Category: faith

• A Very Merry Bookmas!

  It’s Christmas Day! I’ve had a wonderful Advent and now Christmas season with my family and close friends. It has to be the most relaxed Christmas I’ve ever had, having retired from teaching this January 12, 2024, I came into Advent this year without reams of papers to grade, midterms to create and then grade,…

  michardillo

  December 25, 2024

  books, Essay, faith, food

  Advent, baking, book-review, books, chocolate, Christmas, cookbooks, cooking, cozy mystery, essays, exercise, faith, family, fiction, food, friends, healthy, Judi Dench, Kate Quinn, Martha Stewart, Maryland, Mass, Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, nonfiction, novel, Olivia Ford, prayer, reading, self-care, Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent, teacher, teaching, The Briar Club, The Cookbook, writer, writing

• The + Side of #SocialMedia

  As a practicing Catholic, each year I spend a few weeks before Lent to think about what I want to do during this season of preparation. Some Catholics give up something they love as a sacrifice, some add some sort of charity work or almsgiving during Lent, and some fast and pray more. When I…

  michardillo

  March 23, 2024

  Essay, faith

  Bookish Friends, books, Buy Nothing, Catholic, community, Currently Reading, facebook, fasting, Holy Week, K-pop, Katrina, korea, Lent, prayer, reader, reading, sacrifice, social media, teaching

• The Arm That Embraced Our Lord

  https://cathstan.org/news/local/relic-of-the-arm-that-embraced-our-lord-venerated-at-st-jude-parish

  michardillo

  February 6, 2024

  Essay, faith

  Catholic, Fr. Carlos Martins, pilgrim, relic, shrine, St. Jude, Vatican

• This is Heaven; How May I Help You?

  TikTok is an ocean of possibilities. I have an account but I don’t ever open it. I do, however, frequently watch TikToks that are cross-posted on Instagram or Facebook, and that is how I stumbled upon 26-year old Taryn Delanie Smith, a former beauty queen who is as of this writing sitting pretty with 1.3…

  michardillo

  September 9, 2023

  Essay, faith

  Angelus, classroom, Denise, God, Great Commandment, Heaven, prayer, students, Taryn Delanie Smith, teaching, TikTok

• Language Learned, Passport Packed

  Sunday, March 17, 2019: This morning, the Second Sunday in Lent, Fr. Gabriel, our parochial vicar, began his homily at 10:30 Mass with, “How is your Lent going?” For the first time in a very long time, I felt as though I was fully prepared to say, “Good!” For a few weeks before Ash Wednesday,…

  michardillo

  March 18, 2019

  Essay, faith

  Heaven, Lent, passport, prayer, sacrifice, Scotland

• The Battle of Evil against Good

  It’s mid-October and lots of my bookish friends are reading scary stories or mysteries that have elements of the supernatural lurking about. In my 8th grade classroom, we read a short story recently that is classified as science fiction but in many ways represents the materialistic and selfish ways of many in today’s society, making…

  michardillo

  October 16, 2018

  Essay, faith

  Button Button, Catholic, devil, edgar allan poe, evil, faith, Richard Matheson, science fiction, St. Michael the Archangel, Star Trek, Twilight Zone

• Invite Him to the Storm

  One of the things I love most about being Catholic is the ability to practice my faith anywhere, anytime. I’ve attended Mass in nearly every state and country that I’ve visited. Sometimes it has been in a foreign language, and while listening to the homily can be a challenge, I know the parts of the…

  michardillo

  July 28, 2016

  Essay, faith

  ACTS, Catholic, Colossians, Father Oliver Toner, Florida, Fort Myers, Genesis, Irish priest, Louisiana, Luke, Magnificat, Mass, prayer, praying, scripture, teacher, teaching, Thessalonians

• A Fortunate Encounter

  A Fortunate Encounter Our Parish Times, May 2016

  michardillo

  May 30, 2016

  faith

• Reflection and Renovation

  Exciting news for me! One of my essays, Reflection and Renovation, made the front page of a local regional newspaper that publishes news about our area’s Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington. As this is a newspaper for parents, faculty, and students of Catholic schools, this essay has a spiritual theme based on the…

  michardillo

  March 17, 2016

  faith

  Catholic Church, Chip Gaines, Fixer Upper, HGTV, Joanna Gaines, Lent, Year of Mercy