It all started with Lent. I wound up experiencing a lot of suffering throughout the Lent of my junior year in college in various different aspects of my life. In my relationships, in my schoolwork, and even in my mental health… Coping with my depression and anxiety started to become more and more difficult.
Read MoreGrowing up, I was the youngest of four girls and I was always the one who had a doll in my arms with a bottle, a blanket and anything else that I thought my baby needed. All my dreams of growing up were of being a mom. It was all I ever wanted: to get married, start a family and be a stay-at-home mom.
Read MoreDear Sister,
I have lots of kids. Some of them are called my “big kids” and some of them are called my kids. My kids are my three beautiful children, Joseph Nicholas (5) Hannah Kateri (3) and Benjamin Francis (5 months). My “big kids” are the countless teens that walk through the doors of my parish in a town in New Hampshire. I am a wife, a mom and a youth minister.
Read MoreDear sisters,
I was in second grade when I wrote down my first story. I remember it well, the feeling of the plush green carpet beneath my feet as I made my way into my father’s wood-paneled study. His massive leather-topped desk held my wide-ruled notebook paper and sharpened #2 pencil. I scooted the desk chair up as far as my eight-year-old legs could manage and I began my work. Thirty minutes later, it was done: a sketch and accompanying short story titled “The Adventures of Hamburgerman.”
Read MoreWhile crying is often seen as a sign of weakness and lack of emotional stability, I believe that showing these strong emotions can make us better reflectors of Jesus.
Read MoreGod speaks to each of us in the language He has written into our hearts and learning to listen to His voice and let our hearts speak to His through creative artistic expression is a joy-filled and life-giving dialogue. The beauty we co-create with our Lord is not a masterpiece to be hung in a gallery, but the masterpiece of our own broken hearts and lives becoming whole and radiant with His infinite colors and Light.
Read MoreIf you fail, falter and grieve, you are human, and the gift of your humanity is that, through His suffering, we can be redeemed – and be made just a little stronger –to continue our mission.
Read MoreOn Christmas Day 2017, my father was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. By April he was gone, my world came crashing down, and I was thrown headlong into grief.
Read MoreOur Lord took this hardened heart of mine, this heart that had kept people and Him at a safe arm’s length away, and softened and molded it into a new creation. Day by day, the Lord helped me recognize and receive love. At first in the smallest of things: a friend doing my dishes after a dinner party I hosted, a coworker buying lunch for me, a stranger leaving an encouraging note on my desk.
Read MoreAs I cried in my bathroom, I told God how sick I am of fighting against my body. I told Him how exhausted I am of trying to love myself only to fail. I told Him how I didn’t understand how I was good even in my overweightness. I told Him how frustrated I was that I didn’t feel comfortable dressing in the clothes I wanted to.
I got out of the shower and stared at myself in the mirror once more. Suddenly, God said:
“You are so, so much more than the clothes you wear. There is so much more to you than that.”
But with every small victory—the occasional moments when I am able to practice gentleness with my 4-year-old, despite how mad I am that he just pushed his little brother down the steps—a change takes place in me. My capacity for gentleness grows. I had no idea how much virtue I lacked in the realms of gentleness, self-control, and patience. Motherhood moved my focus from an external sense of stability and social validation to a much deeper internal need for God’s grace and guidance—inevitably helping me rely more on God’s fatherhood.
Read MoreJesus gets it. He understands every human emotion we may feel. And when I’m feeling anxious, I often reflect on Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. The fear He must’ve felt is beyond anything I could imagine.
Read MoreWhat has happened to you or to me does not make us any less of who we are, Daughters of Christ. The Lord wants to heal you, let Him. Do not let this consume you by pretending it does not exist or never happened. Go to Him as you are.
Read MoreIf you’ve lost a child, I need you to know that you’re not alone. Our grief has woven together and we’ve found ourselves a part of this club that no one ever wanted to join. And it sucks, it’s okay to say that. It’s awful and messy and frustrating and ugly — but we’re here together, we’re not alone.
Read MoreNothing about life is certain. No amount of planning, organizing, preparing or dreaming will guarantee our desired outcome. I’m constantly reminded to loosen my grip and, like the song says, “let Jesus take the wheel.”
Read MoreThe potential pain of disappointment should not smother the hope for those things that God places on our hearts.
Read MoreI learned that putting our trust in God is never a gamble. It is never too late. You are never too far gone that God can't reach you. ...God in his infinite kindness took pity on me, a teenage mother and allows me to live the fairy tale I thought was lost forever. Trust in him sisters. He is so worthy.
Read MoreOut of uncertainty, a Way unfolds. Jesus consistently receives my mysterious desires and prepares places carefully designed for me. Authentic friendships, joyful community, work that draws on my unique gifts. Glorifying God in my body means saying ‘yes’ to my life. It means throwing myself into the tasks and relationships I have been given instead of lamenting the ones I haven't.
Read MoreFor every woman who is stuck between two worlds, two cultures, understand that the Catholic Church is universal. There should never be a division between your identities. We accept all, we love all, and we are all one body in Christ.
Read More(I) encourage you to not be so quick to categorize the crosses in your life as just suffering you’ll need to buckle up and deal with. Allow yourself the space in your spiritual imagination to envision how something really hard in your life could actually be a wildly massive gift.
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