In the year 2023, Taylor Swift has dominated the world with the Eras Tour and releasing the Taylor’s Versions of Speak Now and 1989 (my top two favorite albums of hers). Because I believe that the Lord longs to speak to us in the things that we love, I decided to take thirteen songs (her lucky number) and give suggestions on how we can pray with some of the lyrics that have religious imagery in them. From the Album Fearless “Come In With the Rain” Relevant song lyrics: "Talk to the wind, talk to the sky, talk to the man with the reasons why.” + “Talk to yourself, talk to your tears, talk to the man who put you here.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: In our lowest moments, a lot of people turn to the Lord in prayer, asking why. This song paints a vivid picture of the desperation that can come with unexpected hurt and how that often leads to asking God why things played out the way they did. What we can learn from this song is that even though we do not have all of the answers as to why we suffer, God holds us in the palm of His hand and has a way of using our own suffering to draw us closer to Him in love. Sometimes, what we thought was a major setback was actually a wake-up call to change something in our hearts to be able to be receptive to what the Lord’s perfect plan for our life actually is. From the Album Speak Now “Enchanted” Relevant song lyric: “This is me praying that this was the very first page. Not where the storyline ends.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: Even though God knows every last thought we have and hears the desires of our hearts daily without us saying anything, there is great value in bringing these petitions to prayer. No matter how seemingly insignificant, He longs to hear from us. In this song, Swift sings about a first meeting that is so striking, she cannot help but pray that there is more to this story. In our own lives, we can take the time to reflect on how every person is placed there with careful intention by the Lord and how nothing is ever a mere coincidence. This line brings to light how our deepest desires are often brought to God in petition, because He is the one who writes the story of each of our lives. “Long Live” Relevant song lyric: “But if God forbid, fate should step in and force us into a goodbye.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: Swift sings about a concept that can be a challenge to master: spiritual detachment. It is important to remember that everything we have is on loan from the Lord. Even the people we love. All of God’s gifts to us ultimately belong to Him. This lyric is a reminder that while we should love the people in our lives, we are also called to surrender them to the Lord, especially if they do not belong in our lives anymore. From the Album Red “State of Grace” Relevant song lyrics: “So you were never a saint and I’ve loved in shades of wrong; we learn to live with the pain. Mosaic broken hearts.” + “This is a state of grace.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: In the Catholic faith, being in a state of grace can be defined as the, “condition of a person who is free from mortal sin and pleasing to God. It is the state of being in God’s friendship.” While Swift writes about how being in love is similar to a state of grace, this song is a reminder that we can never know the exact intricacies of God’s plan. Sometimes we do not see the blessings coming our way because our Creator loves to surprise us. Furthermore, the imagery of not being a saint on earth and “loving in shades of wrong” with “mosaic broken hearts” paints a picture of the reality that all humans are wounded and broken because of Original Sin and our actual sins that we commit. Left to our own devices, we would not be able to enter Heaven because of how sin separates us from God, but it is God’s grace that saves us from our own “mosaic broken heart.” “Holy Ground” Relevant song lyrics: “And right there where we stood, was holy ground.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: In the story of Moses and the burning bush, the Lord says to Moses, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5) This passage is a great example of how the Lord desires intimacy with each one of us, so He meets us exactly where we are, such as going about our daily tasks. All we have to do is say yes to His invitation. In Swift’s song “Holy Ground,” she sings about how a place she shared with an old flame is holy ground, but we can take that and apply it to our relationship with the Lord. A lot of us experience God more profoundly when we are in nature. Something about looking at His creation has a way of making us feel even closer to Him, despite being on Earth. Sometimes, our holy ground is a certain Adoration chapel that we frequented during a specific season of our life. This song reminds us to take the time to examine the holy grounds that the Lord has met you at, just like He did with Moses and the burning bush. “Everything Has Changed” Relevant song lyrics: “All I know is pouring rain and everything has changed. All I know is a newfound grace; all my days, I’ll know your face.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: I love the metaphor of comparing rain to God’s grace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grace as “favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God” (CCC §1996-1997). In this song, one of Swift’s most hopeful, she describes the grace that comes with meeting someone new who is a reminder of hope. We know that God makes all things new (see Isaiah 43:19). Everything hopeful is a reminder of God’s love for us. Sometimes, that hope can come in the form of another human being. When we receive blessings or when our prayers are answered, we can mistakenly believe that we had anything to do with it—that we deserved that gift. But God’s grace operates out of His love for us because of who we are and not because of what we have done. There is no way to earn grace. It is a gift freely given by the Lord to remind us of the good He wants for us, in Heaven and on Earth. From the Album 1989 “Style”  Relevant song lyrics: “And I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt.” How this can apply to the spiritual life: We communicate a lot about ourselves based on the clothes we choose to wear. In this lyric, Swift highlights how her good girl faith is part of her ensemble that “never goes out of style.” There are a myriad of ways to use our own personal style to get closer to the Lord. One way to do this is to match our outfits with the liturgical colors for feast days within the Catholic Church. For example, wearing rose on Gaudete Sunday, white on Transfiguration Sunday, and blue or red on Divine Mercy Sunday. In a world of fast fashion and trends that go in and out, we can remind ourselves that choosing the Lord and dressing up for Him will never fade into oblivion. From the Album reputation “King of My Heart” Relevant song lyrics: “And all at once you are the one I have been waiting for, king of my heart, body and soul.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: When I think about God and the love languages, I love praying with how the Eucharist is the Lord’s way of exemplifying physical touch. One of my favorite talks on the Eucharist is from Father Mike Schmitz, in which he draws a parallel between the desire for physical intimacy in the human life between man and woman in marriage, and how the Lord desires to be one with each of us, His Bride, the Church. He explains that this is achieved through us consuming the Eucharist. Take some time to pray with John 6 in Eucharistic Adoration this week and how the Lord loved us so much, it killed Him to be separated from us, so He made Himself easily accessible in the form of the host. From the Album Lover “False God” Relevant song lyrics: “Religion’s in your lips even if it’s a false god. We’d still worship this love.” + “Make confessions and we’re begging for forgiveness, got the wine for you.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: This song highlights the reality of idolatry with the metaphor of her relationship with her boyfriend as a religious experience. A misconception within the Catholic faith is that idols pertain to things that are “bad,” but we can make idols out of good things too. Even Swift herself knows that putting her romantic relationship on a pedestal is probably a bad idea because it is a “false god.” Through this song, we can take some time to analyze what the idols are in our lives. Is it the romantic relationship we are in? The job that we have? Money? What is your false god? Bring that to the Lord and ask Him to remind you that we should ultimately love Him, the giver, above the gifts that He gives us. Here is a link to a Catholic priest talking more about “False God” from a Catholic perspective. God put good things on this Earth for us to enjoy, but everything we encounter is ultimately supposed to point us towards Him, Who will never be a false god because He is exactly Who He says He is. Beyond that, when we make the Lord the center of our lives, we will not be disappointed because He is the only one who can fill every single void in our broken, human hearts. “Soon You’ll Get Better” Relevant song lyrics: “Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: This song lyric reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Venerable Fulton Sheen: “Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them.” The song “Soon You’ll Get Better” is about Swift’s perspective when her mother was diagnosed with cancer and she had to witness her battle firsthand. God does not cause suffering, but He permits it. As I have gotten older, I have seen how suffering can stretch the capacity of a person’s heart and make them more compassionate. Our most desperate moments have God’s presence in them because He is not only found on a mountaintop, He is also found in the valleys of our lives. Sometimes even more so. From the Album folklore “invisible string” Relevant song lyrics: “Hell was the journey but it brought me Heaven.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: I like to think that this song lyric describes the concept of redemptive suffering, but in a simpler way. Redemptive suffering can be described as, “the Christian belief that human suffering, when accepted and offered up in union with the Passion of Jesus, can remit the just punishment for one's sins or for the sins of another, and/or for other physical or spiritual needs of oneself or another.” Throughout my life, I have seen how the Lord has taken my deepest wounds and made them the same place where His Love is abundant. Or how my past crosses have been able to be the same place from where I get my strength. This line from folklore expresses what many can relate to: going through many trials and finally getting to a part of the journey that is not riddled with pain. And the “hell” in the line can be understood more as “purgatory” instead of a place where those who reject God end up for all eternity. In the Catholic faith, we believe that Earth is not our permanent home and thus, we pick up the crosses that we have been given because one day, there is the promise of Heaven. From the Album evermore “marjorie” Relevant song lyrics: “And if I didn't know better I'd think you were talking to me now. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were still around. What died didn't stay dead [ . . . ] you’re alive, so alive.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: John 3:16 says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.” In the Catholic faith, we believe “not just in the survival of the soul, but in the resurrection of the body. We were created to live forever and find peace and satisfaction in a way that is fully human — in both flesh and spirit.” The lyrics of “marjorie” touch on this theme of what the afterlife might look like, from the perspective of someone who is still alive on Earth. This is a good song to pray with on All Souls Day and the whole month of November as we pray for those who have gone on to the next life and await when it will be our turn to be with the Lord in Heaven. From the Album Midnights “Dear Reader” Relevant song lyrics: “These desperate prayers of a cursed man, spilling out to you for free.” + “You should find another guiding light.” How this song can apply to the spiritual life: Swift loves to mention prayer in her lyrics, and who can blame her? Prayer is the source of all that is good in this life. Without it, we are left to our own devices trying to make sense of an incredibly broken world that needs God’s light more than ever. In this song, she tells the listeners not to take advice from her and to find another “guiding light.” Luckily, I know where we can find the only One we need. John 8:12 says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” In this song, we catch Swift in a rare moment of humility coupled with vulnerability, where she admits that she is also still trying to figure life out. We may never have all of the answers that we wish we had, but every single day, we have the choice to talk to the One who holds us in the palm of His hand. With His guidance and light, we will always have joy.

A surprising thing happened on March 10, 2020. The state of Colorado declared October 2 Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini Day. Such a declaration was a first on many levels, but in our state, it is the first day dedicated to a woman, and a woman religious at that! Given her tenacity, this shouldn’t come as any surprise—she was a trailblazer. Saint Frances Cabrini, whose Feast Day is celebrated today, is a woman worth celebrating: patroness of immigrants and women’s missions, and the first American citizen to become a Saint.  A Pioneering Woman Colorado residents are likely familiar with the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado. However, her ministry began far from the Rocky Mountains, and it stretches even further beyond them to this day. The shrine is located on the property Mother Cabrini purchased in 1910—only a handful of years before her death—as a summer camp for orphan girls, and has been used as a retreat house since the orphanage closed in 1967. For those who have visited the shrine, they will likely remember the spring near the grotto. When Mother Cabrini purchased the land, she got it inexpensively because it had no source of water. As the sisters began to use the property for residents and campers it became necessary to find a source of water. As Providence would have it, just as the sisters were about to give up due to thirst, a spring was found in 1912 that continues to flow to this day. Patroness of Immigrants Although Saint Frances Cabrini was born in Italy, she had a substantial impact on the American Church and beyond. Very often she is acknowledged as the inspiration for Saint Teresa of Calcutta. In a letter to her archbishop, Mother Teresa mused that she might have the same impact on India that she saw Cabrini had had on the United States. Growing up, Cabrini hoped to one day be a missionary, yet her poor health was a deterrent in all of her attempts to join various religious orders. However, in 1880, she and seven sisters founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When she became a sister, she took the name “Xavier” after the famous Jesuit missionary, Saint Francis Xavier, though she was known to most as “Mother Cabrini.” Like Saint Francis Xavier, she hoped to be a missionary in China, but when she asked the pope’s blessing in 1887, he encouraged her “not to go east, but west.” Two years later, she and several sisters departed for New York City. Upon their arrival in New York they were met with prejudice, suspicion, and an overall hostility (not to mention, they had to face extreme poverty and dire living conditions). Despite these difficult circumstances the sisters gained a foothold among New York’s Italian immigrants and began to open schools, orphanages, and hospitals.  A Woman With Grit In the upcoming movie depicting her life story, Cabrini is remembered as a force—a woman who advocated for herself and for those she served. Whether embellished or not, stories have been passed down of Mother Cabrini entering a grocery store, shopping, and thanking clerks for their donation to her charity as she walked back out with her required supplies. In many ways, her contemporaries did not know what to make of her. All the while, she had to be tough as she experienced tremendous prejudice towards herself both as a woman amongst the male leaders of the city, as a woman serving in a new way within the Church, and as an Italian during the height of anti-Italian sentiment. As word spread of their successful missions, the community was invited to serve immigrant communities all around the United States and, later, the world. Cabrini’s most extensive work focused on New York and Chicago, but her impact is seen as far as California and Washington state, and even China! Mother Cabrini was ahead of her time. She loved Jesus and those whom she had been sent to serve and did so seemingly without compromise. She blazed a trail for women who wished to be missionaries with every reason to have been discouraged. Given this little sneak peak into the life of a relatively unsung hero, I hope I have whet your appetite for the upcoming movie Cabrini, scheduled to release in March 2024.  “Did a Magdalene, a Paul, a Constantine, an Augustine become mountains of ice after their conversion? Quite the contrary. We should never have had these prodigies of conversion and marvelous holiness if they had not changed the flames of human passion into volcanoes of immense love of God.” // St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

Rome’s Four Major Basilicas I recently had the opportunity to lead a pilgrimage to Rome, Italy. In preparation for the pilgrimage, I was able to create the itinerary. Rome is one of my favorite cities in the world, with endless places to explore, yet I knew the most important on the list to visit would be the four major papal basilicas of Rome. Saint Peter’s, Saint Paul Outside the Wall, Saint Mary Major, and the Lateran Basilica, also known as Saint John Lateran (the dedication of which we celebrate today), are considered among the most extraordinary places in the world. The history of each basilica is profound and beautiful (I love this detailed website that explains each). Aside from housing Jesus in the Eucharist and being places of worship, some would claim that the importance lies in the architecture and artwork. And though these characteristics are phenomenal in all four, I placed these four basilicas on our itinerary for a much different reason. An Opportunity For Grace The Church in the Manual of Indulgences teaches that, “A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who visit, and there devoutly recite an Our Father and the Creed, one of the four Patriarchal Basilicas in Rome, either as part of a group making a pilgrimage to the basilica, or at least with the purpose of expressing during the visit filial submission to the Roman Pontiff.” I knew it was incredibly important to do my utmost to offer an opportunity for each pilgrim to visit these basilicas and strive to receive this indulgence. How Can We Celebrate? Today, on the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, which is the pope’s cathedral, the majority of us will not be in Rome visiting this great basilica that was consecrated on this date in the year 324. So, how can we celebrate? How can we participate in this grace-filled day? I propose that we, the faithful, look to the words of the Manual of Indulgences that we just read, as a guide. If we are able to, let us visit a church today, and recite an Our Father and the Creed for Our Holy Father, Pope Francis.  For the Temple of God, Which You Are, Is Holy In today’s Second Reading, we hear Saint Paul telling us that we “are God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Let us lay a strong foundation—a foundation of prayer, a foundation of hope, a foundation of charity—with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. Throughout the centuries, fire and earthquake have repeatedly ravaged the structure of Saint John Lateran. Yet each time, it has been rebuilt—beautifully strong, for Him. May we, too, be rebuilt in love by the Humble Carpenter Himself.

The storms of life rise and fall, ebb and flow. Some we see brewing on the horizon, while some come all too unexpectedly. When we find ourselves in the midst of a storm, we can do one of two things, according to Dan Burke, author of Finding Peace in the Storm: Reflections on St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Uniformity with God’s Will. We can either “rise to the challenges of the storms of life or be overcome by them.” Yes, we can rage against the storms by resisting them or complaining about them. Or, we can trust that these storms are part of God’s divine will for us, unite our will with His, and maintain interior peace even in the midst of the tumult. One response may be our knee-jerk reaction. But the other is worth striving for. And we can learn how to unite our will with God’s through the guidance of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church. A Brief Overview Saint Alphonsus was a successful lawyer before being ordained to the priesthood in 1726. In 1732, he founded the Redemptorist order, and in 1762, he became a bishop. Saint Alphonsus wrote more than one hundred books, including Uniformity with God’s Will, which was originally a letter to one of his spiritual daughters. In Finding Peace in the Storm, Burke revisits the Saint’s famous work, because the truths within Uniformity with God’s Will are truths we still need to hear. However, since it was written and translated in the 18th century, some of the language is difficult to understand. So, Burke updates the translation where helpful, intersperses his own insights throughout, and offers reflection questions for further contemplation at the end of each chapter. Conformity to God’s Will Begins With Love Saint Alphonsus begins his treatise by stating that “perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s [ . . . ] the more one unites his will with the divine will, the greater will be his love of God.” We achieve this by asking for God’s help. Then, we immerse ourselves in a life of prayer. Through prayer, we grow in our knowledge and love of God, which helps us seek conformity to His will. Here, Saint Alphonsus quotes another doctor of the Church, Saint Teresa of Avila: “Those who give themselves to prayer should concentrate solely on this: the conformity of their wills with the divine will.” Saint Alphonsus goes on to remind his reader that conformity to God’s will is a direct teaching of Jesus: “Our Lord Himself teaches us to ask to do the will of God on earth as the saints do it in Heaven: ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’” Burke encourages our desire to conform to God’s will by stating that “this kind of prayer—‘Show me Your will, Lord’—is a prayer that He always answers.” When Love is Tested When life is going smoothly, it is easy to say “Thy will be done.” It is easy to trust, have faith, and maintain peace. But Burke writes: [W]hen circumstances are undesirable, we come to a true test of our willingness to accept what God is allowing or causing. To the degree that we embrace and respond to circumstances in a way that expresses a holy yes to God, we will be united with Him. To the degree that we bristle, brood, complain, or reject what is happening, as if it is outside the purview of God’s loving hand, we are thereby separated from Him. Saint Alphonsus concurs by quoting Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans: “To those that love God, all things work together unto good” (Romans 8:28). Alphonsus goes on, “Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God. Afflictions do not mar their serenity, because by accepting misfortune, they know they give pleasure to their beloved Lord.” Later on, Saint Alphonsus continues with the idea that “all things work together unto good” by stressing that “if, then, He sends us sufferings in this life, it is for our own good [ . . . ] Even chastisements come to us not to crush us but to make us mend our ways and save our souls.” Burke contemplates the invitation to unite fully to the divine Will—even in the midst of adversity—and he invites readers to do the same: What would it be like to know this complete peace in the midst of any storm? Do we even believe it is possible? How would this reality change the way we think and act? What effect would our change in behavior have on us and on others? The fruit of this complete union with God’s will is more than peace. It also includes joy. Jesus promises that “no one will take your joy away from you [ . . . ] so that your joy may be complete.” (John 16:22, 24) Saint Alphonsus adds that “he who unites his will to God’s experiences a full and lasting joy.” A Note on Extreme Suffering Saint Alphonsus notes that in times of extreme suffering, it is good to call upon our friends for prayer and to even petition the Lord to free us from the difficulty. Jesus modeled this in the Garden of Gethsemane when He asked, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” But immediately, Jesus adds, “yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). The same can be true for times of spiritual dryness, when we do not feel especially close to God. Burke notes that it is normal to feel the weight of our trials. “We can and will always feel them,” he writes. “The question is: How will we respond to how we feel? Will our feelings dictate our response? Or will we exercise our will to face the difficulty with God’s help, maintain our resignation to His holy will, and remain in His holy embrace?”  Putting it into Practice While the content of Finding Peace in the Storm is spiritually deep and at times challenging, practical advice is woven throughout. Scripture verses are interlaced, as are multitudinous quotes from the Saints. There is also an appendix at the end of the book with step-by-step guidance. On a Personal Note Reading Finding Peace in the Storm could not have come at a better time for me, as my family was in the midst of a lot of simultaneous hardship—from unemployment and family stress to health issues and the passing of my father-in-law. It all seemed like too much for us to bear. While reading Finding Peace in the Storm, I realized I was wishing away the pain and suffering we were going through. I recognized myself in those who rage against God, and I accepted that I had a long way to go to truly live in God’s divine will. Instead of feeling down and discouraged, though, I was given a tremendous amount of hope. For this book filled me with encouragement to "rise at once," humble myself, and seek greater help from God. It emboldened me to rise above my feelings and deepen my trust in God’s divine will and how it truly desires the very best for me, which is ultimately union with Him in Heaven.

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When I first found out that Psalm 23/Jesus as the Good Shepherd would be the theme for Blessed is She’s Advent devotional this year, I could not believe how God providentially aligned it to my personal spiritual life. For starters, the upcoming liturgical year for the Sunday Mass Readings is going to be Year B (which I love so much that I mention it in my Blessed Is She bio) and on top of that, Psalm 23 is the Bible passage that got me through college and continues to be a tangible reminder of how much God loves me. I am finding that there are always new things that God wants to reveal to us, even through prayers and passages that we have been praying with for a long time. Freshman Year of College On September 29, 2017, I was an eighteen-year-old freshman on a retreat and in the confessional desperately searching for comfort. My parents had decided that they were getting a divorce the same month they shipped me off to college in Austin, Texas. And I had no one to support me. At this point, I had been in college for only a month and had spent it crying myself to sleep, eating one meal a day, and going straight home after I attended my classes because I did not have the energy to go out and make friends. It was the lowest point of my life. I was hesitant to go to Confession during this retreat because I knew that if I went, I would not be able to stop crying. I decided to go anyway. I sat across from the priest and told him about my anger, frustration, and hurt from the past month. After I finished talking, he looked at me tenderly and said, “I need you to know that God loves you and He won’t leave you.” Then as my penance he told me to pray with Psalm 23. For some reason, I didn’t complete my penance until October 26, 2017 (please have mercy for eighteen-year-old-me—I meant well but was struggling). I was feeling extra low this day so I decided it would be a good time to read Psalm 23. After the first line, “The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I lack,” I had to stop, recollect myself, and let Jesus ache with me as I internalized that I was already enough. Sophomore Year of College The beautiful part about experiencing the Cross and deep pain is that it makes the mountaintop that much sweeter. The start of my sophomore year of college hit differently from my freshman year. I had a feeling that this year would be something I would talk about for a long time. Sure enough, I was right. During the fall semester, I ended up on the music staff for a Longhorn Awakening retreat, and during rehearsal, our staff head introduced this upbeat and ~hip~ rendition of Psalm 23 entitled, “Good Shepherd” by Brother Isaiah. At this point, I was at the happiest I ever was in college, and I think it’s so sweet how even though the Lord knew I was okay, He made sure that I knew He was still there for me.  During that semester, on another Longhorn Awakening retreat, my friend gave a talk and he brought up Psalm 23. He talked about how Jesus leads us to green pastures and away from the valley of the shadow of death so that He can make us into who we are meant to be.  The spring semester of that year was a tough one. I struggled with grief. I didn’t know how to communicate my sadness. I didn’t want to bring my friends down with me and I didn’t let Jesus in enough to heal me. As a result, I was quick to say hurtful things to people who loved me very much. I couldn’t enjoy even the good things that happened to me because of what I was carrying. And while I knew that I wasn’t alone, I didn’t want to invite Jesus into my brokenness. Despite my attempts to block God’s grace, this happened to be the semester that I started going to daily Mass regularly. Though that semester was difficult, Good Shepherd Sunday weekend was a gentle reminder of the life and community that God had helped me to create for myself in college. I spent it surrounded by the friends I had met and grown close to in the past school year. On the actual day of Good Shepherd Sunday, the upperclassmen threw a joyous gathering to celebrate those who would be graduating that year as well as the Lord as our Good Shepherd! I came home joyful and content with how this weekend played out, knowing that every moment was intentionally curated by the Lord.  He knows what will bring joy to us, no matter how sorrowful our semester (or life) has been. Junior Year of College After my freshman year of college, I turned my back on prayer. So, my junior year was the second school year in a row that I did not have a daily prayer life. I never stopped going to Mass, but my college self did not see a point in talking to the Lord because it did not feel like He was doing anything to change my circumstances or take my pain away (I would later on learn how wrong I was to run away from Him for so long).  Before my first Sunday Mass back in Austin for the spring semester of my junior year, I was feeling very low, so I decided to give prayer another try and journaled my pre-Mass thoughts and what do you know . . . one of the Communion hymns was, “Shepherd Me, O God.” It was God’s way of telling me that no matter what I was currently facing or about to face (this semester was full of pain), He would get me through it. He would later keep His promises. The pandemic cut my junior year short in early 2020.  I was stuck at home with my family and completely heartbroken at losing my college experience and not being able to say good-bye to my friends. Furthermore, I was putting my self-worth in whether or not a certain boy wanted to be with me. One Sunday in particular, I did not want to attend virtual Mass because I could barely get out of bed, but I did anyway and the Communion hymn again was, “Shepherd Me, O God.” Even though I was at my lowest, I felt comforted. It was as if God came down from Heaven just to give His weak child a hug. Senior Year of College During the fall semester of my senior year of college, I thought I could find comfort in keeping busy and not face the deep sadness I had over losing the in-person aspect of my fall semester, since all of my classes were online.  I worked, busied myself with my organizations, tried to find internships for Spring 2021 and a full-time job, and focused on school. That all came crashing down mid-November. At this point, I had been rejected from an entertainment internship, bombed a business law exam after studying relentlessly for a week, felt emotionally distant from friends, and kept getting rejected from full-time jobs. Nothing had gone well for me at all that semester. Not my job search. Not my academics. Not my internship search. Nothing. I see now that I was left with nothing because I needed to realize that the things of the world are empty and that trying to place my worth in my achievements, accomplishments, and what I do is not what will give me Eternal Life or true happiness.  After crying my eyes out for a week, the Responsorial Psalm at a Mass I attended was Psalm 23 and the homily was about how we should expect delays. The priest explained that Jesus intentionally delays some of the things we want to happen in our lives because He is testing our reaction to the unplanned. This Mass gave me the final push to get through the last three weeks of the semester, and the Lord knew that the Psalm 23, reminding me of Jesus as my Good Shepherd, was what would give me that burst of energy and zeal. To celebrate the end of the semester, I went over to my friend’s apartment (he is not Catholic nor does he practice any type of faith) and I found a book of Psalms on his coffee table. As I flipped through the pages to get to Psalm 23, he walked over to me and said, “I really like the one about the shadow of the valley of death.” And I just knew that the Lord was telling me that even if 2020 went horribly, I had Him the entire year to hold my hand through it all. I returned to Austin for my last semester of college in the spring and attended the SEEK conference for the first time. On our only full day of SEEK, the Responsorial Psalm at Mass again was Psalm 23 which led to the homily exclusively focusing on this image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. I sat there, half-asleep, cuddling with my monogrammed blanket, and I smiled. There was no other place I would rather be, at that moment, than listening to the Word of God, knowing I was going to receive the Eucharist in a few minutes and sitting next to my best friend in our final semester. This was a semester of the sweetest reunions, including finally seeing my friend Daisy after thirteen months. She was the girl who sat next to me at my retreat during my first semester of college and was my first college close friend. As we sat and caught up, I told her about how much Psalm 23 meant to me and my college experience, and she said that it was also one of her favorite passages and that it was on her high school letterman. How endearing it was to know that the person I sat next to for most of that freshman year retreat, when I first attentively heard this passage, also loved it as much as I did. On Good Shepherd Sunday that year, the priest talked about how sometimes, the Lord sends us human shepherds to be a more tangible example of what He wants to say to us. I love the concept that God likes to send people in our lives to aid in our healing. I thought about my college Bible study leader who kept inviting me to Bible study even though I turned her down many times, my friend Jolyssa who invited me to go pray a Holy Hour with her every single day of Lent 2019 (I said no every time), the countless people who told me to go to Eucharistic Adoration to let God help me, and the providential advice I got during a Sunday in Advent during my sophomore year of college from a person I just met that night. When I graduated college, I looked back on this imagery of Jesus as my Good Shepherd, seeing that without Him, I would not have been able to get through the hardest years of my life. At moments when I felt all alone, I was not. He was there the entire time. Post-College Life One of the worst years of my life (right up there with 2017 and 2020) was 2022. I knew I had been needing to go to therapy but for one reason or another, I kept putting it off. At this point, five years of trauma, pain, and wounds had amassed and I knew it was finally time to get help. That same year, I was also invited to join a Bible study with girls who also had divorced parents. I love all of the friends I have, but the ones with married parents and complete families could never quite understand the hurt and the pain that came from the dissolution of my parents’ marriage. This Bible study pointed me to Life-Giving Wounds, a ministry for adult children of divorced parents, and for once in my life, I was no longer alone in this wound (from a human standpoint). My first day of therapy was the same day as the first Life-Giving Wounds Retreat, September 29, 2022: the exact date, five years later, from when the priest introduced me to Psalm 23. In that first Life-Giving Wounds meeting, the speaker mentioned praying with the Psalms. Funny how God works, huh? Flash forward almost a year later: on my twenty-fourth birthday, my best friend gave me an image of the Eucharist. Included in the package was a randomly selected prayer card. Turns out it was a Psalm 23/Good Shepherd prayer card. A good omen for this year of my life? We will just have to see. I cried as I opened her gift for me. Finally, I went to Mass on the Feast Day of Saint Thérèse with my best friend and other people we love. I was reuniting with my friend, Felipe, who had been away at seminary in another country. I sat there, on the same exact weekend, but six years later, as the first time Psalm 23 was presented to me (September 29 - October 1), surrounded by people I love, with the Gospel Acclamation of the Alleluia verse being: “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them and they follow me.” I prayed with this imagery of unity in the Eucharist as all of my friends and I stared at the Eucharist here on Earth, while knowing that the union I was seeing with my visible eyes does not compare to the unity we will experience in Heaven with our Good Shepherd. As we gear up for Advent, I am excited to see what else the Lord will reveal to me through Psalm 23 and the image of Him as my Good Shepherd. I know that I will forever belong to Him as His sheep and that there is nothing that you or I can do to stop the love of the Good Shepherd from reaching out and seeking our consent to transform our hearts.   Order Found: An Advent Devotional here. HIS WORD CHANGES LIVES God is speaking to you through His Word. In this personal study, you will learn to hear God's voice by reading slowly and praying deeply. BEGIN THE JOURNEY

On an errand for carpet cleaner this morning, I stopped into a store known for their low prices. It was one of those rare occasions where I had one thing on my list. As I walked toward the check-out lanes, the women’s clothing department prices listed on large signs caught my eye. Racks of women’s tops were listed for under three dollars.  As a frugal shopper myself, the sign stopped me in my tracks. I have been lured by these deals before. And yet, knowing what I do about the cost of living, minimum wage, and the dignity of the human person, there is simply no way that the people who produce these garments are making anything near living wages. The fashion journalist Lucy Siegle made an important point when she said, “Fast fashion isn’t free. Somewhere, someone is paying for it.” Companies large and small love to boast about their low prices. At a time when prices on everything seem to be going up, low prices can make a difference in a household budget. The question that we, the faithful consumers, are left to ask is: At what cost? Are we inadvertently supporting sweatshops and slave labor by our consumerism? Pope Benedict XVI emphasized this problem: "In many cases, poverty results from a violation  of the dignity of human work, either because work opportunities are limited (through unemployment or underemployment), or [quoting Pope Saint John Paul II in Laborem Exercens] 'because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal security of the worker and his or her family'"  (Caritas in Veritate, § 63). Dignity of work  Nearly everything from the coffee that we brew, to the strawberries on our oatmeal, or the clothing that we wear, arrived in our hands after having been harvested/sewn/assembled by the work of another. There is tremendous dignity in having work to do and a product to create. Since the Garden of Eden, cultivating a craft, tilling the land, or earning a wage has been the way humanity exists and knows itself in the world. And it is inherently good! Problems begin to creep in when we see those who produce the goods we seek as means to an end. As we become more comfortable or numb to the reality that for a product to be cheap, the conditions and wages of the worker become less and less humane. We have a tremendous culpability for our participation in such a system. Venerable Fulton Sheen reminds us, “You must remember to love people and use things, rather than use people and love things” (source). -Fulton Sheen {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} Wants & Needs Our participation in dehumanizing systems stems from one of two places: A need to purchase things inexpensively A desire to acquire an abundance of things  For folks who are feeling the pinch of tighter budgets, growing children, or lack of shopping options, being selective about the products that we buy can feel a little like a luxury in and of itself. It is a lot to ask someone who is struggling to feed their own family to pay a higher price, so that another may feed theirs. Although not exempt from the responsibility of recognizing the dignity of the person whose work we support, the lion’s share of responsibility does not rest on the shoulders of those who are economically struggling. In this global economy, those of us who have options of where to shop and how much to spend also have a responsibility of Christian witness that we are obligated to demonstrate through our finances. Honestly taking stock of wants versus needs, being educated about unjust working conditions and wages, and supporting those whose practices are ethical (if paying a bit more) is an important part of our participation in a society that sees all people as image-bearers, made in the image and likeness of our God. This all being said, I wish to offer you a list of ten ways to be an intentional consumer. Not all may be practical for your state in life. But many of them are doable for a lot of us! 10 Ways to be an Intentional Consumer: Purchase second-hand, first. Repair items rather than dispose of them. Donate used clothing/use hand-me-downs. Support industry that is Fair Trade certified. Shop local (small businesses/farmers markets). Invest in products that will last. Request coffee shops/grocers/parishes to serve fair trade products. Simplify your wardrobe. Research your favorite company’s labor policies. Invest in companies that support ethical practices.

After an early morning viewing of the sun rising over Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota, I was on a quiet walk back to our campsite when my friend recommended Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Father Jacques Philippe. She described it as life-changing.  At the time, I had never heard of this French author, but he soon became a personal favorite. While every single one of his books has been a great companion for a holy hour, the one I read first was his treatise on having peace of heart. And, if you let it, this book can indeed change your life.  This short, easy-to-read book is divided into three parts. Part One: Interior Peace, The Road to Saintliness It may seem like an odd place to start talking about peace, but Philippe’s opening words emphasize our powerlessness: our total incapacity to do anything without the help of God. His goal here is to speak to the power of abandonment and receptivity, to encourage us to let go of the control that we think we hold, and instead become docile to the Holy Spirit listening to how God desires to act within us. One of my favorite lines in the book is a beautifully painted word picture:  Consider the surface of a lake, above which the sun is shining. If the surface of the lake is peaceful and tranquil, the sun will be reflected in this lake; and the more peaceful the lake, the more perfectly it will be reflected. If, on the contrary, the surface of the lake is agitated, undulating, then the image of the sun can not be reflected in it. (p. 5) This helpful image reminds me to hurry less and sit still more. It is only then that my heart is fully open and attentive to God’s voice, and in turn, I am better able to be a mirror of His goodness and love.  Philippe is not naive to the reality that we all have struggles, but he urges us not to give too much power to our annoyances and frustrations. If we are looking for the peace that the world offers, it will be short-lived. Of course, God does not expect us to go through life without hardship. We were promised hardship. In fact, the Lord will even stir up our consciences if we are in need of repentance and a return to Him.  Phillippe explains: “We cannot truly be at peace as long as our hearts have not found their unity and our hearts cannot be unified until all our desires are subordinated to the desire to love God, to please Him and to do His will” (p. 17).  Unifying our desires with the Lord’s requires detachment and abandonment, and this can take time to grow in. But He is patient with us! Part Two: How To React To That Which Causes Us To Lose Peace This section begins with common reasons for which we might lose our peace—for example, apprehensions about the future or the fear of lacking something we desperately want such as a spouse, a child, or a specific job. This fear of lacking is something I often struggle with, so I need Philippe’s reminder that:  It is not by making certain calculations and preoccupations that one is going to find a solution [. . . ] Man is never assured of obtaining anything, and everything which he holds in his hands can easily slip from his grasp from one day to the next; there is no guarantee on which he can count absolutely. (p. 24)  Worry will get us nowhere, and yet, that is where the evil one will try to hold us. The serpent from the garden breathes behind our ears, tempting us to think (just like he did with Adam and Eve) that we know better than God and so we should put our trust in ourselves rather than our Creator. This is where we lose our peace.  Philippe paints another word picture to help us better understand why we struggle to trust in Divine Providence: As long as a person who must jump with a parachute does not jump out into the void, he cannot feel that the cords of the parachute will support him, because the parachute has not yet had the chance to open. One must first jump and it is only later that one feels carried. (p. 28)  We need to jump in order to experience that we are held.  To know that we are held we must spend time in prayer and contemplation. We won’t want to jump until we know and trust the One who promises to carry us. For “[t]he heart does not awaken to confidence until it awakens to love; we need to feel the gentleness and the tenderness of the Heart of Jesus” (p. 35).  {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} Part Three: What The Saints Tell Us Rest assured that this obtaining of peace is a grace and not something to be hurried after or grasped at. Even the Saints had to work on practicing patience and stillness. Philippe gives selections from different Saints about peace.  Juan de Bonilla wrote: “Just as a city is not built in a day, do not think that you can achieve, in a day, this peace, this interior calm, because it is within you that a home must be built for God, while you yourself, become His temple. And it is the Lord Himself Who must handle the construction” (p. 85-86).  Saint Francis de Sales explained,  “Peace is born of humility,” and that “[i]f God makes you fall, as He did with Saint Paul, whom He threw to the ground, it is to raise you up to His glory” (p. 89, 91).  Venerable Francois-Marie-Jacob Libermann said: “To worry, to hurry in carrying out the good desires that He inspires in us is to spoil the work of grace in us and to draw us away from our perfection. Let us not try to be perfect immediately; let us undertake our accomplishments with calm, with a peaceful fidelity to that which He demands of us” (p. 105).  Will you open your heart to receive the peace that God has for you? Are you ready to take the leap from your own sense of control and into Your Maker’s providential care?

God loves a paradox. The Trinity is three Persons in One God. The King of the World was born in a stable. “I am with you always,” Jesus tells His Apostles right before the Ascension (Matthew 28:20). He tells his disciples “The greatest among you must be your servant” (Matthew 23:11) and “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). And in a deep ravine in rural New York, this last paradox takes concrete shape. This ravine is deep shades of green, a quiet stream trickling nearby. The only sounds are natural ones. This ravine exudes a holy peace.   The quiet, beautiful, peaceful ravine is, in reality, a messy, ugly, violent way of the Cross. It is, in itself, the paradox of discipleship: “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”  In this place, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of Christians. It is the place Saint René Goupil was tossed after he was tomahawked by two of the Iroquis to whom he was bringing the Good News of the Gospel. It is the place Saint Isaac Jogues snuck into during the middle of the night to bury his brother. Isaac Jogues had been standing next to René when he was killed. He fully expected to be next, but for some reason his life was spared, at least for a while. He describes what happened next:  After [René] had been killed, the children had stripped him and tieing [sic] a cord around his neck, dragged him to a torrent which runs at the foot of the town. The dogs had already gnawed a part of his thighs. At this spectacle, I could not withhold my tears. I took the body and aided by the Algonquin, I sank it in the water and covered it with large stones, to hide it, intending to return the next day with a spade, when there was no one near and dig a grave and inter it. (source) {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} Delayed a few days in being able to sneak back to bury Rene’s body, he describes what happened next:  I entered the water already quite cold, I [came and went], I sound[ed] with my feet to see whether the water had not raised and carried off the body, but I saw nothing. How many tears I shed, which fell in the torrent, while I sang as I could the psalms which the church chant[s] for the dead. After all I found nothing . . .  [ . . . ] [T]he young men had taken it up and dragged it to a neighboring wood, where during the fall and winter it was the food of the dog, the crow, and the fox. When I was told in the spring that he had been dragged there, I went several times without finding anything; at last, the fourth time, I found his head and some half-gnawed bones, which I interred. [ . . . ] Repeatedly did I kiss them as the bones of a martyr of Jesus Christ. (source) Somewhere in that ravine, Saint René Goupil is buried. Just above the ravine is a small plateau where the Mohawk village once stood. Pilgrims now quietly explore the grounds where it is both easy and hard to imagine the torturous, holy events in the midst of the day-to-day village life that took place here.  One can walk to the edge of the largely unchanged village and see the steep hill leading to the river. It is this hill that Saint Isaac Jogues, Saint René Goupil and others, after having been forced to march from their capture miles away, were forced to run the gauntlet.   Stumbling and dragged into the village, they were tied and staked to the ground, enduring unimaginable tortures we only know about because Saint Isaac Jogues escaped and wrote about them. He wrote them with the short remains of his fingers that had been chopped, beaten, and bitten off. To this he wrote: "I thank you, Lord Jesus, that I have learned from this slight test how much you deigned to suffer for me on the Cross when the weight of your whole body was suspended not by ropes but by your hands and your feet cruelly pierced with nails" (source). Saint René Goupil was killed on September 29, 1642. A short fourteen years later, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was born on that same plateau, and converted to Catholicism when she was nineteen.  It is not out of the realm of possibility that those who witnessed or even participated in the torture and martyrdoms of Saint Isaac Jogues and Saint. René Goupil later witnessed and even participated in the life of the first Native American saint.  Here again, in this peaceful ravine with no outward scars of the brutality it has seen, is the paradox God loves. It is the paradox of the Cross.

I was sitting in my room and praying during a time of difficulty in my life when I realized something about my attitude toward our Lady. I realized (without trying to do so) that I had put her on a pedestal that I could not touch. I loved the Rosary and I loved the consecration to Jesus through Mary. I loved her. But regarding an intimate and maternal relationship, she felt very inaccessible. These thoughts led me to speak a prayer that instigated an entire change in me: “Mother, teach me to be your daughter.” The moment I said those words goosebumps came all over me, and I felt a blossoming intimacy with her that I had never experienced before. It made me realize the magnitude of the gift of her motherhood, and the example of holy womanhood she is to us. She, the ultimate Woman, is the perfect example to learn from and guide us ever more deeply into the arms of Jesus. I was inspired to look deeper into her virtues as contemplated by the saints, five of which I want to share with you today as inspiration for imitation: Mary’s Humility We often hear women are receptive. We see this tangibly in the makeup of our bodies, with the capacity to receive and potentially bear new life. We see it when we’re on a coffee date with a close friend receiving the other’s heart. We see it in our prayer life: listening, passive, receptive. It’s part of our feminine makeup, and it was part of our Lady’s too. Her humility was the foundation of her receptivity; there must be an emptiness and a lowliness to make room to receive fully. Her example reminds us to pray for the virtue of humility to accept little humiliations throughout our day as practice, and to trust God when we are in a season of being emptied. Mary’s Faith Our Lady had perfect faith in every moment: giving birth in a stable in Bethlehem far from home, in the small and hidden moments of homemaking in Nazareth, even during Christ’s ministry that led to His crucifixion, where her sorrows were overwhelming. In all things she remained unwavering in faith, trusting in God’s goodness in all circumstances. Faith is a virtue we cannot practice or cultivate ourselves. It is a pure gift that we must pray for, and a prayer that will always be answered because our Father always wills our increase in it. Mary’s Unceasing Prayer Mary’s whole life was a prayer: her acts of service, her works, her laughter, her sorrows, her silent prayer and meditations. Why? Because every moment she lived was according to God’s will and without the stain of sin. She inspires us to consider our time, and ask ourselves: What is it God is asking of me in this moment, on this day, in this season in my life? When we consider this, we can more intentionally seek to do His will. In His will, each moment of our life also becomes a prayer. Our joys, our sorrows, our sufferings, our trials, and even our weakest moments offered to Him become a means to draw closer into intimate union with God. {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} Mary’s Ardent Charity In perfect imitation of Christ, our Lady held nothing back. She was readily willing to pour out of herself because she was moved by the Holy Spirit to a fervent, ardent, marvelous charity, or love, of God and neighbor. Because of this she lived a life with a heart unhardened, a heart that felt the greatest capacity for both joys and sorrows. She inspires us as women to remain sensitive and pray for healing in the areas within our hearts that have hardened over time, so that we too might love with our greatest capacity. Mary’s Wisdom Our Lady’s wisdom is a reflection of her beauty as a woman: “Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom” (Wisdom 6:12). She shows that true beauty stems from the heart and reflects externally into acts of love. Mary’s maternal guidance is rooted fully in heavenly wisdom. She will never lead her children astray, nor will she abandon us. Her gentle prompting echoes: “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5). Wisdom, like faith, is a gift to pray for; it is experiential, fostered over time, and guided by the Holy Spirit working within us. As I dove into the writings of the Saints on Marian virtue and sought to grow in deeper relationship myself, I found a mother so eager to be close. A Queen-Warrior in all of her perfections looking towards each of her children with a gentle gaze. Loving us, and there for us intimately. She is such an inspiration for all women that I could not help but write it all down. It led me to write a book, Mary, Teach Me to Be Your Daughter: Finding Yourself in the Blessed Mother. And my prayer for you, dear sister, is that you, too, can find your place as her daughter.   Author Bio: Megan Madden is a homeschooling mother with a passion for writing and speaking on authentic femininity and virtuous womanhood. In 2017, she began graduate studies in marriage and family at the International Theological Institute in Austria. After moving to Kraków, Poland to work with university students, Megan more personally continued her research on the complementarity of man and woman, particularly on the question of what it means to be a woman. She delved into the study of renowned Catholic writers on women such as St. Edith Stein, Gertrude von le Fort, Alice von Hildebrand, St. John Paul II, and St. Teresa of Avila.

The weather is just now changing, leaves are turning, and PSLs are back on the menu—but something special is just on the horizon and we want you to know about it. It’s hard to believe, but the beginning of Advent is just under 8 weeks away! We would love to create a space of rest for you as you begin your preparations for the Christmas season.  Enter: The Good Shepherd There’s no doubt that the “holiday season” can stir up feelings of hurry, busyness, emotion, and maybe even panic. There’s a lot to be done, people to check in with, and many places to be.  The Lord doesn’t desire this chaos for your heart.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and we are His sheep. Even more tenderly, He sees us as little lambs wrapped up in His warm and completely safe arms. We’re here being found, rescued, fed, anointed, and called to rest.  This is more than just a sweet image in a painting or a song. This is a real part of who we are and who He is. He gently calls us to sit by still waters (Psalm 23:2), and that’s possible right here in your daily life.  In pursuit of the freedom found in rest, we at Blessed is She hope to offer you space this Advent to embrace the Good Shepherd in our 2023 Catholic Advent devotional for women: Found. What to Expect in the Advent Devotional We invite you to bring your heart before the Good Shepherd all throughout the Advent season. This devotional aims to bring you right under the cloak of Jesus the Good Shepherd. Psalm 23 is the very heartbeat of a four-week exploration of the Shepherd’s presence in our lives. We tell stories, share Scripture, invite you into meditative and contemplative prayer, and ask you to look for the many ways Jesus is actively shepherding you in your own life. This year’s stories are written by Katie Prejean McGrady, Mary Catherine Craige, Rachel Balducci, and Senite Sahlezghi.  The Weekly Themes Pursuit + Rest Nourishment + Cleansing Protection + Sacrifice Anointed + Dwelling How the Weeks Are Structured Sundays / Narration on the week’s theme Mondays / Old Testament Scripture + specific lectio divina prompts  Tuesdays / Story + questions Wednesdays / New Testament Scripture + specific lectio divina prompts Thursdays / Story + questions Fridays / Sacred mosaic art + specific visio divina prompts Saturdays / Rest + receive Shop Advent   Advent Bundles for the Whole Crew As usual, along with our Catholic Advent devotional for women, we are offering a variety of bundles for you and your whole family! Our Kids’ Devotional, Found: My Shepherd + Me, translates the theme of Psalm 23 and the Good Shepherd into a tangible journey for your kiddos to walk through.  In the Advent bundle, you will receive a devotional, a pack of Psalm 23 prayer cards, and a Psalm 23 pillowcase. In the Women’s + Kids bundle, you can get the devotional for women and our exclusive devotional for kids at a discounted price. In the Women’s + Men’s bundle, you will receive the Found Advent devotional along with Fierce: Advent Guide for Men, written by our friend Paul George.  You can also get all 3 Advent books this year in the family bundle. Rest is a Promise, Not a Reward Now that you've secured your Advent devotional and checked that off your mental list, we return you to your fall preparations and traditions. Join us in praying with Psalm 23 now, letting the Good Shepherd open your heart with time and becoming familiar with the sound of His voice.  We will be waiting for you at the start of Advent, ready to walk the road of restoration together. Let's Get Started

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I spent many of my formative years during college and beyond under the guidance of priests and brothers from a Franciscan community in New York City. On Friday mornings I would drive over to one of their friaries, attend Mass with them and the other volunteers, and then after some prayers, we would get to work. Rolling up our sleeves, we would begin the tasks of preparing food, washing the dishes, setting out the tableware, and looking through the pantry for things that could be given away.  We then would trickle into the big hall to sit at tables with the needy of the neighborhood. Before our meal, we prayed together with Scripture through Lectio Divina. With no difference among us, we would close our eyes and imagine ourselves there in the Gospel reading. One by one, voices would begin to say out loud what the passage meant for them and what they wanted to share with the rest of the group. We were touched and in awe of what the Lord could say and do through those around us, even those whom—in the world’s standards—did not have anything to give thanks for. In their physical poverty, these men and women were not poor in their hearts but knew the greatest treasure: Jesus. The Poverty of Francis This is also true of the man whom we honor today: Saint Francis. When I think of the young man of Assisi who stripped himself naked to disown his possessions and inheritance after his conversion (source), I am struck with admiration. The very thing that most people fear in life—losing everything, becoming physically poor and in need—Francis embraced willingly as a response to the Lord’s personal call on his life. The Saint devoted himself to Christ through a life of poverty, obedience, and chastity as well as one of service to the needy. This was the narrow way through which He would arrive at true riches. In his rule of life for the friars that began to follow him, Francis wrote, “[ . . . ] let them not desire rich clothes in this world, that they may possess a garment in the kingdom of heaven” (source). He desired that the eyes of both him and his followers be fixed on their heavenly home not on their surroundings; their hearts kept captive by the riches of heaven and not by the charms of this world.  The Humility of Francis The humble heart of Francis was formed by his very clear understanding—through the various instances of conversion and encounter with the living God in his life—that he is a creature loved and known by his Creator. Everything in creation that surrounded Francis brought his heart to worship the Lord. His “Canticle of the Sun” calls us to give thanks to God for the mundane aspects of life which easily go unnoticed in our modern day busyness. Look up at the sky with me, sister, and feel the warmth of the sun on your face. Can you also give praise today as did Francis so long ago for our “brother sun [ . . . ] which lights up the day”? (Source) Francis’ humility was also steeped in the knowledge of Christ’s real, abiding presence in the Eucharist. In one of his writings, Francis expressed himself in a rave of praise to our Lord: “O humble sublimity! O sublime humility! that the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under a morsel of bread. Consider, brothers, the humility of God and ‘pour out your hearts before Him, and be ye humbled that ye may be exalted by Him’” (source). We are called to humble ourselves before the Lord as He has done for each of us. {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} The Devotion of Francis Francis knew the extent of God’s radical love for humanity—and for him, personally—and so he wished to respond with all that he had. At the end of this praise of the Eucharist, Francis challenges his brothers with the following words: “Do not therefore keep back anything for yourselves that He may receive you entirely who gives Himself up entirely to you” (source). This is advice given from his own lived experience. Francis held nothing back from the Lord and even his body was given up to undergo suffering similar to Christ’s on the Cross by receiving the sacred stigmata.  His love and attentiveness to the poor was met with a continual need to retire in solitude to spend one-on-one time with his greatest Love and treasure. It was in the moments of solitude and prayer, away from the crowds, that Francis could perceive the voice of his Father calling him to greater intimacy. He had such a devotion for the Word of God that he asked his brothers to pick up with great reverence any parts of the Bible they might find scattered about in their travels. They were to preserve them, “[f]or many things are sanctified by the word of God” (source). His love for the Lord, the Holy Scriptures, and the Church was an inheritance he wished to pass down to his followers.  Following Saint Francis Today Yet, what does this all mean for us women in the world—who are striving to serve Christ in our day-to-day lives as students, employees, business owners, mothers, artists, athletes, etc.—to live a life of poverty, humility, and devotion like Francis did? How can we both aspire to be radically about the Gospel of Christ as Francis was and also live our call to be women living in the world? Perhaps the answer lies for us in the beatitudes of the Gospel of Matthew when our Lord says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3; emphasis added).  What Francis lived out physically in his actions and way of life was an expression of his internal disposition. His heart was rightly ordered, the eyes of his heart piercing through the earthly into the eternal realms, and therefore able to love God above all things and others in the right way. This is how you and I, sister, are called to love God—with eyes fixed on Him as our one thing even as we go about seemingly normal lives. We can place our gaze on heaven even while living here below. Francis accepted poverty so that there would be more space in his life for God. Maybe we can start by getting rid of material things we may not have need of. But let us not stop there. Let us also get rid of things that may be consuming our time and make space for the Lord to come meet us. This might look like less obsession with work, less time on the internet, more time in prayer, more frequent attendance at daily Mass, or more walks in solitude and silence.  As with Francis, our embracing poverty in our daily lives does not mean that we are not moved to compassion by the suffering and poverty of others. Therefore, to live a life like Francis we should also seek to serve the poor. This might not only mean the materially poor but also the lonely, the sick, and the hopeless (see CCC 2444). How can you and I spend more time with Christ in the poor around us this month, sister? Maybe find a soup kitchen, an elderly home, or simply the neighbor down the street from you who may need a visit, and let us bring the good news of Christ to these places. May we go to the least among us and find there Christ, our most prized possession.

We humans, even though we are composed of both a physical body and a spiritual soul, sometimes struggle to comprehend truth that cannot be detected by our five physical senses. This has resulted in many of us going through our lives without an acute awareness of the spiritual realm all around us. Furthermore, we are unaware of the constant interaction and intervention of these spiritual beings in our lives. In truth, there is a whole other level of existence, and most of us are unaware! 1. What is a guardian angel? Guardian angels are members of the ninth and lowest choir of angels. This is the group that is closest to the material realm and interacts directly with us. One translation of the word “angel” means “messenger.” As such, angels are regarded as those who carry God’s messages. While this is true, carrying God’s messages is only a small part of what they do. Another translation of angel as “ambassador” is helpful in painting a broader picture of the role of these spiritual beings.  To put it simply, an ambassador, in the political sense, serves as a representative of his or her home country and within that role helps to improve the relationship between the two countries. This is what each guardian angel attempts to do: improve our relationship with Heaven, most especially with God. Ultimately, your guardian angel works to help you improve your love for God and grow closer to Him so that you will obtain the eternal life for which you were created.  2. When were guardian angels made? Unlike mankind, angels have no gender and thus cannot reproduce. They are not co-creators with God in this sense. Instead of allowing them to be a part of the process of physical procreation, God created all nine choirs of angels at the same time. The number of angels created is insurmountable, and they came into existence before the creation of the material realm. Scripture tells us they were there when the earth was created and they shouted for joy. Thus, all the guardian angels in existence were made before God created the first man and woman. 3. When was my angel assigned to me? This answer may surprise you. Your guardian angel was not assigned to you at your birth. He was not even assigned to you at your conception. Your angel was assigned to you at the moment of his creation, which means he spent eternity preparing for his time with you. Likely he was interceding for you before you were even made. It is a breathtaking thought that God matched your angel specifically to you. There is something about him and something about you that God knew would make a fantastic team. You can think of your guardian angel as a kind of best friend or soulmate. 4. When does my angel start “guarding” me? Seeing as there were countless years between his creation and your birth, it is likely that your guardian angel was doing “prep” work and praying for you before you became a physical reality. As he is immaterial and exists outside of time he can spend his whole existence focused on you. As soon as you came to be—at the moment of your conception—your angel was by your side.  5. If I have a heavenly body guard, why do I still get hurt sometimes? The title “guardian” can be misleading. Your angel’s main concern is not to protect you from physical harm. His main concern is to help you make it to Heaven. Thus, when it comes to your physical well-being, your angel does not intervene unless the injury could be one that would eternally harm your relationship with God (though they make many exceptions for infants and toddlers without a developed sense of danger and spatial awareness). Or they might intervene to prompt an increase of your faith in God and His care for you. 6. Can we become guardian angels when we die? No human being becomes an angel when he or she dies. We are completely different creatures; we do not think, move, learn, or act alike. To think we become angels in Heaven is actually more impossible metaphysically than for a cat to become a dog. Angels are pure spirit. In contrast, humans are both spiritual and physical, possessing both a body and a soul. At the end of time, when Jesus returns and we experience that resurrection of the body, every person (whether good or evil) will receive their body back. The angels will be there too, but their roles and duties will shift at that time.  {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} 7. Does my angel have a body? No, your angel does not have a physical body. Remember he is pure spirit and as such, he is more powerful than you. However, there are times where God permits angels to represent himself in human form in order to interact with us for important reasons. In my own life, I have heard countless stories from family, friends, and strangers in which a person appears seemingly out of nowhere to help them during a time of need. These individuals have all expressed the sense that the person was indeed their guardian angel.  8. Does my angel actually have wings? Building off the truth that angels are not physical, there are some who try to claim that angels do not have wings. They will argue that wings were originally placed on angels by artists who were attempting to distinguish them from the humans in their paintings. These individuals are mistaken. The first reference to angels possessing wings is found in Scripture when God is giving Moses instructions for constructing the Ark of the Covenant. It was God who first represented angels with wings, but then of course they are only spiritual wings and represent something unique about angels. 9. What does my angel do all day? The traditional prayer to our guardian angels puts it plainly: they enlighten, guard, rule, and guide. Your angel works non-stop to influence you towards the good. Angels communicate with us via our thoughts and intuition. They can conjure up memories or images and place them within your mind’s eye. Everything is an attempt to inspire you towards virtue and love. If you feel such a prompting, honor the hard work of your angel and act upon it! 10. Can I have more than one guardian angel? Yes! This is quite possible. My grandmother prayed that God would bless her grandchildren with an additional nine guardian angels after each of our births. While talking with Dr. Mark Miravalle—a theologian specializing in angels—he confirmed that this was indeed possible. He also indicated that God often assigns additional guardian angels to people when they step into important leadership positions, such as the priesthood or presidency.  11. What happens to my guardian angel when I die? He was with you before you were born, and he will be with you even after you die. Other than God, no one knows you as well as your guardian angel. He will be by your side at your death and accompany you to God’s throne. There, he will serve as witness for you during your particular judgment. 12. Will my guardian angel be assigned to anyone else? No, there is no “reusing” or “recycling” when it comes to guardian angels. You belong to each other. Even after you die, your angel continues to stay with you. This is true even after the Second Coming of Jesus. Your angel is your eternal companion. The Saints assure us their job will change at this time, as no one will need to be influenced for good. However, they still remain with you.  13. How can I know my angel better? Genuine awareness and calculated engagement do wonders for fostering relationships. Begin your day with a prayer asking for his assistance. Try to be attentive to his promptings. Ask for his wisdom and help when you are unsure of what to do—he can inspire you in how you should act! If you feel called to do so, you could complete a novena, or even consecrate yourself to your heavenly friend. Do you have any more questions about your guardian angel? Drop them in the comments!

I have slowly been re-reading the novel Persuasion. As I immerse myself once again in Jane Austen’s timeless tale, I keep thinking about the words of another wise woman: Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, whose feast day opens the lovely autumnal month of October. She says in her autobiography The Story of a Soul: True Charity consists in bearing with all the defects of our neighbor, in not being surprised at his failings, and in being edified by his least virtues; Charity must not remain shut up in the depths of the heart, for no man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. (cf. Matthew 5:15). It seems to me that this candle represents the Charity which ought to enlighten and make joyful, not only those who are dearest to me, but all who are in the house. The character of Anne Elliot reflects the above quote in Persuasion. Austen describes her leading lady as having “an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding.” As readers see throughout the course of the novel, Anne is always ready to help: kind and friendly is her nature—charitable to a T—and she puts people at ease. Do you recall the episode of Louisa Musgrove’s terrible fall? Observe how Anne assists: Anne, attending with all the strength, and zeal, and thought, which instinct supplied, to Henrietta, still tried, at intervals, to suggest comfort to the others, tried to quiet Mary, to animate Charles, to assuage the feelings of Captain Wentworth. Both seemed to look to her for directions. There are other moments, of course, where dear Anne’s character shines, but I will let you ponder those as you read or re-read. But she is not the only Austen heroine who is a kindred spirit to the Little Flower. The “little” saint recalls in Story of a Soul, “We often think we receive graces and are divinely illuminated by means of brilliant candles. But from whence comes their light? From prayers, perhaps, of some humble, hidden soul, whose inward shining is not apparent to human eyes.”  This quote makes me think of the character of Elinor Dashwood (“She had an excellent heart;—her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them,” as Austen describes)and how she supports her sister Marianne throughout the course of Sense and Sensibility. Elinor’s good heart is particularly exhibited in this pivotal scene: Elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence. “Exert yourself, dear Marianne,” she cried, “if you would not kill yourself and all who love you. Think of your mother; think of her misery while you suffer: for her sake you must exert yourself.” “I cannot, I cannot,” cried Marianne; “leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! but do not torture me so. Oh! how easy for those, who have no sorrow of their own to talk of exertion! Happy, happy Elinor, you cannot have an idea of what I suffer.” “Do you call me happy, Marianne? Ah! if you knew!—And can you believe me to be so, while I see you so wretched!” This passage, as fans will recall, coincides with Elinor’s own heartache as she thinks her gentleman is lost to her forever.  Elinor’s tenderness toward her sister, and her excellent heart, see her through to happiness in the end; and there is happiness for Marianne, too, as Austen’s readers well know. These journeys of the heart, full of joy and sorrow, that hallmark Austen’s writing as well as the Little Flower’s quotes, appropriately underscore the feminine genius. {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} Pope Saint John Paul II  wrote in 1997, “First of all, Thérèse is a woman, who, in approaching the Gospel, knew how to grasp its hidden wealth with that practicality and deep resonance of life and wisdom which belong to the feminine genius.”  John Paul II also perceptively observed two years earlier that “women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts.” That is just what Austen’s protagonists do. Speaking of hearts, Thérèse encourages us: “Let us love, since that is all our hearts were made for.” And she knew well Who love is: “Jesus Christ alone is singularly to be loved, who alone is found good and faithful above all friends” (Story of a Soul). Returning to Miss Austen, the novelist’s prayers reveal a kinship to the Little Flower, too. Ponder as you pray my favorite excerpts of the British writer’s heartfelt petitions: Give us a thankful sense of the blessings in which we live, of the many comforts of our lot; that we may not deserve to lose them by discontent or indifference. We bless Thee for every comfort of our past and present existence, for our health of body and mind and for every other source of happiness which Thou hast bountifully bestowed on us and with which we close this day, imploring their continuance from  Thy Fatherly goodness, with a more grateful sense of them, than they have hitherto excited. May the comforts of every day, be thankfully felt by us, may they prompt a willing obedience of Thy commandments and a benevolent spirit toward every fellow-creature. Have mercy, O gracious Father, upon all that are now suffering from whatsoever cause, that are in any circumstance of danger or distress. Give them patience under every affliction, strengthen, comfort, and relieve them. Incline us, O God, to think humbly ourselves, to be severe only in the examination of our own conduct, to consider our fellow-creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity which we would desire from them ourselves. We thank Thee with all our hearts for every gracious dispensation, for all the blessings that have attended to our lives, for every hour of safety, healthy, and peace, of domestic comfort and innocent enjoyment. As we celebrate the Little Flower today, we can also recall the kindhearted leading ladies of Austen’s novels and Austen herself; these female examples, Saint and writer born almost 100 years apart, and fictional heroines, have much to teach us indeed. Author Bio: Amy Smith is the associate editor of the National Catholic Register and the author of The Plans God Has for You: Hopeful Lessons for Young Women. Amy spends her days drinking coffee while editing features; she likes to write about everything from hope and Saints (her favorites are Thérèse and Gianna) to Jane Austen—and she has talked about all of these topics on EWTN. You can find out more about her here.

Saint Jerome, the great biblical scholar, is probably most well known for his quote “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” St. Jerome translated the Bible into the Latin Vulgate in the late 4th century. He spent 23 years of his life in the Word, translating from Hebrew to Latin. Then he spent the rest of his life writing Biblical commentary on what he had spent so many years contemplating. He was thoroughly steeped in the Word, so much so that a quote attributed to Saint Augustine said, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known.” Recently, I was reading the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini by Pope Benedict XVI, and this quote from Saint Jerome pierced my heart:  We are reading the sacred Scriptures. For me, the Gospel is the Body of Christ; for me, the holy Scriptures are his teaching. And when he says: whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood (Jn 6:53), even though these words can also be understood of the [Eucharistic] Mystery, Christ’s body and blood are really the word of Scripture, God’s teaching. When we approach the [Eucharistic] Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the word of God, and God’s Word and Christ’s flesh and blood are being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed, what great peril should we not feel? I am most definitely troubled if the Eucharist falls to the ground. Yet do I have that same reverence for the Word of God I receive in Mass?  {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} This has become an examination of conscious-ness for me the last couple of months:  At Mass, do I listen to the Word of God?  Do I prepare to hear the Word of God as much as I prepare to receive the Word in the Eucharist?  When the readings are long or contain seemingly tedious details that don’t relate to my life today, what am I doing to turn my attention back to the Word?  When I am distracted in or by the homily, what am I doing to be attentive to the Word?  Am I (im)patiently waiting to “get through” the Liturgy of the Word to receive Jesus in the Liturgy of the Eucharist?  The Liturgy is the privileged setting to learn Scripture. Pope Benedict calls the Liturgy the “home of the Word.” He goes on to say:  The Word and Eucharist are so deeply bound together that we cannot understand one without the other: the word of God sacramentally takes flesh in the event of the Eucharist. The Eucharist opens us to an understanding of Scripture, just as Scripture for its part illumines and explains the mystery of the Eucharist. Unless we acknowledge the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist, our understanding of Scripture remains imperfect.  I think Saint Jerome would agree if we expanded on his quote: ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, and ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of the Eucharist. Those seemingly random or long or tedious readings that come along in the liturgical year? They can and do shine a light on His presence in the Eucharist. The Scripture verses we’ve heard time and again, that have seemingly lost its flavor to us? There is something new for us there too.  Saint Jerome spent twenty-three years translating Scripture. Being in the Word wasn’t a job, an assignment or a checklist to him. He was in the Word, day in, day out, contemplating meanings of individual words, phrases, and chapters. He prepared for his work by becoming a language scholar and studying with the best teachers of the time. He spent time in the “fifth gospel,” the Holy Land.  So he witnesses to us. We, too, are called to be in the Word. While most of us will not be scholars, we are called to be like Saint Jerome—studying Scripture, immersing ourselves in the Word, and praying through Scripture. It’s important that we also study with the best teachers of our times, like Saint Jerome did, not following whims or our own interpretations. Thankfully, there are so many beautiful resources for us to use to dive into the Word, starting right here. HIS WORD CHANGES LIVES God is speaking to you through His Word. In this personal study, you will learn to hear God's voice by reading slowly and praying deeply. BEGIN THE JOURNEY

This month, we’re celebrating 9 years of Blessed is She. It’s amazing to look at what the Lord has done through this sisterhood. When we pondered the best way to celebrate, the theme of friendship kept coming up. Thus was born the #LiturgyOfLetters! Intentionality in Friendship There is something so special (and powerful!) about sitting down and writing a friend a letter by hand. This is a labor of love that takes time! In a world of constant scrolling and social media, it can feel easier to just like a few images online and feel like we’re “connected”. How much more meaningful is it to receive something tangible from a friend that took the time to craft it and mail it to you? Even more so, to hear actual words from them about their life and the things they appreciate about you.  This is why we started the #LiturgyOfLetters this month—to celebrate true friendship that is willing to make the time to show people how much we really care. The Example of the Saints Letter writing has a sweet history in the Church. The New Testament is filled with letters written by Paul (and others) to the growing churches around the world. Even more, letter writing has been a beautiful part of the lives of many Saints! We gathered some of our favorite letters from Saints here. When you read with them, pray with the words inside. Consider them letters to your own heart. Then, let them encourage you to flood your own friends' mailboxes with similar encouragement, wisdom, prayer, and joy! Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Read her full letters to her sister Céline here. Saint Thérèse wrote a huge collection of letters to her little sister, Céline 🥹⁠ She pours into her sister with a heart on fire for Jesus. The way she shares her excitement, encouragement, sorrow, and prayer life with Céline — our hearts are bursting!!!⁠ We collected our favorite lines here. Saint Catherine of Siena Read Catherine’s full letters here. The diversity of Saint Catherine of Siena’s letters is so rich. She wrote to a variety of people, from personal friends to priests to royalty. Without fail, she pointed the recipients to virtue and holiness with so much grace. She started most of her letters with:⁠ "In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary,"⁠  Is that not what it's all about?!  We collected our favorite lines here. {formbuilder:OTk3ODc=} Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo  Read this full letter and the story behind it here. "The Lord has wanted you from eternity, and He will show you the road to follow if you open your heart. Trust Him. It is worth the while."⁠ It was hard to choose just a few favorite lines from this letter of Chiara Petrillo and her husband, Enrico. They wrote this to their son, Francesco, when he turned one, and it’s the sweetest thing.  What an example of speaking life into our families and friendships!  We collected our favorite lines here. Saint Clare of Assisi & Saint Agnes of Prague Read these letters and the story behind them here. In the 13th century, a humble princess named Agnes heard about a charitable religious sister named Clare. These two women, never meeting each other, wrote letters back and forth for over 19 years. These letters, hand carried by Franciscan Friars across Europe, are a beautiful witness to the power of holy friendship. They consistently called each other deeper into contemplation and love for Jesus.⁠ We’re sure that Heaven rejoiced at every word. We collected our favorite lines here. Build Each Other Up Our hope is that this practice of letter-writing doesn’t end here. Continue to carve out space to connect with your friends beyond the screen! Send snail mail to your long distance buddies and get a coffee date on the calendar with your local pals.  The effort we put into loving others well will always bear great fruit in our lives. It’s an honor to walk with you as friends here at Blessed is She. Here’s to many more years of friendship! “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” // 1 Thessalonians 5:11 P.S. the #LiturgyOfLetters includes a HUGE giveaway in collaboration with tons of our Christian small business friends. Write a letter to a friend, tag us in a photo of it, and be entered to win this massive box of goodies!    Cover photo from Jana Zuniga Pingel