Mother Teresa's favorite gift

A touching story about a gift Mother Teresa once received that she kept on her desk for the rest of her life.

The conversion of a Jewish comedy writer

This is such a touching, beautiful story -- I just wish it were longer!

via New Advent

I Scream Therefore I Am

Some excellent thoughts on suffering:

But it seems to me that suffering (rather than proving that there is nothing) actually proves that there is everything--including a good God. The turning point is this question: if there is nothing but a meaningless void, then why do we think suffering is bad? Well, we think suffering is bad because it hurts. When I burn my hand on the stove it hurts. But if the cynical nihilist is right, we should be matter of fact about it and say, "Putting your hand on the stove hurts because if you left your hand there it would burn up and so you have nerve endings which give you negative sensations so that you will remove the hand and not burn it up. Pain is therefore a simple biological response of self preservation. So what. Why make such a big deal about it. It's not nice, but that's life. Bummer. Bad stuff happens. Accept it and move on."

Read the rest here.

All Sin Is Disgusting

A great post from Simcha.

The story of one mom who keeps putting off grad school for babies...

And doesn't regret it. Great post.

Panis Angelicus and Angela

A must-read post by Calah Alexander about how God brought good out of a missed confession.

The friar who evangelizes in the mall

Love this story.

What it means to be an altar server

Great article.

AP style essentials

This is definitely worth reading and printing for anyone who does any kind of writing. It's helpful to know what the standards are for writing formatting (e.g. when to use 6 and when to use six, etc.)

Clearing up annulment misconceptions

A helpful article.

How Ayn Rand ruined my childhood

A personal look at the fruits of the objectivist wordlview.

The hairbrush

A sweet story from Beth Moore:

How to find the best seats on airlines

An interesting article about a company that helps passengers avoid bad airline seats.

Afraid of turbulence on airplanes?

This article explains why you don't need to be.

An inspiring pro-life video

via Aggie Catholics

Why the footnotes in most Bibles stink

Another excellent post from Eric Sammons.

The Stories Behind 5 Familiar Voices

Interesting!

10 Most Beautiful Waterfalls

Wow!

What did Augustine really say about when life begins in the womb?

An excellent list of quotes by Dr. Gerard Nadal.

The Spiritual Gifts Inventory

A fun quiz to help you discover your spiritual gifts.

3-Year-Old Solves Rubik's Cube in 114 seconds

Why fasting is good for us

An excellent, easy to read post.

Christianity made the West

Some great thoughts, based on analysis by Chinese researches about what makes the West so successful.

When it seems like we've failed...

An incredibly inspiring story about how God can work through even our seeming failures.

See-through bubble tents

Wow, cool!

Why the battle against gay "marriage" was lost over 50 years ago

Excellent points from Eric Sammons.

A collection of quotes about homeschooling and Catholic education

Great stuff.

"Our beautiful budget wedding"

This is a gorgeous, informative post, perfect for anyone entertaining on a budget.

The March for Life and the power of penance

Taylor Marshall has a great point about the power of penance in changing the world.

How to travel with just one bag

A fascinating post from Michael Hyatt. (Yes, I said "fascinating." I love stuff like this!)

Faith in the darkest of moments

Many torture victims tell convincing stories of divine intervention in their ordeal.

All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys

Great list.

Swiss bank changing dress code

Employees can now wear red underwear and eat onions.

Amazing pictures of space near a black hole

Wow!

"Living without power is fun for about twenty-four hours"

A classic Betty Duffy post, in which she talks about life without modern conveniences and what that means for the spiritual life. (I'm not doing a very good job of summarizing it, but it's a great post.)

A very inspiring video

Please say this at my funeral

An amusing post from Matthew Archbold (with some good points too).

The most shocking 4-minute abortion debate you will ever see

Jill Stanek has a video that juxtaposes an abortion clinic's soothing ads taking about goodness and love with an actual abortion. (Warning: You will not see anything graphic by clicking on the link, but if you play the video it is graphic and utterly shocking.)

Is it good to have a lot of choices?

An interesting article. An excerpt:

In a California gourmet market, Professor Iyengar and her research assistants set up a booth of samples of Wilkin & Sons jams. Every few hours, they switched from offering a selection of 24 jams to a group of six jams. On average, customers tasted two jams, regardless of the size of the assortment, and each one received a coupon good for $1 off one Wilkin & Sons jam.

Here's the interesting part. Sixty percent of customers were drawn to the large assortment, while only 40 percent stopped by the small one. But 30 percent of the people who had sampled from the small assortment decided to buy jam, while only 3 percent of those confronted with the two dozen jams purchased a jar.

That study "raised the hypothesis that the presence of choice might be appealing as a theory," Professor Iyengar said last year, "but in reality, people might find more and more choice to actually be debilitating."

Baby's best start

Kate Wicker hits the nail on the head in this analysis of the inconsistencies of "lactivists" who are also pro-choice.

Challenges for the pro-life movement

Convicting and challenging words from pro-life convert Abby Johnson.

"My heart got callused"

The powerful testimony of a former abortion provider.

7 Lessons for Delivering a Powerful Message

This post should be required reading for anyone who ever communicates a message -- blogging, speaking, teaching, etc.

How to read the Bible

An excellent homily by Fr. John Corapi.

Do Large Families Burden the Older Children?

A great response. And don't miss comment #25, from Katie Grace.

Abortion survivor Claire Culwell speaks in honor of her twin who died

The story of a young adoptee who found out that she was the unintended survivor of an abortion in which her twin sister died.

Values vs. Virtue

An insightful post, framed around whether this blogger would prefer that her daughter bring home a boyfriend with values or virtue.

The baby who changed everyone's lives

A gripping post from Carrien about an unexpected baby who transformed a family.

Great overpopulation t-shirt

via the Lifesite blog

Unborn Twins Interact in the Womb at 14 weeks Into Pregnancy

Neat story!

World's oldest winery found

Neat!

What did the New York Times bestseller list look like the week of your birth?

Find out here! Very cool.

What use is chronic pain?

Some great thoughts from the Philosopher Mom.

Abraham in 90 Seconds

An excellent idea - beautiful Youtube videos covering the lives of Biblical figures in 90 seconds. Sort of like a movie trailer for each person's life.

Catholic man adopts fifty children to save them from abortion

WOW!


via Eric Sammons

The arrogance of the "new atheists"

Some great points. An excerpt:

Which brings me to the problem with modern atheism, embodied by the likes of Harris and Hitchens, authors of "The End of Faith" and "God Is Not Great," respectively. So often it seems like a conversation ender, not a conversation starter. And the loudest voices of today's militant atheism, for all their talk of rational thought, don't seem to want to do too much thinking at all. As James Wood wrote in The New Yorker, "The new atheists do not speak to the millions of people whose form of religion is far from the embodied certainties of contemporary literalism. Indeed, it is a settled assumption of this kind of atheism that there are no intelligent religious believers."

Saints who were writers

Great list.

15 cities in gingerbread

Neat!

The coolest iPhone app ever?

This is amazing. It's an app where you can point the iPhone's camera at text in a foreign language, and it makes it appear as English (or whatever language you set it to appear as).

Listen for Epaminondas's trumpet

A must-read post for anyone who feels like their project is crashing and burning.

How the Japanese multiply

Neat!


via Faith & Family

Treasures in Heaven

A touching post by a mom who was trying to inspire her kids not to hoard their possessions, and ended up getting some painful, unexpected lessons herself.

The Scorpion Master!

7 great books for young adults

Wonderful list.

The blessings of cancer

A thoughtful, inspiring essay written by Bishop John T. Steinbock after his own cancer diagnosis.

"There's no escape from the cow"

A post detailing all the products that are made from cows.

via the Cynical Christian

Great quote

"The Catholic writer, in so far as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery: that it has for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for."

--Flannery O’Connor

Climbing to the top of a 1,700 ft. tower

This video is just crazy. Amazing.

Black Friday - the year I learned my lesson

A hilarious post from Dorian Speed.

Chinese villagers may be descended from a lost legion of Roman soldiers

Really fascinating article about a village in China where people have blue and green eyes and fair hair, and are believed to be descended from Roman soldiers from 2,000 years ago.