Many of us have had seasons in our lives when we were not sure how we would get through the day. Faced with life's inexplicable and sudden burdens, our legs buckle and hearts tremble. Our Lord also knew the crushing weight of darkness, of sin. He bore all of it, carrying the Holy Cross up Mount Calvary. 

In the previous Mystery, we reflected on the purity of Our Lord and Our Lady's intention: their singleheartedness. In the Crowning with Thorns we see the truth: “He was tested as we are in every way but did not sin†(Hebrews 4:15).

The Saints and mystics recount the tremendous love with which Our Lord embraced His Passion and Death. Imagine the unflinching, resolute love that kept Jesus tied to that pillar, lash after agonizing lash. The vastness of His love is unfathomable. He endured it all to win salvation for each person—it was for you, dear sister in Christ. 

The First Sorrowful Mystery // The Agony in the Garden Fruit of the Mystery // Conformity to the Will of God Reflect The night before my perpetual vows, in my family home, I had prayed in my room. My Sisters, young women in discernment, friends, and family had all gathered to witness my final “yes forever” to God. I trembled at the gravity of the words I was about to declare. Only God knew what the future would bring. I only knew there would be plenty of sacrifices to accompany the joys in my life as a Daughter of St. Paul. Having spent over ten years in preparation for that day, I knew I had to rely totally on God to live my religious life well. So, that night I prayed to be simply, honestly, who I was before the Lord—no more and no less: a woman from Tempe, Arizona, who was responding to God’s call and publicly giving Him full permission over her life. Faced with the ultimate sacrifice, Our Lord trusted in God, His Father. “Father, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but your will be done” (Matthew 26:39). In this First Sorrowful Mystery, we draw spiritual strength from Our Lord, finding particular courage to face the areas of our hearts where we need the grace to persevere. Perhaps we face financial insecurity, uncertain health, or a challenging family situation. We hold these circumstances in our hands and offer them to the Lord as we pray this First Mystery.   [bctt tweet="In this First Sorrowful Mystery, we draw spiritual strength from Our Lord, finding particular courage to face the areas of our hearts where we need the grace to persevere. #BISblog #prayerpledge" via="no"]   Let Us Pray Jesus, shoulders the burdens of the day with us in such a way that everything will be pleasing to the Father. May Your will be done. Amen. For Discussion What does trust in the Lord mean to you? What does that look like in your life; how has it looked in the past? What "cup" are you struggling to accept in your life right now? How can the Agony in the Garden console you in your struggle?     Praying the Rosary Throughout the Prayer Pledge and beyond, we really encourage you to pray the Rosary! Since we will be looking at the fruits of the Mysteries of the Rosary, it only makes sense to actually pray it! Here is a guide on how to pray the Rosary. I like this podcast and this podcast for praying the Rosary. Hallow also has a marvelous Rosary meditation. And if you want to go even deeper in to the Rosary, check out Mystery!   [bctt tweet="By Their Fruits: The 2021 Prayer Pledge // Day 18 #BISblog #prayerpledge //" via="no"]

As human beings, we naturally run from suffering—because we are made for perfect goodness, truth, and beauty. We are made for union with God.

Each of the Fruits of the Luminous Mysteries—The Baptism in the Jordan, The Wedding at Cana, The Proclamation the Kingdom, The Transfiguration, and The Institution of the Eucharist—give us a moment in Jesus’ public ministry to reflect on and see how the work He performed 2,000 years ago is present to us today in our own circumstances. 

I didn’t exactly understand what we were doing at the chapel during Eucharistic Adoration as a pre-teen, but I knew it had to be something really special because it was so quiet and peaceful.

My days went from chaos to order when I made the decision to organize my time around when I would pray. All other tasks and duties revolve around my first task and duty, to communicate with my Creator. Prioritizing time with God put my entire day into perspective and simplified my routine. Disciplining My Heart, Mind, and Will It took a lot of discipline to get to this point. I promised myself that I would pray during the times I set aside each day no matter how I was feeling. My prayer times range in duration throughout the day, but it’s not the length of time that matters—it’s the fact that I am prioritizing my relationship with God above all things and all people. How to Simplify Your Morning Routine This has led to both freedom and simplicity. I used to fall into my day without a routine and reacted to everything and everyone that came at me. Now I wake up and give my first fruits to Christ, no matter how I feel. I know that no matter what happens in my day, all my failures and successes, I have done the most important thing: speak with God. Envision the Person You Want To Become We are created for holiness, to become Saints! Envision the person, the Saint, you want to become. Do you want to be a leader, motivated by love? Do you want to offer sacrifices for our Church? Do you want to use your time wisely and for His greater glory? Picture that person and write down the qualities of the person you desire to be. This will help you make a routine that enables you to become that person. All of our sacrifices and actions—whether it’s waking up twenty-five minutes earlier so we can pray or going to monthly confession—shapes us and molds our hearts. Write Down Your Routine Taking time to write down a schedule to simplify our routine is essential. We are better able to take care of ourselves and serve those around us. We begin to respond instead of react. Take the time today to create a weekly routine. Write out the hours of your morning, then write down when you will pray. After that, list the essentials (this includes prayer, rest, and leisure, too!) you need to accomplish before noon. Visualizing what we need to accomplish each morning helps us reach our goals. Next, list the non-essentials you’d like to accomplish. Everything from scrolling Instagram to making a phone call, write it down and when you’d like to do those things after your essentials are completed! Visualizing the details of our to-do lists helps us feel less overwhelmed and brings peace. My Morning Routine My routine looks like this: I set aside time for prayer, first thing, after waking up. I read the daily Mass readings and pray the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer found in the Divine Office. I eat breakfast, exercise, shower, teach my son his pre-k lessons, prepare lunch, eat, and clean up. Some Practical Tips Don’t be afraid to adjust your routine if it isn’t working out. With a four year old son, I am revising my morning routine often. Our routines are meant to free us, not enslave us. Challenge yourself. Refining ourselves is difficult and takes discipline. Don’t give up! Ask for the grace and strength from God to reach your goals. If you miss a prayer time, don’t toss away your entire routine! Offer it up and try again! Read A Mother’s Rule of Life, The Pope and the CEO, and Atomic Habits. Place your daily routine somewhere you can see it often. Have scripts of encouragement that you can repeat when things get hard or you don’t feel like sticking to your routine. Set out anything you need for the morning the night before. Our mornings begin before we go to bed! Have an accountability partner! Find someone on the Blessed is She Instagram page or a friend who is yearning to simplify their mornings, too! Exchange ideas and tips. Don’t touch your phone (social media) until your morning essential to-do list is complete! What are ways you simplify your morning? What times do you have set aside for prayer? What have you found helpful? Share in the comments below!   [bctt tweet="How to Simplify Your Morning Routine #BISblog //" username="findphilothea"]

As a child, I thought holiness was only available to those who lived in convents or were cloistered in some remote mountain top experiencing absolute solitude praying for the rest of us poor sinners down below. That image I had about holiness changed as I grew in my faith. 

What a great opportunity these past couple of months have offered us to exhibit charity, forgiveness, love of neighbor, compassion, and dying of self.

During my third pregnancy I felt Mary’s fiat repeating in prayer. Her humble “yes†to everything that unfolded in her life in being the mother of Our Savior and King left me contemplating the areas of my life where I had delayed or stifled saying “yes†out of worry or doubt. 

When our son was about three months old, our parish priest asked if he could play the part of Baby Jesus for the Christmas midnight Mass. I said no on the spot without any hesitation! I was a brand new mom and envisioned our son wailing and crying the whole time. I just couldn’t bear the thought of ruining someone else’s Mass experience during midnight Mass! 

As I approach my college graduation, more and more conversations have begun circling around this certain topic: what am I supposed to do with my life? What is my vocation? And as someone who desires to serve the Lord in some form of ministry, the question frequently becomes: how can I serve God with the gifts and talents He has given me? What is my calling? This is a beautiful question to ask. Uncovering the best path for our future is very important to all of us. We are all eager to find our own unique calling in life which will bring us the most joy and fulfillment. And when we find that sweet-spot of our calling, it can be one of the most exciting and satisfying moments for our heart. How do we go about this? Frequently, we take personality tests, look at our strengths, assess our desires and wants, or even follow the suggestions of our families and friends. We try to find the niche of ministry that best suits us. But what if I were to suggest that sometimes it is not our talents and gifts which point us in the right direction to help serve others? What if I told you the answer might lie in your wounds? Wounds Can Become Wellsprings of Grace We all have experienced hurt and pain throughout our lives, and much of our experience has contributed to wounds in our hearts. Maybe this wound comes from you experiencing a tragic loss of a loved one; maybe you seriously struggled with depression or self-harm at some point in your life; maybe you grew up within a broken family; maybe you have experienced deep and emotional heartbreak; maybe you have walked through periods of serious disease. There are as many different types of hurt as there are different types of people. We all have something that we can pinpoint as causing us deep pain, that has presented us with the opportunity to rely deeply on the Lord and His strength. But no matter what your wounds are, those experiences have uniquely equipped you to serve others going through similar situations. In Service to Others Saint Paul tells us: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. // 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 When we have received the Lord’s comfort in our afflictions, we are better able to turn and comfort others when they experience the same affliction. A mother who has experienced the suffering of the death of her child can walk with another mother through the same struggle, much better than a mother who has never walked through it. Are Wounds a Weakness? With all this in mind, I have a challenge for you. Rather than viewing your wounds as a weakness, I dare you to swing your perspective and see your wounds as some of your greatest strengths. Not only can God reveal Himself to us within those wounds by providing us comfort and strength, but He can then use the witness of our wounds as an avenue for others to experience His consolation as well. Someone else may be in need of your wounds. Therefore, when we examine ourselves in an attempt to find the whisper of God’s call for us in our lives, I believe we cannot and should not overlook the wounds that we have experienced. God may be calling us in a unique way to serve Him and serve others particularly out of the wounds that have shaped our hearts. Not the Only Consideration A word of warning here: there are some wounds that may be too recent, or may simply be too personal and painful to share. If that’s the case for you, that is totally fine. None of this means we should be proclaiming our deepest struggles and hurts from the rooftops. As in all things, there is need for discretion and prudence here. Rather, if you have experienced a wound in your life through which the Lord has brought healing and glory, consider that He might be calling you to walk with someone going through a similar struggle. If you can pinpoint a hurt in your life that you would never, ever wish upon another person, why not put that desire to work and help console those who are suffering the same way? I Saw Your Glory Saint Augustine once said: I saw Your glory in my wounds and it dazzled me. [bctt tweet="I saw Your glory in my wounds and it dazzled me. -Saint Augustine #BISblog //" via="no"] God wants to bring His glory from our wounds. He wants to show His power, healing, and love from our wounds. He wants to dazzle us by bringing goodness out of those places of deepest hurt, both for ourselves and for others. After all: We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. // Romans 8:28 Let us let Him use our wounds to bring about His glory.   [bctt tweet="How Can My Wounds Speak to My Calling? #BISblog //" via="no"]

The word joyful in Latin is laetantam alleluia, which uniquely fits each of the mysteries that we walked through last week. This week we will be walking prayerfully through the Luminous mysteries. Known as the Mysteries of Light, the Luminous Mysteries call our attention to Jesus' desire for us to have the light of His life within us. 

By December 31st each year, I set a few intentional goals and choose a word to focus on throughout the coming year. My word for 2020 was joy.

Last summer, my husband and I loaded our preschooler son and baby daughter into the car to make the short drive to the beach. We could hardly wait to see family members and soak in a beautiful new environment after months of quarantine. 

Sharing my children doesn’t come easily to me. Perhaps it’s because we live far away from our family members and go about our day-to-day lives pretty independently, or perhaps it’s because of my own pride or selfishness. It’s probably a little bit of both.