As Catholics, we have a unique opportunity to seek peace and grace in the sacrament of Reconciliation. Henri Nouwen writes, "This [sacrament] calls us to let go of old hurts in the Name of God." A regular practice of confessing and being absolved is something that has changed not only my relationship with God and myself, but also with others in my life. When I am in the practice of reflecting on how my actions have done harm, I am more conscientious about the damage of sin on relationships of all kinds. [bctt tweet="Reconciliation calls us to let go of old hurts in the Name of God."] Comment below with your thoughts: Do you seek Reconciliation regularly? When can you find time to seek the grace of Absolution? or, simply answer: Did you pray today? photo credit

At times when the sun casts its light over our lawn I feel like I am looking at a stage in a play. Especially when it's the orangey-yellow-green light before a storm. It makes the whole yard look like it is lit up with artificial glow and it makes it appear surreal. I am not particularly fond of artificial light. I much prefer natural light, but it can feel so nice to be suddenly transported to another perspective. It can feel so good to be jostled out of your daily grind and stupor and to be reminded that this world is something beautiful, surprising, and mysterious. And perhaps more importantly, that you have a part to play in it. In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton, captures this thought much better than I could. He wrote, "Fairy tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water." For a few hours yesterday, I felt cornered into darkness. A funk had cast a dark shadow over me as the sun went down, and with it a heavy cloud latched onto me like a cold, wet blanket. It didn't make any sense. It was a perfect Friday evening. We were making a nice dinner and later in the night, my husband and I, would watch some Masterpiece Theatre. Perfect really, in my little world. I am sure a glass of red wine and a shopping spree on Amazon would have solved things fast enough. Feeling resolute, I instead chose to talk about these feelings with my husband. The usual downers are the same. Money is tight. Our appliances are broken. I don't have enough time for everything I need to do. So many things are simply beyond my control. I feel alone. I feel needy. I feel my brokenness. Talking with my husband can be like a spoonful of medicine. Sometimes it comes bitter. Sometimes it comes sweet. These little conversations have been countless in our twenty years of marriage. I start naming off a litany of dismays. He catalogs them into things that can be fixed, things that can change, and things to accept. We pray about them, but there is one thing that always remains before us, and if we lose sight of her, everything is lost - the beautiful presence of Gratitude. It's a practice we keep, this gratefulness. A sort of game where we list all the things we are grateful for: our children, our marriage, our daily bread, our faith. We think of hard times and how things worked out. We think of how we have grown and how we can still grow. We think of other people in hard times. We recollect small blessings: a working fridge, a cow that got bred, a hot cup of soup. We try to step outside ourselves and see things from another perspective. As I was swimming around in the darkness, I got jostled back unexpectedly into the light. Our twenty month old tripped onto her tummy while pushing a train car around. She was having so much fun chasing her older sister around with her "arr," as she calls it. And then, suddenly she was planted right onto the top of the plastic train with her tender, chubby tummy. It is always so heartbreaking when they go from so happy to so sad, so fast. What purpose I felt to be able to pick her up and love her. To just smother her back into safety. In that baby hug, I was revived. My litany transformed. Me just hugging her makes it all worth it. Come broken water heater and heaps of laundry all the days of my life. Yes, this is why I am doing what I do. I am so thankful for her, for him, for them! My ingratitude melted away that hug. This morning as the light pours in through our east window I am again transported. The darkness has left me, finding me either unwilling or perhaps the chemicals are just back in sync. I am thankful that as the darkness clouded my vision yesterday, I managed to bask in it without thrashing about, only to hurt myself and others. Call it chemicals or hormones. Call it seasonal or spiritual. It's probably all those things. Whether we like it or not, whether the sun is shining or not, this is our call time to stage. We don't get to manage the lighting offstage or write the scene for our part. We don't get to decide we aren't worthy of the part we are given and we can not play the role someone else has been given. We only have the choice over the sort of character we play, what we do, and then, there is always the hope we can change for the better. Am I the selfish, bitter woman I loathe, or, am I the strong, gracious woman I admire? Gratitude, God's lovely maiden, should be my script, our script. She is our guardian of happiness. She is our fortress of peace. She is our gaze to heaven. Erika Pearson is a convert to Catholicism and the mother of seven (well, currently) on a hippy, homeschooling homestead of sorts. She does most of her serious work up in the clouds and comes down on occasion to write about her findings at aestheticmomma.com.

This is the first post in our Grateful Heart challenge. After reading this post from Megan Hjelmstad, feel free to share your own post at the bottom, or share your thoughts and gratitude on Instagram. The wailing of the alarm jerks me from a blissful sleep. I pry open my eyes to behold the blank slate of a new day, but a gloomy darkness meets me. I groan and promptly clamp them shut again. It’s not my alarm. It’s my husband’s. Thank God, I have thirty more minutes. But within seconds, crying and arguing reaches my ears; I reluctantly open my eyes once more to find a small, round face with big, blinking eyes a mere two inches from my own. “Is it morning yet?” “Yes,” I grumble, “it’s morning, alright.” Sigh. He scampers off gleefully. I did have thirty more minutes. Now I’m officially on referee duty for three kids who woke up too early. Ding! A text sounds on my phone and I sigh again. Probably more work demands. I force myself out from under the warm covers and into the chill of the autumn air. Time to grab some clothes and make sure the kids aren’t late for our school carpool. Buzzzzzz. My phone again, reminding me that emails are piling up. It’s probably a reminder about my appointment today. Distractedly, I grab my phone with barely a second glance, but suddenly freeze as a subject line catches my eye: “Start your day in prayer, Sister.” I come to a halt, taking a second to reset, reframe. Deep breath. Thank you, God, for giving me another day to live. I offer everything in it to you. But God wants one more second of my time. He gently nudges in to view those souls I’ve encountered today in my few short waking moments. I am so easily annoyed by how their actions inconvenience me. But what about the flip side? Do I spend even half as much time cultivating gratitude for how their everyday actions also sustain me? My husband, always waking long before me, does so to support our family with long hours of work. Thank you, God, for my loyal, hardworking husband. My children, so eager to encounter life, meet me with love and help me see the world with fresh eyes as I work to meet their needs. Thank you, Lord, for these little ones so in love with life. That text I groaned at? It’s from a friend, telling me I’m in her prayers. And our carpool? Set up by my beloved neighbor who has selflessly helped us more times than I can count. Thank you, God, for faithful friends. The email reminder for my doctor’s appointment also reminds me of how blessed I am, unlike many women in the world, to have easy access to such caring and knowledgeable medical professionals. That other email that caught my eye, inviting me to prayer—it speaks of the vibrant community of incredible, faith-filled women surrounding me every day. And the work and scheduling demands that are, as always, still there – involving conversations with individuals who aren’t always my favorite – they are teaching me, when I open my heart enough, about a new dimension of the human person, challenging me to practice a greater, more authentic charity. Thank you, Wise Father, for those you place in my life to help sanctify me. --- Who is God nudging into your view today, sister? Maybe it’s a co-worker, family member, classmate, professor. Maybe it’s that person who knows exactly how to get under your skin, an acquaintance in need, or a saint on earth who shows up day after day for you. Maybe it’s someone who’s hurt you and compelled you to learn the necessity of healthy boundaries and forgiveness. It could be any number of the 7 billion people sharing this earth with us – and this week, we’re called to remember that every one of those 7 billion souls is made in the image and likeness of God, created to love and serve each other. Whoever it is and whatever shape it takes, we want to hear how you are cultivating gratitude! Join the Blessed is She Community this week in practicing more abundant gratitude for the people in your life. Share in a blog post, on Facebook or Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter using the hashtag #BISgrateful. Let’s encourage each other in our journey toward bountiful gratitude, sisters! How to cultivate gratitude this week: Buy flowers for someone or write a heartfelt note to express your gratitude. photo of Blessed is She Liturgical Planner by Little Flower Studios An InLinkz Link-up

My parents are making their way to the airport. The “Cajun Mafia” invaded Denver for a few days to “grandparent” and celebrate 35 years of marriage. Thirty-five years is proof of God’s existence in today’s culture. During dinner, I asked my parents to share some with us some wisdom after so many years. After explaining that divorce was never an option and that their relationship seems to continue to strengthen, my dad turned the question on us. “What had we learned being their children?” I have been thinking about this question for a while now because my parents and I mixed like oil and water until I was twenty-five. I had always wanted a friendship with them and yet it seemed impossible because we rarely saw eye to eye. Now, I consider my parents to be my friends and have been asking myself, “What took so long?” The answer. Our capacities to love were too different. Theirs was big. Mine was small. See, it is a sacrifice, suffering, for the sake of the good of someone else that increases the ability to love. The more we truly love, the more wisdom we can truly gain as we continually lay down our own interests for the sake of someone else. As a young woman, I rarely had to sacrifice for anything. Everything I did was in the end about me. My parents made money, sacrificed their time, and repeatedly laid down their pride for my sake. If I studied, it was for my grades. If I suffered practice, it was so that I could master the task before me. As young men and women in today’s society, we spend most of our time on our futures, our personal development, and our social lives. While these are not bad things, they, by their nature, can never increase our capacity to love because they are self-focused. My parents on the other hand (and I know that this is not all parents) were naturally at a point in their lives where they had lived for themselves, and decided that there was something better for which they could give their lives. First, they chose to give their lives to each other. They willingly laid down their singleness for their togetherness. Their decisions were no longer about their individual well-being. In this life decision, their love was expanded. Their marriage conditioned them to be able to make greater acts of love than they could when they were single. And then, they had children. Whole. New. Level. What I now know about having children is that parents, maybe for the first time in their lives (maybe not) are forced to expand their love into the realm of the unconditional. My parents sacrificed for me for FOUR YEARS before I even had my first memory. I could not pay them back; I could not return the favor. I stole their sleep, I cried for no reason, I took away their freedom to go and do whatever they wanted and I did very little for them in return. This total, complete sacrifice expanded their love beyond my comprehension. I had not yet suffered in this manner. My worldview could not match theirs. Then I got married. I laid down the life that was all about me for a life with my husband. When people say marriage is hard, they mean that the sacrifice for the other hurts. It hurts because I have had so much “me” for so long and the chipping away of that is painful. It leads, however, to joy. My husband and I now have an 8-month-old. She steals my sleep. It is for her that we have laid down our freedom. She and her future siblings will take all of our money. We will put up with their crying before they ever have a memory and they will most likely pay us back with eye rolls in the future. My capacity to love is now big enough to close the chasm that existed so long between my parents and me. I have learned over the past two years that the purpose of human connection in its purity is to grow in our capacity to love in a way that reflects the love of God. The key to growing that love is suffering, but we live in a world that is allergic to anything less than comfort, rendering us a society of people was little capacity to truly love. If we can’t pay the price for love, we must settle for politeness and land in isolation.My generation is not marrying or reproducing because they are afraid to give away their freedom. Little do they know that a perpetual adolescence stifles one’s ability to love and is starting to literally kill society on many levels. [bctt tweet="The purpose of human connection is to grow in our capacity to love in a way that reflects God." username="blessedisshe__"] If we look at many of the major problems plaguing our society today, most stem from the desire to preserve the self. Internet pornography, the lack of commitment to marriage, the refusal to have children, technology addiction are decimating true culture and killing the connections that make us human. We have to rediscover the Truth that “Fun” is not Purpose and that suffering is not bad. Yes, it is hard, but it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. When I was forced suffer, I found a purpose that cannot be gained through selfishness. Let us not be afraid to rid ourselves of ourselves and reclaim the purpose for which we were made. Mallory Smyth is never far from a bag (full of stuff), a book, a bible (also a book), a big smile, a banging cup of coffee and a beautiful friendship.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Patty Hubbard is a runner, big dreamer, writer, and youth minister ordinaire. She loves all things John Wayne, a tasty mimosa, and is learning to find grace in all things. Find her blogging it all at A Modern Grace. What is your favorite religious text or book? Current favorites are Making Sense Out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft and Seven Last Words by Fr. James Martin. Do you have a special Saint that you feel a strong connection to? How so? As a little girl, I loved Mother Teresa. I wanted to be her when I grew up and was known to play dress up as her. I also love St. Ignatius of Loyola; the beauty of his spirituality and steps in discernment have been so helpful for me. Which virtue do you find yourself working on the most throughout your day? Trust...and patience when I'm driving sometimes. What keeps you Catholic? The sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? Hands down, the Serenity Prayer: God grant me serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. How do you "walk the walk"? I want to love and serve others as best I can in the most authentic way. I strive to show more grace and love, and less judgment. When people are around me, I hope they experience a glimmer of God's love and compassion. How does Christ call you to serve - is it prayer/contemplation/acts of service, etc.? Through loving and serving others well...just be a joyful sign of Him in the world.

Family can be a perfect paradox. We toil endlessly for the benefit of our family. Yet, we so often convince ourselves that the individuals with whom we share our lives are more trouble than blessing. Babies cry, toddlers test and cry, kids test, teenagers further test and eventually cry, husbands need, and even the extended family has its own wants and needs. And, in the middle of all of this mess, all of these people are hungry and want to eat more than one meal a week. Absurd! As the old adage goes "you can't pick your family, but you can pick your..." Well, as a mom of boys well versed in all parts that can be picked, I'll spare you the ending. Amusement aside, it is nevertheless true. We cannot choose our families. And those within our home can be a source of stress, no matter our role within the family structure, whether a child or parent. Familiarity breeds contempt. Yet, despite it all, there is no greater gift (other than the greatest gift on Gethsemane) that God has bestowed upon us other than the gift of family. These individuals in our lives know absolute everything about us-- our triumphs, but mostly our sins and failures-- and yet, they choose to love us any way. What is more humbling than this? God has placed each person in our lives with purpose. They may be our lesson in patience (or, which is most likely the case with all of those within my relation), we are (I am) their lesson in patience. Each interaction with the members of our family is an opportunity to grow in holiness and virtue. As God, the master craftsman, has hand-picked these souls to be in our lives, these are lessons that he has specifically chosen for our salvation.   Emily is a wife and mother to two hungry boys, and loves to bake and talk too much (one look at her 2nd grade report card will prove that old habits die hard). She writes about life, and mostly food, on her blog, Bacon is the Way to Happiness.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Gina Fensterer is a wife, daughter, mother, friend, homeschooling mama, Colorado native. Documenting life through photography and blogging at Someday Saints lets her share about thoughts about life, homeschool, faith, and save some memories for her family. She has 5 kids, a hubby, and some random pets in the care of her kids. What do you find yourself continually praying for? I am non-stop praying for the grace to get through each moment. Let's face it, being a mom of any number of children can be grueling! I'm always asking (begging!) for God to fill me up to overflowing so that His love will just spill over to my children. How does Christ call you to serve - is it prayer/contemplation/acts of service, etc.? St. Frances of Rome said, "A married woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar to find him in her household affairs." The service to my family in household affairs is most definitely where I am called.  

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Bobbi Rol is full time mom to a teen daughter, three rambunctious little boys and two babies in heaven. She lives on the Monterey Bay with her husband Brian. When she is not dodging light sabers she can be found outside with her family or catching a late night movie. Bobbi writes about family, homemaking, and loving God in the midst of daily life at her blog Revolution of Love. Do you have a special Saint that you feel a strong connection to? How so? When I was younger I had a love and devotion of St. Anne. She was my patron saint and I shared her name. (My middle name.) I prayed to her often, especially when I was looking for a holy spouse and later when I was dealing with fertility problems. However, another saint has made her way into my heart these last few years -- St. Martha. The busyness of motherhood and my natural tendencies helps me to identify with Martha who was busy and worried about many things. I find myself turning to her often for guidance. Which virtue do you find yourself working on the most throughout your day? Patience and acceptance of God's will. Throughout the day there are numerous times when things don't go the way I want them to go -- someone spills juice all over the table, the washing machine breaks down, a driver cuts me off on the road or a project deadline is moved up. There is always something. My first instinct is the flare up and get mad or frustrated. I am trying to learn how to calm down, be patient and accept that little crosses are a part of life. More importantly, God uses these crosses to help me grow in virtue and they can be prayer opportunities to "offer it up" for the special intentions of loved ones and the world at large. What part of your walk with Christ is the biggest struggle? Coming back to St. Martha, it is spending quiet time with God. It is much easier for me to serve and keep busy. It is hard for me to turn off the noise and sit at Jesus' feet and listen. I've got to remember that the quiet time is what should be powering my action and it must come first. And when life is too busy for quiet, then I have to be creative and make time. Where there's a will, there's a way. What keeps you Catholic? God's mercy. No matter how far I stray, God's mercy is always there beckoning me back to Him. That in turn leads me to Confession and the Eucharist, which restore my heart and power my spirit. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? I've always loved the quote from St. Catherine, "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." I think we sometimes wish we could be more like someone else, maybe more outgoing or more quiet and contemplative then we'd be holier or able to share God's word better. But God made each of us unique with our own talents and strengths. We don't need to change our personality or who we are to love God and bring others to Him. We just need to fine tune what's already in us and let God use our uniqueness to bring his love to others. Sometimes you'll find that you are doing things you never imagined but God knew it was always in you. You just needed his grace to bring it out. What do you find yourself continually praying for? These four intentions are always on my heart. For peace in the world and in the hearts of men. For victims of abuse and those who are alone, afraid, and depressed. For all pregnant moms, those trying to get pregnant, those who have lost their babies and for moms contemplating an abortion. For the souls in purgatory, especially those most forgotten. Save Save Save

Again and again. Family – that messy, intimate, painful, glorious creation. It’s the place where the Divine takes ingredients from two separate families, blends them together, and observes the results. I imagine God probably sighed a lot during those first years of our marriage. I know I did. After all, He took two people who had never lived under the same roof, who each had a loving family, full of their own traditions, idiosyncrasies, and expectations. It was a steep learning curve. The dishes go on the right side of the sink, people. A little while later, God reached down and stirred the pot with His pinky finger, tasted it, and added Child the First. In 2011, Child the Second arrived, and shortly after his advent, Child the Third. A few years ago, something started bugging me. One of my kids would wrong one of her siblings, and under great duress, apologize. The response was a theatrically sighed, “It’s okay.” So we stopped forcing our kids to apologize to each other, and we stopped making the injured party immediately forgive the transgressor. Instead, the one who screwed up had to think about why the other person was upset and consider her own reaction in a similar situation. The result (usually) was a sincere apology. When the wronged party hears the apology, he doesn’t have to forgive, but he does need to accept that the apology was genuine and consider how God forgives us. When they're ready to forgive, they say, "I forgive you." They think together about a way to make it right, not as a condition of forgiveness, but as a way of restoring the relationship. This seems laborious at times, but the result is -- I hope -- a lesson in how injured relationships are healed by repentance and forgiveness. (NB: This is a work in progress. In the middle of Target, I’ll still settle for a sullen “Sorry”/”S’okay”.) In my pre-Catholic days, I made a retreat that included an afternoon session for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Fr. Alvaro listened as I expressed my skepticism of this whole “confession thing”, but I confessed my sins. I listened as Fr. Alvaro showered God’s boundless forgiveness on me. In all my years at church, no one had ever said to me “Your sins are forgiven.” In that moment, I realized the importance of hearing that phrase. It didn’t pretend my foul-ups didn’t happen. It didn’t mean I could escape the natural consequences of my sin. It did mean that God wanted our relationship restored. Again and again and again. This is marriage and family and friendship. Our family is a riot of ruined science projects and torn artwork and late dinners and tender feelings. We hurt each other again and again and again. We apologize again and again and again. We forgive again and again and again. God restores our family again and again and again. Tiff is a homeschooling mama of three, the wife of the best man she’s ever known, a writer, a milliner, and occasionally an attorney. She loves her current home of Kentucky, where fine bourbon and very large hats are in plentiful supply.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Beth Davis is a lover of Jesus, an aunt to five beautiful humans, and a full time youth minister in Flagstaff, Arizona. She is passionate about winning the hearts of young people for Jesus through discipleship. Be sure to ask her about the time she met Pope Francis. What is your favorite religious text or book? He Leadeth Me by Fr. Walter Ciszek, the spiritual memoir of a priest who was imprisoned for 23 years in a Soviet work camp. Do you have a special Saint that you feel a strong connection to? How so? Every year I adopt a patron saint to accompany me, thanks to Jennifer Fulwiler's Saint's Name Generator. I spend the year asking for my saint's intercession and reading about their life, sometimes in their own words. St. Maximilian Kolbe was a humble (and humbling!) witness of love, patience and forgiveness, ultimately volunteering to die in the place of another inmate at Auschwitz. I now consider him to be my heavenly go-to-guy. Which virtue do you find yourself working on the most throughout your day? Charity. Along with a patron saint, I also ask God for a word to serve as my theme for the year. 2016 is the year of Love and I'm (slowly) coming to understand that it all boils down to charity. At that heart of all of my sins or struggles is a need for sincere love: of others, myself and Him. What keeps you Catholic? The Eucharist. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? Currently favoring, "Pray, hope and don't worry." (Padre Pio) What do you find yourself continually praying for? I'd like to say my family or ministry, a particular virtue or something valiant like world peace, but honestly? My husband, wherever he is! How does Christ call you to serve - is it prayer/contemplation/acts of service, etc.? My daily prayer. Everything flows from that.

I have this friend. This friend is a blogger. A successful blogger. She creates custom tote bags that are bought by the rich and fabulous. Her studio is obviously the staging area for Pottery Barn. Her house is immaculate and welcoming. Her husband still smooches her in the kitchen while he shakes cocktails and fixes dinner. Her twin boys are cute, mischievous, and bright. She has thousands of followers on Instagram. She is successful in all the ways that matter in our world today. More than that, she is successful in all the ways that matter to God. She is generous, kind, gentle, full of love and laughter. She’s extraordinary. I, on the other hand, remained in my pajamas all day yesterday. My house is pretty tidy at the moment, but let’s be honest, that’s a total fluke. My kids subsist on graham crackers, raisins, and peanut butter. My business is run out of our dining room/classroom/studio that is smaller than many closets. It is constant chaos. I pay no attention to my “social media presence” beyond cracking wise about my kids on Facebook. My life often feels extra ordinary. This last year, Christ has been calling me to revel in the ordinariness of my days. He constantly reminds me that the size of my laundry piles is not inversely proportionate to His love for me. That a spotless kitchen is not an accurate measure of my worth. He reminds me that although these days, this “Ordinary Time”, often feels like marking time between Easter and Advent, it’s this Ordinary Time that makes up the very stuff of our lives. The maintenance, the play, the work - they are the main event. Ordinary. It is anything but ordinary. We are anything but ordinary. During this time, we balance marriages, children, friends, Formation classes where we are expected to create Botticelli’s “Adoration of the Magi” in macaroni. You’ve seen that Hindu statue with the fifty pairs of arms? I’ve occasionally wondered why God didn’t see fit to give us a few extra pairs, but as I’m writing this, it occurs to me that He’s given us something even more miraculous. He’s given us each other. Extra arms. Extra eyes. Extra hearts. Extraordinary.   Tiff is a homeschooling mama of three, the wife of the best man she's ever known, a writer, a milliner, and occasionally an attorney. She loves her current home of Kentucky, where fine bourbon and very large hats are in plentiful supply.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Mary Catherine Craige is a lover of creativity and learning new things. When she is not guiding the development of young children through Montessori methods, you can find her behind her harp, taking an art class, or writing silly poems. What is your favorite religious text or book? Jacques Phillippe is one of my favorite spiritual writers. His book on St Therese, The Way of Trust and Love, is fantastic. Interior Freedom is his classic, and Time for God is also amazing as well as his books on the Holy Spirit and peace. His writing has changed my prayer life and has greatly deepened my interior relationship with God. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? "The Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength. You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails." (Is.58:11) I want my life to be like this. I want to live my life like this. The promise and imagery of this Scripture is so powerful to me. To trust in a God who will always guide me and give me everything and more than I need, even in the parched land! The promise of God renewing my strength and making me into a beautiful garden, an overflowing spring (hopefully a reservoir of water and life for others as well), I want to live my life like that. What do you find yourself continually praying for? Healing. Most of my novenas and other intentions are usually offered for the healing and conversion of me and my family. I am frequently asking God for physical, mental/emotional or spiritual healing for myself, my family, and friends. My other most common novena and sacrifice intention is for my future husband (and the future spouses of my siblings and friends). And for trust and joy and mercy! I frequently repeat "Jesus I trust in you" over and over throughout the day. I want it to become the prayer of my heart.

Learn how Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross can inspire us to incorporate love, trust, and patience in our daily lives, even when life grows mundane.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Heather Renshaw is a writer + speaker on a mission from God with her family of 7 in the Pacific NW. She loves singing, Adoration, all things Italy, and quality time with her husband. Heather blogs at Real Catholic Mom and co-hosts The Visitation Project on Catholic radio. Are you a convert to Catholicism? How did that happen? I was baptized as an infant, stopped going to Mass in college, and reverted in my mid-20s. What is your favorite religious text or book? Ooh. Tough one! This is like asking me to choose my favorite flower! I absolutely love Fr. Michael Gaitley's Consoling the Heart of Jesus, and Fr. Jacques Philippe's Searching for and Maintaining Peace. I often return to several C.S. Lewis titles, too. But honestly, I have a bookshelf full of books that I haven't read yet and look forward to devouring soon; I'm a bit of a bibliophile. Do you have a special Saint that you feel a strong connection to? How so? Although she isn't a saint (yet), I really love and admire Mother Mary Angelica of recent memory, God rest her soul. Mother Angelica had a fierce faith and amazing moxie and some truly supernatural trust in Jesus. I'm really excited to see if and when her cause for canonization is initiated by the Church. Which virtue do you find yourself working on the most throughout your day? I often pray for the perseverance to do what I'm supposed to do despite the challenges life throws my way. Sometimes these challenges are of my own making and sometimes they come from external sources; regardless, I try to trust that God will give me the grace I need to keep going. What keeps you Catholic? Jesus Christ keeps me Catholic - plain and simple. The Catholic Church is the Church Christ Himself started and we have the Eucharist. I'm sorry I thought I could ever leave. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? Jesus, I trust in You. Always and forever. What do you find yourself continually praying for? I often pray for peace and conversion - in my heart, in my family, and in the world.  

Mother Teresa's quotes are gold. She famously once said, "I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts there can be no more pain, and only love." I read this quote for the first time the evening I departed for Kolkata, India to serve with the Missionaries of Charity a little over a year ago. Together, that trip and this quote slowly ignited a spark in my soul: a yearning to discover how to truly love. And not just love like a Nicholas Sparks movie, but love like Mother Teresa in her burning desire to win souls and spread joy. Love Until It Hurts Recently, I read a similar quote from Mother Teresa, saying, “Give! Give the love we have all received to those around you. Give until it hurts, because real love hurts. That is why you must love until it hurts. You must love with your time, your hands, and your hearts.” Real love hurts. Even now, reading this aloud puts a bitter taste in my mouth. Many of us know from personal experience that love can lead to pain, whether it be breakups, let downs, or rejections. However, we attribute this pain to something other than love. We stop loving when we are giving more than we are receiving. We equate feelings of happiness with love, and feelings of hurt with hatred. However, according to Mother Teresa, all the pain, let downs, and rejections we’ve felt by others are actually our first invitation to truly love them. Choosing Love Mother Teresa equated all of her success to one thing: Love. She loved deeply, wholly, and unconditionally. She placed every ounce of her trust in God. She poured her love upon strangers. Many of us idolize Mother, as we wish we had the capacity to aimlessly and endlessly love. However, Mother Teresa is saintly not because she effortlessly loved everyone, but because she chose to love, even in times it caused her hurt. This conscious choice to unconditionally love and trust in God made an earth-shattering and unforgettable impact on this world. Love Is Sacrifice While not all of us are called to serve to poor on the streets of Kolkata, we are all called to love in this manner. We are all called to, “love until it hurts” because true love is dying for another. True love is giving heart, mind, and body so that another soul may use you as a stepping ladder to see God more fully. Love is looking at a person’s deepest most faults, instabilities, and, proclaiming that this person, if only but a stranger, is worth laying down your life for. Love is sacrifice, and love requires vulnerability. These are two of the hardest attributes a person can simultaneously attain; it is a recipe for pain. Because we are imperfect in nature, love assures hurt. But love is the only force of nature powerful enough to bring another soul to God, and that gift alone should be worth any amount of agony. Mother Teresa is extraordinary, simply because she chose to unreservedly love each and every person she encountered, regardless of the pain, sadness or despair she felt. Love More Mother Teresa got it right: Real love hurts. However, this pain is temporary, and the love that is left is everlasting. If you love and are hurt, love more. If you love more and are hurt more, love even more. Fill the world with your love. Love so deeply, so widely, and so purely, that there simply is no room in your heart for hurt. A Study on the Works of Mercy Misericordia Walk with the saints, including Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and discover practical ways to live the Works of Mercy. Explore Misericordia → Britt is in her final year as an undergrad student at Ave Maria University in sunny Southwest FL. She is a mother to Christopher 3. She is devoted to living intentionally and loving unconditionally.

St. Theresa of Avila famously said, “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!” and “A sad nun is a bad nun!” Like Pope Francis today, she knew that love and joy are are how we are called to be Jesus in the world, and that a smile is the face of that joy. I look to St. Theresa of Avila as a friend and a mentor, someone whose foibles mirror mine, who is an example of how to handle our earthly adversities with grace and humor. Not one of those achingly pious saints, who from their earliest years devoted their life to God without reservation, Theresa entered the convent as a teenager mainly because her father couldn’t handle her willful behavior, yet she became a Doctor of the Church. She went years without a prayer life, but ultimately formed such a natural relationship with God that she is an example of prayer as an honest, even bold, conversation with Jesus. So she’s the friend who can relate to my “three-steps-forward-two-steps-back” faith journey, who can guide me when I start making a mental grocery list during prayer time. And she shows me it’s okay to crack a joke now and then, even with God. St. Theresa didn’t take herself or this world too seriously, brushing off the little hardships of life with a sense of humor. One day, Theresa was riding a donkey, visiting some of the monasteries she founded. It had been raining, and the donkey lost it’s footing in the soft earth. Theresa fell to the ground, covered with mud. Instead of complaining or cursing, she looked to the sky and quipped, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you don’t have many!” Theresa had a connection to God that enabled her to joke with Him, just as if it were a friend who had accidentally knocked her in the mud. She didn’t get angry with the man leading the donkey or worry about where she’d find a dry cleaner who was good with habits this far out in the country. Theresa just laughed, an attitude which I’m sure brought joy and relief to her traveling partners. She was grounded (literally!) in the knowledge that “In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will seem to be no more than one night in an inconvenient hotel.” So when I “fall in the mud”—when the dog shreds my favorite shoes, when my son gets a ticket that just “isn’t his fault” or when the air conditioner gives out in the dead of August—I pray my friend St. Theresa of Avila will remind me to brush off my irritation and put my focus on God. And to do it with a laugh. Susan is the mother emeritus of three grown sons and is an avid bridge player, knitter and, like Theresa, has been known to get in trouble with a joke now and then. She blogs with her best friend Anne, at yallneedjesusblog.com.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. MaryRuth Hackett is a full-time wife and mother doing her best to teach her four children to love God and country. She puts her PhD to use at her blog, Parenting with Peer Review, where she weaves together practical family life, research on child development, and Catholic teaching to help mothers and fathers embrace their vocations at home and excel in parenting. Are you a convert to Catholicism? How did that happen? Yes. How much space do I get? I married a cradle Catholic who was sort of 'potlucky' about his faith. I was a staunch Protestant. We popped back and forth between the two churches while dating and for the first five years of our marriage. And then I had a miscarriage. I found amazing solace in the Church's teaching on life and saw a priest for guidance. He really embodied In persona Christi and I found myself wanting to know about The Faith and why we weren't still One Church. This one priest really helped me connect with Jesus in such a meaningful way I knew that there was something special in the Catholic faith that I had been missing. A lot of people have left the church because of personal hardship or because of the way a priest treated them; I had just the opposite experience. The loss of my baby Lily, and the treatment I received from this Priest really brought me to the faith. I did the intellectual exercises then and found that academically I couldn't argue with what my heart was already telling me and I converted a few years later. What is your favorite religious text or book? I love The Interior Castle by St. Theresa of Avila. Do you have a special Saint that you feel a strong connection to? How so? St. Theresa of Avila. Which virtue do you find yourself working on the most throughout your day? Patience. What part of your walk with Christ is the biggest struggle? Balancing everything. I want to do more and be more for and with Him, and I have a hard time seeing that I AM serving Him in my little tasks each day. When I do have time to set apart for Him I often choose to do other things anyway, so really I use busyness as an excuse for not walking with Him. The other part of it is that I want Him to walk with me and really I need to surrender and walk with Him. What keeps you Catholic? It is a daily choice to love and serve and obey. The promise of eternal happiness with HIM is what helps me with that choice. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? "...Not to think too much and to do what ever awakens you to love". (I tend to over-think things.) What do you find yourself continually praying for? Strength. Daily life is just exhausting! How do you "walk the walk"? Service. I try to give as much to our parish as I can (before it starts taking away from my commitments at home). How does Christ call you to serve - is it prayer/contemplation/acts of service, etc.? Acts of service is a biggie with me! Your turn! Answer this on Instagram or in the comments: