Easter thoughts from the secular press http www bakersfieldcalifornian com lifestyle local x1538235657 Easter-is-dawn-to-a-new-season-of-hope nbsp

I went to evening Mass with a heavy heart having spent the greater part of Saturday at a memorial service for an old friend He was a fourth grade teacher who had taught two of our four children but more than that he was one of my husband rsquo s dearest friends and practically a part of our fam

nbsp A Christmas column from the Faith section of The Bakersfield Californian http www bakersfield com news columnist schultz x1797587210 Christ-was-born-one-of-us Valerie Schultz nbsp

One of the self-help groups I work with in a state prison is called lsquo Celebrate Recovery rsquo It rsquo s a sort of 12-Steps-for-Jesus approach to kicking addictions The framework resembles what the non-denominational Alcoholics Anonymous might look like had AA been founded by a couple of gu

Thinking I had to steel myself for the changes looming for the first Sunday of Advent was God rsquo s joke on me because the priest who presided over the Saturday evening Mass I just attended for the feast of Christ the King decided to go with the new translation one week early Glossy brochures in

My adult children are kind, smart and justice-oriented. But they are not practicing Catholics.

nbsp I am privileged to be a staff sponsor at a state prison for the self-help 12-step groups of AA and NA A staff sponsor is different from a program sponsor I am not a recovering alcoholic or addict who has a one-on-one relationship with another alcoholic or addict in order to facilitate work

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp In March I made my yearly pilgrimage to Anaheim not to Disneyland but to the Catholic Religious Education Congress sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese where I am always provoked and energized by the workshops offered I am sti

With apologies to the writers of ldquo Late Night with David Letterman rdquo Right now is not an easy time to be Catholic But is it ever easy I sometimes speculate that it might be simpler to be Protestant Protestants are allowed to go church shopping and they don rsquo t even have to go to a

My husband and I recently attended the Bat Mitzvah of a dear friend rsquo s daughter Our daughters are all adults but our friend from college days married a younger woman and so his oldest child is just becoming a teenager His lovely wife is Jewish which explains why a friend from a Catholic un