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A biography of St. Therese (and a Kindle bargain)

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Note: In celebration of the feast of St. Therese on Wednesday, October 1, the Kindle version of Trusting God with St. Therese is only $.99 until 8 AM Pacific Thursday. This may be the only time I run such a sale, so it’s a great opportunity to pick up a copy if you haven’t already. St. Therese of Lisieux is one of the most popular saints in history. Almost immediately after her death, her little way of spiritual childhood began to spread. She was canonized less than thirty later and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II. St. Therese’s childhood Marie-François-Therese Martin was born in Alençon, France in 1873. Her parents were Louis Martin and Marie-Azelie Guerin Martin. She was the youngest of their nine children, four of whom died before age six. Louis and Zelie were committed Catholics. They were standouts even in the Catholic subculture that had grown up in the larger, anti-Catholic culture of their place and time. Both had considered religious

You're invited to my book launch party

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Wednesday, August 6, marks the official launch of Trusting God with St. Therese . So far, I have mostly marketed it to my friends and followers on social media, giving you the first look at this important project. Everyone who has bought the book in either format by noon on August 5, or who has helped me with an endorsement or review, is invited to my exclusive launch party. Family members who received a free copy are also welcome. I’d love to celebrate with you in person, but since we are scattered all over the country, I’ve chosen to host a virtual party. I will be hosting a Google Hangout from 8-9 PM Central Time. What’s a Google+ Hangout, you ask? It’s Google’s video chat service. I will be talking with you live via my computer. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be on camera! You can even attend in your pj’s. You can submit questions to me ahead of time or during the Hangout itself. I will answer as many as I can. Do you have questions about any part of my book? D

Win a signed print copy of Trusting God with St. Therese!

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Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the day! Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Trusting God with St. Therese is now available on Amazon for the Kindle and in print .  For the time being (at least the next 90 days) the ebook will be exclusive to Amazon. However, the paperback should be available soon at Barnes and Noble and other online retailers. I hope to see it in some Catholic bookstores as well. And those of you who are local or who know me personally are always welcome to purchase the paperback directly from me as well. The last 14 months writing and publishing this book have been busy but rewarding. I pray you will find them rewarding for you too. I really believe it will help almost everyone but those very advanced in the spiritual life to come closer to Christ. Now for the fun stuff! Visit Contemplative Homeschool to enter the contest and see the other contests and events marking the release of  Trusting God with St. Therese.

For His Greater Glory (and Those Aren't Just Words)

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In December of 2011, right around the time I was finishing up my manuscript for Finding Grace , I began to search the Internet for information about how to go about having it published.  My cyber-travels ultimately led me to  this 2007 article about Cheryl Dickow, a former middle school teacher who had started her own Catholic publishing house called Bezalel Books .  I was immediately struck by the thought that I'd started writing Finding Grace in 2007, and that was the same year that this article originally appeared in Catholic Review-- and I believe the same year that Cheryl started her company.  I felt an immediate connection with Cheryl and it seemed that God was pointing me in the direction of Bezalel Books. I will always be grateful that I stumbled upon that particular article about this extraordinary woman at that particular time. Cheryl Dickow is not only a publisher; she is also an editor, a speaker, a blogger, and a contributor to many Catholic periodicals.  She

You're more like St. Therese than you think

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Do you think you have little in common with St. Therese? Think again. If I’ve learned anything in writing Trusting God with St. Therese, it’s how much Therese’s struggles were like mine. Consider these points: Therese was born weakened by Original Sin. It took her years of grace and hard work to overcome family tragedy. She had difficulties relating to other children at school. She suffered from scruples.  God repeatedly made her wait for things she believed were His will. Her family members misunderstood her spirituality. She felt natural aversion to people with difficult personalities. She feared losing her remaining loved ones. Spiritual darkness and dryness in prayer were her norm. Great deeds for God were beyond her capability. She suffered terrible pain. She was tempted to despair. Now tell me that none of those sound like you. Think you can’t become a saint? Think again. Therese believed in the same God you do. He was her strength and her righteousness. H

Book Recommendation: All Things Girl, Truth for Teens

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Bezalel Books has published a 2014 second edition of All Things Girl, Truth for Teens (the first edition came out in 2009).  This fabulous book, written by Cheryl Dickow, Peggy Bowes, Heather Renshaw, and Kayla Brandon, contains a wealth of information and practical advice for teenaged girls who are navigating the treacherous minefield known as adolescence.  For the next four days, the Kindle version, originally priced at $5.99, is on sale for $0.99.   If you are currently raising, or will one day raise, a daughter, you should really get your hands on a copy of this book.  Written in a conversational style that makes material that might otherwise seem too dry very entertaining and compelling, this book covers a variety of important topics. All Things Girl, Truth for Teens includes chapters on Relationships, Fashion, and Skin, Hair, and Make-Up, among a number of others.  It discusses practicing virtues, imitating the saints, and dating the right types of boys.  But most of all, t

A sad anniversary and a free chapter of Trusting God with St. Therese

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This is my family (plus two friends) on June 10, 1974. I’m the one with the braids in the front. Terri is behind me next to our mom. Here is how our car looked thirty minutes later. Today is the fortieth anniversary of one of the saddest events in my life so far. On June 10, 1974, our family was driving to the annual Catholic Charismatic Conference at the University of Notre Dame. We began our journey in Spokane, Washington, where we had spent a weekend on retreat. Just outside Missoula, Montana, the car rolled over three times, landing in the median of the freeway. I was in the back with the seat down and no seat belt. So were two of my siblings and two friends. I ended up with stitches in my leg and a bump on my head. My sister Terri, who had been sitting next to me, was thrown from the car and died. She was ten years old. Why did God let this happen? Didn’t He know where we had come from and where we were going? Hadn’t He heard Terri’s voice, when

Family and homeschool activities for the rest of Lent

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Ready to celebrate the rest of Lent as a family? Here are several activities you can do together, whether or not you homeschool. p=suitable for grades 1-3 m=suitable for grades 4-6 j=suitable for grades 7-9 s=suitable for grades 10-12  Books Besides reading the Gospel accounts of Holy Week, try reading and discussing the following books that deal with sacrifice, martyrdom, or resurrection: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (p). The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt (p+). The Queen and the Cross: The Story of St. Helen by Cornelia Mary Bilinsky (p, m) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (p+ for reading aloud; m+ for independent reading). Continue reading at Contemplative Homeschool.

I'm in the final stages of writing Trusting God with St. Therese

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The tomb of St. Therese in the basilica dedicated to her in Lisieux, France. This week I began bribing my kids to help me finish my book. They each start with $1, and lose 5¢ each time they interrupt me with discipline problems or goofing around during school hours. We’re doing lots of worksheets right now! I wrote my final chapter of Trusting God with St. Therese on Tuesday. Now I’m doing some final rewriting and editing. I hope to send it out to a few Beta readers in about two weeks. Then there will be one more round of editing and final formatting before I make it available to select book reviewers. If you have sent me an email lately and haven’t heard back right away, please know that I am not ignoring you. I am just really  focused on my book until this stage is complete. I will try to reply to as soon as I can. In the meantime, here are some links related to Trusting God with St. Therese that you might have missed. I have 4 Pinterest Boards related t

My favorite books about St. Therrese

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Writing Trusting God with St. Therese , I have purchased or checked out from the library several book about the saint that I had not read before. I have also revisited some old favorites. There are countless books about Therese, but not all are of the same quality or focus. Here are some of my favorites, in brief. Throughout this year, I hope to give you more detailed critiques of them and others. I Believe in Love I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux by Fr. Jean C. J. d’Elbee is by far my favorite book on Therese. In fact, it’s one of my favorite books of all time. I have given this book away twice before. I just received it for Christmas for the third time and am rereading it. The point that struck me most on my last reading was that we shouldn’t say, “I’m striving to love God.” Instead, we should simply say, “I love God.” Love is a matter of the will. If we truly will to love, we achieve love. Read the rest of

My Annual Mani-Pedi and a Trip through Outer Space

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[part of the SmallSuccess link-up on CatholicMom.com] The pedicurist recoiled in horror when she beheld the extent of my callouses. "Callous cream," she sternly recommended, and then proceeded to chatter excitedly in Korean to the pedicurist next to her, presumably describing my icky feet in gory detail. After rubbing the magic callous removal cream into my feet and scraping, scraping, scraping, the pedicurist triumphantly raised the scraper with the incontrovertible evidence of my appallingly negligent foot care. She must have thought I had been herding yak barefoot over the Russian steppes all last summer. But, with six kids, I don't have time for weekly or even monthly visits to the nail salon. And I made a bargain with myself not to get that annual mani-pedi until my husband and I revised the proposal on our marriage advice book and sent it off to the publisher. As soon as I pressed the send button on the proposal, I hustled down to the local NAILS NAILS NAILS!

"On Heaven and Earth": A pope and a rabbi

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(photo courtesy of http://www.vosizneias.com) It's a measure of my attachment to this six-and-a-half-hour-long audiobook that would listen to it in my driveway when coming home from my commute, and I felt sad this morning when I finished listening it on my drive to my high-school teaching job. This book is for anyone interested in issues of faith, of history and culture and on a friendship that shapes the life of the current Holy Father. Indeed, I found echoes of one of my friendships in theirs. Keep Reading...

Should we "push" our children to learn?

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  I’m going to start critiquing some of the homeschool methodology/philosophy books I’ve read. Oliver Van DeMille (along with his wife Rachel) created the Leadership Education method, also know by the title of Oliver’s first book on the subject A Thomas Jefferson Education . I have garnered much from this philosophy. However, there are several points that I question from my perspective of a Contemplative Homeschool. I will discuss one such issue here: whether we should “push” our children to learn or wait “until they are ready.” The DeMilles take up the question on pages 20-23 of Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning. They are criticizing the work of Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky “taught that teachers should observe students playing and intervene at a sign of interest to push them beyond their comfort level.” The Demilles argue that this works with adults, but not small children. They say that pushing kids teaches these lessons, among others: “Learning is wha

Books to teach boys virture

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Finding good books for boys as they get older is always a challenge. Lat fall I put together a list of good books for boys aged 10-14 . You will see that the scope of it is limited.  On my blog, I want to introduce you to some of my favorites in more detail. Not all of these are on the list. A novel-length fairytale The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are undoubtedly already on your radar screen. The Horse and His Boy is my favorite, and one of my favorite children’s books of any genre. It is the story of Shasta, who has been raised by a Calormene fisherman, but is light haired like the people of the north. When he overhears the fisherman negotiating to sell him as a slave to a lord, he runs away, taking the lord’s horse with him. The horse, Bree, is a talking horse from Narnia, eager to escape back to his homeland. Soon Shasta and Bree meet up with a young Calormene lady named Aravis, who is also running away with her Narnian horse. The foursome eventually get c

"New" discoveries from the homeschool conference

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Continuing my reflections on the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference, I want to share with you some new resources I discovered. They might not all be new to you, but they were to me. God’s Covenant with You: The Bible Tells a Story by Scott Hahn and Stratford Caldecott, with illustrations by David Clayton, was published in 2009, but this is the first time I’ve come across it.  You are no doubt familiar with Bible scholar and convert from Presbyterianism Scott Hahn. This book presents his perspective on the Bible as the story of God’s familial covenants with man in language children can understand. David Clayton is an artist in residence at Thomas More College. He has filled the book with outline drawings that evoke icons and master painters. Your children can color the pictures or, as I prefer, try to copy them. As a fan of both Hahn and Clayton, I snatched this book up. I plan to use it to review the Bible after we finish the New Testament next year.

Win a free book for a first communicant or other child!

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CatholicFamilyGifts.com offered me a free first-Communion gift to review and give away to one of my readers. Since my boys are currently interested in hidden picture books, I chose C an You Find Saints? : Introducing Your Child to Holy Men and Women. After the review, I will tell you how can enter to win this book. Can You Find Saints? is one in a series of four  books by Philip D. Gallery. The series also includes Can You Find Jesus?, Can You Find the Followers of Jesus?, and Can You Find Bible Heroes? Janet L. Harlow illustrated all four books. They combine hide-and-seek fun with learning about the faith. Given the cover and the genre, I was prepared for cartoon illustrations similar to the Where's Waldo? series. Harlow provides more than that. The inside front and back covers contain a parchment-like timeline of saints, beginning with Abraham. "Search 1: Mary Lives a Life of Perfect Virtue" delighted me with its depiction of the mysteries of the R

On A Failure of Love: "Poor Baby: A Child of the Sixties Looks Back On Abortion:"

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Last night - Good Friday -  felt like the right time to download on my brand new Kindle a book - really more like a 50-plus page essay, by L.A.-based writer Heather King called "Poor Baby," a raw meditation on her three abortions. No matter one's personal history, or one's political views on whether abortion should be legal, or one's moral belief as to whether abortion ever can be an ethical choice, this book is worth reading. In fact, I would say anyone with strong views about abortion should read this book with clear eyes and an open heart. We need King's voice in the conversation. Keep Reading....

Teaching typology with Joseph and his brothers

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In past posts, I have written on Peter Rabbit and the Fall of Man, Benjamin Bunny and the narrow gate , and the Epiphany in My Side of the Mountain . I am making this into a series called Finding God in children's literature . Before posting more on fiction, I want to examine how to find Jesus in the Old Testament. Let's look at typology with the story of Joseph in Genesis. Typology finds the things, people, or events in the Bible that prefigure more significant things, people, or events in salvation history. Most types are in the Old Testament. Most anti-types (what the types prefigure) are in the New Testament. Fisheaters.com has a fuller explanation of typology . Learn more about Joseph and Jesus.

The Myth of Persecution

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Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus .~ from the Te Deum When I wrote to Dr. Moss requesting her latest work The Myth of Persecution , I received a prompt and gracious reply assuring me of a copy. Dr. Moss hoped that I would not see the book as an attack upon the Church. I responded that I did not see the book as an attack on the Church and even if it was, the Church has been through worse. We have nothing to fear from the truth of history. After reading the book my reply is not altered. It is a well-written book with clear explanations indicative of a skilled teacher. However, I recommend Myth to others with reservations, since in spite of the genuine scholarship which Dr. Moss shares with us, there is a contemporary political slant given to the narrative which clouds the objectivity of how the historical evidence is presented. For instance, my cognitive processes are strained to envision St. Justin Martyr (pp. 109-112) and Glenn Beck (p. 250) as conf

"Cravings:" On Human Hunger and Being Wonderfully Made

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I'm going to go ahead and review Mary DeTourris Poust's latest book, Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image and God, without having finished it. This is a wonderful book. This a book on the relationship of spirituality to food and the first, its publishers say, written from a Catholic perspective. Keep Reading...