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The Blessed is She Blog

Saints Who Lived Poverty in Various Capacities - Blessed Is She

Saints Who Lived Poverty in Various Capacities

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. // Matthew 5:3 When we think of poverty, we usually imagine a lack of financial security and...
The Importance of Spiritual Mentoring - Blessed Is She

The Importance of Spiritual Mentoring

The word "mentor" is defined as "a wise and trusted counselor or teacher." To me, a female mentor is supposed to share the Gospel and her life, just like a...
Insights from the CFR Priest, Author of Born of Fire - Blessed Is She

Insights from the CFR Priest, Author of Born of Fire

Our very first Lent book exclusively for men is coming out this year... and it's a special one. Father Innocent Montgomery, CFR, wrote it. He walks the reader through their...
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 31 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 31

Friends, we have come to the end of our Prayer Pledge. Each year, this seems to sneak up on me, and I'm never quite ready for it to end (which is the goal!). Whether this year's Prayer Pledge went ideally for you or if you struggled through some days and weeks, we have persevered to our final day together.
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 30 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 30

Sometimes hope looks a lot like perseverance.  I love the imagery in our Prayer Pledge's verse from Isaiah: when we hope we don't grow weary, we do not faint. 
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 29 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 29

It’s springtime in the Middle East and my 10-year-old recently planted seeds in our garden. He frequents the sun soaked ground for signs of life, but they are nowhere to be seen. We anticipate a bountiful harvest, but for now, the seeds are buried and there is "death."
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 28 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 28

I couldn’t stop fidgeting from joint aches as I desperately searched for padded pews at Mass that day. My body needed Him. My body needed His Body.
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 27 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 27

What if he can’t fight this...? I wondered. My closest friend’s six-week-old baby boy was diagnosed with a rare terminal illness and dreams for their long awaited first child were tragically shattered. Our community rallied around them as this tender infant battled surgery, chemotherapy, and blood transfusions, including one week on the ventilator. But of all things that could have occupied her heart that evening, she was thinking of me.
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 26 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 26

"Hoping against hope, Abraham believed, and thus became the father of many nations." // Catechism of the Catholic Church 1819 No statement better summarizes Abraham, the "archetype of hope" unto whom God promised to make a great nation (see Genesis 12:1-4). But ninety-nine years passed and Abraham still had no heirs (see Genesis 17:1-2), yet he continued to "hope against hope" (Romans 4:18).
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 25 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 25

It was a busy day at work when the phone rang. The tone of my husband instantly spelled dreadful news. “I’ve been arrested,†he said.
The Relationship Between Personal Holiness and Social Wholeness - Blessed Is She

The Relationship Between Personal Holiness and Social Wholeness

I attended a retreat for women writers in 2008 and had the privilege to study under Kentucky’s poet laureate at the time, Jane Gentry Vance. She shared thoughts on poetry...
They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 24 - Blessed Is She

They That Hope: The 2022 Prayer Pledge // Day 24

Soon after Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army in 1975, thousands of civilians were imprisoned. One of these was Saigon’s newly appointed archbishop, Francis Xavier Nguyen van Thuan, seized on August 15th.