Apparently, I am obtuse about many things, especially when interacting with men. I am constantly in trouble with the things that I say. Incident #1:I once had an immensely helpful and friendly neighbor. It was he who welcomed me into the neighborhood, stopped in to chat, helped with things I could not do. One day...
Category: <span>Biography</span>
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St Teresa of Avila. The Early Years
Dona Teresa de Ahumada y Cepeda (1515-1582), better known as St Teresa of Avila, is one of the giants of the Catholic Church. Her descriptions of her relationship to “His Majesty,” as she called Jesus, are so deep and intense, that only those who have achieved great spiritual growth understand them. It was Teresa and...
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An introduction to G. K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist: A Synopsis
A genius and a giant in literature, G. K. Chesterton is almost entirely neglected today. He is rarely quoted or studied, yet his works are monuments to logical, everyday common sense. A convert from atheism to the thinking and beliefs of the Catholic faith, he did not actually become a Catholic until after he had...
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Four famous Catholic saints named Teresa
The Catholic Church has the custom of honoring certain individuals who have lived lives of great piety and virtue or for the heroic act of martyrdom. Christianity is a difficult religion to follow. So much of what Jesus taught is extremely challenging to practice day in and day out, consistently, for years. Those individuals, who...
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Rebecca “Becky” Self: Her Story
My family called Rebecca Self, Auntie Billie. She was not a blood relative but she was such a close friend to my parents, it seemed too formal to call her “Mrs. Self.” Becky Self was an army nurse. During World War II, she and her husband, Leonard, were imprisoned with us in Cebu and Manila...
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A Biographical Sketch of Edith Stein
Edith Stein was a German Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism, entered a Discalced Carmelite order of nuns, was gassed at Auschwitz in 1942, and was canonized a saint in 1998. Edith Stein (Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross OC), born in 1891, was the youngest child in a large Jewish family living in Breslau,...
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A Personal Statement of What it Means to Me to be a Catholic
I am a Catholic by choice. I made my choice at an early age after I attended Mass for the first time with my mother. We lived in a small tight-knit colonial community on the island of Cebu in the Philippines. My mother was the only Catholic in her social circle. We attended a non-denominational...
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I Cried Yesterday
I cried yesterday. At church. Totally unexpected. Totally spontaneous. This is what happened. My church is large. It seats 1500 in the pews with room in the back for rows of folding chairs. There is a center aisle that leads toward the altar. At the Offertory, the time during Mass, when lay persons carry up...
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How I got Started Writing
Just before finishing my PhD, the UCLA School of Nursing offered me a job as an Assistant Professor. I was warned right away that UCLA was a “publish or perish” university. That meant that if I didn’t publish research papers, no matter how wonderful I was as a teacher, I would not get promoted or...
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Deciding Which Illustrations to Include in “Only by the Grace of God”
One of the most difficult decisions I had to make in producing this book was which pictures and documents to include and which to leave out. Since every illustration increased the cost of the project, I needed to keep the number of illustrations down. Some family pictures came from my cousin, Bill Mattas, and some...
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