Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Her name is Fiat. That cute little goldfish--her name is Fiat. Fiat , of course, is Latin for  let it be done . In Lisa Hendey's brand-new book,  The Grace of Yes , Fiat is both the charming little goldfish on the cover as well as the simple yet profound theme guiding readers through the pages of the book.  The Grace of Yes  explores eight virtues that help us build a habit of generosity. The goldfish name surfaced (ha! fish pun!) after CatholicMom.com hosted a "Name the Goldfish" contest. The goldfish is essentially just a decoration, I realize, but the community goldfish-naming phenomenon is no mere ornament; the CatholicMom.com clever fish-naming campaign epitomizes the way Lisa--the site's founder-- habitually reaches out to others. Since the year 2000, when Lisa launched CatholicMom.com out of her California home, Lisa's work has connected countless moms (and other people) seeking to integrate faith into daily life. Read more as part of today

As Catholics, we make a lot of Mary’s fiat. Her “yes” to God. And rightfully so: we get how that “yes” gave us a chance at salvation. Unfortunately, in seeking to imitate Mary, we have almost crushed ourselves with consequences of a life filled with our own “yes” responses and have, ultimately, been saying “no” to God without often realizing it. Somehow we have translated Mary’s “yes” to mean that we ought to say “yes” to everything that comes our way—to every idea that pops into our head and to every opportunity to do something good; we’ve mistakenly believed that our lives are meant to be filled with fiats when, in truth, these fiats have often taken us away from God. They have filled our lives with obligations and busy-ness that may not actually be God’s will for us. I’m at the age where all my friends and acquaintances are caregivers of one sort or another. They are grandparents doing everything they can to help pick up the slack and they are volunteers at a variet