go back to start there. “But Haley!” you might be thinking. “Empowered? Really? Women can’t be equal to men in the Church because they can’t be priests!” We’ve all heard about this issue in the media lately ad nauseum. Certainly, … [Read more...]
Catholicism: Empowering Women for 2000 Years (Part I: The Blessed Virgin Mary)
This is a series that I’ve been thinking about for months, but have been hesitant to dive into. Women and Catholicism is a hot button issue in so many circles. Story after story comes up on my news feed about how the Church oppresses women, discourages women’s rights, and promotes inequality between the sexes. According to media portrayals, the Church is stuck in the dark ages. “If only this … [Read more...]
How My Kids Didn’t Ruin Mass
Confession: my kids are not typically little angels at Mass. ‘Typical” Mass behavior being our 3-year-old banging the kneeler open and closed and then dropping it on his own foot. Commence siren-like wailing. Or the kids tussling over who gets to hold the Baby Jesus finger puppet. And, to no one’s surprise, the preschooler throwing the St. Joseph finger puppet at his baby sister’s head doesn’t … [Read more...]
Our Conversion Story: Part III
Part III: (Our Son, and Other Gifts of Grace) (read Part I and Part II) But still we didn’t act. Daily we felt more distant from our Protestant faith and discovered that objections we had always had to the Catholic Church were dissolving as we actually learned what the doctrines meant. But making the plunge would require sacrifices that we weren’t quite ready to make. The toll a conversion would … [Read more...]
Our Conversion Story: Part II
(In Which I Try to Prove St. Thomas Aquinas Wrong and Fail. Obviously.) (Catch up on Part I here.) In late high school I felt drawn to the Catholic Church for aesthetic reasons. But I ignored my attraction to it because I didn’t think the Church could possibly be true. I had so many misconceptions about Catholic doctrine from growing up as a southern Protestant gal. However, while I was … [Read more...]
