Kate from New England
Tell us your name, age and your state-in-life!
Kate Maloney (Rooney after 8.11.18) | Age 22 | Engaged | Working Professional
Are you a cradle Catholic, convert or revert?
Cradle Catholic
What’s been the biggest game changer in your Catholic faith?
The biggest game changer in my faith was when I spent two summers on mission in the former Soviet Prison camps in Far East Siberia. I stopped being so turned inward and began to be drawn outside of myself. I finally saw my faith as a way to love and bring life to others. My time there really changed the trajectory of my life and helped me see myself, others, and the world as God does. It also radically changed my prayer life, which changed everything else.
Name a saint you identify with and share why.
St. Josemaría Escrivá – Reading Fr. Josemaría is a very unique spiritual experience for me. He’s the first saint who I’ve felt was speaking directly to my heart in the way my heart speaks. Fr. Josemaría had a lot of difficult life experiences that would have made it easy for him to make excuses and settle for mediocrity, but he only used these hard times to unite himself more deeply to the heart of Christ. He loves the Lord passionately and speaks with such directness and conviction. He is completely fierce.
When have you felt most valued as a woman in the Church?
I have always been very blessed to feel at home as a woman in the Catholic Church, but I have recently grown deeper in this by reading the Scriptures. There are so many beautiful passages where Jesus encounters women on a personal level. Meditating on these passages have revealed to my heart how deeply Jesus loves and desires me and wants to be known by me.
What’s your favorite way to pray?
My favorite method of prayer is Poustinia. Poustinia literally means “desert” and it’s a method of prayer where you take a period of time (usually 24+ hours) and go away to commune with the Lord – taking only bread, water, and the Scriptures with you. Poustinia sounds kind of radical and inaccessible, but anyone can do it! It’s completely changed my life and how I relate to God in the silence of my heart.
Favorite liturgical holiday?
My favorite liturgical holiday would have to be from Ash Wednesday through the Easter Season. I love the movement from Lent through Holy Week and beyond. It’s so organic and really helps me enter into the life of the Church. If I can only pick one day though, I’d have to go with Pentecost.
What do you do for fun?
I love drinking coffee, hiking, camping, reading, and cooking (in that order). I’m not trying to sound cliché, but I also love playing with kids. I think they’re hilarious.
Three words that describe you — go!
Salty. Growing. Revivified.
Explore Our Letters to Women
There’s a word in Welsh, “hiraeth,” that embodies what this new normal meant for me. The word hiraeth means a homesickness or nostalgia for a home that you can’t return to, or maybe never was. It is a deep longing for something that no longer exists. And that feeling – of a longing that can’t be fulfilled, a thirst that can’t be slaked – is exactly what it felt like, trying to “move on” from the grief, to find a new home.