A couple of weeks ago, our pastor shared a quote in his homily. Maybe you’ve heard it: “There go I, but for the Grace of God.” No one is quite sure who it is attributed to, but the story goes like this. A criminal is being walked through the streets to his execution, after having being found guilty of theft. The crowds are jeering the thief. Yet one man realizes that without God’s help, he could’ve easily been that criminal being walked to his death. And with eyes raised to heaven is quoted as saying the above statement. As I listened to this story, I quickly went through the litany…
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A Lesson from St. Martha – Following God’s Will for Our Lives Will Bring us Peace
During the summer we are making our way through the largest chunk of Ordinary Time in the Liturgical year. But one of the coolest things about this time of year is the sheer number of saints’ feast days that we celebrate. July is full of them – Bonaventure, Benedict, Maria Goretti, Kateri, Thomas the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, Bridget of Sweden, James, Joachim & Anne, Martha & Lazarus, Ignatius of Loyola. It’s like a who’s who of sainthood! And it’s as if all my friends in heaven have feasts this month! Let me explain. Maybe you are not familiar with all those names. Until a couple years ago, I wasn’t either.…
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How to Develop a Personal Rule for Life
Plus a FREE ebook, Creating a Life of Prayer, to download at the end of the post! So there I was, about 2 years ago, sitting in a priest’s office, and he explains to me that I need a “Rule” for life. A what?! Are you speaking Latin? I don’t understand what you are saying. A few days before, I had walked into the confessional with our new associate pastor, and he offered to meet with me to give me spiritual direction. I didn’t even know I needed a spiritual director or what one does when meeting with one. But I took him up on the offer. When we met…
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Unplanned Gatherings Are So Good For The Soul
When I was a child, I grew up on a very busy street, but our yard backed up to homes on a quiet street with no outlet. So my brother and I would hop the fence to our neighbors’ yard, ring doorbells or join the other kids who were already playing. We would play in the street until dark – kickball, wiffle ball, tag, whatever. In the summers, we visited the town pool almost every day, sometimes from open to close. There was always a friend who was also at the pool. We didn’t have to plan ahead. It was a given – someone was there. On Friday evenings the…
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What if Motherhood Itself is an Act of Mercy From God?
I recently gave a short talk at a young adults conference on the topic of “Mercy and Motherhood.” I’m sharing that talk here in honor of Mother’s Day. My prayer for all of you is that you know that you are lovable and loved by a very good Father… Sr. Marie Veritas is a Sister of Life. I recently read a piece she wrote about the women they counsel, but her words went straight to my heart. “In the heart of every woman is the longing to be heard, to be understood, to be believed in, and to be seen for her unique beauty and goodness, a beauty and goodness…
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Give Thanks to the Lord, For His Mercy Endures Forever
(This post contains an affiliate link, which means I earn a small commission if you shop through the links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Have you read Psalm 136 recently? (Don’t worry – I wouldn’t have known it off the top of my head either.) In my Catholic Journaling Bible, Psalm 136 is called a “Hymn of Thanksgiving for God’s Everlasting Mercy.” This is a great description because the psalmist lists all the wondrous things God has done, followed by the phrase, “for his mercy endures forever,” over and over. FOR 26 VERSES! In an early post, I mentioned that during retreat I was meditating on…
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My Love Story with the Eucharistic Jesus: Part 3
Holy Thursday – The Last Supper – The Institution of the Eucharist Today is the perfect day for the last post in this series. This post jumps ahead to February 2018. Obviously, many things occurred between the years of part 2 and this post, and I am quite aware that receiving Him in Holy Communion for many years yielded a great deal of grace in my life. But for this series, I wanted to share some specific moments of my story with respect to the Eucharist that had a major impact in my relationship with Jesus. So let’s jump to 2018… Last year I attended a retreat with the Sisters…
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Review of “Walking Holy Week with Jesus,” a prayer journal
Have any of you used a prayer journal before? I only discovered that this was a thing a couple years ago. I’ve always kept a journal that I would use to jot down thoughts during prayer, but I never knew that there were themed journals with directed prayers and journal prompts. Maybe you didn’t either. Personally, now I love prayer journals. For the last couple years I have been using a prayer journal for the holy seasons of Advent and Lent, and I have found them highly beneficial in deepening my experiences of those seasons. If you’ve never used a prayer journal, here’s a quick description for you. Most journals…
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My Love Story with the Eucharistic Jesus – Part 2
I have been delaying getting this post live. This is the part of the story wherein I hurt the One who loves me quite seriously. Because of that it took me a while to write, and even longer to get back to edit and publish. But better late than never. In my last post I mentioned that in high school one of my good friends was serving as a Eucharistic Minister. What I didn’t mention was that most of my closest friends were ALL chosen to be ministers. To serve in this ministry, students were selected from among the seniors by the chaplain’s office and other key staff. I was…
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My Love Story with the Eucharistic Jesus – Part 1
In senior year of high school, I got the unfortunate schedule assignment of 4th period lunch! Fourth period began at 10:40 – not the most desirable time to eat lunch. AND there were only about 20 seniors in the whole lunch period. What a miserable schedule to endure in senior year! Twenty-something years later, I realize that 4th period lunch was an immense gift. That is when my love story with the Eucharistic Jesus began. As a teen, I had only a hint of knowledge about faith and not much personal experience with Jesus, which I think is fairly common. However, I went to a special high school, run by…
