I have always been a rule follower; I have also always had a great fear of getting in trouble. When I was young, I was just like the Pharisees in today's Gospel, Mathew 12:1-8, tattling on siblings or classmates when they were breaking the rules (I annoy myself just thinking about it). One of my high school friends, who is now a priest, finds great delight in recounting the times when he and my older sister would spend time together at our family home. Every time, I would make absolutely certain he followed the rules and left by curfew at 11 p.m. on the dot. Being a rule follower has made a journey as a Catholic an interesting thing—there are many "rules," as many view them, and I have had to allow the Lord to teach me how to follow the rules out of love for Him rather than following the rules for fear of getting in trouble (or beyond this, only for fear of going to Hell). It has been a journey; it has not been easy, and it is still not easy. What the Lord has been revealing on this journey is the meaning of the words in today's Gospel, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Matthew 12:7). He has shown me His heart of compassion, revealing to me that if I am following the rules without any love for Him, desire to know Him, devotion to Him—then my adherence to the rules is empty. I am a work in progress on this, and maybe you are, too. It will be a continual effort throughout my life to follow the "rules" and commandments laid out for me as a way to say, "Because I love You, Jesus!" rather than "Because I fear getting in trouble, Jesus!" I take the journey one day at a time, as each of our journeys to love Jesus more always are just that . . . one day at a time. Today, I invite you to reflect on your reasons for following the commandments and the teachings of our beloved Church. When your reasons are motivated by love for Him, it can change everything. [bctt tweet="It can change everything. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion  

I was driving on the 405 North in Los Angeles; it was the summer of 2018 and the scandals of our beloved Church were raging all over the news. I called a priest friend, hoping to gather some encouragement and wisdom as my exasperation and overwhelm were only escalating as the days went on and the news kept spilling out. He said to me, “Emily, what you need to do right now, in the midst of this mess, is one thing and one thing only. You need to double down on your love for the Eucharist.” It was a moment of encouragement that will stay with me forever. To double down—to “passionately recommit one's efforts to a cause.” And that, in the midst of both the storms that rage in our Church and in my life, is what I have done and continue to do . . . to once again commit to making the Eucharist my buoy, my constant, my refuge, my fuel—my everything. I chose to make this passionate recommitment through more frequent visits to Adoration, more frequent attendance at daily Mass (small son in tow!), and through spiritual reading about the beauty and richness of the Sacrament. The availability of Jesus in the Eucharist each day is surely one of the most thrilling, rich, breathtaking parts of our beautiful faith. On this most blessed Feast Day of Corpus Christi, we can do this once again—passionately recommit to making the Eucharist the center of our families, our homes, our hearts, and our lives. On this day, we can give shouts of praise and glory to God for the Last Supper, for transubstantiation, for our good and holy priests who celebrate the Sacrament each day for us. Let us thank God in a renewed, revitalized, and intentional way today for our Catholic, universal faith, centered around thanksgiving—around a table, around the most precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our beloved Jesus—the Eucharist. Where would you be without it? [bctt tweet="Let us thank God in a renewed, revitalized, and intentional way. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion  

I wish someone had whispered into my ear on my baptismal day long ago: Just so you know, it’s okay if you wrestle, if you struggle, if you doubt. I wrestle often with Scriptures like John 14:14, “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it,” and Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.” Oh, how I have wrestled. These Scriptures can be incredibly confusing when you’ve asked something good of Jesus, in His name, countless times—not necessarily even for yourself, but for another person—and still have not received an answer. I read Scriptures like these, and I sit with them. And in that sitting, I want to ask Jesus, “But what about the times when I have asked something of You and the answer was 'no'?” Perhaps you have been there. We all come to these moments at different times in our lives—these moments of difficulty, of doubt, of wrestling. We have countless points in our journeys of faith when believing and trusting in God’s Word is hard, or confusing, or just plain doesn’t make sense at all. It is a part of every faith journey. I am still in a place of wrestling with things that come to mind when I read this Scripture. I am still very confused about things that I have asked in Jesus’ name, things to which His response did not correspond in my mind and heart with what He said in today’s Gospel. And I always need to remind myself that it is okay to be in this place, but what I would add to that whisper in my ear on that glorious day of my Baptism is this: The most important thing is to invite Jesus to sit with you in that place. He wants to sit with you there, to be with you there, to open His heart and speak to you there. Let Him. Is there a wrestling, a struggle, a doubt into which you need to invite Jesus today? [bctt tweet="Let Him. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Lord Jesus, sit with me today as I try to open my heart to You.  

The intensifying belief that having a large following, book, ministry, or microphone is the only way to make an impact is causing women to lose sight of the gifts God wove into our souls at the moment He gave each of us life. Often women express to me this belief that they must have a "platform" to change anything at all, and it saddens me deeply. Our culture celebrates gifts that put people in the spotlight, so if our “gift” doesn’t involve recognition, it is deemed worthless. God’s definition of a gift stands in opposition to this, and Tabitha’s life illustrates this beautifully in today's reading. The women who stand at Tabitha’s bedside sorrowfully show Saint Peter the garments she made them to show that this is the way she loved them. Sewing was her gift. How do we figure out what our gifts are? When I reflected on this question long ago in my own life, it brought me to ask another question: How can I make people in this world feel loved? That answer is often where our gifts lie. Women across the world are using their gifts today: the woman who gives her all to teach her students, the woman holding the hands of elderly patients in their final days, the woman caring for her disabled child or parent, the women researching cures, changing diapers, helping women in crisis pregnancies, serving coffee with a smile . . . millions of women going under the radar every day with a depth of love that I, as a woman in the public eye, can only hope to achieve before I die. Let us thank God for the gifts each woman brings to the table—you included. He needs us to be His hands and feet. One way we do that is by pouring out our gifts, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to us. When we put them in the hands of our all-powerful God, He uses them to work miracles. So, I ask you, how can you make people in this world feel loved? listen to today’s devotion [bctt tweet="He uses our gifts. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] God Our Father, remind me of my gifts to give You glory.  

I believe being betrayed by someone you love and trust is one of the greatest pains of a human life. I was betrayed deeply as an eighteen-year-old girl in college by a group of people who I thought were life-long friends. It was a terrible and difficult time, as a season when you have suffered betrayal always is. The pain of betrayal is a pain known by each one of us. To be betrayed by someone you love is a pain so specific and heart-wrenching that there are not accurate words to describe such sorrow. During times when I have suffered betrayal in my life, one of the greatest comforts I have is found in today's Gospel—the reality that Jesus Christ Himself knew the deep pain of betrayal, too. He knows exactly how it feels to have someone you love, someone you care for, someone you have invested so much in, betray you to your face and behind your back. Today offers us an opportunity to meet Jesus in a moment when His heart is so deeply troubled, to be with Him in this pain we know so well—pain we have suffered from friends, siblings, parents, people who said they loved us, or people we thought we could trust. Jesus Christ knows the pain of betrayal, and He wants to meet you in the pain of yours. Let us meet Jesus in His pain today. listen to today’s devotion [bctt tweet="Let us meet Jesus in His pain today. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] Can you invite Jesus into your pain today and trust He will be gentle with your wound?  

Many parts of the Gospels are challenging, and today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:43-48) can be particularly so. Jesus gives a command: "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). It is not a suggestion. He says, "Pray for them,” not, “Think about them,” or even “Forgive them.” He commands us elsewhere to forgive them as well (see Matthew 6:14-15), but here He shows the necessity of taking a step further into mercy by actively praying for their souls. This can be very hard to do. Have you tried praying for someone who hurt you badly, or hurt someone you love very badly? It goes against what so often feels right in our hearts—it feels like the “right” thing (and is often the easier thing) to maintain ill-will toward that person, to hold onto the anger from the hurt they caused. It takes effort to work through our feelings and actively make the leap toward forgiveness and prayer. Mercy does not come easily—mercy requires effort. He knows what happens when we pray for those who hurt us. The prayers may help that person—but more importantly, He knows that prayers for that person will change us. I found this happening a few years ago as I prayed for a friend who had deeply betrayed me. I found that my heart was softening and that Christ was giving me the eyes to see this person the way He saw them. If we only persist in doing so, if we push past the temptation to hold onto the feelings of anger or sorrow, we step forward into this act of mercy and love. Today, Christ commands us to love those we find difficult to love through prayer. I invite you to think of one soul you can pray for today and lift them to the Lord. Follow His command. He knows it is not easy, but He knows it is the way that change in our hearts can happen and the freedom found is what He desires for each one of us. [bctt tweet="Step forward into this act of mercy and love. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Who will be your one person to pray for?  

My husband and I have two young sons. As we do our best to prepare for our family’s future, we are presented with options and encouragement for saving for college, managing retirement funds, and more. We are encouraged to buy life insurance and plan financially in many other ways. In transparency, all of it makes me nauseous, and additionally, all of it feels so contrary to what Jesus teaches in today’s Gospel, Luke 12:13-21. How do I reconcile this great encouragement to plan and save as an American in my thirties with Jesus’ words in Scripture? It feels impossible! As I reflect, what the Lord reminds me is that it is okay—and even good—to plan and to save wisely and prudently for our family life, but to remember that we will always simply be stewards of what He gives us. He reminds me that all the preparations we are making for our boys and for the long-term are not in the name of greed, but in His name, that our planning can be used for the glory of God when we realize not one dollar we save is ours, and all belongs to Him. He reminds me that as we plan and save, our focus and foundation can and must be in becoming rich in what matters to God and living generously in every way. The martyrs who are remembered in our church today, Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, and Companions, teach us to be rich in these very things: humility, faith, surrender, and death to oneself for the greater glory of God. We can strive for each of these things as we do our best to plan with prudence, always remembering that when we meet God face to face, it will not matter what we owned but how generously we chose to lay down our lives for Him and for others. May God increase within each of us a spirit of generosity—in our finances, in our homes, and in our hearts. [bctt tweet="May God increase within us. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Consider making a donation to one of these charities.

My heart swells at the three simple words Philip speaks to Nathanael in today’s Gospel . . . come and see. What an invitation . . . so simple, yet so profound. Three short words, yet full of an invitation to belong. The Lord gives us countless opportunities to extend the very same invitation to the people around us. I have been prodded by the Holy Spirit to make this invitation to my friends in high school, to a college roommate, and to a fellow mother I met at church. The invitation may not be the actual words, “Come and see,” but it may sound something like: I’m part of a great women’s group that meets on Wednesday, I’d love for you to stop by sometime. Our family goes to Mass together every Sunday at 5, would you like to join us? We do family dinners every Saturday with some friends from church, would you ever be interested in coming? Can we pause and pray for you, right now? When we make Philip’s invitation, we give the Lord space to work. When we make the invitation, we don’t have to have all the answers, we simply open the door to give someone in our life the opportunity to know the Jesus we know. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46) Yes. A person named Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. May we be just like Philip to say to our co-workers, our siblings, the women in our neighborhoods . . . come and see. May we, like Philip, make such bold invitations . . . and let Jesus take care of the rest. [bctt tweet="May we, like Philip, make such bold invitations . . . and let Jesus take care of the rest. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Have you invited a friend or two to read through our free Sisterhood Series? Grab it today!

At the age of seventeen, I participated in a week-long retreat called “Young Apostles” for a summer Catholic Steubenville conference in Tucson, Arizona. At the end of the week, the adult leadership team took time to pray over every teen, and as the team prayed over me, one of the female leaders read a verse from today’s Gospel that permanently changed the course of my faith journey: "When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak, or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (Matthew 10:19-20). In the moment the verse was spoken over me, I felt like I had been set ablaze; I began to weep and my tears felt like boiling water as they fell onto my skin. I felt a deep and breathtaking confirmation that the Lord was setting me on fire with His love so that I could carry it into the world. He spoke a clear reminder that I would only have to depend on Him to give me the words to speak as I was sent out. I have taken this verse into every step of ministering to women. There are many moments in a conversation with a woman when, as she shares with me, I do not know what to say. My heart goes back to that moment as a teenager and reminds me to pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, speak through me. Give me the words to say.” What a consoling verse for us to refer back to throughout our journey of being witnesses to our faith in Jesus Christ. How beautiful that we do not have to depend on ourselves, but Him, for the right words to say. How marvelous that God promises to give us the words when we feel we have none. How consoling to remember that He is with us always as we set the world ablaze with His love. As we share our faith, encourage friends, give direction to the lost, evangelize those who have never heard about Christ, let us remember that we do not need to find the right words, but depend on the Holy Spirit, God with us, to provide them. listen to today’s devotion [bctt tweet="We do not have to depend on ourselves, but Him. // @emwilss" username="blessedisshe__"] Spend a few moments in prayer today, asking the Holy Spirit to help set you ablaze with His flame.