McGrath Institute Blog

As the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Fatima today, the McGrath Institute for Church Life is releasing a free resource: Celebrating Mary in the Month of May: A Resource for the Domestic Church.

In the first part of this series, I offered some thoughts on homeschooling and crisis management. In this installment, I’ll give suggestions pertaining to essential needs.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve received a number of requests from people looking for resources to assist them in different ways as they meet the challenges presented by stay-at-home orders and social distancing restrictions. In response, we’ve begun curating online resources in this weekly series, including links in each of the following categories: Prayer for the Home, Educational Opportunities, Resources (for ministers, educators, parents, etc.), and Flourishing and Fun.  

Here are several that caught our attention for this week:

From 1999 until 2004, I lived as a hermit. Now, like many others, I once again find myself spending a great deal of time alone. However, there are two huge differences between then and now: then, my solitude was freely chosen. Now, because of COVID-19, solitude is forced by stay-at-home orders. 

A crisis has a strange way of clarifying things. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped me to recognize the important contributions Catholic schools are uniquely positioned to make. As I’ve worked to support Catholic school leaders in “pivoting” to distance education, I’ve become keenly aware of the many ways Catholic schools help the families they serve.