When was YOUR last vacation? Leisure time with your spouse and family is known to improve marital and family satisfaction. This article features 5 ideas for making vacation more of a religious experience and includes 5 tips for a stay at home vacation everyone will enjoy.
Glimpses of the importance and truth about motherhood, and fatherhood can sometimes be gleaned from movies! In this article, the author explores one little movie, and shares some wisdom from one of the Catholic Church's greatest saints about the importance of motherhood and womanhood.
Successful marriage requires a level of self and couple awareness that due to complacency, many couples don't reach. In this article, Tere Johnson proposes couples include some marital spring cleaning along with the spiritual cleaning we are called to during the season of Lent.
Why is it that people get so drab during Lent? In this light-hearted article, Tere Johnson takes a look at observing Lent with a joyful heart, while still practicing its difficult disciplines of fasting, prayer and alsmgiving. Read on...
The New Year is a special time to make resolutions to improve different areas in our life. Having goals is also important to nurture and grow our most important relationships, after our relationship with God (of course), that being the relationship with our spouse and children. Tere Johnson, presents some practical Relationship Goals for 2022!
As Catholics we are counter cultural. While the world pulls us to skip over Advent and get right to Christmas, we are invited to embrace the present... the Season of Advent. In this article, Tere Johnson explores some of the ways we can enter into the season in a way we can enjoy our Church seasons as they come!
Preparing for First Communion is a special time for children and their families. This short article is about the First Communion Family Festival at the League City Civic Center on November 20, 2021 from 10 am- 4 pm. This is an "out of the box" way to show children and families the beauty of the Eucharist, and take care of some of the practical aspects of it too!
Our Church calls us to take some time each year to recommit ourselves to end the violence of abortion, which deeply wounds women and destroys children. Respect Life month also calls us to remember the dignity of children who are die due to miscarriage or in infancy. Stella Maris Center will observe Respect Life month with a Healing Webinar on Friday October 15, and a Remembrance Day Mass for the Little Ones on Saturday, October 16.
This article addresses the importance of including money in our discussions about ways to deepen our faith. It also serves as an invitation to join Stella Maris Center's webinar, Bible Based Finances from a Catholic Perspective with author and teacher, Thomas Zordani (Faith Finances)
Marriage preparation and marriage enrichment is not a one size fits all proposition. Stella Maris Center is proud to support the New Life Ministry for remarriage. This short article addresses the reality that remarrying couples have unique questions and needs which are best addressed by other couples who have similar life experiences.
This short article features the common habits of dating, engaged, and married couples which end up destroying their relationships. The piece was inspired by the book... Helping Couples by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott and Dr. David Olson, in which these four relationship busters are referred to as the Four Horsemen. Read this intersting take on those things that all couples, regardless of state in life, should avoid, like the plague, if they want happy, healthy and holy relationships!
Possibly one of the most hair raising experiences in family life is navigating the selection of a college for our college bound sons or daughters. The choice is to send our money and our young adult children to public colleges or universities or private Catholic colleges or universities. How do we decide? This piece touches on three important aspects of picking a college and invites families to a webinar to explore the topic further with Cardinal Newman Society President and Founder, Patrick Riley on May 19.
When marital trouble strikes, couples are often left with a lot of questions. Was there something that could have been done to prevent or soften the blow of marital crisis? The answer is yes! This article explores that "missing piece" that many couples struggle to find in their couple relationship. Dr. Ken Buckle, of Gratia Plena Counseling offers his insights into the topic.
For too long, the divorce minded culture has convinced countless couples that their divorce does not have long lasting consequences for their children. Divorce "happy talk" such as "the children are resilient" and the "the children are OK" has long been the go to lines for adults seeking divorce and others who support them. Increasingly, adult children of divorce are "coming out" and are openly talking about the pain they still carry from the break-up of their family. This article explores a new ministry in the Church which seeks to give adult children of divorce a voice, and an opportunity to begin the healing process.
This article presents the case for addressing marital "drift", the inclination couples have to drift apart once they are married. Couple's often cite "we just drifted" apart as the cause for divorce and separation, as a matter of fact, most divorce in the United States is between couples who have "low conflict" marriages and cite this "drifting apart" as a reason for divorce. Dr. Kenneth Buckle, Gratia Plena Counseling offers some valuable insight into reversing this phenomenon.