Families are always on the go in today’s fast paced world. There’s swimming lessons, dance recitals, piano lessons, basketball practice, soccer games, school plays, church activities, etc. All this activity is pulling families apart. When I work with struggling families I often ask them how many nights a week they sit down to have dinner togeth...

Preparing our sons for manhood can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to teaching them about life and sexuality.  We want to protect them from pornography, inform them about the changes they will experience in puberty, and teach them about healthy sexuality. Fathers often ask me where to find good resources to accomplish these tasks wit...

I’ve been working in catechesis for almost twenty years. Anyone involved in religious education can tell you that we have a crisis on our hands. Our programs do not produce adult Catholics or lifelong disciples. Classes about God are not enough to draw our kids into a Christian way of life, following Jesus, and sharing His mission in the world. W...

If there is such a thing as a good kind of pride, I experienced it in a moment with my first son Elijah that I’ll never forget. I cannot perfectly remember what happened in that moment, but it went something like this: Elijah picked up one of his teddy bears (whose name is obviously Teddy), and, fumbling Teddy around as though the stuffed animal...

By: Doug Johnson What do you want to be when you grow up? I never had a strong answer for that question. No real passion or drive in my youth. I enjoyed work, but just didn’t have any career aspirations. However, I also can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a strong desire to be a husband and father. No matter what I did for a living, I ...

In December I shared the first part of Evangeline’s story with you. I told you how questions arose about my daughter’s health during the pregnancy and how she was born with a large bump on her lower back. I told you how I almost passed out in the delivery room and how I wondered what the Lord was trying to tell us with our new daughter’s name...

My viewpoint of Father’s Day began to change on April 1, 1966 when the first of our three sons, Ed, was born. We named him after my father who, for reasons we will never know, ended his own life several months prior to my eighth birthday. I grew up as the fifth of six children in a single-parent home in the small town of Lawler in northeast Iowa...

It’s the New Year!  Woohoo!  Did you do anything?  Make a resolution?  Look at every other Catholic website that says “Don’t Make a Resolution!” and wonder what’s next? In all the gloriousness of Christmas and the New Year, did you notice the Feast day sandwiched in between?  The Feast of the Holy Family—the first Sunday after Chr...

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.  – St. Paul (1 Corinthians 13:11) Dear fathers, mothers, and those that come from them – read this book! Every healthy society throughout history has had cultural and ceremonial rites of passa...

            Today is the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist. His gospel is filled with numerous observations and meditations about God as our heavenly Father. A closer reading of St. Luke’s gospel gives us a better idea about the specific characteristics of God who is truly Our Father in the Lord’s Prayer, God the Father almighty ...