Being God’s presence to those we Accompany

Pope Francis has called Catholic communities to accompany couples at various stages. What does accompaniment look like, and is there anything special about a Catholic version? A few years back, our 23-year-old son found himself accompanying a stranger. At the time he was working for a building company that specialised in upgrades and maintenance for…

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The Eleventh Commandment

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he added a postscript for parents: passing on the faith makes parents the first – and most important – educators. Over a period of 24 years, our five children attended Catholic education across six schools. These schools included the local parish school, two private schools, and three regional…

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Abstinence

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                It’s easy for parents to despair of teaching their kids abstinence.  According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood), 70% of teens will have had vaginal intercourse by the time they are 19 and the average age of teens’ first sexual encounter is…

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Spiritual Intimacy

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It is often difficult for a couple to share their personal faith experiences with each other. This is so for couples of different faith traditions, but is also true even if they are of the same religion. We are trained to avoid talking about religion and politics in polite company because these topics are laden…

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