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	<title>Reluctant Catholic</title>
	<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing</link>
	<description>Thoughts about the church and my faith.</description>
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		<title>Signs of Life</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently finished reading Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots by Scott Hahn. While I'm typically a huge fan of Scott Hahn books, for some reason this one just didn't resonate with me. I think it's because it didn't have his rich personality tied to it. Most of the material was [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/122</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Baptism Workshop</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My wife and I attended a baptism workshop yesterday. We have a baby boy on the way, and it seemed like a good idea to do something like this in advance.
The workshop was about 45 minutes long, and covered basics like, "What's a sacrament?" and "Why do we do baptism?" For most of the workshop [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/119</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Adoration Prayer</title>
		<description><![CDATA[During an extended round of Adoration last week, I wrote the following prayer:
"Christ, your presence humbles me and calls to mind my inadequacy. I feel the stress and burden of my sin. Forgive me of my shortcomings, and fill me with the peace of your grace. Strengthen in me a sense of obligation and brotherhood [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/116</link>
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		<title>The Imitation of Christ</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I've been reading The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. I've found it to be a great read right before bed - one or two "chapters." Each chapter is a look at a particular topic or theme. I've found the material on suffering to be fantastic and inspirational. It resonates with my experiences and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/114</link>
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		<title>Celebrating the Solemnity of the Assumption with Pope Benedict XVI</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last month my wife and I were on vacation in Italy, and we had the rare pleasure of celebrating the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin with Pope Benedict XVI. We traveled from Rome to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, and we were able to attend mass at St Thomas of Villanova [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/105</link>
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		<title>Dealing with a dry spell</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I found this article on 9 Tips for Spiritual Dry Spells by Jennifer Fulwiler. As you would expect, it contains advice for prayer, the sacraments, and reading inspiring books. It also has some not-so-common and insightful advice like finding a spiritual director and taking the time to recharge.
Interestingly enough, I read this at a time [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/102</link>
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		<title>Shouldn&#8217;t I be happier?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I found this 2006 Pew report about happiness and I noticed some trends. Here's a snippet from the survey results:
But through this admittedly limited prism, we found some fascinating correlations.
Several of them stand out: Married people are happier than unmarrieds. People who worship frequently are happier than those who don't. Republicans are happier than Democrats. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/96</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Luke E. Hart Series &#8211; back on the shelf</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I gave up. The  Luke E. Hart series is back on the bookself, and I'll likely not pick it up again. I initially thought it'd be a good way to get back into the swing of things, but I was wrong. I found the series more distracting than helpful. I don't feel many of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/92</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>God as a clockmaker</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The best illustration I've seen to date of the idea of God as a clockmaker (from xkcd):

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/90</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Prayer</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Another interesting graphic on Prayer in America from the Pew Forum:
I don't pray every day. I'd like to, but I don't think I know how. Either I don't think about it, or if I do I'm not sure what to say. I don't have a habit of prayer, and I'm not sure how to start [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.reluctantcatholic.com/writing/archives/87</link>
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