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It’s been awhile since I’ve thought about Abraham, the great granddaddy of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. But as I prepare a talk on him, I’m renewing my acquaintance. Aspects of his life shed light on our own. If you recall, when Abraham was already 75 years old, the one and only true God told him to leave his land and relatives. Yet God didn’t reveal where he was to go. This command made no sense, but Abraham began walking. Talk about a leap of faith! click to continue

The Consecration: (The Battle Begins)  "This is my body..." This is when I am usually attacked.  When I know the consecration is near, I prepare myself, steel myself, get ready.   I do not know exactly why this is when I am attacked, but I think it is because I know what is coming and how to effectively utilize the gift God has given us in the Holy Mass for others.  The Catholic at the Holy Mass is for the  other .  We should rarely be there for ourselves, but we should be there for the rest of the world that is  NOT  there.    The demons do not want you to fully understand what is really happening in the Holy Mass, and will do everything in their power to distract you from the work that God is doing on the Earth.  To read more... CLICK HERE!

If you are looking for something unique and engaging, consider  Laura Pearl's online book club ! Join women from around the country and share thoughts, gain insights, and just have fun! Laura is the author of two novels:  Finding Grace  and her latest novel  Erin's Ring . She's a gifted storyteller and a funny and warm-hearted blogger (as well as mother of five grown sons...)  Nancy Carabio Belanger  (author of The Gate which won first place in the 2014 Catholic Press Awards for novels) has said about Laura's  latest novel : " This wholesome novel had me shed tears of sadness and joy, and these brave young Irish-Catholic women from different generations drew me in. Lovingly and tenderly written,  Erin's Ring  is a story of true friendship, sacrificial love, and above all, the God Who is never bound by time or space."

Looking to start a spiritual journal but getting stuck with writers block? Check out these Catholic journal prompts drawing from the Scriptures and the wisdom of the Saints in this new monthly series from Saints 365. Each month will provide journal prompts around a monthly theme drawn from the scriptures, the writings of the saints, and other spiritual books - this month's theme is love. Have any other ideas? Please share them in the comments?  Click here to read Catholic Journal Prompts: Love Edition...  

The next stage of prayer that we have to talk about has been called by so many names that it is often hard to tell that various writers are talking about the same thing. Teresa of Avila calls it recollection. But she also calls the first stage of infused contemplation recollection. This adds to our confusion. On my blog I will call this stage of prayer acquired recollection , as opposed to the infused recollection that is a pure gift of God. Other authors use the terms acquired contemplation, the prayer of simplicity, or the prayer of simple gaze . In Interior Castle Teresa doesn’t speak much of prayer in the third mansions, except to say that souls at this stage “spend hours in recollection.” If we find prayer tedious, tend to avoid it, or cut it short, we are probably not firmly in the third mansions. People in the third mansions love to pray and would spend much of their day praying if they could. In fact, they begin to recollect themselves throughout the day as t

Do you want to know my favorite thing about the New Evangelization? The pajamas. Yes, the pajamas! This all makes sense (I promise) at Praying with Grace . Visit the slick Catholic Conference 4 Moms  website  to register!

What did the cry look like? I always wondered what that cry sounded like? How amazing and how frightening it must have been for those around the man to witness. The scream of the demon always had an actual physical presence for me as well. I could see the scream. And it was horrifying. The Bible is amazing in the details it gives and in the details it omits. In this passage, as in many others, we see Jesus commanding an unclean spirit to leave, but we don't know many details about the man or about what made the spirit unclean. Volumes could probably have been written about this man and his life, his trials and the trials he put others through, but we are just not privy to that information. When I was younger, I always assumed the man was your typical "crazy" man. I pictured him calling out to Jesus that day, but also talking to himself, dancing foolishly, acting strangely. I pictured him unable to hold down a job or keep a girlfriend or support a fam

What are you doing for Lent?  Will you give up chocolate?  Will you give up wine (or whine)?  Will you remember to not eat meat on Fridays?  Will you read that classic Catholic book you've been promising yourself that you would read for years? You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

A writing prompt once asked, “Think about the last time you broke a rule (a  big one,  not just ripping the tags off  your pillows).  Were you burned, or did things turn out for the best? ” Just like most people, I do not simply break a rule here and there;  no,  like every other human being, I continually break the most fundamental law of the universe without any conscious effort by refusing to accept reality. Instead of realizing my place in the universe, as one of God’s creations, I put on masks and false personalities in a vain attempt to deny my very nature. In pride, I act like a queen at the centre my own little world. Even worse, I steal God’s job by trying to save myself by my own efforts. continue reading

I'm thrilled to announce  Marriage Rx , a  new monthly marriage advice column from me and my husband, Catholic psychiatrist Dr. Manuel P. Santos! It will appear monthly on CatholicMom.com on the fourth Monday. I'll also repost on the Can We Cana? blog. My husband and I have already received lots comments and questions to feature in future columns. Please keep them coming! How Marriage Rx Can Help You Most marriages encounter bumps and trouble spots along the way. But Catholics don’t view marriage as disposable. We want to fix our marriage, not throw it away. If you’re looking for Catholic marriage advice from someone who understands the powerful and healing graces of the Sacrament of Matrimony, Marriage Rx can give you answers that will truly help. It’s anonymous.  When you submit questions, you don’t have to use your full name, or even your real name. Just email us at  catholicmarriagerx@gmail.com  and look for the answer in an upcoming column. It’s free.  You

Many Christians (and non-Christians) find the hardest part of believing to be the problem of evil.  Whenever terrible things happen to people, there is always that lingering question of, "Why me?" You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

" Lord, I am Yours.  Lead me where You want.  I come to do Your will.  Let me be Your eyes.  Let me be Your mouth.  Let me Your Hands.  Let me be Your Feet.  I am here.  I come to do Your Will." When the Divine touches you. You will never be the same. You will go to places you never dreamed you'd go. You'll do things you never dreamed you could do. You'll sail seas you never dreamed you'd sail. You will walk in His Footsteps.   Read more at:: His Unending Love

'The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish  which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterwards plunges down and is always going  deeper; the soul plunges,  dives, and loses itself  in the sweetness  of conversing with God.' St. John Vianney   (from The Cloistered Heart)

You've heard this one before: or not. After church, one of the older folks said to the pastor: "you should talk more about sin." The pastor was puzzled, since he'd been talking about nothing but sin for the last few weeks. Then he realized that for this person "sin" was a handful of activities that the person either didn't enjoy, couldn't participate in, or actively disliked. Having well-defined personal preferences is okay. Expecting everyone to share them is unreasonable: Getting them confused with universal principles leads to trouble. I'll be talking about sin. I'm against it, by the way: which may not mean what you think it does. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Say again, please!   “Diet and Nutrition Essential for Mental Health” ? Yes, indeed...  “Evidence is rapidly growing showing vital relationships between both diet quality and potential nutritional deficiencies and mental health,” a new international collaboration revealed… “It is TIME for clinicians to consider diet and additional nutrients as part of the treating package to manage the enormous burden of mental ill health”… >> Click Here to Read More at: The Way to Nourish for Life >> Let us pray: “Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us; for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.”–St. Ignatius of Loyola [In honor of young Gabby, whose funeral was today (1/31/2015), may she rest in peace.]

I was fed up being ripped off at motorway service stations. I found the price of ‘tea’ appalling and it invariably tasted like coffee-coloured dishwater. So I bought two 12 volt kettles at a sale and decided to make my own tea in the car. The good news was that it worked. The bad news was that the water took three hours to boil. I was so frustrated that when I returned home I plugged the kettle into the mains for a quick cup of tea. There was a flash, a puff of smoke, followed by the smell of burning and my poor kettle gave up the ghost. I had learnt my lesson – 240 volts into 12 volts will not go. It was the same in the Old Testament, the infinite love of God simply would not go into finite human beings. That’s why nobody could even see God and live, and the very thought of his infinite love entering into our finite human being was therefore total inconceivable.  read on ...

Vatican II can be properly understood only as being in continuity with the church's millennial traditions, not as a radical break with the past . Pope Benedict Man likes to be in control, even of God. Of course,  most of us would deny trying to box in the Almighty because we realize how ridiculous this sounds.  Yet because we really do not like to change, we end up resisting even God.  We like our comfort zone. We especially don't like the rug ripped from under us and that is usually how God must most often snag our attention. God is not stagnant. He is not the God of the past, but God of the present,  alive, a dynamic powerhouse seeking to heal, transform and draw us ever closer to His heart. This week I was wondering why so many Traditionalists are against Vatican II, labelling all the popes which came after as illegitimate and even heretics, especially Pope Francis. When I researched the question, an insightful homily popped up by Pope Francis from May 29,

Today is Thomas Merton's 100th birthday.   Thomas Merton  (January 31, 1915- December 10, 1968) was a Catholic convert who became a Trappist Monk, a writer and even a peace activist.  Why does  Merton still matter ? You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

St Joseph and the Christ Child , El Greco, c.1600 Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain [ Web Gallery of Art They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.   They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.   Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,   and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”   But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”   And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.     They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He   commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”   At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. Remains of the 4th century synagogue, Capernaum [ Wikipedi

I am from an era when everything was closed by 5 PM on Saturday and all day Sunday.  Not a gas station, grocery store, department store or anything else I can think of was open.  Sunday was truly a day of rest and for family. You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

Humans have hands . So do apes, monkeys, lemurs, and koalas. For that matter, a chameleon's feet look and act a lot like hands. But they don't have precision-grip thumbs that can line up with any finger. We do: and apparently have had a firm grip on tools for over two million years. Scientists had a pretty good idea about how the common ancestor of dinosaurs, crocodiles and alligators, and birds, developed. A quarter-billion-year-old fossil shows that the situation is more complicated than scientists thought.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The darkest month. The sky is mostly gray. The wind is cold. The trees are bare.  The days are short and the nights are long. My  mind fills with memories. My daughter's cancer diagnosis several years ago. My dad's short, final bout with cancer three years ago. Day after day I relive the pain I felt through their struggles. Each day of this month I can tell you what I was doing on this day then.  It is as if no time has passed at all. Some days I feel as if I am lost in the past.  Other days I worry what is out there in my future. I find it difficult to fully embrace the present. I spend my time turning back, looking forward--unsettled. I have lost my focus. I ask my husband if this is all there is.  Struggling to get up in the morning. Going back to bed at night. With little thought of what I have done in between.  To an outsider, I may look still, but my mind is racing. Thinking. Remembering.  To read more:  http://www.restfulwaters.net/january/

'One of the glories of Scripture is that it can embrace many meanings in a single passage.' St. Thomas Aquinas From The Breadbox Letters

Every month, my dear friend Tiffany at Life of a Catholic Librarian and I pair up and share a saint whose feast day is celebrated within the respective month. The saint has to speak to us. This month, I didn't know who I would "adopt". I opened my Magnificat for January, and flipped to read the last pages first, don't you? The artwork is always stunning. There she was, St. Agnes found me. St. Agnes was born c. 291 A.D. Her feast day is January 21st, but before 1970, an additional feast was celebrated on January 28th. More important than when St. Agnes was born was when and how she died. When St. Agnes was thirteen years old, she refused Eutropius, then the son of the prefect of Rome. Eutropius fell in love (some say lust) with the young girl and just had to have her. He tried to win her over with gold and jewels, asking her parents for Agnes' hand in marriage. She flatly refused claiming that she already belonged to someone else. How could this be? How could

Those of us of a certain age will remember the singer,  Perry Como . You can listen to Perry at Being Catholic ... Really .

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With cleaning out my childhood home and house hunting, the concept of home has been on my mind a lot. Where is home? What makes it home? What happens when home is no longer your own? We have been evaluating foreclosures and pursuing real estate listing--often getting side tracked with the absurd, such as the home that is listed so cheaply that it obviously is barely standing but has "tons of potential for those with vision" and the $8 million estate with 15 bedrooms and it's own lake.  So far, nothing has felt right and the homes we have seriously considered have all fallen through for various reasons. Source Read more on Veils and Vocations.

Praise God. Adore God. Acknowledge Him as your Creator. Thank God. Love God. Talk to God. Rest in the presence of God. Sing to God. Love God. Adore God. Read more at:: His Unending Love

“More than one half of an average person’s day is spent being sedentary—sitting, watching television, or working at a computer,” said Dr. David Alter [Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehab...]. Okay, you may want to stand for this… He goes on to say: “It is not good enough to exercise for 30 minutes a day and be sedentary for 23 and half hours.”  [...ah, yes, just like with our spiritual lives] >> Click Here to Read More at: The Way to Nourish for Life >> with simple strategies from Dr. Atler on how to reduce sitting time, plus a little extra motivation to STAND ... in the place where you live ... and work ... think about it. ;) ;)

Since faith influences every part of  Sandra Dettori’s life, she creates religious art. As a Catholic mom and artist, she loves images which bring  glory to God and  blessings to others. Sandra understands that beautiful religious art can uplift our spirit and our thoughts. Through her art, Sandra shares her faith with others and offers her talents to God. read and see more

Vocations being at home - as small seeds planted in the hearts of children, that, with the proper care and feeding can develop into lives of self-giving witness to the Gospel. Parents can and should plant these seeds in their domestic churches. If you are looking for ways to promote an openness to priesthood or religious life in your children, grandchildren, classroom, homeschool group, etc. -  click here   for ideas, resources and prayer support for giving your children a vocations' mindset.

Scripture says, “The Word of God is living and effective.” It speaks to us personally. In the terrific book The Greatest Reformer, a biography of Pope Francis, there is an incident that illustrates this. Shortly after Pope Francis was made pope, a few evangelical pastors he used to pray with in Argentina visited him. One confided that God had given him a word for the new pope. From his iPad he read from Jeremiah, chapter 1: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations . . . . See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” With that, another pastor handed the pope a paper with a word he had brought for him. It had the same word on it. click to continue

February 11 Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes From this grotto I issue a special call to women. Appearing here, Mary entrusted her message to a young girl, as if to emphasize the special mission of women in our own time, tempted as it is by materialism and secularism: to be in today's society a witness of those essential values which are seen only with the eyes of the heart. To you, women, falls the task of being sentinels of the Invisible!  P ope John Paul II H ow fortunate we are to have so many ways and so many days to honor Mother Mary. Through her  fiat —the yes, let it be done—that she answered to God, the omnipotent Lord of the universe took on human flesh to redeem us. Countless great saints and learned theologians, from St. Bernard of Clairvaux to St. Albert the Great to Pope John Paul II in our own time have felt and expressed their powerful and heartfelt devotions to Mary. read more here

We’re going to start discussing the third mansions from St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle with the most exciting part–prayer. In the third mansions, prayer begins simplifying, as the soul prepares herself to receive infused contemplation. Now, when I say prayer begins simplifying in the third mansions, that doesn’t mean that a stark line lies between one mansion and another. We don’t one day say, “I’m going to take one step forward and leave second mansions behind forever, entering the third.” More likely, we peer through the doorway, thinking, “Those rooms look interesting.” Then we look over our shoulder and say,” But I’m comfortable here.” We might go through the door, make a small circle, and go back out. We might lean against the door frame, with one foot on each side. My point is that our prayer might start simplifying long before we leave second mansions completely behind. But when it is habitually simpler–and accompanied by growth in virtue–we can

I am not crafty. When normal women set out glue guns, fabric, and paint, I see magic wands, mithril, and pixie dust. The mere thought of "craft time" with my children makes my palms sweat. Pope Francis, however, inspired me to overcome my fears. This is the Pope's  universal prayer intention for January 2015 : " Peace: That those from diverse religious traditions and all people of good will may work together for peace. " In honor of this prayer intention, I stepped out of my comfort zone. I adapted, published, AND EXECUTED the following Apostleship of Prayer "Sea Bottle" craft activity with my daughter Rose. A little whisper popped into my head just as Rose and I were delighting in our teamwork. Here I was, spending time with my daughter, relishing the moment, and joining our prayers to the Pope's universal intention for peace. And then, BAM! My heart grew restless; my mind became distracted. With one little whisper, peace vanished. In

In the second century Bishop Marcion was the son of the Bishop of Sinope, a town on the southern coast of the Black Sea in present day Turkey. He didn’t intend to become a heretic. It was only because of his admiration and adulation for his ‘Divine Lord’ that he became horrified at the very idea that he had to undergo the indignity of being born into, and growing up in, a degraded and decadent material world like the rest of us. That’s why he wrote his own Gospel to put matters right. It began with Jesus fully grown - ‘In the fifteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius, God descended into Capharnaum and taught on the Sabbath’. Now the truth of the matter is that this is how God could have planned the incarnation, but he didn’t. He didn’t, because he wanted to be like us in every way possible, as St Paul insisted. This would enable us to learn from him and from his own personal spirituality. ...read on..

 Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually.  1 Chronicles 16:11 Images to inspire us to seek His face. Face of Jesus Crucified - Saints and Sculptures: Stations of the Cross at Kawa-kawa Hills, The Philippines Bernini sculpture Christ by Brenda Ahearn Sage Chapel, Cornell University see more imag es