In this issue

Vol. 74, No. 4

Cover

Show and tell: Six ways to teach your children the faith

By Catherine O'Connell-Cahill
You're nourishing their bodies and clothing their backs, but how are you feeding their spirits? A veteran mom distills a six-point plan to keep family and faith together. 

 

Sounding Board

Let them just eat cake

By Linda Zwicky
What will the stylish 6-year-old sport at the next birthday bash? Have parents have driven the limo completely around the bend in a bid to keep up with the Jones' theme party. In Feedback readers are happy to serve as over-the-top birthday party poopers.

 

Interview

Parental guidance suggested

An interview with youth ministry expert Sean Reynolds
A recent survey of teens suggests that what your kids don't know about their faith is a heck of a lot. Sean Reynolds says your kids may have a lot to learn, but the good news is they can and want to learn it—from you.

 

Feature

Tough love

By Kristin Peterson
God may not give us more than we can bear, the saying goes, but parents of developmentally different children might wish he would take his thumb off the scale sometimes. Every day brings challenges to these far-from-ordinary families.

 

Essays

(Essays, short stories, and poems are not available online.)

 

Crying uncle

By Father Richard Malloy, S.J.

He came, he saw, he was completely conquered. The author gets a humbling lesson in the tiny torments of parenthood when he fills in as father.

Who do we think we are? 


By James Carroll
How will they know we are Christians? James Carroll sketches the shaky background of Catholic identity against a sometimes troubling historical record. It's not always a pretty picture.

Practicing Catholic: Feet first


By Gabe Huck
Planning to get your Triduum off on the right foot? Or is it the left? Gabe Huck explains why Holy Thursday's washing of the feet offers a profound and gentle redirection to Ressurrection.

Wise Guides: A Cinderella story

By Ginny Kubitz Moyer
Ginny Kubitz Moyer admires St. Germain Cousin's model of spiritual endurance in the face of a childhood—complete with evil stepmother, personal afflictions, and lots of housework—that only the Brothers Grimm could love.  

 

Departments

Editors' Note

You May Be Right (Letters to the Editor)

Signs of the Times (News)

Catholic Tastes (Humor)

Culture in Context: Music, film, and book reviews

At Home with Our Faith  (Family spirituality)

Eye of the Beholder (Art meditation)

Glad You Asked: Who are the Lefebvrites?

 

Columns

The Examined Life: Someone old, someone new
By Bryan Cones

Margin Notes: Damned if we do
By Kevin Clarke

Culture in Context: Mortal kombat
By Patrick McCormick

Testaments: We are family
By Alice Camille