Shyla in Pennsylvania

Tell us your name, age and your state-in-life! 

Shyla Toscano. I am 33 years old and I  was a cardiac ICU nurse who left to stay home full time and homeschool my six children ages 17 months-9 years.

Where are you located? 

My husband and I moved out to the country from the suburbs of western Pennsylvania just over two years ago to an 1871 farmhouse.

Are you a cradle Catholic, convert or revert?

Cradle Catholic.

What’s been the biggest game changer in your Catholic faith?

I think the biggest game changer in my faith was having children. You really get to that point in your life where you realize there are no second chances in motherhood. I really had to seek truth and grasp it for myself on an entirely different level.

Name a saint you identify with and share why.

I really identify with St. Teresa of Calcutta, specifically her dark night of the soul which we only recently have heard about. She went her entire life building this gigantic ministry based on love and people walked away from her saying she was the most joyful person they had ever met and yet personally she was living in a spiritual desert.  Her entire life was one enormous act of faith.  In a time when whatever “feels” good goes, her faithfulness is even more astounding. You would think to spend years caring for the dying in such desolate conditions that she surely must have be on the receiving end of such Holy spiritual fire, but it was quite the opposite. I also appreciate her sense of humor, the fact that she didn’t take herself too seriously, and her genuine love of people.  

When have you felt most valued as a woman in the Church? 

 I’ve never not felt valued in the church.  But I truly believe the Church values motherhood in a way that very few do in our culture today.

What’s your favorite way to pray?

Definitely the rosary. It keeps my overthinking brain methodical.

Favorite liturgical holiday?

Advent/Christmas.  I think it would do the world good to get back to the childhood wonder and joyful expectation of waiting for baby Jesus in the manger and then to celebrate for more than one day.

What do you do for fun?

I love to garden, cook, bake, and work on this old farmhouse-I also love to write, and I post some of my writing as letters to my children on my blog for them to read when they are older.

Three words that describe you — go! 

 Loving, genuine, sensitive