McGrath Institute Blog

Some milestones in the Lenten season are literally a pleasure to celebrate as days for rejoicing or gaining new insight or simply making this journey of ours a bit more sentimental. When the liturgical calendar brought us the solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the blessed Virgin Mary, on March 19, it was traditional and meaningful to have a parish party—a feast for the senses which help incarnate Eastertime love in god’s family.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been reading Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Philippe. The book has been helpful in a lot of ways, but one insight in particular has changed the way I view interruptions in my life: I choose to be interrupted.

Valentine’s Day can be awkward for a lot of people. It’s unlikely the holiday will come up in Church conversations, except perhaps in the young adult group. Catholics may see little connection between their faith and the chocolate overdoses of February 14. But it is a day that takes on new dimensions when viewed through a Christian lens.

Download, color and create this free printable figurine of St. Thomas Aquinas to celebrate the feast day of one of the Church's greatest saints.

I love a good conversion story. From Augustine’s Confessions to Jennifer Fulwiler’s Something Other than God, I am drawn to the stories of those who have been transformed by the Truth found in Christ. Since I don’t fit the standard definition of a “convert,” I used to read these beautiful stories of conversion for the simple yet profound way they inspired me to appreciate my own faith and see it with a new perspective. But then I became a parent. I began a journey that changed my outlook on conversion and challenged me to see it as an absolutely essential element of faith for any Christian.