While it is true that divorce results in many negative experiences and painful changes, it is also true that in that rubble some gems can be found. Think and pray about it. Did you go back to school as a result of your divorce? Did you learn a new skill? Did you make a new […]
Not long ago one of my teenagers was grumbling about not being able to go out with friends because she had mismanaged her money and did not have enough money to buy gas for her car. She was not happy. We had a brief parent/daughter exchange about what lesson she learned from not managing her […]
It is very easy to become disillusioned with our faith and with God when dealing with the crushing difficulty of divorce. It can be a lonely time, and God can feel very distant. We can become resigned to thinking that our lot in life is to endure some form of misery for the remainder of our […]
I know a wonderful, godly woman who was married for over 30 years to a great man who loved her very much and treated her like a queen. One day, her husband died suddenly. As you would expect, she struggled greatly with the loss. Eventually, driven by loneliness, she started dating again. She met a […]
I had a Lite Brite as a kid and loved it. It always excited me to start out with a blank, black page and see the picture that would emerge as I carefully pushed each colored peg through the paper. I would turn off all the lights in my room and marvel at the image […]
It was about a month into my divorce when my former spouse stopped by the house to pick up something. She was all decked-out and clearly very excited about that night’s “big date.” I will never forget it. Here I was being crushed under the emotional weight of the divorce, yet she seemed so unscathed […]
“I have to tell you that I have gotten some feedback that the name of your ministry is making some people uncomfortable,” my spiritual director advised me. When I probed further, I was told that promoting a ministry with the name “Divorced Catholic” was interpreted as promoting divorce, and, further, my zeal for helping divorced […]
Divorce can bring a tremendous amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt. In a moment, a lifetime of dreams and plans can be destroyed. It is during these times that it can feel like you were dropped in a foreign land-with no map-in the dark. It can be a very scary feeling! Scripture repeatedly reassures us […]
Everyday is an opportunity: an opportunity to try again, an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, an opportunity to make an improvement in your life. Seize those opportunities every chance you can. It is so easy to live in the pain of yesterday, or be overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the future, that you can […]
I thought that once my divorce was final, life would get back to some sense of normal and most of my divorce-related struggles would disappear. Yeah, right. I quickly discovered that the primary change was the types of struggles I faced, not struggles themselves. My main struggle initially was committing to a chaste lifestyle. That one […]