Jen Schlameuss-Perry

How Do I Earn Salvation?

The other day, I got a message from a friend who had attended a Non-Catholic event where she had an encounter with a Born Again. She had been confronted by the “once you have accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you are saved and cannot lose that salvation” belief.

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Westley, Buttercup and Freedom in Marriage

The Princess Bride was on TV the other night. No matter what else is happening in my life, if I’m flipping channels and I come across The Princess Bride, that’s as far as I’m going. I have the movie on DVD—I could watch it any time I want—without commercials. But, if I see it on TV, I’m watching it.

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She Treasured These Things in Her Heart

Over the years, one of the phrases regarding Mary that stood out for me was, “She treasured these things in her heart.” It comes up a couple of times in Luke’s Gospel (different translations have slightly different wording—the NAB now has “kept”) as events unfold in Jesus’ life.

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Six Easy Ways to Celebrate Advent Without Any Additional Work (almost)

Advent is a great season. We all observe it, but much of the time, we overlook the meaning behind all those wonderful family traditions that we celebrate throughout the four weeks. Here are a few ways (in no particular order) to incorporate some theological discussion into what your family will be doing anyway

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6 Reasons to Brave Taking Your Children to Mass

I’m not going to pretend that taking children to Mass is not filled with peril and adventure…and terror and mortification…and nightmares and sometimes nosebleeds…It’s all of that and much, much more.

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Family, Friends, People in Purgatory and Ethiopia

If there’s one thing that my Catholic Elementary School education taught me, it was to look outside myself in all situations, but particularly when there’s suffering involved. Having gone to a small school, teachers sometimes got recycled into different grades, causing me to have one teacher both in 5th and 7th grade. This teacher had a very specific way of incorporating prayer into our class time

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Money Back Guarantee

Recently, an Evangelical minister promised a money back guarantee to his congregation: that if they did not receive blessings in their lives, they could have their tithe back. This sparked a fury of commentaries from Christians everywhere—sarcastic and funny responses about the fact that everything is a blessing and that this guy was totally missing the point.

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The Discomfort of the Cross

For obvious reasons, Good Friday has a different feel than any other day of the year. No other day has the same gravity. No other day has the same draw. We stop what we’re doing in the middle of the day to acknowledge the beginning of the most significant event in human history—the Paschal Mystery.

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We Have No King But Caesar

Having to read the “Crowd” parts during The Passion on Good Friday, is always an uncomfortable fifteen minutes for me. “Crucify him!” sticks in my throat and “I do not know him” is unpleasant. But, for me, no phrase cuts to the heart like “We have no king, but Caesar!” (Jn 19: 15)

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That's Mine - I Licked It

If you come from a large family, or have untrustworthy friends when it comes to the security of your food, you may at some point, have licked your food before walking away from it—you know, to make sure that no one would take it. If you haven’t done that, you’ve probably at least once in your life, used a sharpie to mark your plastic cup at a party,

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To Thine Own Selfishness Be True

There’s nothing better than that moment when your kid learns about free will in Religion Class. Now, I’ve been teaching my kids their whole lives about it, but there’s something about them hearing it in school that makes it click in a different way. For weeks, everything I say has been, and will be, “I don’t have to do anything…I have free will.”

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Call Me Maybe

People can be so annoying. Pretty much everyone in the world has “friends” (or even family) who they never hear from…until they need something. Or there’s the person that every single time you run into them you get the “broken record” run down of everything going wrong in their life. You might see them coming and duck to avoid them, but they find you…oh, they find you…and they don’t take a breath.

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Funky Christmas

When we talk about Christmas, or sing about it in carols, we always use peaceful and charming words—idyllic, really—to tell the story about how Jesus came into the world. It’s nice how our memory heals the reality of a situation

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Mercy Door

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has called upon the Church to be a witness of God’s mercy to the world. Mercy is kindness that isn’t deserved. It’s forgiveness unearned. That’s what God’s love is all about. While on the cross, Jesus asked the Father to “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34)

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Sorry For What I Said When I Was Hungry

I can say for myself that, when I’m fasting or didn’t remember to eat, I can be a bear! We really can get out of sorts when we haven’t had the nourishment that we need.

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