As all regular readers of this blog know, we get many questions about children’s books in which the characters use sorcery in one way or another. In an effort to help Christian parents learn how to discern whether or not this content is suitable for their children, I would like to post insights from Michael O’Brien’s book, Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture (www.studioobrien.com) which I hope you’ll find useful.
Will you surrender?
December 5
“Surrender to God is the only absolute power with which creature is endowed.”
-Gertrud von le Fort
The attentive Virgin
December 4
“Mary is the attentive Virgin, who receives the word of God with faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to divine motherhood, for, as St. Augustine realized, “Blessed Mary by believing conceived Him [Jesus] whom believing she brought forth.”
-Pope Paul VI
A field for the word
December 3
“To be a field for the word means to be earth which allows itself to be absorbed by the seed, which assimilates itself to the seed, renouncing itself so as to make the seed germinate. With her motherhood Mary transfused into it her very substance, body and soul, so that a new life might come forth…Mary makes herself completely available as the soil, she allows herself to be used and consumed so as to be transformed into him.
-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI)
Light for my path
Moments of meditation
December 1
“A few moments of meditation and recollection each morning in the presence of God transforms and perfumes the whole day, like flowers cast about when night comes, whose fragrance at dawn anoints everything they have touched.”
-Elisabeth Leseur
How to Use Herbal Medicine Safely
CS asks: “What can you tell us about herbs and plants that are supposed to help certain ailments, like fish oils, omega 3’s and things like that?”
Rejoice always
‘Our Time is Now!’ Women of Grace® Looks Forward to 20 More Years
What began in 2003 as an inspiration to help Catholic women discover the beauty of authentic femininity, Women of Grace® has grown over the last 20 years into one of the largest Catholic women’s ministries in the Church today.
If you love to pray
November 29
“If you know how to pray, then you will love prayer- and if you love to pray, then you will pray.”
-St. Teresa of Calcutta
