Posts by CathFamily

Godparents are more than just parental back-up or a nominated guardian should parents die while their children are still young; they are specially chosen spiritual mentors for your children. They have a special role to play in your child’s upbringing and especially their faith journey. Don’t choose someone simply because you owe them a favour…

Initiation Rituals A common thread in human cultures, tribes and societies is ritualistic initiations that mark the various stages of life. They relate to all kinds of stages, such as; welcoming a new baby, introducing boys to manhood, marriage, grandparenthood and death. Catholicism has always supported the fundamental wisdom of the human need for ritual…

Think for a moment about the ways you discipline your children when they act in challenging ways. Perhaps your three year-old has just stabbed his older brother in the face with a fork. Or maybe your teenage daughter has screamed an obscenity at her younger sibling. Or you’ve just discovered your eight year-old is pocketing…

As you gaze at the bright blue eyes, and cheeks rosy from teething, you might be forgiven for thinking that Poppy Hookway is simply another ridiculously photogenic baby. But Poppy is far from your average six-month old. She’s making a difference, one high five at a time, all thanks to her lucky fin. The lucky…

Jean’s life story is not the way she would have written it. It includes early years of childhood abuse, same-sex attraction and depression, and later years of heterosexual marriage and children. She writes of the blessing of being able to trust God as the author of her life. The Serenity Prayer is a blessing and…

Writer Jared Staudt states the case for celebrating New Year’s Day as a part of the Christmas feast, not just a secular marking of a new year. The marking of the dawn of a new year is no secular holiday, because time and history have been drawn into the coming of God into the world.…