Devil
NEW YORK –– Let us ponder the stuck-elevator conundrum. What is there to fear the most: Claustrophobia? Vertigo? The dude [...]
The Town
NEW YORK –– Any film whose advertising campaign features male characters dressed in nuns' habits and sporting gruesome Halloween masks [...]
Alpha and Omega
NEW YORK –– Jack London may be spinning in his grave over "Alpha and Omega" (Lionsgate), the story of two [...]
Resident Evil: Afterlife
NEW YORK –– Those pesky zombies, oh, my. They get themselves a virus manufactured by an evil corporation, and the [...]
Colorful Gospel for September 16, 2010
(Photo illustration by Phil Younk) Click on the photo for a printable PDF! Based on the Gospel of Luke 16: [...]
My wedding “to-do” list
I logged on today to TheKnot.com, where I have an account that I occasionally use for invitations and placeholders. The [...]
How Buddhism enhances my Catholicism
My parents once told me to join those who do good and avoid those who do bad. Growing up, I was often perplexed by the religious spaces of our house. On the wall in one room, there hung a picture of Jesus. On the wall in the other room (my grandmother’s room), there, placed on an altar, was a statue of Buddha. Although separated by a door and inches of wood and plaster, the two worlds seemed to flow into one another quite harmoniously.
In the evenings, I could hear my grandmother chanting. When she finished, she would make us something to eat. She never complained that my parents, brother and I went to church and my parents never stopped my grandmother from going to the temple. In fact, we often accompanied her. I guess my introduction to Buddhism was in large part due to my love for my grandmother, and my desire to be close to her.
Running: The busy person’s retreat
Last March, I began training for a half-marathon with my friends, Kelli and Sarah. Two kids, school, work, why not [...]
MyFaith profile: Emily LaLoggia
Emily LaLoggia isn’t homesick. The Marquette University senior said she’s “Romesick.” After spending a semester studying at the Angelicum Pontifical University through the University of St. Thomas’ study abroad program, LaLoggia wants to return to the city where she spent Holy Week with Pope Benedict XVI, ate lunch in Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s summer home, and prayed in the spot where St. Francis of Assisi died. But the 21-year-old wasn’t always this excited about her faith.
Until she was a teenager, LaLoggia’s parents prayed with her every night before she went to bed.
“It was during these precious moments in which I learned the basic fundamentals of prayer – that it is truly a simple conversation with God,” she wrote in an e-mail interview with MyFaith. “I learned how to not be afraid to ask God to grant me my heart’s desires and I learned what it meant to intercede for others.”
LaLoggia said growing up she had opportunities through school retreats or service projects to dive deeper into her faith life, but she didn’t let them “move” her heart. And, in high school, she fell away from her “childhood practices of prayer.”
My experience with yoga
When I injured my hip flexor earlier this year, for a little more than a month I lost the ability to relieve stress the best way I know how – by pounding it out over three to six miles of winding, hilly, country back roads near my home. My aunt and uncle suggested I try a local yoga class focused on building core muscles or relieving stress, but I wasn’t sure I wanted my first try to be in a roomful of people. I was a gymnast in high school, but what if I’m not that flexible anymore?
I stumbled upon a DVD, “Hemalaya Behl’s Yoga for Urban Living” at St. Vincent de Paul, and decided to spend $3.88 for a private class at home. It sat in my room for a few months until I learned a little about this foreign form of stress relief that is supposed to be good for anybody, with beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of asanas or poses that can help us become one with our body, mind and soul. To me, it sounded like a mini-retreat on a mat and exactly what I needed. If I reach inner peace through yoga, which is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, “to join, to yoke,” knowing that everything comes from God, yoga might just find a place in my hectic schedule.