We Are All Called to Lives of Holiness
The next saint in the series is St. Monica. For those of you struggling with wanting your children, family, friends, and others to return to the Church or convert, St. Monica is the saint for you. She shows us how our prayers, sacrifices, and love will be used by the Holy Spirit for their sanctification …
Continue reading "The Saints and the Cross Episode 8: St. Monica"
Happy Third Sunday of Easter! Today I talk about the next saint in my series: St. Joan of Arc. This one is for my daughter who loves the martyr saints. St. Joan of Arc is a wonderful example to us of how to follow God's will even when those around us do not understand it …
Continue reading "The Saints and the Cross Episode 7: St. Joan of Arc"
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Pieta (1876) A blessed Holy Week to you all! Today I cover Our Lady of Sorrows in the next episode of The Saints and the Cross. Let us turn to Our Lady of Sorrows to help us unite our will fully to Christ's and to allow ourselves to be pierced with …
Continue reading "The Saints and the Cross Episode 3: Our Lady of Sorrows"
Today I begin my video series on the saints and the Cross with St. Charles Borromeo. I also provide a lens through which we can view the present pandemic and exile by referencing St. John Paul II's Salvifici Doloris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha_omS6vBMw I'm still taking suggestions for saints you'd like to see me cover. Feel free to …
Continue reading "The Saints and the Cross Episode 1: St. Charles Borromeo"
As Christians, our lives and our relationships are meant to be different from the prevailing culture. We are witnesses to Christ crucified and risen from the dead, who is the cause for our joy. As the Mystical Body, the communion we share with one another is one of the ways that we are able to draw …
Continue reading "Catholic Exchange: Evangelizing Through Christian Friendship"
**Today's guest post is from fellow Catholic Exchange contributor Matthew Chicoine. American founding father Benjamin Franklin said, “Diligence overcomes difficulties; sloth makes them.” Laziness not only creates problems, but also worsens them. Procrastination, a cousin of laziness, is the particular type of sloth that haunts me. I make excuses to explain and justify my laziness. …
Continue reading "Guest Post: 3 Tactics to Overcome Spiritual Sloth"
How does God prepare us for the mission He has in mind for us? One of the ways He does this is by testing us. God allows certain things to happen in our lives to see if we will be faithful and endure what He is asking of us. He uses suffering, temptations, weaknesses, failures, …
Continue reading "When God Tests Us to Prepare Us for a Mission"
Our family lives in the shadow of a dangerous chronic illness. Regular readers already know that nearly two years ago my husband started coughing up large amounts of blood early one morning and our lives changed forever. Two months later he was diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis. A rare auto-immune disease that affects the blood vessels …
Continue reading "Chronic Illness: The Cross, Trust, and the Corporal Works of Mercy"
Recently one of my closest friends came to me to confide a very devastating situation that she had been made aware of regarding someone else. She was stunned and understandably shocked. Like most of us, she wanted to know how people could fall into such deep dark places with little or no remorse. It's the …
Our souls are expansive. They are able to reach depths that we cannot fully fathom. When we begin to see this part of ourselves we often experience fear and awe. We do not know what to do with this part of ourselves because we are often blind to it in our daily lives. We are blind …
Continue reading "Catholic Exchange: Our Ego Keeps Us from the Greatness We Were Made For"
Swimming the Depths 