As you prayerfully discern what God wants you to do for Lent, below are several book recommendations that can help you go deeper in your spiritual life and get closer to God.  You can easily find these books online, at your local Catholic store, or through your local library.   Contemplating The Seven Sorrows of Mary: A Chaplet With St. Alphonsus Liguori by Joseph Hollcraft and Ruther Berghorst   This first part of the book focuses on St. Alphonsus Liguori’s explanation of co

Like our birthday, our Baptism is a special occasion and one that should be celebrated.  Our Baptism is “God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift” (CCC 1216).  In celebrating our Baptism, we are honoring God. Here are five ways to celebrate your Baptism: Celebrate The Sacraments Without the sacrament of Baptism, none of the other sacraments would be possible.  The next time you receive the sacrament of Confession your sins are washed cleaned like they day of your Baptism.  W

“To Jesus through Mary” is a famous quote by Saint Louis De Monforte.  It means Mary is directing us to Jesus through her love and her intercession. “Mary is all-holy. For the community of believers she represents the paradigm of the authentic holiness that is achieved in union with Christ” (General Audience- Mary: Model of Faith, Hope, and Charity, Saint John Paul II September 3, 1997).  Mary provides us a model of how to become holy through her virtues.  While there are man

For us as Catholics, receiving the Eucharist is the “source and the summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324).  When we receive the Eucharist, we are as fully united to Christ as we can be.  To really embrace this union, we should prepare our body, mind, and soul before receiving Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The way we prepare and experience a feast at a friend or family member’s house is the way we should prepare for the Eucharist at Mass.  First imagine that this

The purpose of Mother’s Day is to celebrate all mothers: spiritual mothers, physical mothers, religious sisters, consecrated women, married women, and single women.  We are all called to be mothers.  It is innate in women to care and nurture others both physically and spiritually.  Those who are married and waiting for physical motherhood can still find this day to be harder that most.  My husband and I got married in June of 2016 in our early 30s.  Since then we have struggl

Do you remember when you found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real?   According to Google, most children find out at 8 years old. I didn’t find out until a couple days before my 13th birthday!  It was a very traumatizing experience for me.  I can understand why people do it because their parents did it and their parents did it and so forth.  Even when I was a first and second grade teacher I “played along” because that is what I guess you were supposed to do. I even went as far

Last year, in 2022 I was listening to a homily from our parish priest about evangelization.  While my husband and I are always trying to spread the faith, I got some inspiration to extend our efforts of evangelization to our neighborhood.  I decided since October is the month of the Holy Rosary, that I would evangelize with the rosary during the whole month of October.  In the past I have given away rosaries to family, friends, and strangers directly.  But this time it would

As a woman of faith, I look to up to many holy woman saints.  One in particular, Saint Anne, is a saint whom I have drawn close to over the years.  No matter your state in life, Saint Anne is a role model for all of us women as we strive to be holy on our path to sainthood. Little is known about Saint Anne; however, we can get some insight about her life from other saints who had private revelations and visions.  Public revelation refers to the Deposit of Faith our Lord left

I am not Irish, but I like celebrating St. Patrick’s day with corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes.  The corn beef briskets or rounds are only available around the second or third week of March each year.  A corn beef round is incredibly rare.  If you see one, buy it, I promise you will not be disappointed!  As I was thinking ahead of when to cook the corn beef, thinking we usually cook it on St. Patrick’s day or shortly after, I pulled out my calendar.  Well, to my surprise, S

1. How long is Lent? Lent is 40 days because that is how long Jesus prayed in the desert (Matthew 4:1-2).  Forty is also a significant number in the Bible because it signifies renewal.  During the great flood, God covered the earth with water for 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:12) The Israelites were in the desert for 40 years (Numbers 14:34).  Moses was on the mountain for 40 days with God (Exodus 32).    Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on the Wednesday before Holy T

When we see a large corporation in the news for supporting Planned Parenthood, it makes you wonder: if I purchase from such a company, am I supporting Planned Parenthood too?  The question we should be asking ourselves is, “What is my intention in purchasing goods from this company?”  Am I purchasing from this company because I want to support Planned Parenthood?  If the answer is yes, then this is morally wrong (this is a grave mortal sin) and we call this formal cooperation

I was reminded earlier this week, at Confession actually, that in order to prepare for the coming of baby Jesus at Christmas we need to practice detachment.  When I think of things one could possibly be attached to, I usually think of material things like money, shiny cars, clothing, shoes, etc.  But we can also be attached to ideas.  For example, my husband and I are in our late thirties.  We have been married for over 6 years and are still waiting for children.  Now childre

The Rosary is a powerful prayer that was given to us by Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of Christ.  Mary appeared to St. Dominic and gave him the prayer of the rosary and instructed him to spread it.  We can pray the rosary for specific prayer intentions, but the main purpose of the rosary is to meditate on the mysteries of the lives of Mary and Jesus to ultimately get closer to our Lord.  Because our Lady specifically gave us this prayer, there are several promises and graces whe

The Seven Sorrows of Mary is a Catholic devotion given to St. Bridget of Sweden by Mary for us to grow closer to our Lord. By meditating on these sufferings of Mary, we are mediating on the sufferings of Jesus.  Mary’s heart is so intertwined with Jesus’ Heart that they are, in some sense, one heart.  While Mary had many sufferings, we meditate on seven of these sufferings because they are the deepest sorrows of Our Lady. The following are the Seven Sorrows of Mary associated

The Life of Mary As Seen by The Mystics  is a book compiled by Raphael Brown.  It consists of private revelations about Mary’s life from the engagement of her parents, St. Ann and St. Joachim, to Mary’s death, Assumption, and Crowning.  The book relies on the writings of four holy women: St. Elizabeth of Schoenau, St. Bridget of Sweden, Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda, and Blessed Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich.    I can’t remember how this book was recommended to me

Happy Feast Day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!  This feast day has great importance to my husband and myself.  For one, my husband proposed to me on this feast day and we are called by God to spread the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the world. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is very popular and one that is easily recognized.  This image was given by Our Lord to St. Margret Mary of Alacoque.  She was a French nun, who was born in 1647 and had a great devotion to t

Do you like to travel? I love to travel! I like seeing new places, experiencing different cultures, and eating a variety of flavors. If traveling by plane, I try to get the window seat if possible. It amazes me that the human race has invented a means of transportation that can travel at almost 1,000 miles per hour! My favorite part is the lift off. You get this child-like thrill. You feel the initial tug of the plane as it sits on the runway and then starts to travel faster

I consider myself a simple person.  I am frugal, but generous.  There are many times in life where I had to sacrifice and struggle because of lack of money.  I grew up in a suburb of Detroit in a middle class family.  We always had enough food on the table and clothes to wear, even though they were hand-me-downs from my older sister.  I was privileged to go to 13 years of Catholic schools.  My struggle with money didn’t start until I was in college and on my own.  Every penny

As today is Good Friday, we remember the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  We remember His five wounds: one in each hand, one in each foot, and one on His side.  We can imagine that there are many more wounds of Jesus since He was scourged at the pillar and crowned with thorns.  But the most painful physical wound of Jesus was actually a hidden wound.  This hidden most painful wound of our Lord is the shoulder wound of Jesus that we know of from St. Bernard of Clairva

“Pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”