When you set a goal to eat healthily and turn to resources to help you do so, one theme you’ll see repeatedly is that the green smoothies and salads you reach for during the week don’t count for much if you then spend all weekend splurging on milkshakes and French fries. Weekends make up 28% of the year, and that number can easily make or break your healthy lifestyle and the results you see from it. Spiritual Weekends In a way, Advent and Lent are like our spiritual “weekends.” Not in a relaxation sense (because I don’t think anyone would call the weeks leading up to Christmas relaxing!), but in a sense that as significant as they are, they make up the minority of the year. These seasons are essential to our Faith lives in the same way that weekends are essential to our health and sanity. The meaningful traditions, extra activities and resources from our parishes, and constant reminders of the promises ahead make it a little easier to remember to pray, fast, serve, and worship. I look forward to these seasons eagerly. I know that, with some effort, they’ll be seasons of renewal and conversion in my heart. Enter the Beauty of Ordinary Time This year, May 21st marked the return to Ordinary Time in the church calendar, which, aside from a few special feast days, will last until the first Sunday of Advent, December 2nd. Sounds far away, doesn’t it? The USCCB has an enchanting description for Ordinary Time: The Sundays and weeks of Ordinary Time… take us through the life of Christ. This is the time of conversion. This is living the life of Christ. Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. This is the time for conversion? The seasons of beach vacations, road trips, burgers on the grill, sunburns, fireworks, back to school shopping, brand new schedules, and pumpkin spice lattes? Yes. We are called to conversion daily—not just in seasons of spiritual highs—but in the everyday, the mundane, the busy…the ordinary. [bctt tweet="We are called to conversion in the everyday, the mundane, the busy…the ordinary. #BISblog //"] Seeking Conversion During Ordinary Time I know many of us begin Advent and Lent by reflecting on how we want to make that season particularly special and meaningful. As we lean in to Ordinary Time, let’s do the same. Here are a few ideas to take to prayer. Receive the Sacraments more often. Experts say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so Ordinary Time provides an abundance of time to create some new routines. If you have a hard time making it to Mass every week, commit to attending every Sunday. If you faithfully meet your Sunday obligation, see if there’s a daily Mass you can attend once or twice a week (don’t forget to check the Mass times of other nearby churches, not just the parish you belong to, for something that may work best with your schedule). Go to Confession every few months when you remember? Put it on the calendar once a month for the rest of the year and then stick to it. The more we receive the Sacraments, the more graces we receive to live our Faith. I think it’s safe to say we could all use a little more of that. [bctt tweet="The more we receive the Sacraments, the more graces we receive to live our Faith. #BISblog //"] Read a little bit of a spiritual book each day. I say “a little bit” intentionally—exactly what that means is up to you. But I firmly believe that little by little progress adds up. This reading time could look like anything from studying Summa Theologica during your hour of morning prayer to keeping a copy of the Diary of St. Faustina in your glove compartment so you can read a section or two while sitting in the carpool line. There are books out there on practically anything you can think of regarding our Faith. Dedicate a few minutes of your day to increasing your knowledge of whatever topics intrigue you. Check out a few lists in the Blessed is She archives to get you started: Best Books About Mary My Favorite Books About Saints 10 Great Books for Catholic Converts Do a Marian consecration. Pope St. John Paul II himself said, “[St. Louis de Montfort]’s teaching has had a profound influence on the Marian devotion of many of the faithful and on my own life.” Our Blessed Mother’s sole desire is to bring us to her Son, so consecrating our lives and wills to hers is a deeply meaningful way to lead us closer to Jesus. Marian consecrations last 33 days, ending on Marian feast days (the next one coming up goes from June 13-July 16). St. Louis de Montfort’s Preparation for Total Consecration to Mary is the “original” and best-known consecration, while I also love Father Michael Gaitley’s 33 Days to Morning Glory. Note: the former is incredible, but more time-intensive. So make sure you can carve out about 20-30 minutes per day before committing to it. The latter takes just 5-10 minutes. You are encouraged to renew your consecration every year. So don’t be afraid to do what works for you in your current season of life. Change it up in the future as needed! Fast regularly. I was in my early twenties before I realized that fasting wasn’t “restricted” to Lent. On the contrary, denying myself in order to redirect my heart toward the Lord is something I desperately need throughout the year. Consider choosing one day per month to fast. Or simply practice giving something up (dessert, technology, unnecessary spending, etc.) intentionally every once in awhile. During Lent, I gave up social media and repeated, “For love of you, Jesus,” whenever I was tempted to check in online. It always made my sacrifice feel easier. I have every intention of carrying that practice into Ordinary Time when I make small fasts from time to time. Pray the Rosary daily. Pope Pius XI said: If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors. By praying the Rosary daily, we join in a habit of countless saints who have gone before us. The graces that Mary pours out on those who pray the Rosary daily are second only to those we receive by attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Feel overwhelmed by the prospect of praying the whole Rosary every day? Start with just a decade per day, split the decades up throughout your day, or pray alongside a podcast or YouTube recording. Whatever you need to do to make this habit happen! [bctt tweet="If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country...recite the Rosary. //"] Join (or start) a group. Think back on some of the most significant moments of your faith life. Do they involve retreats, mission trips, or Bible studies? Mine too. God uses our communities and our acts of showing up so powerfully! Consider joining a Bible study, ministry team, or prayer group in your area and commit to attending faithfully. Nothing in your area fit your schedule or desires? Step out in faith and start something! Hosting a Blessed Brunch can be a wonderful way to connect with other women in your community. Let’s not allow the fervor of Easter fade away as we walk through this upcoming season, sisters. Pray with me that the Holy Spirit will set our hearts on fire for the Lord and continue to fan that flame all throughout Ordinary Time. I’d love to hear some of your hopes and plans for the season ahead in the comments below! [bctt tweet="Seeking Conversion in the Beauty of Ordinary Time #BISblog //"] This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking through one of these links, Blessed is She will receive a small percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting this ministry by using our affiliate links!

Have you ever felt like you need a cheerleader? A friend who knows how to speak courage, hope, peace, and possibility to your troubled mind as you agonize over details beyond your control? (Yes.) This is the antithesis of the sometimes destructive inner-monologue we can have with ourselves when things get hectic. It is the peace Jesus wishes for us, and yet it can feel so out of reach. Unfortunately it’s not the first tool I reach for in my own toolbox, and I recognize the need to hear it from another source when I have to make that scary appointment, analyze the likelihood of reconciliation between family members, and assess how I’m parenting during a difficult phase of kiddos. The list goes on. St. Rita and Hopeless Causes In the month of May, we celebrate the feast of St. Rita. "Rita" (Margherita) has been a patroness on my journey since college where I became fixated on the word "hope". It was in the name of the organization with whom I finished my senior year internship, and it has followed me around, showing up when I’d least expect it, like roses in a novena to St. Therese. Ironically, St. Rita is the patron saint of hopeless causes (along with St. Jude). The intercessory yin to my yang. She earned this title in a myriad of ways. At her parent’s request, she entered an (unfortunate) arranged marriage rather than religious life. Later, after her husband’s murder, she prayed that God would take her two sons so they would not be tempted to perpetuate a feud and avenge their father’s death. Her sons each took ill and died within the year. This was a turn of events she both mourned and celebrated, as it meant her sons hands remained innocent of the evils she feared. Having lost both sons and her husband, she decided to return to the idea of joining the Augustinian monastery. Only after reconciling the feuding parties was she offered admittance to the monastery. St. Rita Can Relate to Us Rita was an eclectic mix of things in her lifetime: daughter, wife, mother, peacemaker, and nun. Spiritually, St. Rita’s deep prayer life is akin to many prayerful mothers, which is why she is known as the patroness of so many familial issues. The ones that feel hopeless. Rita is celebrated as a woman who persevered in prayer on behalf of her family and one who knew hardship. Her influence, it was believed, impacted her husband and sons for the better. At her husband’s funeral, she publicly pardoned those responsible for his death. For one waiting with bated breath for any variety of outcomes, St. Rita's prayerful reputation is added strength and nourishing balm to my waiting spirit in a handful of scenarios. St. Rita and Honeybees Once I began keeping bees, I was reminded that St. Rita is often depicted with bees in iconography. This imagery is due to an event where a swarm of white bees surrounded her on her Baptism day, some even in her mouth, yet she remained unharmed. Since her death, a colony of bees has taken up residence near her grave, and has been seen between Easter and her feast day. This is fitting imagery in a lot of ways. As a beekeeper, I have a soft spot for honeybees and the metaphor they provide for the Christian life. Turns out, the Church does too. From cathedrals to candles, from vestments to the Easter Vigil Exsultent, the church honors, depicts, and implements honeybees into its representation of life offered for others. Common words, like the "cell" in a monastery, derive from the cells of a hive. It's a group of celibate worker bees, supporting one another for the survival of the whole. The high altar in St. Peter’s Basilica is covered in bees. St. John Chrysostom once shared in a homily: The bee is more honored than other animals, not because it labors, but because it labors for others. This is especially true for all men and women living holy lives, whose example and spirituality are lives offered for others. It is life-giving, hope-sustaining nourishment when we offer ourselves for the good of another. That we might too, bear fruit. St. Rita, pray for us. [bctt tweet="St. Rita: Hope and Honeybees #BISblog //"]

The past two years, I’ve prepared my 8th grade students for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Our diocese always schedules this as close to Pentecost as possible. Working with my students, I would remind them that the gifts and graces they received in Baptism are sealed, or confirmed, in Confirmation. This Sacrament completes the three Sacraments of Initiation (along with the Eucharist). Through the power of the Holy Spirit, those confirmed are sent forth to spread the Gospel, just as the original Twelve Apostles were called to do. The Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit During Baptism, we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within our souls and are given the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are: Wisdom Understanding Knowledge, Counsel Fortitude Piety Fear of the Lord The gifts of the Holy Spirit are received by all, but the evidence of them at work in a person are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. When a gift is not merely received, but used well, it bears fruit. And the Holy Spirit gives richly, freely, with the hope that we will use those gifts. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are: Charity Generosity Joy Gentleness Peace Faithfulness Patience Modesty Kindness Self-control Goodness Chastity When we meet someone who lives with joy, generosity, and kindness, we can truly see the Holy Spirit at work in her. Pentecost: The Birth of the Church In these Sacraments, the Holy Spirit comes upon each of us, bearing gifts and enkindling our hearts, setting them aflame with love for Christ. The same power and strength given to the Apostles on Pentecost is also given to us. On Pentecost, a feast of the birth of the Church, we remember Jesus’ promise to the Apostles that He would not leave them. He promised to send His Holy Spirit. After His Ascension into Heaven, 50 days after His Resurrection, we hear in chapter two of the Acts of the Apostles that: When Pentecost day came round, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves. Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. Everyone was amazed and perplexed; they asked one another what it all meant. Some, however, laughed it off. "They have been drinking too much new wine," they said. Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them in a loud voice: "Men of Judaea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, make no mistake about this, but listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you imagine; why, it is only the third hour of the day. On the contrary, this is what the prophet was saying: 'In the last days -- the Lord declares -- I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, your old people dream dreams.' God raised this man Jesus to life, and of that we are all witnesses. Now raised to the heights by God's right hand, he has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit. Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "What are we to do, brothers?" "You must repent," Peter answered, "and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." In this moving passage from Scripture, we see the Apostles afraid in the Upper Room. Yet, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them in the form of wind and fire, suddenly they can express themselves. And Peter, our first pope, directs them to repent, be baptized, and receive the gifts that the Spirit gives them so that they could begin their missionary work. We Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit On this Sunday, priests wear red to symbolize the tongues of fire sent upon the Apostles by the Spirit. In some places, such as Italy, the faithful scatter rose petals from the ceilings of churches to remember this. For each of us, this Sunday is a time to pause and consider the gifts we have each been given and the ways we are letting God work in us. We examine the ways we are using those gifts for others so that they might bear fruit. Mary, Mother of the Church This year, too, we have a new feast to celebrate! On March 3, 2018, Pope Francis announced that the Church will celebrate the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, on the Monday after Pentecost. This year, that falls on May 21, in the month of Mary. The Pope hopes this new Marian feast will continue to foster devotion to Our Lady, especially in her role as our mother. In addition, it will remind us that from the beginning of the Church at Pentecost, Christ’s followers have turned to Mary to guide them back to Her Son. While the Spirit gives us gifts, the Blessed Mother points us towards Jesus so that we might remember to use those gifts at the service of Him and His Church. What special traditions do you have to celebrate Pentecost? How can you use your God-given gifts to serve others? [bctt tweet="Pentecost and the Mother of the Church #BISblog //"] Mary Grace Mangano is a high school English teacher in Harlem, New York, having also taught middle school Language Arts and Religion in Chicago. She has written for Verily, Darling Magazine, The Catholic Woman, and other publications. She is passionate about education and social justice, loves writing poetry, running, reading, hiking, and learning new things. You can find out more about her here.

The word “indulgence” always made me feel a little uncomfortable. Growing up Catholic, I knew it was something Martin Luther got upset about when he separated himself from Catholicism back in 1517. But the reality is that the Church’s practices of giving indulgences are a great gift to us, are part of the living Tradition of the Church, and are Scripturally backed! And Martin Luther? His complaint about the giving of indulgences happened at a time when people were using them wrongly—trying to sell them for profit—these were not indulgences at all! The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines indulgences like this: An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints. -CCC 1471 Okay, so you might be thinking, "What does that even mean?" So, let’s break it down. What is Temporal Punishment? When we sin we harm our relationship with God in two ways (see CCC 1472). First, if we sin gravely we separate ourselves entirely from God and from the life of grace. This is when: the matter is a serious one; we are fully aware of the seriousness of it and what it is; and we freely consent to it anyway. Were we to die in this state the punishment would be eternal separation from God. We can be reconciled to God by receiving the Sacrament of Confession. The second way we harm our relationship with God is the fact that because we choose to sin (mortally or venially—less seriously) we are attached to serving ourselves more than serving God. We show a love of things of this world more than things of Heaven. Temporal punishment is God’s just response to all of our sins. For in order to be ready to enter into the eternal happiness of Heaven we need to be purified of our worldly attachment. Even after our sins have been Sacramentally forgiven. This happens through temporal punishment either on earth or through the purification of purgatory. Further, as our sins cause disorder in nature and do not give God the glory that is due, our earthly sufferings work to bring about the restoration of the moral order and the glory of God. The Origin of Temporal Punishment Genesis 3:16-19, after the Fall of Adam and Eve, gives us a scriptural basis for this understanding of sin: To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, `You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Even though we have been baptized and are forgiven regularly in Confession, we still experience the pains of childbirth, conflicts between each other, and we have to work hard for our basic necessities of life. These are part of our temporal punishment for sin. The Church has shown us how these toils can be used for our purification if we bear them patiently and with love for God. Then they help purify our souls and make us more like Jesus and the Saints. When we bear our sufferings well, we contribute to building up the whole Body of Christ. The Treasury of the Church Scripture tells us that all Christians are a part of the Body of Christ. When one part suffers, we all suffer. When one part rejoices, we all can rejoice (see 1 Corinthians 12:26). Our good works and prayers help the whole Body of Christ since we are all united in Him through the Holy Spirit. Pope Leo XIII talked about the Communion of Saints as: the mutual communication of help, expiation, prayers, blessings, among all the faithful, who, whether they have already attained to the heavenly country, or are detained in the purgatorial fire, or are yet exiles here on earth, all enjoy the common franchise of that city whereof Christ is the head, and the constitution is charity. -Mirae Caritatis, 12 All of the prayers and good works (spiritual goods) of the Communion of Saints are united together in the Body of Christ. We pray for each other and the souls in purgatory. The saints in Heaven pray for us. This Treasury of the Church contains all of the infinite merits of Christ’s suffering and prayers, the good works and prayers of the Blessed Mother and all of us on earth and all the Saints in Heaven (see CCC 1474-1477). It is like the circulatory system of the Body of Christ filled with the infinite merit of Christ’s suffering which we add to through our own offerings. Saint Paul gives us an example of offering his own sufferings for the rest of the Church: I rejoice now in the sufferings I bear for your sake; and what is lacking of the suffering of Christ I fill up in my flesh for his body, which is the Church. -Colossians 1:24 The Church’s Authority to Distribute Graces When Jesus established the Church, He told St. Peter, our first pope: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. -Matthew 16:19 This is one of the scriptural foundations for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but it also is the basis of the Church’s authority to distribute graces from the treasury of the Church, ie. decide what actions give one the special graces of indulgences. In the early Church there were very often hard, long penances prescribed for particular sins. As the Church’s understanding of grace developed, she began to emphasize good works, prayers, and acts of piety as sources of sanctification. She saw that, as the Body of Christ, we could offer these things for each other. All of the graces we received from our own good works and prayers came from the treasury of the spiritual goods of the Church. From this understanding, the Church has decreed certain prayers and good works in particular as ways for us to know we are receiving the graces of purification that take away our need for temporal punishment. What is an Indulgence? And How to Get One. Basically, an indulgence is the grace we receive from the Treasury of the Church through performing a specific good act or praying specific prayers specified by the Church. The grace is specifically for the freeing of us from temporal punishment. The Enchiridion of Indulgences (enchiridion means “manual”) has a complete list of all the indulgenced prayers. Indulgences have been divided into two kinds: Partial - gives one a partial remission of temporal punishment Plenary - gives one a full remission of temporal punishment In the past the Church used to attach a number of days or years off purgatory to each partial indulgence. But now she wants us to understand that the amount of freedom we receive from temporal punishment is based on our own level of devotion. The more charity and devotion we have in prayer, the greater the remission we receive. For example, one of the indulgenced prayers is simply this: saying the Sign of the Cross devoutly and crossing oneself properly. A plenary, full, indulgence is harder to get. One has to: do the prescribed prayer or action, for example, pray the Stations of the Cross at legitimately erected stations (ie. in a church or grotto); pray for the intentions of the Pope; receive Holy Eucharist and go to the Sacrament of Confession within 8 days or so of the indulgenced act or prayer; and be free of all attachment to even venial sin. If one is not able to meet all these conditions, then one can still earn a partial indulgence. General Grants of Indulgences A super cool way to earn partial indulgences is to follow the three “general grants” of indulgences. These are given to certain kinds of acts. The first is to patiently go about your daily works and sufferings and pause to unite them to God through a short prayer. The Enchiridion lists a number of ideas of what prayers one could say. The second is to serve those in need with faith and mercy, such as providing for the poor. The third is to voluntarily take on a penance of giving up some good thing, such as fasting on non-penitential days. All of these actions, when done devoutly and with God’s love in our hearts work to purify our hearts! The Heart of Indulgences To earn any indulgence we need to be aware that the prayer earns you an indulgence, have the desire to earn it while praying it, and have the further desire for that action to free us from our attachments to sin. I highly recommend reading through the list of indulgences in the Enchiridion to know exactly how you can earn them. You may find you could be earning partial indulgences all day long just doing what you have been doing! If you do them all well, you will become super holy. Basically, the manual on indulgences is a manual on how to get holy. Do indulgences confuse you? What are some of your big questions surrounding this tradition? Have you ever done anything extra-ordinary to receive a plenary or partial indulgence? [bctt tweet="What is an Indulgence? #BISblog //"] Susanna Spencer has a masters in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and serves as the Theological Editor of Blessed is She, and lives with her husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, reading good books, raising her children, casually following baseball, talking to her philosopher husband, and writing all about it at her blog. You can find out more about her here.

As Catholics, we have an incredibly rich spiritual buffet presented to us. Holy Mother Church offers prayers, devotions, liturgies, and traditions that speak to every personality and life stage of her children. One such tradition that has been practiced throughout the centuries is Marian consecration. Consecrating oneself to Our Lady is a profoundly spiritual and impactful path to sanctity. What is Marian Consecration? One of the definitions for the word "consecrate" is to "dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose" (source). Marian consecration is the act of entrusting one's body, soul, possessions, works, and entire life to the protection, guidance, and intercession of Our Lady. The act of entrusting oneself to Mary's care and intercession is nothing new. Jesus Himself entrusted His beloved disciple, John, to Mary while He was on the Cross (John 19:26-27). The early Christians and Church fathers recognized Mary's holiness and her significance as the Mother of God. We've been asking for Mary's intercession and intervention in our lives since the beginning of the Church. She is, after all, our mother, too. A more formal method of consecration to Mary was developed by Saint Louis de Montfort in the 1600s. His 33-day prayer consists of short instructions on why one would even consecrate themselves to Mary in the first place (more on that below) and praying the Rosary and other various prayers to Mary and God. This period of prayer culminates in a beautiful prayer of consecration that one makes in conjunction with the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the reception of Holy Communion, ideally on a Marian feast day. Why Should I Consecrate Myself to Mary? What's the point of consecration to Mary, anyway? What if I already have a devotion to Mary, pray the Rosary, and ask for her intercession? Consecration to Mary is simply a furthering and deepening of our devotion to and relationship with Jesus through Our Lady. If you already have an affection for Mary and talk to her often, consecration is a natural next step. But even you don't really know Our Lady yet and aren't convinced of the hype, Marian consecration can be that bridge that unites you to her more deeply. When we consecrate ourselves to Mary, we give her our entire lives and selves as well as the merits of all our prayers and works in order to belong more fully to Our Lord. We give Mary everything we are and do to present to the Lord and use at her disposal. Why give Mary everything? Because she's a good mom. She only wants what's best for us and for all her children. Mary wants us to know, love, and serve Jesus more. She wants us to get to Heaven even more than we do. She's invested in our happiness, both temporal and eternal. Mary takes all the good we are and do, adds her grace, and presents us to her Son. The best part? When she presents us to Jesus, in all our littleness and with all our feeble efforts, He does not refuse her, because she never refuses Him. Can't I Just Consecrate Myself to God? Yes! And ultimately, that's exactly what Marian Consecration accomplishes. When we consecrate our selves to Mary, really we are consecrating ourselves to Jesus through Mary. They are so intimately united that truly giving ourselves to Mary can lead to nothing but total surrender to God. By consecrating ourselves to Mary, we leap with faith and joy into the arms of our mom, knowing that she advocates for us, loves us, and wants to see us become saints. We cannot go wrong with Marian Consecration. The Fruit of Her Womb A beautiful companion for your Marian consecration journey. Shop Now Want to learn more about Our Lady, check out these books about her! What Do I Need to Start My Marian Consecration? To complete a Marian consecration, you really just need a willing heart. Just begin with a desire to know Jesus more deeply through His Mother. You'll probably also want a guide. St. Louis de Montfort's Preparation for Total Consecration is timeless and has been used for decades. St. Maximilian Kolbe's 9-day formal consecration to Mary is also beloved by many. In more recent years, Fr. Michael Gaitley wrote 33 Days to Morning Glory, which focuses on the Marian spiritualities of four Saints. I suggest taking a look at each one and praying about which best suits your soul at this time. Again, you can't go wrong here, so don't stress too much about which form of consecration you select. It is customary to renew one's consecration to Our Lady every year by repeating the 33-day process and ending on the same Marian feast day. You can always select various methods of consecration throughout the years, too! The Ultimate Goal of Marian Consecration We are all called to holiness. God created us to be saints. We are made to know the Lord, to love Him, and to serve Him. Consecrating ourselves to Mary is one way that we grow in that knowledge, love, and service. We allow Mary to take us by the hand and lead us to her Son. She knows, loves, and serves Him best. We have so much to learn from her life, and so much to gain by placing ourselves in her hands. Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, and Our Mother, pray for us! Have you consecrated yourself to Our Lady? Is your heart stirred to it for the first time? A Beautiful Companion Preparing for consecration? Our Blessed is She Rosaries are beautiful companions for your journey. Shop Rosaries → [bctt tweet="What is Marian Consecration? #BISblog //" via="no"] This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting this ministry! MARY SHOWS US THE WAY Just as a mother might pass on a beloved family tradition to her daughters, Mary shares the recipe for growing in virtue with us. This study on Mary's Virtues will breathe new life into your everyday, beginning right in Mary's home. GET HOME STUDY

This year, the right arm of St. Francis Xavier is travelling across Canada, giving thousands of Catholics the opportunity to venerate the first-class relic of a Saint who is said to have baptized over 100,000 people across the world. When I had the opportunity to venerate the relic, I didn’t realize the power of saintly intercession. What Jesus Taught Me Through St. Francis Xavier I thought the relic was more of a cool historical museum piece than a powerful way to interact with a holy Saint. But despite this, through venerating the relic, Jesus taught me three incredible things. 1. Conversion As a young man in college, St Francis Xavier experienced an incredible conversion with the help of the Holy Spirit and his friend, St. Ignatius Loyola (the founder of the Jesuit order). One of the gifts of his intercession is an equally powerful conversion in our own lives. As practicing Catholics, sometimes we forget our need to be converted. We become comfortable, thinking, “I pray daily,” or “I go to Confession regularly,” and so our relationship with God becomes stagnant. We forget to grow. But Jesus is always asking to draw in closer; He is constantly inviting us to be in a deeper relationship with Him. As C. S. Lewis says, “Further up, further in!” On this earth, there’s no end to the spiritual life, no “final goal.” Heaven is the goal. But, as I learned through the gift of conversion from St. Francis’ intercession, conversion is something that should happen to us every day as Catholics. Maybe this means adding five minutes onto our daily prayer time, or maybe it means taking up a new ministry in our parish. Maybe it means learning to love the people in our lives with more selfless generosity. Regardless, Jesus calls us deeper still, and He longs to encounter our hearts in a new way. [bctt tweet="Jesus calls us deeper still, and He longs to encounter our hearts in a new way. #BISblog //"] 2. Healing It’s been said that St. Francis Xavier performed countless miracles of healing while he was on his mission. This healing became a powerful witness to the power of God, which helped in his mission of conversion and spreading the Gospel message. Sometimes, modern Catholics think of healing as something that stays in the book of The Acts of the Apostles. After all, in Acts, people gathered around the apostles just hoping Peter’s shadow would fall over them so they might experience physical and spiritual healing! But the truth is, the same Holy Spirit that descended on the apostles at Pentecost is the Holy Spirit who is alive in the Church today. The Holy Spirit has the same power to heal, if we are open to inviting Him into our hearts and lives and if we have faith that He is truly capable. Sometimes, healing doesn’t always look like we want it to. Maybe we have a physical wound—a chronic illness or an injury—but what God really wants to heal is something in our hearts, like a grudge or a wound from an old situation. When I encountered the relic, I thought I didn’t need any healing! I was perfectly healthy. But God thought otherwise, and He healed unforgiveness which I was clinging to in my heart. Today, the Holy Spirit longs to heal every broken part of us, whether that be in our bodies, our minds, our hearts, or our spirits. [bctt tweet="The Holy Spirit longs to heal every broken part of us... #BISblog //"] 3. Mission This just might be the most powerful gift of St. Francis Xavier. He had the gift of an incredible mission, baptizing over 100,000 people. But he almost didn’t end up travelling to China, India, or Japan, where he carried out much of his mission. He was asked to go at the very last minute after another priest was unable to. Despite the change of plans, St. Francis had a missionary abandonment to the will of God for his life. Through his intercession, the Holy Spirit can move us to have the same missionary abandonment. Sometimes, we think of evangelization as being a vocation for only a few people: people like St. Francis Xavier, who travel across the world baptizing people, or people like Mother Teresa, or people who work in full-time mission. That’s what I thought before St. Francis Xavier’s intercession helped me to really understand evangelization. This idea couldn’t be more wrong. In the Gospels, the first reaction Jesus’ followers have to meeting Him is to run out and tell their friends. Andrew’s first response is to tell his brother Simon, “We have found the Messiah.” Simon Peter would later become the first Pope. The truth is that the natural response to Jesus Christ is mission. Obviously, we aren’t all being called to work as full-time missionaries or enter religious life. For some, our mission is carried out by being a listening ear to a friend who needs some selfless love. Or maybe it’s volunteering at a church program or youth group. Maybe it’s inviting that one friend who is searching for something more to learn about our Catholic Faith. St. Paul wrote that we should not only “revere Christ as Lord,” but that we should “never be afraid to give a reason for the hope that you have.” We need to share the light of Christ with the world. It’s not optional. It’s key to our identity as Catholics. [bctt tweet="The natural response to Jesus Christ is mission. #BISblog //"] St. Francis Xavier and Our Mission We may not all have the chance to venerate a Saint’s relics, but their intercession is still a powerful and tangible way for us to experience the gifts that Jesus wants to pour into our lives. Maybe in your life, you’re in need of one of these three gifts—conversion, healing, or mission. Maybe you need all three! Regardless, developing a relationship with St. Francis Xavier, one of the most powerful missionaries in Church history, can help us to understand how radically Christ is longing to change our lives, if only we have the courage to let Him. Have you ever had the chance to venerate a relic of a Saint? What was your experience? [bctt tweet="What I Learned from St. Francis Xavier #BISblog //"] Katherine DeCoste is a student of English and History at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. When she isn’t writing papers or studying for exams, she spends her time playing music, writing poetry, and striving to serve the Lord in small things.

Let us run to Jesus, Heart of Love, Heart full of tenderness. Let us ask Jesus to give us the riches of His pure love—to breathe only for love, to live only for love. -St. Gemma Galgani I first “met” St. Gemma Galgani when I was fourteen years old and had reached the point in Confirmation class when we were told to choose a patron saint. My mom left her book of saints on my bed so I could read it. But—and I can’t remember if it was from any type of conviction or simply laziness—I never made it past the first page. The beautiful, dark-haired girl in the photograph gracing the cover became my patron saint: St. Gemma. Helping Me Find My Way Home For years, she lingered in the background of my heart while I drifted away from the Church in high school, finding my way back the summer before my senior year, just in time to send in my application to a Catholic university I had insisted I didn’t want to attend. And as I journeyed “Home,” I often thought of St. Gemma. I didn’t know anything about her other than that she was a canonized Saint, she was Italian, and she was beautiful. Who was this young woman—who I’m confident was interceding for me for all those years—even though I had never bothered to get to know her? My Spiritual Companion As I fully embraced my Catholic Faith and the Communion of Saints we are blessed to be surrounded by, I admittedly “clicked” with other Saints a lot more. St. Gemma was…too perfect. There are accounts of her wisdom and holiness from the time she was two years old, and her spiritual director shares in The Life of St. Gemma Galgani that “she would have passed through any torment rather than deliberately consent to even the merest shadow of venial sin.” Talk about hard to relate to! It wasn’t until I dove into the aforementioned biography that I learned just how much work, dedication, time, and even (read: especially) physical sacrifice led her to this level of holiness. She put in the work, battled aspects of her own personality that contradicted the faith God specifically called her to, and accepted cross after cross in hopes of becoming more deeply united with the Crucified Jesus. Learning from St. Gemma Galgani Even though my vocation (marriage and motherhood) couldn’t be more different than hers (an almost hermit-like single life), here are just a few of the things I’ve learned from her about loving Jesus and growing in holiness. 1. Naming and writing down habits we want to cultivate is powerful. After making her First Communion, St. Gemma wrote down five spiritual resolutions and committed to living them out—and she did, all throughout her life. While she certainly added more practices to her devotions as she grew up, these five habits, from “[receiving] Holy Communion each time as if it were to be the last” to “[endeavoring] to keep always in the presence of God” formed the core of her spiritual life. 2. Virtues must be actively pursued and practiced. Much of her biography is dedicated to unpacking the virtues St. Gemma mastered, most notably obedience, humility, purity, and simplicity. Her spiritual director reveals that despite how near-perfectly she lived out these virtues, they were a constant struggle for her. Having gazed upon the wounds of Jesus in His Passion during her frequent ecstasies, and even sharing in them through the stigmata, she was deeply sensitive to her sinfulness and took every possible measure to avoid the near occasion of sin. She even prayed, with her spiritual director’s approval, that she might never find pleasure from such an earthly satisfaction as food! Her perspective is summed up well in this quote: I wish to be all and only of Jesus, and what is there to love on this earth now that I possess Jesus? World, creatures, all you are no longer for me, nor am I for you, and so I cannot love you and will not love you more. 3. We don’t need the perfect situation or setting to pursue holiness. St. Gemma deeply desired religious life. When she was miraculously healed from a case of meningitis that nearly took her life, everyone (herself included) thought the reason for her recovery was so that she could enter the convent. However, for one reason after another, and despite the sisters’ love and admiration for her, she was ultimately turned away. She was heartbroken. But when she returned home, she quickly incorporated the lessons and habits from her time with the sisters on retreat into her life with her relatives and siblings. She trusted in God completely, and accepted that her plan, as wonderful and noble as it was, was simply not His plan. It may have been easier for St. Gemma to live out her unique, private, mystical life from within cloistered walls. But striving to live that way in the midst of people who didn’t understand her undoubtedly contributed to her holiness and humility. 4. We do not need to live at the mercy of our senses. How often do we make decisions based on our senses? I’m not going to kneel during Holy Hour because my knees hurt. I want to head home as soon as Mass is over because I’m hungry. I’d venture to guess that our senses, my own very much included, guide more of our lives than we may realize. St. Gemma became such a master of her senses that she could essentially turn them off, entering instantly into communion with God. Her spiritual director revealed: If she wished to commune with Heaven, in an instant, her imagination was silenced and ceased its wanderings; her memory became powerless to remember any created thing as food for thought or expression; the importunate movements of her heart stopped still; and even her physical pains were no longer a trouble or distraction. While I can only pray to grow even remotely close to this level of detachment, I can train myself to become more aware of what earthly desires and distractions are keeping me from a deeper relationship with God. 5. We learn to love Jesus through the Cross. If there is one thing to know about St. Gemma, it is that her greatest love was Jesus Crucified. From an early age, she pleaded with her mother and teachers to explain the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary to her, and she constantly meditated on the Passion of Jesus. In 1899, she received the stigmata for the first time. It lasted from Thursday evening until Friday afternoon and returned each week until the last three years of her life, when her confessor forbade her to accept it anymore. Along with the five wounds of Christ, St. Gemma also experienced each of the sufferings of the Passion: sweating of blood, the scourging, the crown of thorns, and the physical trauma that Jesus experienced carrying the Cross. While most of us will never experience the intimacy with the Passion of Jesus that St. Gemma did, we can draw closer to Christ Crucified, especially with Good Friday still fresh in our minds and hearts. We can meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries frequently and devotedly. We can carry the crosses God gives us and accept suffering with humility and gratitude for the opportunity to unite ourselves more with Jesus. And, since that is so much easier said than done, we can plead to St. Gemma, she who so willingly and beautifully suffered in both body and soul, for her intercession. Happy Feast of St. Gemma Galgani! Sisters, have a blessed feast day of St. Gemma today! If you're interested, I'm sharing a few simple ideas for commemorating this day here. St. Gemma Galgani, pray for us! *Quotes in this post are from The Life of St. Gemma Galgani by her spiritual director, Venerable Fr. Germanus, C.P. [bctt tweet="Learning to Love Jesus with St. Gemma Galgani #BISblog //"] This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking through one of these links, Blessed is She will receive a small percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting this ministry by using our affiliate links!

The Annunciation is a marvel to me. As it should be, I suppose. You see, unlike so many women who hoot and holler with joy at the news of a pregnancy, I have received my own "mini annunciations" with tremendous trepidation. The Annunciation and Trust Within Pregnancy It has literally taken days for me to wrap my head around the news of each of my pregnancies. Not because I am not excited. Certainly not because I don’t appreciate the wonder of new life. But because at that point, I come to the very raw acceptance that whatever comes next, I will see it through to the end. The one unknown I’m confident in is that I am not the author of this story. Those pink lines signal that, on some level, I am ready to hand over control and accept whatever comes with this new life. And if I’m honest, that is where my confidence has teetered—at the very moment my heart has most desired safety, security, and stability. Will the baby be healthy? Will he or she make it full term? Will there be complications? Will the world be kind to him or her? How might his or her needs alter the course of life as I know it? Enter teenage Mary. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." I’d like to imagine that my questions stem, in some way, from the wisdom in the exchange between Mary and Gabriel. These are the kinds of questions one who’s heard Mary’s story asks with an awareness that one little "yes" at a time has the potential to turn our world on its head. I believe this world-shifting perspective is so often the nourishment we need for our (occasionally short-sighted) journeys. And yet, in that promise of provision and nourishment lies the promise that these little fiats will also lead to piercing, poking, and prodding of the very heart from which this love comes. Be It Done to Me So, on one hand, I appreciate Mary’s "yes" as a courageous example of trust when my own confidence has failed me. Particularly given the scandalous nature of her circumstances, the angel’s assurance that her child would indeed be different, and a hope that her betrothed would understand, she had every reason to be concerned. And yet, she wasn’t. Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." On the other hand, I picture John Collier’s depiction of the Annunciation. Young Mary is on her front porch after school doing homework, wearing saddle shoes and looking about as surprised as I have felt myself by the news of new life (only, with a great deal more reason to be). Maybe this head-scratching announcement is how you’ve come to know annunciations, too. Maybe you had given up hope for a baby, or expected your child-bearing years were over, or found yourself pregnant with no husband, or thought you timed it differently…And yet, this unexpected calling is inviting you to bear something new to the world. Giving Our Fiats Mary has long been called the Theotokos which means "God-bearer." I love this name for Mary. She models perfectly what it looks like to bear Christ to the world. She is an inspiration to us who are looking for ways to bring Christ to a weary and worn world. Without question, Mary’s call as Jesus’ mother was unique and unrepeatable, but her witness as a Christian—and particularly as a woman—has a deeper invitation to each of us. We are invited to be bearers of Christ in all the ways in which we are in the world. We bring to birth the works of our souls, whether they be books, art, babies, lesson plans, garden patches, vocations, songs, or city planning. All of these have the capacity to convey Christ to the farthest imaginable corners. By its very nature, the Annunciation models at least two important truths. First, we may not feel equipped for the task before us to which we have been invited. Second, despite this reality, our little yeses to Christ are borne into the world in unimaginable ways. What have been some unexpected annunciations in your life? What happened when you gave your "yes"? [bctt tweet="The Annunciation: One "Yes" at a Time #BISblog //"]

It has been just over six years since I made a pilgrimage to Krakow, Poland to visit the Shrine of the Divine Mercy. I was able to pray in the Chapel where St. Faustina is buried and venerate the original miraculous image of Merciful Jesus (the popular Divine Mercy image). Because it was the Feast of Divine Mercy, the tram from the city center to the Shrine was free, proving the strength of the Catholic Faith in Poland. Meeting Divine Mercy At the time of this pilgrimage, I did not have a great devotion to Divine Mercy nor the great Church mystic St. Faustina. What this pilgrimage did do was provide grace. It planted the seeds for me to be open to reading the Diary of St. Faustina four years later, when my older brother bought it for me, challenging me to read it during Lent. St. Faustina kept this diary at Jesus’ request, as well as at the order of her two confessors. In her diary, she goes in to the details of her deep spiritual life and her intimate relationship with God. Refreshingly, she also speaks of her human weaknesses and worldly challenges. With a book of over seven-hundred pages, I was hesitant to begin and I was not expecting it to capture my attention. But what I noticed is that with each diary entry, I was hungry for a spiritual treasure from St. Faustian’s words. In my reading, Jesus burrowed me more deeply into His blazing and Sacred Heart of love. A couple of months after starting the Diary, I finished the book on Divine Mercy Sunday itself, celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. The Message of Divine Mercy Jesus appeared to Sister Faustina in her convent cell on February 22, 1931. He asked her to paint His image just as she saw Him in the vision. This is where the image of the Merciful Jesus, or Divine Mercy, comes from. He spoke to her: Paint an image according to the pattern you see: with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You’. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel and [then] throughout the world. -Diary 47 In this image of Divine Mercy, there are two rays coming out of Jesus’ Heart, one red and one pale. These rays represent the Sacraments. The blood reminds us of Jesus’ Passion and the Eucharist while the water recalls our Baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Trust in His Mercy The message of Divine Mercy is complete trust in God, despite the discouragement we may feel after falling in sin. Jesus spoke to St. Faustina: My daughter, write about My mercy… souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight in Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. -Diary 1146 Jesus cannot punish even the greatest sinner, so long as we implore His ocean of mercy. His mercy is inscrutable! Divine Mercy and New Life St. Faustina died of tuberculosis in Krakow on October 5, 1938 at just thirty-three years old. She was canonized sixty-two years later on April 30, 2000 when Pope St. John Paul II instituted her feast day as a feast for the whole Church. With the grace of the Sacraments, we can heed Pope St. John Paul II’s message given in Krakow in 2002 that: The message of Divine Mercy is able to fill hearts with hope and to become the spark of a new civilization: the civilization of love. We are the civilization that he is talking about. We are to be an example, a “spark” of the fire of love Jesus wants to share with the world. Will you make an appeal to His compassion? With the Easter graces we are living in, let us take to heart Jesus words to St. Faustina: At three o’clock implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world. -Diary 1320 How do you celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy? [bctt tweet="Divine Mercy and the "Spark" of the Sacred Heart #BISblog //"] This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking through one of these links, Blessed is She will receive a small percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting this ministry by using our affiliate links!

I speak now of the Life After, which I can imagine, and not the AfterLife, which I cannot, although He spoke of it many times. I look up at Him now, utterly broken, utterly weathered, and remember His pure skin, unblemished, coalesced with mine, when I was only a child myself. I look up at Him now, as I have always looked up to Him, my son, my son, my beloved son. It is not a tree from which He hangs, as they will later say. He sags now lifelessly from blunt coarse logs, tied together with colonial compliance and boorish disconcern. My husband would be ashamed at such violent construction, if he were here. He is not here. What shall I do now? What shall I do? What shall I do now, in the Life After? How do I stand and walk from this site? Where are my legs, if His are broken? My dear sister is shaking my arm, “Mary, Mary,” she calls from a seeming distance. “We must rise.” I look down upon Him now. They have brought Him down, and I did not notice. He lies on the barren soil utterly soulless, as if forsaken, skin as ashen as sin. I look down on Him now and I reach out to brush away the matted lock on His forehead. But I cannot; the thorns are coalesced into his skin. I cannot reach Him, my beloved son. “Mary, you must rise,” she repeats. Yes. I must rise. I must rise, I know. I must rise into the Life After. I do not know about this AfterLife of which He spoke. He told me there will be no brokenness there, in the AfterLife. All of this brokenness, all of this suffering, must be borne here, in the Life After. It is for this He was born. It is for this I was so born as well. It is for this we are born, for suffering borne. But I must rise. Tomorrow I will bake bread. For the others will be hungry. [bctt tweet="The Life After: A Poem for Holy Saturday #BISblog //"] Eileen McKeagney is a wife, mother, Catholic high school English teacher, daughter, sister, and lifelong writer. She lives in San Juan Capistrano, CA with her husband, who hails from Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and their three children. As a literature teacher, she gets to teach love stories, each and every day. In her spare time, Eileen is a minivan chauffeur for her children, makes a mean jar of homemade preserves in the summertime, and occasionally writes poetry and prose. Read more of her original work and learn more about her here.

For many of us, Good Friday is a day to get through. No meat, plus fasting, plus something about two small meals and one larger meal, usually equals low energy, crabbiness, and trouble concentrating on tasks at work or at home. Fasting and The Gift of Good Friday Call me crazy, but Good Friday is actually my favorite day out of the entire Church year. Yes, the fasting can make the day difficult, but if you think about it, Good Friday is an amazing gift. We get an entire day to contemplate the very great price of our salvation–Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross. And we get to involve not just our head and our heart, but our physical bodies as well in that holy contemplation. Understanding the Church’s teachings about fasting and penance and the prayers and liturgies of the day can make Good Friday feel like less of a day to get through, and more like the gift that it is. It could even become your favorite day of the Church year. What’s the deal with fasting? According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law “abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (Canon 1251). That means that in addition to abstaining from meat, as we do every Friday throughout Lent, we are also called to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The United States Council of Catholic Bishops defines fasting as eating “one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal." You can drink liquids between meals, but no solid food should be consumed. Who is required to fast? People ages 14 and up are required and abstain from meat, and people ages 18-59 are required to fast (see Canon Law 1252). Are there any exceptions? Yes. According the United States Council of Catholic Bishops, those who are physically or mentally ill, those with chronic illnesses, like diabetes, and pregnant or nursing women are exempt. What do I do if I’m not able to fast? This is my third time being pregnant during Lent. If I were to attempt fasting while pregnant I would end up passing out. But even though I’m not fasting, I try to keep a spirit of penance in my meals. I abstain from meat, and avoid other foods that I especially enjoy, namely, sweets and coffee. I also choose to fast from TV, social media, and other things that could distract me from the meaning of the day. Why Fasting Matters Now that we know the “rules” for fasting, we need to understand the spiritual significance of fasting. Canon 1252 talks about the importance of being “educated in an authentic sense of penance.” Penance is an act or outward sign that helps us turn away from sin and back to God. Our fasting and abstinence is a tangible way for us to express our sorrow for the sins we have commited. Every time we feel a pang of hunger on Good Friday we are reminded to say with our bodies, along with our hearts, “Lord, I am sorry for my sin that lead You to the Cross. With this act of penance, I am offering myself to You.” [bctt tweet="With this act of penance, I am offering myself to You. #BISblog //"] How do I carry on with daily life while fasting? I think we all know that it can be really difficult to go about daily life on an empty stomach. That’s why on Good Friday I try not to carry on with daily life. As much as possible, I try to save the day for prayer, reflection, and penance. I don’t socialize on Good Friday, and when I was working outside the home, I tried to take the day off. I don’t schedule appointments on Good Friday and my kids don’t go to school. The way I see it is, if Jesus hung on the Cross and died for me, surely I can take one day off from my regular programming to remember and honor His death. Yet, if you are unable to set aside your whole day, you can still unite your heart to Jesus’ Passion through offering your hunger pangs. He labored long and hard the day He died, and if we have to, we can as well. So what do I do all day? It can be tempting on Good Friday to just crawl under the covers and sleep our way to Holy Saturday. But there are a lot of things you could do in the way of prayer and penance on Good Friday. Chances are, your local parish already offers many of them. Most churches offer Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, usually at 3:00 pm, which is the hour of Jesus’ death. Some parishes offer Confession. Pro-life groups often hold prayer vigils on Good Friday to pray for an end to abortion. Working on light preparations for Easter is an entirely appropriate activity for Good Friday. Of course, having time of quiet prayer and reflection at home is always a good idea. The Good Friday service at your parish is the perfect way to end the day. It is a beautiful and solemn liturgy. When we take the time to walk to Calvary with Jesus and stand under His Cross, it only makes Easter Sunday all the more glorious. The Beauty of the Good Friday Liturgy If you attend your parish’s Good Friday service, you will notice it’s pretty different than your standard Sunday Mass. First of all, it’s not a Mass! Good Friday is the only day in the entire year that the Liturgy of the Eucharist is not celebrated. Communion is still distributed, but it is from the hosts consecrated on Holy Thursday. The Liturgy of the Eucharist, which the Church throughout the world celebrates every other day of the year, is a proclamation of Christ’s victory over death. The lack of that liturgy on Good Friday reminds us of the immense agony and humiliation that Jesus went through to bring about that victory. You may notice other unusual things at your church on Good Friday. The altar is stripped bare, there are no plants, flowers, or candles, and depending on the church you go to, and there is little to no music. Why? All of these things are symbols of joy and festivity. On Good Friday, we are in mourning for the death of our Lord. The Gospel You may also notice that the Gospel reading is really long. It’s two entire chapters from the Gospel of St. John! Resist the urge to fidget or glaze over. Pay attention, there is crowd participation. What words do you hear yourself saying? “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” It is unnerving to play the part of the angry mob, demanding Jesus’ death. In my head I think, “Lord I would never crucify You.” But saying those words out loud reminds me that is was in fact my sins that took Jesus to the Cross. The Solemn Intercessions and The Veneration of the Cross The Solemn Intercessions and The Veneration of the Cross are two other elements of the Good Friday liturgy that you won’t find any other day. The Intercessions are a beautiful reminder that Jesus’ death was for the entire world. They entail more kneeling than usual. When my knees start to hurt from hitting the kneeler so many times I think of Jesus, falling to the ground under the weight of a heavy cross. During the Veneration of the Cross, we can kneel before or even kiss the crucifix as a way to say thank you to Jesus. Good Good Friday What an amazing gift, that Jesus would suffer and die for us. And what an amazing gift that we can take an entire day and honor His suffering and death. It is a solemn day, it is a heavy day, but it is also a day of incredible love. This love endures beatings and lashings, insults and humiliations, a crown of thorns, a heavy cross, and nails being driven through flesh. As we move through Good Friday, let us reflect on this love over and over, and repeat a simple prayer to ourselves: You did this, Lord, out of love for me. Thank you, Jesus, I love you. [bctt tweet="Fasting and the Gift of Good Friday #BISblog //"] Anna Coyne is a Minnesota native, wife, mother, and convert to the Catholic faith. When not chasing after her two young children, she is probably making pour-over coffee, knitting, gardening, playing the piano, or sipping on a glass of red wine. Find out more about her here.

In another lifetime, I spent a summer working in Yellowstone National Park. I lived with a park ranger, wore a wide-brimmed hat, a khaki button-up shirt with green forest service-issued jeans, and hiking boots. I was the one who got to drive a park service station wagon and collected the change from the visitor map purchase stations at first light. Otherwise, I worked with the Junior Ranger program at the visitor center. But I was exposed to all sorts of naturalist talks and events going on throughout the park. In Need of Fire It was the summer of 2001 and Yellowstone was on fire. Huge hillsides were charred from recent damage. I even remember driving by a wedding party having their pictures taken in a meadow, while in the background, blazes licked the sky. There was a steady presence of firefighters in all restaurants and roads, working to keep visitors safe. We had all learned to co-exist with the fire. The most pervading and bewildering lesson I learned from those who worked in the park was that, overall, fire is important. It's wild, dangerous, even frightening, but the heat is necessary. Take the lodgepole pine, for instance. Without the surging heat of a wildfire, its cones cannot open to disperse their seeds held tightly inside the cone, protected from predators. I wonder if this isn’t among the best illustrations of the Lenten experience—things held tightly to ourselves produce life only when circumstances allow for us to loosen our grip on them. We need Lent like lodgepoles need fire. An Emptying Last month, I was at Super Bowl party with our family friends. Because football is not my thing, I was talking with a friend of a friend whose job (among three other folks in the country) is to survey regions where wildfires have burned and assess the likelihood of/damage caused by mudslides. He was sharing pictures on his phone of some of the yards and local landmarks after his most recent job on the west coast. The scene was unrecognizable: boulders bigger than SUVs rolled through family homes, yards and amenities, submerged, surrounded by thick, brown, sludge. If this story literally hits close to home, my heart goes out to you. Gathered armchair analysts collectively sighed: Where do these folks begin? I can’t help but feel the response is a lot like the gathered faithful after a Lenten season where perhaps some of our own hearts, practices, even our sanctuaries are feeling a bit unrecognizable. Having moved through the drought, maybe even fire, we exist in the immediate floodplain, in danger of being flooded by the quick and abundant shed of grace that is about to gush forth. The Fire and Water of Holy Thursday Today, of course, is Holy Thursday. The water begins its trickle tonight. It is the day we remember Jesus’ gesture of humility toward His disciples in the washing of their soiled, dusty feet. In churches around the world, Catholics will bring forth the basins, and towels, roll up their sleeves and remember the posture of servanthood in a literal way. If there is a more spiritually-potent part of the year, I don’t know it. The culmination of our meaningful or mediocre Lenten experiences come to a head in these next days. Not that our preparation (or lack thereof) will alter the meaning which God will make in our hearts this season if we are open to it, only that our preparations have begun for the first, meandering waters of the flood into our dry and barren souls. What does this look like? Maybe you begin the evening by breaking bread at a traditional Seder meal, as our Jewish brothers and sisters do, celebrating our shared heritage and marking the beginning of Passover. It may be physically washing the body of a child, an aged patient, or ill relative. It might look like cleaning the toilet after the stomach flu has ravaged your household. Maybe you finally let someone into that place of hurt you’ve been holding onto, and through tears, experience relief, compassion, or forgiveness. Maybe Holy week will culminate with a Baptism—your own, someone you’ve sponsored, a familiar face in your parish—glowing with new and abundant life. Just like the topographical aftermath of a fire, tumultuous things follow extreme conditions. Opening Our Hearts on Holy Thursday Our hearts are in that precious, ripe, liminal time in which they are pulled between the harshness of what has been and the promise of what is coming. The word Lent, with its harsh and sometimes even dreaded connotations, appropriately means "springtime." What better metaphor for the re-imagining of life than by animating it with water? Regardless of where you live, if you have ever watched time-lapse photography of this change taking place, you know what I mean. The life force of springtime takes hold in our hearts in the sloshing of buckets, callused feet, the starchiness of towels, and our participation in this pouring out of water and of self. How will you let the fire of God's love open your heart through the remainder of Holy Week? [bctt tweet="Lodgepoles: On Holy Thursday #BISblog //"]

Sisters, please tell me I am not the only one who has, admittedly more than once in my life, lost a palm from Palm Sunday. Some time in between folding it into a cross after Mass (like my mom always did) and remembering to actually do something with it, I have completely forgotten where I put it, only to find it in the back of my desk drawer or the glove compartment of my car a few weeks (months?) later. It’s no way to treat a sacramental* and it doesn’t do anything for me spiritually when I can’t see it on a regular basis, let alone remember where it is. This year, I want to do something different. Remembering the Meaning Behind the Palm Sunday Palm This year, every time I see the palm, I want to call to mind the words of the Palm Sunday Gospel: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9-10) This year, I want to be continually reminded of the role my sins played in crucifying my Lord—that I am no better than the Jews who greeted Jesus with rejoicing and then turned around and called out for Barabbas to be freed. This year, I want to let the sight of the palm stop me in my tracks and inspire me to rest in the truth that Jesus conquered death, that He opened the gates of heaven, and that He wants me to spend eternity with Him. How to Display Palm Sunday Palms Around Your Home How blessed are we to be a part of a Church that gives us tangible opportunities to be reminded of all of those things and more through something as simple as a palm branch? Let’s keep them out of our glove compartments this year—instead, here are a few ideas of places to display a palm in a meaningful and respectful way. 1. Tuck it behind a crucifix or a piece of religious art. While these items hanging on your wall already remind you of our Faith, adding a palm can serve two additional purposes. One, it will make the wall look different and draw your eyes to it, leading you to gaze upon the cross or an image that resonates with you more often. Two, the presence of greenery reminds us that our faith is something that is alive—it’s not something limited to the days of the Bible or to the time of a conversion. God is always at work in our lives and in our hearts. 2. Add it to your Easter centerpiece. I love the idea of keeping home décor simple and minimal during Lent and then pulling out all of the stops for Easter Sunday: painted eggs, spring colors, and of course, plenty of fresh flowers. A palm or two would make a meaningful and beautiful accent to a vase filled with lilies, tulips, or whatever flowers you choose to arrange for your joyful Easter table. Once you’re no longer using the centerpiece, be sure to carefully dry the palm and then choose one of the other options for displaying it. 3. Place it in your Bible. A palm folded in half serves as a perfect bookmark for a page in your Bible that you want to refer back to again and again throughout the year. Not sure where to put it? You can’t go wrong with the Canticle of Mary (Luke 1:46-55), the Sermon the Mount (Matthew 5), or Jesus’ Passion (John 18-19), to name a few. 4. Add it to your gallery wall. In an effort to incorporate more religious art into our home that also seamlessly fit with our décor, my husband and I added a gallery wall to our living room last year. Much to our delight, it is now one of the most frequently complimented details in our home! My favorite nugget of advice for someone hoping to create their own? Include a mix of flat photographs/artwork and three-dimensional objects. For example, along with a handful of our favorite framed pieces, ours features a crucifix, a holy water font, and a Rosary. Whether you fold your palm into a cross and add it to your display or simply attach it as is, the unique addition is sure to add deeper meaning to the wall (and look beautiful to boot). 5. Display it in a narrow vase. If you have a long palm, you may need to fold it in half first. Let it serve as a reminder to pray without ceasing and place it somewhere you’ll see it often. If you have a specific family prayer table or feast table, that is a wonderful option, but if not, opt for a spot where you could use the reminder to pray—perhaps on a kitchen windowsill where you’ll see it when doing dishes, on your bedside table, or on a (high!) shelf outside of your children’s bedrooms or playroom. What to Do With Your Palm Sunday Palms Before Palm Sunday of next year, you can either return the palms to your church (they’re often burned for the ashes used on Ash Wednesday) or burn or bury them to return them to the earth in a dignified way. I pray that by then, we will have experienced some sweet and unexpected graces as a result of being reminded of today’s feast day throughout the year! How have you displayed palms in your home? *“… sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.” -CCC 1667 [bctt tweet="Ideas for Displaying Palm Sunday Palms Around Your Home #BISblog //"]

Tomorrow, we enter into the holiest week of the Church’s year. If you experienced God’s love and mercy in a new and powerful way this Lent, Holy Week may be something you’re looking forward to. But maybe you struggled to stick to your resolutions or didn’t make really sound ones in the first place. Then, seeing “Palm Sunday,” “Holy Thursday,” and so on in your calendar may feel daunting. Or perhaps life threw you some curveballs lately, and you don’t really know what to think about your relationship with Christ. Celebrating Holy Week No matter where you’ve been, Holy Week can be a fruitful and hopeful time for your spirit. Consider the Apostles during that first Holy Week: Jesus told them what was going to happen, but they couldn’t fathom His predictions coming to fruition. It seemed too farfetched, too unbelievable, too impossible. And yet we know that all things are possible in Christ—even rising from the dead! The Church lives and breathes, in large part, on tradition. You may have practices that you turn to in this season each year that continue to be fruitful and life-giving. But even if you do, I echo my own pastor’s challenge from the Sunday before Lent began: make this Holy Week different from any you’ve experienced before. Open your heart a little wider. Create a little more space for God to move in your life. Let His grace call the shots and, inspired by our Blessed Mother’s fiat, say "yes" to wherever He may lead you this week. Ideas for Holy Week To get you started, here are some ideas to live each day of this Holy Week with intention. Remember, even in darkness, even in despair, Christ makes all things new. Palm Sunday Before you plan your meals for this week, take stock of your pantry. What food do you already have? Canned soup? Tuna? Rice, quinoa, couscous? Look in your freezer as well. Frozen vegetables? Meat? Microwave dinners? Too often, we take what we have right in front of us for granted. This week, be nourished by the sustenance God has already provided for you. Use the money you had budgeted for groceries to provide meals for someone (an individual or an organization) who is in greater need. Holy Monday Go to Confession. Many parishes have additional hours during which the Sacrament is offered this week (and if you’re not comfortable with a priest you know, normally there are some new faces present!). To prepare, work through an Examination of Conscience. Often resources are available near the confessional, but you can also find versions online (like this one from Blessed is She) or simply work your way through the Ten Commandments. How have you abided by or broken each one since your last Confession? Once you do receive the Sacrament, begin incorporating a nightly Examination of Conscience into your prayers to better prepare for next time. Holy Tuesday Replace your typical evening activities with a viewing of The Passion of the Christ. Invite your BIS sisters to bring over a journal and join you. After the film, take a few moments to write about the scenes that moved you. If you’ve seen the movie before, what struck you differently this time? What might God be telling you through this reflection? Share your thoughts and pray together for increased hope and trust this week. Holy Wednesday Wed your prayer time to creativity and color your reflections. A number of adult coloring books are available that incorporate religious images and phrases, some specifically for Lent. Brew a pot of tea and invite the women you’ve met in your local BIS sisterhood to bring their pencils, pastels, and paints over. Try Coloring Lent: An Adult Coloring Book for the Journey to Resurrection, The Mysteries of the Rosary: An Adult Coloring Book, or The Stations of the Cross: Catholic Coloring Book Devotional. Holy Thursday Participate in your diocese’s Chrism Mass, which takes place either on Holy Thursday morning or an evening earlier in the week. The priests of the diocese gather with the bishop for this Mass, where three oils that will be used in sacraments throughout the year—the oil of catechumens, the oil of the infirm, and holy chrism—are blessed. In the evening, plan to attend Holy Thursday Mass as well. Here, witness the washing of feet and the consecration of the Eucharist (which won’t happen anywhere tomorrow!). Good Friday In addition to the traditional Good Friday service, pray the Stations of the Cross either with a group or on your own. St. John Paul II prayed the Stations every Friday! Experience these fourteen moments on Christ’s road to Cavalry in a new way with Soul Core, a method that integrates body and soul in a “a gentle path to grow in virtue and interior peace.” Today is also the day to start the Divine Mercy Novena, so that it finishes on Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday following Easter Sunday). Sign up with Pray More Novenas to get the prayers delivered to your inbox each morning. Holy Saturday Attend your parish’s Easter Vigil. This Mass is a special opportunity to pray with and for those candidates entering the Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Mass begins with a darkened church, a tangible sign that Christ is “the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). The time of waiting has passed. Now we rejoice! Easter Sunday He is Risen, alleluia! Easter is such a big deal that the Church celebrates it for eight days! Make the octave of Easter special by continuing to incorporate prayer into each day. Put 3 p.m. next Sunday on your calendar, too, as it’s prime time to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet. Look for a local parish that may incorporate adoration into a sung chaplet—you’ll never look at 3 p.m. the same way again. The revelations St. Faustina Kowalska received from Jesus in the early twentieth century assure us that God wants us to pray for His mercy, to be merciful to others, and to totally trust in His son. As Lent comes to a close, hopefully you have experienced these truths in a new and resonating way. Now, we are called the same way the first disciples were at Pentecost: go out and spread the good news! How do you celebrate Holy Week? Are you incorporating any new forms of prayer or celebration this year? Let us know in the comments below! [bctt tweet="Making Holy Week New #BISblog //"] Lindsay Schlegel is a daughter of God who seeks to encourage, inspire, and lift up the contemporary woman to be all she was created to be. She's the author of Don't Forget to Say Thank You: And Other Parenting Lessons That Brought Me Closer to God, as well as shorter nonfiction and fiction pieces, both online and in print. With joy, she speaks about recognizing God's voice and living the truth therein. Lindsay lives in New Jersey with her high-school-sweetheart-turned-husband and their kids. You can find out more about her here.

A poor but noble man was once betrothed to a beautiful, virtuous young woman. Before the wedding, his fiancé became pregnant. But she was—and would remain—a virgin the entirety of her life. This man honored his commitment and married her anyway. The neighbors, no doubt, whispered. The baby arrived far from home in cold and danger, no friends and family present to celebrate the birth. He fled with His family to safety in a foreign land, protecting his wife and caring for his adopted Son the rest of his days. This man said "yes" to one simple, beautiful thing: life lived alongside a good woman. And that commitment made before God turned his life upside down. He reaffirmed his "yes" every step of the way, and today the entire universal Church honors him for it. St. Joseph, patron saint of our families and our Church, pray for us. Lessons from St. Joseph Like St. Joseph, we can commit to one thing and suddenly discover that one thing has become more than we anticipated. When suffering accompanies these amendments, it is natural to question where God was in that original commitment or where our misstep since occurred. Was this the right career? Was he the right man to marry? Should I have had all these kids? And like Saint Joseph, we may not see the end of the story this side of Heaven. We may never have tangible proof that our suffering was not in vain. His life, however, consoles us through these uncertainties. Through the example of St. Joseph, we find several ways in which to overcome the temptation to doubt and despair. Humility in Prayer St. Joseph maintained a humble and receptive relationship with God the Father. When faced with difficult decisions that did not have a singularly moral answer, he was able to hear and respond to the voice of God. When we are already decided on a course of action, even a good one, it can be difficult for the Lord to lead our hearts elsewhere. A truly docile heart affords God the opportunity to fashion us into saints and set the world on fire. In your prayer life, do you seek to hear and obey the will of the Father above all else? From the love of my own comfort, and from the fear of death or trial, deliver me, oh God. Humility in Name St. Joseph allowed his good name to be misunderstood and very possibly ridiculed by a community he loved. He honored the promptings of God despite the threats to his reputation. He very literally placed his identity in the eyes of God before his identity in the eyes of the world. Delivered from the need to be understood and accepted, the boundaries we place on our decisions and actions disappear, giving God true freedom to direct our lives. When making decisions, do you seek to please God before all others? From the need to be understood, and from the need to be accepted, deliver me, oh God. Putting Others First Had St. Joseph approached Mary’s pregnancy with his good in mind, he probably would have left. When he fled his homeland, he was not personally in danger; he left to protect Jesus. The tough calls he made and the challenges he endured as a result were for the good of another. Today’s cultural narrative leads us to believe that serving others in this costly manner diminishes our freedom and inhibits our potential. The example of the Foster Father of Jesus says otherwise. When the good of another demands personal sacrifice, do you respond in charity? From the fear of serving others, deliver me, oh God. St. Joseph Teaches Us to Not Be Afraid St. Joseph was uniquely blessed in life to rest at Jesus’ feet. Through his example and intercession, we can lay our lives at Jesus’ feet as he did. If each commitment and all it entails is made with Jesus’ council and a humble heart that seeks to know, love, and serve Him, we can step forward in faith, trusting God to keep us and our decisions close to him and his good will for us. Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the immaculate Virgin, obtain for me a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine Will. Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may merit to die as you did in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Amen. How are you celebrating St. Joseph's feast day today? Want to learn more about Saint Joseph, patron of the Universal Church? Check out this incredible video series with our own Beth Davis!   [bctt tweet="Giving Our Lives to Jesus: Lessons from St. Joseph #BISblog //"]   Kayla Sanmiguel lives in Saint Paul, MN with her husband Javier and their (almost) four children. She works in Institutional Advancement for The Saint Paul Seminary and otherwise spends her time soaking up these fleeting years when toddlers run amok. You can find her thoughts on faith and psychology at Mind & Spirit.

Like a new year, Ash Wednesday can come with excitement, plans, and goals. We are determined that this Lent will be the best Lent ever! Perhaps you had at the ready your Blessed is She Lenten Journal, your regular journal, your BIS Journaling Bible, your other Bible, a handful of spiritual books, your Rosary, your Bible study group, your small group study, your devotionals, and your plans to give up chocolate, to exercise each day, and not to let a negative word leave your lips. Maybe you planned to never raise your voice at your kids or get irritated with your husband. You were not going to get impatient commuting to work, or think a single negative thought about your annoying coworker (or student or classmate), or procrastinate on any of your papers or studies. This Lent you were ready to become the saint you are called to be. All by Easter Sunday. And then perhaps, life happened and you may have found that it has been more difficult to stay committed to your Lenten practices than you expected. When you notice that you haven’t stayed true to this year’s Lenten commitments (or maybe you have even forgotten some of the things you wanted to do this Lent), you might be tempted to throw in the towel. But I’m here to tell you that if you if you are feeling like you’ve “failed” at Lent, it’s fine! You are not alone, (I’m with you too), and it’s not too late. Lent is still here and there is still time for God to work! Let God Work I have lived through a few Lents trying to do “all the things.” I added in more Adoration and joined Bible studies, said Rosaries, went to daily Mass, added in spiritual reading, and reading of Scripture, and quiet prayer time, and another small group, too. All this in addition to giving up a couple favorite foods, not listening to music in the car, and refraining from buying extra things for myself. It got to be too much. I not only couldn’t do all of those good things, but I also kept forgetting them, which ultimately was me forgetting the real purpose behind trying to do them in the first place! Eventually it ended in a sort of Lenten “spiritual burnout.” After eventually trying to learn from those experiences, I went to the other extreme. Instead of trying to do all the things for Lent, I did nothing. That’s right, the Lenten penance I chose was to do “nothing.” I did not go to Bible study or a small group. I did not pressure myself to go to Adoration or pray a daily Rosary. Instead, I would go into the chapel and be still. I would sit there and do “nothing.” Rather than doing a million good things, I focused on being. It was fruitful, and also very challenging. What I considered doing “nothing” was actually creating space for God and allowing “Him” to do a wonderful “something” within my soul. [bctt tweet="Rather than doing a million good things, I focused on being. #BISblog //"] Being Vs. Doing I’m not saying you should quit your Bible study or small group or that you should stop going Mass and Adoration or that you should stop praying the Rosary. Of course not. But sometimes there is value in doing less and being more. What I learned from letting go of trying to do so many good things is that holiness is less about all the things I do, and more about what God does in me. All of my “doing” was getting in the way of you actually “being” with God. Ultimately, I needed a radical shift to let God in and for Him to work. [bctt tweet="Holiness is less about all the things I do, and more about what God does in me. #BISblog //"] Renewal and Encouragement for Lent If you feel like your Lent is not going so great, and that maybe you’re “failing” at Lent consider the following: 1. Let God work. Perhaps you can take a moment to simply invite God to come and do the work of holiness and conversion within you. The heart of Lent is simply returning to the Lord and inviting Him to work within us. If you feel like you are nothing, you have nothing to offer, or especially if you feel like you have done nothing so far this Lent, consider inviting God to act, just like He did in the beginning in Genesis. Let Him create something good and beautiful in you “out of nothing.” Ask Him work in you. 2. Learn something. What have you learned about yourself this Lent? What have you done well? Not so well? Why? What have been the challenges this Lent? How will you show up for the remainder of Lent? 3. Feel free to adjust. It’s totally fine to change your Lenten commitments halfway through if you feel like something different might serve you better. Ask God if He’d like you to do something different or to keep your original plans. 4. Get support. What kind of support do you need to have this remaining time of Lent be fruitful and positive for you? Can you ask a friend to go to Adoration with you or to take a weekly Rosary walk? Do you need to place your Bible or journal on a clear space, perhaps on your nightstand, so that you will see it more easily and be reminded to pray first thing in the morning? What about setting an alarm on your phone at 3 p.m. if you’ve committed to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet? A stickie-note on the bathroom mirror with a Scripture quote or reminder to stay committed to positive thoughts rather than criticism throughout the day? Make shifts in your environment around you, invite others to join you, and find ways to add in little supports to help you stay accountable. Get creative and have fun. Lent is a time of penance and sacrifice, but our sacrifices can also be joyful and life-giving. [bctt tweet="Our sacrifices can be joyful and life-giving. #BISblog //"] 5. Begin again. The spiritual life is about beginning again, returning to the Lord and starting over. Simply start again. Today. Right now. It doesn’t matter if you only got to read your BIS Lenten Journal the first day of Lent or haven’t even begun. If that is something that you feel may be helpful and supportive to you now, why not pick it up today and start right where you are? Lent is About Holiness Lent is here for you. It is here to help you and support you in holiness. But remember, this is God’s work. He is the one who will ultimately do it in you. See what happens if you can stop, let go, and truly allow God to work. Wherever you are and however your Lent is going, turn to Him today, right now, and begin again. How are your Lenten sacrifices and promises going? What encouragement do you need as we near Easter? Let us know in the comments. We will pray for you! [bctt tweet="Renewal and Encouragement for Lent #BISblog //"] Mary Catherine Craige enjoys spending her time creating art, writing, and playing her Irish harp. She uses her experience as a Montessori teacher and catechist to serve young children through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. As a life coach, she encourages and challenges women in all walks of life to more deeply discover their purpose and live their full potential. You can find out more about her here. GOD'S WORD CHANGES LIVES When we let God form and shape our lives through His Word, we become changed women. His words are Spirit and Life, so let them give you life. The Blessed is She Bible is your trusted companion on your walk with Jesus. ORDER MY BIBLE

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a great gift to Catholics. But sometimes we don't avail ourselves of this grace as much as we should. Sometimes fear or uncertainty keep us from His Divine Mercy. But, sisters, there is so much hope and healing in this Sacrament. Maybe we just need to be more comfortable with the process in order to be more confident in going to Confession. Why Should I Go to Confession? From the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1446: Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. We go to Confession in order to restore our relationship with Christ and our relationship with the Church. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a Sacrament of Healing because we are cleansed, restored, and strengthened. In the life of a Catholic, frequent Confession should be a high priority. It is in this Sacrament that we weed out anything that keeps us from Christ and are given the graces to resist temptation and to grow closer to Him going forward. How to Go to Confession Maybe it's been a while since your last Confession. Maybe you're a little intimidated by the process and the fear is keeping you from this moment of mercy. We've all been nervous to go to Confession before, so you're not alone. But let's not let fear prevent us from running to the loving arms of our Father. Sometimes, fear can be eradicated simply by being prepared. Many of us worry that we will forget the "right words" or that we won't remember how to participate in the Sacrament. Together, let's walk through the process of going to Confession so that we can be confident in approaching the throne of grace. 1. Examine Your Conscience The first step in the Sacrament of Reconciliation comes before our confession begins. It's important to take the time to examine our conscience. We pause and reflect on our life and look for the ways we have done wrong or failed to do good. The important part of this process is to reflect on our sorrow over our sins and how they have hurt Christ or others in our life. There are many wonderful Examinations of Conscience that can walk you through this process step-by-step. Blessed is She has created one for you, and you can download it at the bottom of this post. If it helps, print off your Examination of Conscience and bring it with you. Make marks by the sins you've committed, or make notes in the margins. I've done this before and it helps me to relax and not worry so much about remembering everything. Once you've examined your conscience, you're ready to celebrate the Sacrament! 2. Pick Your Preference Depending on where you go to Confession, you might have the option to either sit with Father face-to-face or to kneel or sit behind a screen, keeping your identity anonymous. Either way is acceptable and no one way is better than the other. Of course, the beautiful thing about Confession is that it can be celebrated anywhere. That means you might not have this option if you're going to Confession in an airport or outside or in a restaurant. 3. Greeting and Blessing Father will usually greet you with a smile and will open by blessing you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. At this point, it is common to let the priest know how long it has been since your last Confession. If you can't remember exactly, an estimate is fine. 4. Confession of Sins Here's where you list your sins. If you can recall, let the priest know how many times you've committed each sin. It helps him understand what you struggle with most. It can be difficult and, frankly, embarrassing to admit our sins. But let me offer some comfort. There is no sin that a priest has not heard confessed. I promise that nothing we say will shock the priest, and he will not judge us. Most priests forget our specific sins (think of all the Confessions they hear!), so we don't need to worry about him thinking horrible things about us the next time we see him at the fish fry. 5. Acceptance of Penance After you've listed your sins, the priest will take a few minutes to offer guidance or reflection. Then, he will give you a penance to be performed in reparation for your sins. Sometimes our penance is a list of prayers offered for specific intentions. Sometimes it's an act of love to be completed. Ideally, our penances will correspond with our sins, offering us another opportunity to choose Jesus over sin. 6. Act of Contrition Once the priest has given you your penance, he will ask you to make an Act of Contrition. There are so many beautiful Acts of Contrition available to us, and we can even make one up on the spot. Here's a lovely one to keep on hand: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of all because I have offended you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen. 7. Prayer of Absolution After you pray your Act of Contrition, Father will pray the Prayer of Absolution over you: God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This prayer holds such beauty, freedom, and healing. It's my favorite part of the Sacrament. 8. Closing The priest might close with the words: Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. And you respond: His mercy endures forever. Not all priests say this, though, so don't sweat it if it doesn't come up. That's it! See? Not so scary. 9. Perform Your Penance The final part of Confession is fulfilling our penance. Sometimes this can be done rather quickly in church after the Sacrament, and sometimes it takes more intention and time. An Examination of Conscience for Women {formbuilder:MTAwODU0} We at Blessed is She are happy to offer you an Examination of Conscience for Women. We use the Seven Deadly Sins as a framework to examine all the aspects of our lives. At the end, we reflect on what Heavenly Virtues we can seek to live out in place of the sins that keep us from Christ. What's your favorite grace of Confession?