Recent polls have shown that people generally fall into one of two categories when it comes to Valentine’s Day: either it is viewed as an overrated, Hallmark holiday or it is embraced as one of the most romantic days of the year. I suppose I fall somewhere in the middle. Ultimately, I think that celebrating [...]
For many years I heard phrases such as: “religious life is a higher calling than marriage” and “those who choose religious life want to live their lives entirely for the Lord.” But I rarely heard language which edified and elevated the vocation of married life. That was until I took a course with Dr. Timothy O’Malley on [...]
For the past few years, I’ve participated in the practice of choosing a word for the new year. The first time I did it in 2017, I didn’t even realize this was a somewhat common practice. My New Year’s resolution was simply to be more joyful, so each day I woke up and was intentional about keeping [...]
With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death this past Saturday, our country has been asked once again to examine her values regarding truth, justice, charity, freedom and ultimately, peace. On Friday afternoon, I was rereading Pope St. [...]
There’s a scene from Thorton Wilder’s Our Town in which Emily (a young woman in her early twenties who has just died in childbirth) is given the opportunity to go back and observe one day of her life. She decides to return her twelfth birthday. The agreement is that she cannot alter the day, only experience it [...]
The past two weeks have been full of changes, and yet through it all, the my school community remains positive, hopeful, trusting - not in a naive way, but with eyes of faith. Questions that teens often ask include, "where is God in the midst of suffering?" and "why does God allow bad things to [...]
It was a hot August day. In a few days, I’d be moving over an hour away from the town I grew up in so as to begin a new teaching job. Trying to eke out every last minute of summer and the close proximity to my friends, I texted Julia, “hey, are you around?” [...]
A tweet recently went viral that said, “Honestly hadn’t planned on giving up quite this much for Lent.” It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, the timing of COVID-19, right in the middle of Lent, in which millions of people suddenly find themselves giving things up — whether they wanted to or not. [...]
What I’m about to write about is hard, for many reasons. Many people will have varying ideas about what privilege is, what privileges do or do not exist, what I should or should not mention in this article. Some of you will read this and be left unsatisfied, perhaps even angry. I know that even [...]
Today is Pentecost. It also happens to be my birthday. Two very important events (at least in my world). Last night, when I went to bed, I was thinking about how I thought life would be at 27. I've always loved having a plan. When I was 16, I knew that by 22 I'd be [...]
Caitlin Sica 