Posts

A St. Joseph Novena for a Faith-Filled Spouse

By Susan Ciancio / June 14, 2019 /
st joseph with child Jesus

We can’t help but see the importance of families, as they are the foundation of society. Aside from Christ Himself, nothing is more important than our spouse and children. That is why we celebrate fathers and all that they do for their families, on Father’s Day and throughout the year. But what if you’re longing…

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Protecting Your Kids From Premarital Sex

By Susan Ciancio / June 19, 2019 /
teens

Our world is saturated and infatuated with sex. We see scantily-clad women on billboards and on TV advertisements. We see ads on TV for birth control pills, for IUDs, and for the little blue pill for men. We hear about sex in song lyrics, in jokes on TV, and in the news. It’s no wonder…

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Cohabitation Before Marriage Statistics

By Susan Ciancio / July 5, 2019 /
cohabitation before marriage statistics

Imagine this scenario: You’ve been in a serious relationship for several years and things are going well. You talk about a future, but not necessarily marriage. Your friends and family like this person. You get along fantastically. And people are now starting to ask, “When are you taking the next step?” But by “next step,”…

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Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage: Things You Need to Know

By HLI Staff / July 15, 2019 /
supreme court

The legalization of same-sex marriage by the Supreme Court of the United States is an undeniable tragedy of the modern political and legal culture of death. How and why this decision came to be the unappealable law of the land is a very long story. Here are some of the more important issues at stake…

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“Mommy, What’s Abortion?”

By Susan Ciancio / July 24, 2019 /
mother and daughter

The taking of a tiny human being’s life is not only a grave evil and a grievous sin, but a very difficult topic to broach with children. How does a parent explain to a child that there are people out there who not only advocate for the killing of babies, but who revel in the…

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Is Monogamy Unnatural? What’s Its Origin?

By Susan Ciancio / July 30, 2019 /

Monogamy, the practice of having one sexual partner at a time, is a concept that has sparked the interest of countless anthropologists and has been the subject of decades of research. You may have even heard people state that monogamy is “unnatural.” If this is true, why do you imagine monogamy has been favored for…

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What Really Is Headship in Marriage?

By Jenna McGuire / August 1, 2019 /
loving marriage

“Wives should be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord.” ~ St. Paul The dreaded “submission” featured in Ephesians 5 lands like a four-letter word on the ears of many who are otherwise eager to put Catholic social teaching into practice in their lives. This negative response to the idea of headship in marriage…

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The Difference One Racist Made: Margaret Sanger’s World

By Susan Ciancio / October 20, 2019 /

“On the other hand, the mass of ignorant Negroes still breed carelessly and disastrously, so that the increase among Negroes, even more than the increase among whites, is from that part of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear their children properly. ~From Sanger’s Birth Control Review W.E.B. DuBois, Professor of…

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Trusting God through Infertility

By Susan Ciancio / December 11, 2019 /

What are good and faithful Catholics supposed to do when they encounter the anguish or despair in life that comes from an inability to do something they desperately want and that seems so natural—like having children? How should we apply our ability to trust to a situation like this? Proverbs 3:5 tells us: “Trust in…

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Facing Life’s Challenges as a Single Catholic Mother

By Susan Ciancio / January 8, 2020 /

I’ve thought of the famous “Footprints in the Sand” poem often over the last several years. Just the idea that God would say to me, “My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of suffering, when you could see only one set of footprints, it was then that I…

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