Today I came across an excellent post by Karen Edmisten (August 16) about what it means to be a “Good Catholic Family” — and the dangers of faulty comparisons. As an adoptive parent, I’ve thought about this a great deal. When we started the foster care/adoption process, we toyed with the idea of having a group home of six or eight … Thankfully, God did not hold us to that starry-eyed notion. At the end of the day, He knew (and just as importantly, I knew) the two special children He wanted us to parent would be more than enough. The truth is, good Catholic […]

Today on Catholic Exchange there was a post from a poor, desperate mother with a special-needs child who struggled with migraines. If you are one such poor soul, you might like to know about the advice I gave this woman here. There is a time to suffer … and a time to take care of ourselves so we can be there for our families! God bless you.

Mary Kochan at CatholicExchange.com sent me this link to YouTube, featuring the breathtaking complexity and variety of womanhood. Enjoy!

“Mom?” The tiny voice erupts inches from my ear, jolting me awake. I crack one eye open – 3:15. Sandman is playing tricks again. I get to choose between trudging the cherub back to her own bed and spending the rest of the night wedged between a snorer and a spinner. Reluctantly, I slide over and doze off again for thirty whole minutes, until … “Mom?” It’s Christopher. The deafening crash of my blankets falling over his sister awakened her brother. He wants to cuddle, too. As soon as I feed him breakfast. In today’s Gospel, I always thought the man who wouldn’t get up […]

It took us three years to adopt our two foster children; our first official act as their parents was to have them baptized, so they could be a part of God’s family, too. As we got ready for the big day, we explained that they would each have new names on their baptism certificates (and, a bit later, on their newly issued birth certificates). “Why do I get a new name?” Christopher wanted to know. “You’re getting two new names, actually,” I told him. “We kept your first name to honor your birth family; your middle name will be ‘Robert,’ like your dad’s; and your […]

… has been posted on CatholicExchange.com. If you know of someone who needs to read it, please pass it on. (To reprint, be sure to include the following credit line: “Copyright 2007 Heidi Hess Saxton. Reprinted by permission. Contact author at hsaxton@christianword.com”. (The young woman on the right is my niece, Kendra.)

I confess my first draft of this article started out very differently. Prior to the release of the Holy Father’s motu proprio, a question weighed heavily on my mind: Would the Latin Mass bring an unseasonable chill to the “Springtime of Evangelization” proclaimed by John Paul II? As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. Since the Latin form of the rite remains the “extraordinary” form, there are still plenty of opportunities for seekers to experience the holy sacrifice of the Mass in their own language. (And if it happens that a visitor stumbles on a Latin Mass, he or she can still hear the […]

I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.” Therese of Lisieux A few weeks ago a friend posted this> link about a book written about a former priest, who (brace yourself) “left the Catholic clergy in 1971 to marry Jackie, a former nun.” My thoughts went immediately to two men of my own acquaintance … One of them left seminary in the 70s, halfway through, and married a dear friend of mine. The two of them have since been actively involved in parish work, leading group after group of “lost lambs” (myself […]

As I anticipated, my article on Catholic Exchange on this subject drew a fair amount of fire. (Also not a few attagirl’s from some of my readers (thanks, gals!). For better or worse, I was in Chicago when the article hit cyberspace, and so by the time I read the ensuing exchange, the verbal sparring had pretty much died out. I did have one note in my e-mail box from a concerned reader. I’d like to share it here, along with my response, as my final thought on the subject. Although I appreciate that people have a wide variety of views on the vaccine itself, […]