“Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” // Revelation 21:9b The sunlight streams through the stained glass windows as my family kneels in a row down the length of the pew for Sunday Mass. My three daughters are draped in their white lace veils, a tradition my girls and I have chosen to embrace in the presence of the Eucharist. I glance at them, in their youth and hope, and see so clearly how as girls they represent the Bride of the Lamb while my son and husband as a boy and man represent Christ. The Church is the Bride of the Lamb, and men and women as two incarnations of the image of God represent Christ and His Bride within the Church. This symbolism is made even more explicit when men and women attend Mass together, men standing for Christ as Bridegroom and all women standing for the Church as bride. Yet this beautiful symbol has an even greater depth as all men in the Church participate in the Church’s role as bride and and all women participate in the Church as priest as we are all baptized at priest, prophet, and king (see Catechism of the Catholic Church § 783 and 796). The First Reading from Revelations shows us this image of the Church as the Bride of the Lamb, bedecked with jewels and built on the foundation of the Twelve Apostles, the first bishop. Our Lamb wants to make us radiant and holy. He has given His all for us, so that we can be raised up in glory with Him. On this feast of Saint Bartholomew, an apostle, take a moment to look at the Bride of the Lamb. See her beauty in all the various parts. Ask the Lord to show you your role as a member of the Body and to feel your belovedness as His Bride. The Lamb loves you unto death. Enter into His love today. [bctt tweet="He has given His all for us. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart. // Jeremiah 15:16 Those days often felt so lonely, the ones when I believed myself to be the only one of my peers who cared about loving the Lord and following Him. I would open my Bible, turning to my favorite passages, praying over them again and again until I felt the Lord’s joy enter my heart and draw me out of myself. It was hard when I was not willing to do the things all of the other high schoolers were doing. I did not want to watch the movies or listen to the music that was popular. I knew myself well enough to know that for me, those choices would distract me from loving the Lord and corrupt my heart. I loved the Lord’s words to Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all whom I send you you shall go” (Jeremiah 1:7). The Lord had called me to Himself from my childhood, and I particularly felt the anointing of my Confirmation. But the years that followed were hard. I found myself feeling like Jeremiah in today’s First Reading, wondering what I was doing even though I had felt the Lord’s call. Why did the emotional pain never end? How long would I have to beg the Lord for some relief? Why did I feel surrounded by those opposed to the Lord? Yet, I wanted all my peers to follow Him with me. And so I would go back to His Word. I would devour them. And those words “became the joy and happiness of my heart.” Sister, the Lord has called you to Himself. Let us find joy in Him and His Word and give all we have to follow Him. Re-read today’s readings. Spend time with the Word today. [bctt tweet="Go back to His Word. // Susanna Spencer " username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out. // Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “I want to go to Heaven with you!” my son threw his little body against mine, squeezing me with all his strength. We were going over his catechism questions about God’s reason for creating us. For my son, the life of faith is so simple. He is by no means a perfect child, but between normal expressions of his boyhood, he shows that he has the Lord’s call to him within his heart. In my son’s simple faith, I see a fulfillment of Moses' words to the Israelites in the First Reading from Deuteronomy. Moses tells his people to love the Lord with all of their heart and soul by following the Lord’s commands. He tells them that they are not hard to find because the Lord has put the commands very near to them in their hearts and mouths. Following them should be easy, if they would only pay attention to the Lord’s personal nearness as well. Yet, like all of us, the Israelites often overlooked the Lord’s nearness and fell into sin. Sister, the command of the Lord is also very near to us. It is already in our mouths and our hearts. He has written it on our hearts (see Jeremiah 31:33). We do not need to search far and wide for the grace to follow His commands or to even know them. If only we respond to His prompting in our hearts, know Him to be close to us, love His commands, and serve Him by loving others, we will live forever in Heaven with Him (and hopefully my son who will give you a great hug). [bctt tweet="We will live forever in Heaven. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. // Psalm 51:4 My younger children charged down the sidewalk as my eldest walked beside me on the cool spring afternoon. It had been a gift lately to see the developing spirituality of my daughter as we discussed the fruits of resolutions to be kinder people. “I always resolve to be kinder to others after Confession,” I admitted to my daughter, “but I do not always choose to be kind even after I make that resolution.” The truth is that priests have been pointing to my lack of charity nearly every time I receive the Sacrament of Penance. I just can’t seem to break the habitual impatience I have towards my family as I try to move us through the various activities of our days. Yet, I want to pray along with the psalmist for the Lord to “thoroughly wash me from my guilt” and “of my sin cleanse me.” I don’t want to be merely forgiven. I want more. I want the Lord’s grace to make me better. I want to answer the Lord’s call in the Gospel to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). But to do this I have to love those who interfere with my well-laid-out plans for the day and pray for those children who ignore my instructions for the umpteenth time. The Lord does not expect me to be charitable and kind only when others are being kind to and cooperative with me; He offers the grace for me to have charity towards others always. Sister, perhaps kindness comes to you more easily than it comes to me. But the Lord may be calling you deeper into His perfection in some other way. Examine your conscience today; bring to the Lord a place that needs His thorough washing and receive His grace. [bctt tweet="Answer the Lord’s call. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day." // John 6:40 “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” my aunt’s voice rang out that April afternoon as the family lingered around my grandmother’s gravesite. Soon my father, my sister, and the rest of our voices joined hers. My tears welled up yet again in my leaky eyes. My grandmother had survived breast cancer only to die from lymphoma several years later in her mid-seventies. While I had always been close with her, my family started attending the same parish as her my first year of high school, and, in the close-knit parish, I saw her deep love of the Lord. Practical by nature, she contrived to raise her seven children on a tight budget so her photographer husband could do work he loved. My last conversation with her was my winter break of my freshman year of college. She tried to talk me out of studying theology so that I could go into a more lucrative field. Yet, when she passed away a few months later, I trusted that she finally understood that I was meant to study what I loved. She died the morning of April 2, 2005, just hours before Pope Saint John Paul II. At the all-campus Mass in honor of JPII at Franciscan University of Steubenville, we sang the song Press On by Bob Filoramo. I felt in my heart that it was about my grandmother as well as the pope who “fought the good fight” and who succeeded to “press on in running the race.” But I also saw the “Father dancing” for her who returned to Him after her purgatory of cancer. I do not know if she was in Heaven then, but I do know that passing into purgatory is one way to the beatific vision. In her life, my grandmother saw the Son, believed in Him, and I hope, through the Lord’s great mercy, to see her beside Him on the last day. Sister, the Lord wills for us to know, love, and serve Him. Pray today for Him to increase your faith so that you can be raised by Him on the last day. [bctt tweet="The Lord wills for us to know, love, and serve Him. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. // Ezekiel 37:27 The dreaded sound of rattling plastic beads on wood floor was followed by a loud wail, an opening door, and little feet charging to me in the kitchen. “I spilled my Perler beads again!” my six-year-old son cried to me. “Well, let’s go clean them up,” I said resignedly and followed him back through the living room to his bedroom. If you have ever picked up scattered fuse beads, you will realize that it is nearly impossible to grip them with adult-size fingers and even harder to not grab up every other little speck of whatever is on the floor. In fact, it is something like what the Lord is doing in the readings today. In the prophet Ezekiel’s time, the Israelite people had been scattered into exile. They were hopelessly dispersed across the region, losing track of their own laws, forgetful of their covenant with God. Yet, the Lord promises in the First Reading (Ezekiel 37:21-28) to bring all His people back to Him at some future date. But the task seems impossible since the people are hopelessly scattered, like Perler beads scattered across a messy bedroom floor. The high priest Caiaphas unwittingly prophesies how this is going to happen in the Gospel (John 11:45-46): Jesus is going to die instead of His people. But He is not just going to save His people; He will take the people from the nations by taking the other nations as well. So, in essence, I am saying that all of us Christians who have no Jewish ancestry are like the scraps of paper on my son’s floor. But does that really matter? We know from the beginning when our first parents sinned that God intended to make a way to save all of humanity. He chose to do it through one nation. And that one nation made way for all of us. We are now all the Lord’s people, and He is our God. His dwelling is with us. Sister, as we enter into Holy Week, open yourself up to this reality. The Lord has saved you, and His dwelling is your soul. [bctt tweet="His dwelling is with us. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

We cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and he heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. // Deuteronomy 26:7 O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day. I joined my heart with emotion to the words of the Morning Offering I prayed in my freshman homeroom with my classmates. It was my first year at a Catholic school, and while I was doing fine with the academics, I was having trouble forming friendships. I missed my public school where I had many friends and wished I had stayed with them. But the Morning Offering helped me through each day as I learned what it meant to make an offering to the Lord. I learned that He wanted the best of all of my life and was with me in my joys and sorrows. Looking back, I can see how those lonely days of early high school were my first lesson in offering up the first fruits of my life. In the First Reading for today, the Lord teaches His chosen people a simple prayer to pray with their offering of the first fruits of their crops and livestock for when they finish wandering in the desert and enter the promised land. The prayer reminds them of their past when they were slaves in Egypt and how the Lord heard their prayers and freed them from oppression. His saving act for the Israelites prefigured the saving act of His Son for all of us. The Lord heard the cry of humanity enslaved to sin, became a man, died for us, and delivered us from oppression. Through Baptism we are delivered from Original Sin and offered the grace to live free from enslavement to our actual sins. Sister, the Lord Who has delivered us asks us to offer Him the first fruits of our lives. Every Sunday at Mass we can prayerfully join them with Offertory when the priest prays over the bread and wine. Every joy and suffering we experience is an opportunity to offer our lives to the Lord. He wants you to share every moment of your life with Him. He has given you all; will you offer it to Him? [bctt tweet="He wants you to share every moment of your life with Him. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

“I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received.” // 1 Corinthians 15:3 Walls of snow lined the sides of the newly plowed streets as our car crept carefully toward the Cathedral that morning. My daughter sat excitedly in the back seat with her hair freshly curled and her new dress smoothed over her lap. This was the moment for which I had been preparing her, very intensively for a semester of a school year, but really since the moment I knew of her existence in my womb. She was about to be confirmed and receive her final Sacrament of initiation into the Church. I prayed that she would continue her journey of faith as she discovers the depths of the riches of what the Holy Spirit can do in her life. Yet what she does with her faith is not in my control. I have learned over the years of being a parent that all I can do for my children and their faith is to hand on, as Saint Paul puts it, what I have received. And that which I have received, those who came before me also received in a beautiful and connected handing down. I like to envision the teachings of the Church through Tradition as a long spiritual lineage of me learning from my parents, teachers, and priests, and them learning from theirs and them learning from theirs and so on. It goes all the way back and back to the Apostles, perhaps even Saint Paul who handed on what he also received. When I think of it this way, I relate to Isaiah who proclaimed his lips unclean before they were purified with a burning coal (Isaiah 6:5) and to Saint Peter who fell at the Lord’s feet calling himself a sinful man (Luke 5:8). I see that all that I have to give is only what I have received. Sister, the Lord wants us to hand on the truth that we have received from others, to share our faith. We do not know how He will use it in their lives. Let us be like Saint Paul, and while we are all unworthy, trust in God’s grace as we pass it on in faith. [bctt tweet="All that I have to give is only what I have received. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

“Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.” // 1 Samuel 15:22 Chop, chop, chop. The crisp sound of the knife sliding through the potatoes calms my nerves along with the quiet hum of the sous vide cooking the steaks for dinner. I give myself over to the task—forming loving thoughts in my mind toward my husband and children who will be nourished by the food I prepare. In just a few minutes, I will have an hour of writing in my quiet room at my antique secretary while the food cooks. This accustomed afternoon hour has eluded me for days, as I have been obedient to the unusually demanding needs of my family. “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” Samuel tells King Saul in the reading today. It is easy for me to think of the countless phone calls and text messages I made on behalf of my daughter to treat the infection inflaming her sinuses as a penitential sacrifice. I dislike making calls. I have also thought of the tedium of helping my son through his first-grade homeschool curriculum or the forty-five minutes it takes to pick up my eldest’s carpool from school as offerings. Many days I attend to the needs of my family thinking of myself as a martyr sacrificing myself and my wants for their sake. But this week, I have found a special grace in obeying the needs of the present moment out of love. It is a good thing to offer up our hardships sacrifices to the Lord, but it is better if we do them as loving acts of obedience to the Lord and toward those we serve. Loving through obedience is better than a reluctant sacrifice. Sister, the Lord wants more for us than a grudging acceptance of the mundane tasks that fill our days. He wants us to not only obey His call in our life, but to obey out of love. Ask Him for this grace today and open your heart to living it out. He will not fail you. [bctt tweet="Obey the needs of the present moment. // @susannacspencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

“And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.” // 1 John 5:4 Streetlights flickered in the window of my friend’s house as I sat in a circle of ladies from my parish. It was the third meeting of a new book club, and people were already sharing freely about their faith and struggles. We were discussing how it looks in our days for God to be first in our lives—above all other people in our lives, no matter how dear to us. I opened up as well, sharing something I have been noticing more and more especially on my busiest days. When I focus on myself and wanting things to happen the way I expect or prefer, my daily call feels burdensome. I might still do all the things that are required of me, but in a half-hearted and resentful way. Yet, on days when I open myself up to God in faith and do what I am called to do each day trusting in Him, I find my days, no matter how full of challenging things, are a joy. As I finished speaking, I saw heads nodding in agreement. We all saw this truth: our days are better when we live them through our faith in God with love. When we trust that His will and commandments are for our good, we do not see our lives as a burden. Sister, we are begotten by God. And because He created us at the beginning of our lives and continually creates us anew as we draw closer to His grace, He wants to help us conquer the world. He wants to conquer the dread of a long day, the resentment towards those in need in our lives, the fear of not being noticed by others. Jesus came this Christmas season to “let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18). Open your heart to Him in faith. Let His love free you and conquer your world. [bctt tweet="Let His love free you. // Susanna Spencer " username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

“So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.” // Luke 2:16 (from the Mass at Dawn) I tiptoe up the stairs in the early morning from my bedroom in the basement to the living room, following the fresh pine scent of the tree, and my young heart draws me towards the humble crèche on the floor below the tree. I pad across the plush carpet in my socks as I recall decorating the tree and putting out the crèche the night before. I loved unwrapping each figure and placing them in the little stable, out in the “fields” of the carpet, or, in the case of the wise men and their camel, across the room on top of the piano. Last of all, I would place the empty manger to await Christmas morning. I sit on my knees on the floor before the crèche. My heart delights to see that He is there in His manger, surrounded by Saint Joseph, the Blessed Mother, and the shepherds in from the “fields.” I do not leave Him there, though. I pick up the figure of the Infant King, cradle Him in my little hand, and gaze at every feature. He has the tiniest toes and fingers, a curl to His hair, and a sweet expression on His face. It is as if He is saying, “I am here for you. I became a little baby just for you.” The gift of childhood joy I took in that crèche has stayed with me into my adulthood. Now my own children arrange the figures, and I am the one who places Him in the manger for them to discover. But I still love to sit before Him in the quiet of the Christmas season and adore my Lord as an Infant in a manger. Sister, your Christmas day might be busy and full, but it is not too busy to spend a moment with the Holy Family and the Infant lying in the manger either before a crèche at home or at church or in your imagination in your heart. He is the Reason for this day, and you are the reason He was born. [bctt tweet="You are the reason He was born. // Susanna Spencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

Tears filled my eyes as I struggled to nurse my three-week-old daughter. Our visiting parents had left town, my husband was on campus taking graduate classes, and I was home alone—without a car and battling engorgement, mastitis, and baby blues. We were ten months into living in a new city many hours from family, and while we had started to make friends, the loneliness was often oppressive. Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel (Luke 14:25-33) rang true in my life then and still do today. I did not literally “hate” my "father and mother” and “brothers and sisters,” but I did forsake living close to them for the sake of following my vocation, the path where I felt the Lord calling me to holiness. For me it was staying at home with our honeymoon baby, and for him it was pursuing his dream of studying philosophy. Having a baby added another level of “hating” my “own life.“ I do not mean my existence or my husband and child, but I mean in setting aside my selfish desires, putting others before me, renouncing all my selfish possessions for the sake of my husband and daughter. Every day, I learned of a new “possession” the Lord was calling me to give up. But, Sister, the Lord did not leave me empty. As I learned to give of myself to others, He filled me with Himself. His love replaced much of my selfishness, though there is still much more to give up. He even surrounded me with a beautiful Catholic community while we lived in Buffalo, New York, and again when we moved to another city in Minnesota, hours from family for the sake of my husband’s dream job. Even here, the Lord has blessed us with amazing community. When the Lord asks us to “hate” those nearest to us, He is asking us to put Him first, to trust Him and make sacrifices for the sake of serving Him and growing in holiness. Where in your life is He asking this of you? [bctt tweet="Put Him first. // @susannacspencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

The scars glared back at me from the mirror, and I remembered how they had once been open wounds in my breasts, oozing puss from idiopathic granulomatous mastitis. During my illness, I would prayerfully imagine myself tiny and curled up in the fetal position in the side wound of Christ. And in Christ’s wound, I received His mercy and joy as I offered my suffering and wounds in intercessory prayer. When Saint Francis of Assisi, whose feast we celebrate today, was forty-three-years old, the Lord revealed to him that he would receive the stigmata with wounds just like Christ’s pierced through his own body. After a retreat of fasting and prayer, on September 17, 1224, our Crucified Lord in the form of a Seraphim appeared to Francis. After the vision, wounds with nails appeared in Francis’ hands and feet and a lance wound appeared in his side. The Lord asked Francis to share his experience with others for Francis’ own sake, but also for the sake of those who would come to love the Lord through it. Saint Paul, in today’s reading for the feast of Saint Francis, shows us how all of our wounds can become Christ’s wounds. In referring to the wounds of his persecution for Christ’s sake, Paul wrote, “I bear the marks of Jesus on my body” (Galatians 6:17). While receiving the stigmata is a rare gift, the truth about all our wounds—whether physical or spiritual—is that they can give us joy when we unite them with Christ’s sufferings. This was true for Saint Francis whose “sacred wounds, which had been impressed upon him by Christ, gave great joy to his heart” even while “they caused unspeakable pain to his body” (The Little Flowers of St. Francis). Sister, we all face suffering and are all wounded in some way. Let us join with Saint Francis in praying, "I am ready to bear patiently whatsoever my Lord shall be pleased to do to me" (Id.). And let us take joy in our suffering with Saint Paul saying in our hearts, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). [bctt tweet="Our wounds can become Christ’s wounds. // @susannacspencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

The subject line in an email from Jenna Guizar stood out boldly: “Theological Editors.” I tapped the screen and skimmed the words. My heart racing, I read it again. Jenna was asking another writer and me to take on the responsibility of checking every devotion for Blessed is She for theological errors before publication. I wondered to the Lord: Is this something I can do? What if I miss something important? I walked to my husband in the other room and asked him what he thought. My life had been eight years of childbearing and sleepless nights since I had last studied theology. Yet, my husband encouraged me to say yes. I still had my theological abilities and could do research when I was unsure of an answer. I brought it back to the Lord. If I am supposed to do this, I will need Your help. Like Saint Paul, I know I am inadequate to do the things the Lord has asked me to do, but “I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12). In my writing and editing, I often feel like the blind leading the blind or a hypocrite trying to remove the splinter out of another’s eye (see Luke 6:39-42). I am only a weak human being, completely dependent on God’s grace to do these things well. Sister, God often gives us tasks that we feel inadequate to accomplish. Perhaps it is a project for work, a school assignment, getting through tough nights with a teething baby, or simply making it through a long day. He allows us to face these challenges so that we can learn how much we truly need Him. We should not fear for He is continually pouring out His grace to assist us in our need. For “[i]ndeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14). [bctt tweet="We should not fear. // @susannacspencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

My head was bent in shame as I named my sin aloud to the priest, tears streaming down my cheeks. I was on a retreat in my Senior year of high school confessing the same old sin. I wanted to be alert and ready for the coming of the Lord as Saint Paul tells us in the First Reading (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11). Yet, I could not struggle through it on my own. So many things distracted me from Him. So many things still do. In high school, when I went on retreats and received the Sacraments, I sought the refuge of the Lord, but my attachments to my sins were like the unclean demon in today’s Gospel crying out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” (Luke 4:34) I was so caught up in that same sin that in the face of temptation I could not hear Jesus’ word, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” (Luke 4:36) The Lord eventually freed me from my sin. He poured in His love and mercy, giving me His strength when I had none myself. Over the years since, I have allowed the Lord to destroy many of my attachments to sin, but now there are others that I confess every two weeks when I go to the Sacrament of Penance. I still need Him to help me overcome my habitual sins. Sister, the Lord has indeed come to destroy sin in us, to triumph over evil in our hearts. Remember that “God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Whatever your temptations to sin, whatever weighs down your heart so that you cannot hear the Lord clearly, He wants to free you from it. Let us turn to the Lord today and hear His word in our hearts. [bctt tweet="He wants to free you. // @susannacspencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion

The sign at the trailhead read: “Warning: Strenuous.” “Do you think the kids can do it?” I asked my husband. We looked down the the wooded, rocky trail which twisted down and then up the cliffside of a mesa. He affirmed that they could and led the way. I followed behind the line of my four children watching their straw sun hats bob up and down. Along the packed dirt trail we encountered many places where we had to scramble up and down uneven rocks and squeeze through narrow crevices. I praised God over the stunning views of the deep blue sky contrasted with the red sandstone cliffs and the bright green of the tree leaves. And each uneven step became a surge of gratitude to God for my health as I remembered the severe joint pain I had experienced during Lyme disease. It had been two years since my recovery, but I still remembered how I had cried out to Him often for healing and the grace to suffer with Him. When my health was restored, I resolved to never forget His faithfulness to me. In the First Reading today Moses tells the Israelites to commit to memory what Jews call the Shema Yisrael: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). He said to write it on their doors, carry it on their bodies, drill it into their children. If they really learned this with their hearts, they would also be able to follow Moses’ adjuration to “take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery” (Deuteronomy 6:12). Sisters, the Lord has delivered us from the slavery of sin, given us our very existence, and given us material blessings and health. And in our hard times, He has suffered with us. Pray today with the First Reading, calling to mind all the Lord has done for you, and resolve again to love Him with your whole heart. [bctt tweet="In our hard times, He has suffered with us. // @susannacspencer " username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion  

“Thomas!” I call to my five-year-old son, “I am mixing yeast into flour and water!” He charges into the kitchen, a knowledgeable look in his eyes. “I did that at Catechesis of the Good Shepherd!” he exclaims as he pulls over the step stool and climbs up to see above the counter. He helps me measure out the flour into the bowl with the yeast and water, and then he stirs it with all his might. Then he gives me a turn. We cover the dough, and he runs off to play. Later, we look and see that the little mound of dough has grown several times bigger. “It is like the Kingdom of Heaven,” I tell him. I think about my son and my three daughters that I have given nearly every hour of every day to since my eldest was born twelve years ago. It does not seem like a very productive life from a worldly perspective—meals prepared, clothing purchased, books read, homeschooling days together, discussions of faith, family prayer times, a little writing published here and there, but that is all. Yet, I know that as I am doing these things in response to God’s call in my life, that God multiplies my efforts into something greater than I could have achieved alone. The Kingdom of God is growing inside the hearts of my children. My writing is being read across the globe. God is using me to spread His Kingdom. Sister, Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is here and now. It is not a kingdom of this earth, but a kingdom of His Church, of people faithfully loving and serving Him. When we bring His life to others through our actions and words, we are spreading the Kingdom of God. Sometimes it is simply faithfully living out our calling in life and other times it is responding to an urgent need. Where is God calling you to mix yeast into the flour of your life? Where is He asking you to scatter seeds? Whatever we do for His glory, He will multiply beyond our comprehension. [bctt tweet="Whatever we do for His glory, He will multiply beyond our comprehension. // @susannacspencer" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion