Breastfeeding Does Space Babies and So Much More

Years ago mothers knew that breastfeeding had an impact on their fertility. Why? Because there was an absence of menstruation with frequent breastfeeding. Then along came bottles and pacifiers, strict schedules, and babysitters, and this … [Read more...]

Homeschooling Is Not the Ideal

[N.B: Essays appearing on Homiletic & Pastoral Review have been deemed to be compatible with the teaching of the Church, but do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HPR. Fr. Meconi and his staff have always been grateful for the hard … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – July 2020

Catholic Marriage: A Pastoral and Liturgical Commentary By Edward Foley, ed. Reviewed by Christopher Siuzdak. (skip to review) Vocation to Marriage and the Christian Family By Thomas McGovern. Reviewed by Matthew Rose. (skip to … [Read more...]

Accompanying, Discerning, and Integrating Weakness in Marriage

Chapter eight and its footnotes of Amoris Laetitia begins with the above title and has been pilloried extensively by much of the people of God’s thinkers due to some ambiguities in light of sacred Tradition. However, the title is a m … [Read more...]

Suicide Prevention in Youth

The severity of the mental health crisis in American youth has been clearly documented again by the shocking research reported in the Wall Street Journal that over the ten year period 2007 to 2017 the suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – April 2019

Reflections on the Sacred Liturgy, Vol. I: Lent & Holy Week By Fr. Thomas Hoisington. Reviewed by Stephanie A. Mann. (skip to review) Off the Hook: God, Love, Dating, and Marriage in a Hookup World By Timothy P. O’Malley. Reviewed b … [Read more...]

Book Reviews for Late Autumn 2018

The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony and the Restoration of the Social Order By Scott Hahn. Reviewed by Matthew Rose. (skip to review) In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk’s Memoir By Paul Quenon. Reviewed by Matthew K. M … [Read more...]

Misconceptions About NFP

When I heard the election results in 2012, my very first thought was that if Catholics had reacted appropriately to the invention of the pill, instead of the way they did, we would have won this election. It is a subject which has … [Read more...]

Is the Holy Family a Realistic Model for Ordinary Families?

In this time of troubled marriages and beleaguered families, a renewed focus on the Holy Family, and what it teaches us, can act as a bracing support. Dr. Mary Shivanandan’s new book, The Holy Family, Model Not Exception, provides just such … [Read more...]

Artificial Birth Control, the Sexual Revolution, and the Modern Collapse of Morality

Artificial Birth Control, the Sexual Revolution, and the Modern Collapse of Morality A generation ago, Blessed Pope Paul VI (the great) projected out of the infallible, bountiful treasure of God’s truths—that is, the formal Catholic tea … [Read more...]

On Coming to the Sacrament of Marriage

A Personal Pilgrimage

Part I of II: On Christ’s Love of the Sinner[1. This is now a part of the book, The Family on Pilgrimage: God Leads Through Dead Ends, (Chapter 4: Part I: enroutebooksandmedia.com/familyonpilgrimage/).] In the context of the widespread d … [Read more...]

Revisiting the Letter to Families

Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter to Families, which was first published in 1994, is a gem highly worth revisiting. This treatise on the family is packed with inspiring theology for families, and especially fathers. Moreover, it is also very a … [Read more...]

The Dilemma of Pope Francis: The 2018 World Meeting of Families

By now everyone — especially Catholics — should know that the 2018 World Meeting of Families, sponsored by the Vatican Congregation of Marriage and Family Life, will gather in Dublin, Ireland this August. In recent months, stories about t … [Read more...]

Understanding Anger in Those We Care For

A friend of mine conducted an informal survey of priests in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul to find out which sins were heard most often in the sacrament of reconciliation. No surprise that #1 transgression for men involved … [Read more...]