Free Republic

A Journey to Detachment Msgr. Charles Pope • September 12, 2018 • In daily Mass (Wednesday of the 23rd Week of the Year) we read St. Paul’s almost ominous words about our need to break free from attachments to this world:I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31).In this...

What Attachments Are and What They Are Not Msgr. Charles Pope • January 22, 2018 • This past Sunday, we read St. Paul’s almost ominous words about our need to break free from attachments to this world:I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31).In this passage St. Paul speaks...

What Attachments Are and What They Are Not Msgr. Charles Pope • October 15, 2015 • For most of us, attachments to this world are THE struggle that most hinders our spiritual growth. 80% of the spiritual life is a battle about desire and the fundamental question, “What do you want most, the world and its pleasures, or God and his Kingdom?” So easily this world gets its hooks into us and we become attached to it. It is hard to break free from inordinate desires.But what are attachments, and what are they not? Are there ways we can distinguish...

Jamie Lynn Grumet, the 26-year-old mother featured on the cover of Time magazine breastfeeding her 3-year-old son, has done more this week than become the poster woman for “attachment parenting,” the sometimes laudable movement that advises parents to be physically and emotionally available and responsive to their children. She has shown the limits of such a concept, and the ways in which it can be twisted into a bizarre, contemptible caricature of itself. Grumet is a model, and models have to have at least healthy dose of narcissism (television journalists like me, too, by the way). But I fear Grumet...

Honoring Thy FathersBRADFORD WILCOXFor millions of children across the U.S., this Sunday will not be a cause for celebration. Because of dramatic increases in divorce and nonmarital childbearing, about 28% of our nation's children -- more than 20 million kids -- now live in a household without their father, up from 10 million kids (14%) in 1970, according to a recent Census Bureau report. Moreover, because most of these boys and girls see their dads infrequently (once a month or less), Father's Day will offer cold comfort to many of these children.Our nation's epidemic of fatherlessness is just the most...

QX NOTE: the following is a—GENERALIZED DISCUSSION—in the interest of preventing such horrors as the recent Colorado shootings. I do not know important details nor do I wish to add to the parent’s grief. HOWEVER, this is a VERY TEACHABLE moment for many who may read such an article as this. And I dare not ignore such a fitting opportunity. Therefore, read my comments and the articles referred to as PRESCRIPTIVE, PREVENTATIVE, not punishing or haughtily castigating. Life is complex. Parenting is even more complex. Nevertheless, the research on ATTACHMENT and REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER is remarkably clear with confirming...

SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- A threatening new e-mail virus debuted last Friday and is quickly circulating worldwide across the Internet, affecting computers of countless numbers of individuals, government officials, and media. In a message entitled "{Spam?} {Virus?} {Spam?} Check this out kid!!!," the e-mail simply states, "Send me back bro, when you'll be done...(if you know what i mean...) See ya, ..." Worse yet, the attachment to this e-mail, "jennifer the wild girl xxx07.jpg.pif," is a virus that has severely infected computers internationally. The virus, known as Worm.Zafi.B, sends as many as 100 or more e-mail messages daily with...

What is it with so many children today? Sullen and surly, they ignore their elders and live to be with their peers. Two Vancouver specialists have a theory, but grownups won't like it, ALANNA MITCHELL reports. They believe the parental bond is being broken, with harrowing results The two boys are wearing identical outfits -- baggy, chemically faded jeans, oversized winter coats and immaculate white runners, laces untied and tongues jutting up over the cuffs of their pants. The two girls have a more revealing uniform: ultra-skinny jeans and puffy coats that skim the waist, one in brilliant white with...

<p>TOKYO -- Nintendo's Game Boy Advance hand-held machine will work as a videophone with an attachment that comes with a digital camera, earphone and microphone and is expected to go on sale in December only in Japan.</p> <p>The Campho Advance from Kyoto-based Digital Act, which makes mobile and Internet equipment, slips into the top of the Game Boy Advance just like any video-game cassette.</p>