Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life. From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. -Catechism of the Catholic Church 336 An Old Prayer Made New For as long as I can remember I prayed the Guardian Angel Prayer every morning. It’s a simple sentence that only takes a few seconds to say: Guardian angel, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule, to guide. Until recently, I prayed these words out of habit. Yet, after listening to a talk about angels by Dr. Mark Miravalle, a Professor of Theology and Mariology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, I have since prayed this prayer intentionally and lovingly. One of my daily goals is to foster a relationship—a friendship—with my guardian angel. Since making communication with my guardian angel a priority, the fruits have been beautiful, not only for me personally, but my entire family. I have such peace entrusting my son to his guardian angel each day and night. My heart is filled with joy in asking my guardian angel, and my husband’s, to protect our marriage. Guardian angels bring peace and joy. What Are Angels Like? In his book, Time To Meet The Angels, Dr. Miravalle writes that “Angels are created spiritual persons without bodies. They are pure spirits, created by God out of nothing as part of the wonder of divine creation. In the natural order, they are beings created with the closest possible image and likeness to God. Their principal goal is to glorify God and to act as messengers of God to us.” Guardian Angels: Specifically For You All nine choirs of angels were created by God to glorify Him. The ninth choir is where most of our guardian angels come from. Something very powerful to meditate on is that our guardian angels aren’t recycled. Meaning, after we die, our guardian angel isn’t assigned to another person. In fact, our guardian angel has been waiting for each one of us since creation! This shows God’s deep, unique, individualized love for us. A Gift From God Our guardian angels are a heavenly gift to us from God. Saint Bonaventure preached that they, “guard, comfort, and support humanity.” It is true that many aspects of our guardian angels remain a mystery to us, yet it is a beautiful opportunity to trust in Christ and the Church’s teachings, and place our confidence in these spirits who are aiding us on our journey to Heaven. A Holy Love God has given our guardian angels the knowledge necessary for our holiness. He has also given our guardian angels a love that resembles His love for us, a perfect love. That means that no human here on earth can or will know us or love us like our guardian angel knows and loves us! It is important for us to call upon our guardian angels each day, throughout the day. Our guardian angels will never leave our side, no matter how deeply we sin. It would be wise of us to ask their intercession in both the joys and sorrows of the day and request them to protect us from evil and keep us safe from harm. Fostering Friendship The Opus Angelorum Sanctorum, a spiritual movement within the Catholic Church that encourages devotion to our guardian angels, lists four ways we can foster a friendship with our guardian angels: Attend Mass and Adoration. Contemplate God, asking our guardian angels to help guide our thoughts and hearts. Ask our guardian angel to help us offer our daily sacrifices to God in reparation for sin. Ask guidance from our guardian angel within our vocation. Another way to grow closer to our guardian angels is through consecration. In the Great Jubilee Year 2000, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith officially approved this consecration prayer to our guardian angel. Whether it’s the simple guardian angel prayer memorized from childhood or a formal prayer of consecration, it is important to communicate to and entrust ourselves to our guardian angels. Turn to them always. Learn More About Guardian Angels Time To Meet The Angels by Mark Miravalle Opus Angelorum Sanctorum Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Section About Angels (Saint Thomas is known as the “Angelic Doctor” because of his work and teachings about the Angels in the Summa Theologiae.) The Catechism of the Catholic Church Works of Saint Bonaventure (Saint Bonaventure is referred to as the “Seraphic Doctor.”)   [bctt tweet="The Guardian Angels #BISblog //" username="findphilothea"]   This post contains affiliate links. Thanks so much for supporting the ministry of Blessed is She!

The year 2020 has been...a bit much. I'd venture to guess that most of us are weary and honestly, still trying to figure out what just happened. But there's always Good News: Jesus Christ is King, and no matter what each year brings, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And this year, even this year, the beautiful season of Advent is still coming. Jesus still saves the world. [bctt tweet="Jesus Christ is King, and no matter what each year brings, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. #BISblog #bisadvent // " via="no"]   Softening Our Hearts Many of our hearts have become calloused this year. Perhaps we've grown more cynical, hardening our hearts toward one another and, maybe, to the Lord. But He is the only One who can preserve, defend, and redeem us. But as grace is a gift, it must be received. And this Advent, we are invited to accept His grace, allow it to penetrate our souls, and soften our hearts. A Greater Reliance One fruit of this softening of our hearts is a greater reliance upon Jesus. Perhaps you're nearing the end of this year burnt out from making decisions, from wearing so many hats, from trying to safeguard yourself and those you love. Perhaps you've spent this year striving to save yourself and the whole world. You're not alone. Of course, we know that we cannot save ourselves. And that's why we're baking in burnout if we've tried. Only Jesus can save us. And while we know that Truth, sometimes our hearts forget. This Advent, be reminded that Jesus is the Savior. The 2020 Advent Devotional // Maranatha As we all venture toward living fully in the truth that Jesus is the only One Who can rescue us, we'd love to pray with you. This year, the Blessed is She Advent Devotional seeks to provide us with such encouragement and guidance. Maranatha: The Story of Our Savior is all about learning how Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecies and our pursuit of telling the world about this Savior. If you've ever doubted Who Jesus is or what He is capable of accomplishing on earth, this devotional is for you. If you've ever wondered how the Old and New Testaments are connected, this devotional is for you. If you're longing for space to contemplate God and speak to Him as a friend, this devotional is for you. The Story of Our Savior Through Advent, we will be reflecting on: Jesus' Incarnation and Jesus as the Messiah Jesus’ ministry and Jesus as the Shepherd The Cross and Jesus as Healer The call of evangelization and Jesus as the Way We know that every new thing learned about God is another reason to love Him. We're so excited to learn more about Him and love Him more alongside you. Get your Advent Devotional How to Use the Advent Devotional Each week, we will dive into Scripture. We will be given space to pray about how Jesus is the Savior of the world, and the Savior of each of us, personally. You can pray through the Advent Journal on your own, with a buddy, or with a small group. Our First Ever Kids' Advent Companion Devotional In addition to this year's Advent devotional, we are thrilled to offer our first ever companion devotional for kids! If your children, nieces or nephews, godchildren, or students are eager to pray by your side, snag a companion devotional for them. I am so excited about this devotional, and I know my kids will love spending our morning prayer time discussing similar passages and thoughts about Jesus. If you want to pick up a devotional for you and some for kids, you can snag them in a bundle here. Buy the Kid Journal The Advent Bundle Finally, if you want some additional prayer tools to accompany your Advent devotional, check out this year's Advent bundle. Along with the book, you'll receive an exclusive Rosary bracelet and ceramic candle. Personally, I love lighting a candle for my prayer time, and I cannot wait to use this one to help keep me focused on what matters most. Order the Advent 2020 Bundle This Advent, and forevermore, will you let Him be your Savior? Will you be praying through Maranatha with our Blessed is She community?   [bctt tweet="Advent is Still Coming, Jesus is Still the Savior #BISblog //" via="no"]

Before my freshman year, college was this great mythical story to me. My older sister would come home during the holidays with endless stories of her college experiences and they matched pretty well to all the stories I had heard about and seen on TV and in movies. So naturally, I thought: this must be what college life is like and I can’t escape it if I want to have fun and live my college life to the fullest! However, as a girl who wanted to actively try to live out the Gospel in her everyday life, this “traditional college experience” just did not match with what I wanted for my own life or my own college experience. I felt stuck. I felt like there was no possible way to have a relationship with God and to exist in a college atmosphere without feeling like I have to live two completely separate lives. How could I reconcile being the “Jesus girl” on campus with wanting a fun and memorable college adventure? Well, it was easier when I decided what I wanted to get out of university and what would strengthen my relationship with God. Having a Holy College Experience Here are some things to think about that might help you live out your own unique college adventure. Find Your Experience There is a weird pressure on college students to experience college a certain way. And if you don’t, then you’re doing it wrong or you’re not having fun! I'm the type of person who would rather have a game night, movie night, or a praise and worship night with a small group of friends rather than going to a big party with a lot of people—and that’s okay. It doesn’t make me boring and I never feel like I’m missing out on anything. First and foremost, you are at university to study and learn. After that, you can choose what to do in your free time since you can choose the experience you want to have at university. Let me tell you, there is no such thing as one college experience and don’t let anyone try and convince you that there is. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to have one specific college experience in order to have fun! Make Some Like-Minded Friends Look into Welcome Week events! It might be intimidating to meet new people, but chances are they are just as nervous as you are to make a new friend. Walk into your lecture (or into your Zoom call, thanks Covid). See that person over there? Talk to them! Introduce yourself! Your best option would probably be to find your college chaplaincy and go to their events! Find out if they have Mass on campus or if there is a local church where fellow Catholics on campus go to Mass. I, for one, met one of my college best friends through my chaplaincy! They were hosting a movie night and they were showing the saint story of Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio. I cried. She cried. We were best friends instantly (and still are to this day), and Saint Jose is still my favorite Saint! This is not to say that you can’t have friends who are different than you (it’s actually encouraged); but when you have some close friends who are like-minded and strive for the same things that you do, you can relate to them in a way you may not with your other friends. Be Convicted How do you stay convicted in anything? It has to be a choice. You have to actively choose each and every single day to want to live a life in Christ. What does that practically look like? 1. Establish a consistent prayer life. Make time in your day to talk to God. Ask Him what He wants for your life. Ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to choose God every day and to be convicted in that choice. 2. Read the Bible. There are many women in the Bible to whom we can turn to for examples of pure, unwavering faith in our Lord and their choice to live that out (Ruth, Our Blessed Mother, etc.). 3. Read about the lives of the Saints. Saint Joan of Arc, Saint Maria Goretti, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Cecilia...the list goes on and on! All these amazing women who lived before us lived uniquely faithful lives and can be a great example of conviction for us today. 4. Receive the sacraments regularly. They provide us with strength through the graces we receive in order to live a Christ-centered life. Who is Setting the Expectation? There are so many voices telling us so many different things, but in the end, we know only One voice matters: the voice of God. Now is the time to foster the skill of hearing God’s voice through prayer. Be convicted in what you believe even when the world tells you the opposite. Four years later, I'm currently in my senior year. Did I have what some would consider the traditional college experience? Nope. Would I change it? Not for anything! So have your college adventure. It will be a beautiful part of your story! Take this season of life and live it out uniquely to your fullness. What was your college experience like?   [bctt tweet="The "College Experience"? #BISblog //" via="no"]   Written by Samantha Cameron. Find out more about her here.

Shock. Anger. Gutted. Disbelief. I will never forget how those emotions seared through my body in the course of seconds when I discovered I lost my job. To say I was blindsided would be an understatement. I was working at a Catholic school, had won Teacher of the Month, planned successful field trips, wrote dozens of letters of recommendation, increased ACT and SAT scores, was a TEAM Lead, earned almost perfect scores on my teaching evaluations, and my contract was still not renewed, with no real explanation as to why. Fighting the Embarrassment of Job Loss Over the next months, I kept the news to myself and my immediate family. I was overwhelmed with embarrassment and disappointment. I couldn’t bear to tell my coworkers, my friends, or my students out of fear that they would judge me and ask what I did wrong. Because the truth was, I didn’t know. So I let the unknown, self-doubt, and self-deprecation eat me alive. I kept the tidal wave of emotions inside, letting them continue to fester almost every part of me. I tried to figure out where I went wrong, trying to determine what I could’ve done better. I began to let this questioning and fear for my future turn me into a person I didn’t even recognize. For five years, my job was my identity, and here I was, at a crossroads, not knowing what I wanted to become. Turning to Him It was also during this time I begrudgingly turned to God. Though I went to Him in prayer, I found myself also questioning this path He was putting me on. Why was God punishing me? What did I do wrong in His eyes? I would sit at the altar, frustrated, during Adoration or quiet prayer, and I let Him have it. During those moments of silence, I let go and gave it to God. The beauty was that He let me. He let me cry and He provided comfort in ways I couldn’t even begin to fathom. While it was difficult at times to hear Him or accept His comfort, I used prayer to really focus on what He had to say to me and learned how to open my heart to listen to Him better than I ever have before. During these moments, I experienced tremendous growth and prepared my heart for the next season of my life. And was even more prepared for when I lost another job this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaining Through Loss Without a doubt, losing a job causes us to lose a part of ourselves. Often, our jobs becomes part of our identity and cause us to shape who we are as a person. As someone who has lost two jobs in one year, I know how this time feels inescapable. It consumes us in ways that those who have never lost a job will never understand. It leaves scars on our hearts for years to come. With that said, I can tell that this time will pass. God opens the doors to something even more beautiful than you could imagine if you just adjust your focus from what you lost to what you can gain for this trying situation. Looking back at this last year, I can very easily list all the things I lost when I was laid off: my students, incredible coworkers, a sense of self, and confidence. While it is easy to harp on the negative, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also name all of the things I gained during this time of true emotional turmoil. What I Would Have Missed Though it was hard in the moment, God brought me immense blessings during this time. He showed me my true resilience, grace, and fortitude. He forced me to depend on others to help me through, instead of always keeping it all inside and to myself. He did this through my friends and introduced me to the man I am going to marry. He knew that this road would be hard, so He placed people in my life that would help me on this journey. Therefore, I challenge you, sisters, that even though this time has you focusing on all that you lost, whether it be money, sense of self, confidence, or friends, focus on the fact that God has you. It might not feel like it now, and honestly, it might not feel like it for a while, but He is placing things before you that will prepare you for the next chapter. During this time, I encourage you to write down at least three ways God has blessed you each day. The biggest struggle when losing a job is taking our focus away from negative and shifting it towards acknowledging the true blessings God has placed before us. [bctt tweet="He is placing things before you that will prepare you for the next chapter. #BISblog //" via="no"] WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Listen to Him The beauty of losing a job—yes, I said that—is the unknown. While the unknown is terrifying, it also allows us to truly reflect on His plan for us. Use this time to pray with God on what is supposed to happen next. Maybe you’ve wanted to change careers, and this is the kickstart you didn’t know you needed. Maybe you’ve wanted to move for a while, and now is your chance to look at a map and go! I found it incredibly helpful during my many emotional moments to just chant or sing in my head, “Jesus, I trust in You,” and it helped to calm the storm at bay. Be Kind to Yourself As you are reflecting and praying about where God will lead you, it’s vital to be kind to ourselves. It is easy to rip ourselves apart, but the beauty of this time is to allow ourselves grace and truly reflect on what we did right. Even though we lost our jobs, we were hired for our gifts and our potential. We were not hired to be fired. We were hired to grow. Even though our period of growth is ending at our current place of work, that does not mean our overall growth should be stunted. Use this time to focus on what you do well (because you did, don’t let any feelings tell you differently) and how that can contribute to your next venture. We can only do this if we listen to God and turn to Him, no matter how we are feeling. You've Got This I will be the first to say that the storm of job loss is tough to navigate. The beauty of every storm is the calmness and beauty it brings upon its conclusion. Sisters, allow yourself grace and kindness during this storm. Open your heart to God and where He is calling you to go next. Be open to new opportunities, seasons of life, help from others, and how you can use your gifts to help this world. Once the storm passes, there might be debris that still follows you, but God will not allow it to weigh you down or prevent you from moving forward. You've got this because God has you, in the palm of His hand. Has anyone else weathered the storm of job loss? What was your experience like? How did the Lord help you heal and see His plan with fresh eyes?   [bctt tweet="The Beauty I Found in Job Loss #BISblog //" via="no"]   Written by Danielle Sanok.

God's mercy upon them is extraordinary. // Saint Faustina Love this beautiful print from Leah of Fearfully Made. Let His word dwell in us richly, sisters. Remember, Members, you get this 8x10 digital download for free! Head to the shop for your download. Download your F R E E wallpapers right here --->>> Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

Picture the cringe-worthy bosses depicted in A Christmas Carol or The Devil Wears Prada. Scrooge and Miranda criticize, demand, and exact time and effort from their employees all the while belittling them, with very little acknowledgement of their efforts or lives outside of the office. To work for these kinds of leaders is to be made very aware of your contributions as valued less than others, to say the least. Interestingly, there are few movies about great bosses. But there are many about great mentors. Thankfully, these mentors can be found in a variety of roles: teachers, coaches, neighbors, etc. Compare previously-mentioned leadership styles to the warm, mentoring roles of August Boatright in The Secret Life of Bees or Sean McGuire of Goodwill Hunting where the flailing protagonists are confused by being treated with respect, dignity, accountability, honesty, and genuine concern. They are challenged and supported through difficult circumstances, and they come out better for it, if not a little bewildered. Maybe you have experienced the tutelage of folks in either of these roles…and there is a chasm between them. We know who we would prefer to work for. To Serve, Not to Be Served Think of a time when you have observed someone in leadership who has a strong rapport with those they oversee, or perhaps when you as leader have had this experience. This sort of bond tends not to happen in positions of strict authority, but within a shared goal or mission. Often it happens in organizations where management regularly takes shifts with all other employees, or when professors ask students the names of janitorial staff on their mid-term exams. It happens when leaders pay attention. Servant Leadership Means Being Attentive First and foremost, we see Jesus as a model servant leader whom we are to emulate. Let’s look at a few instances when Jesus recognizes what is happening around Him as an opportunity to teach, without having to be the sole instructor. // The Widow’s mite. Jesus doesn’t just tell about what generous giving looks like. In His servanthood, He teaches by holding up the example of those who are getting it right (Luke 21:1-4). // Turning Water into wine. Although He tells Mary His time has not yet come, Jesus’ first miracle occurs at the Wedding at Cana when He turns water into wine (John 2: 1-12). // When Jesus gets into Simon’s fishing boat and instructs him to cast again. Jesus could have taken over and brought in the haul Himself. Instead, He leaves it to the professionals and allows their savvy to speak to the miracle that it is. (Luke 5:4) The Gospels are full of encounters and parables where Jesus, the Teacher, allows His instruction to happen by those who do not share His station, but whose presence and dignity He chooses to honor. He is not threatened by their gifts (or faults). Servant leadership is part of Jesus’ very nature—and it is one we’re called to as well. What are the Needs? Servant leadership means leading with a good read on (and high regard for) the needs of those most impacted by the practices of an organization. Traditionally, this is will mean employees. However it also means paying attention to the needs of employees’ families. It means asking questions about the impact (positive or negative) that an organization has on a local community, the environment, etc. In a different context, it means knowing the needs of your children or neighbors and proceeding about your business with honoring those needs. This could mean not mowing your lawn in the morning while your neighbor who works the night shift is trying to sleep. It might also mean having a solid routine for your kiddo who needs structure, or park time for kids with pent-up energy after school. Often Servant Leadership Means Delegation Those who serve with the heart of a servant are not intimidated by calling upon the gifts of others, but calling them out and calling them up while providing resources and encouragement for others to do so. Have you ever seen yourself in the role of a leader? We don’t have to be CEOs or Executive Directors to put this into practice (although certainly if you are in one of these positions you wield tremendous potential). What about your role coordinating the food drive at school, directing the Sunday school Christmas pageant, hosting a new parishioner dinner, coordinating carpools/homeschool/virtual learning this year? The point is, we are each called to variety of leadership roles over the course of a week and lifetime. Taking the pressure off of ourselves as the one "in charge" can be a game changer in terms of leading and can make for a much more collaborative, growing experience for all involved. Every school, family, parish and organization stands to benefit from more leaders in this sense. Give Your Servant a Listening Heart What we can all do: Be humble Continually develop and lead with our God-given gifts Call upon and foster the gifts we see in others Give credit where credit is due How does the approach of leading like Christ change the pressure of being in charge? [bctt tweet="Servant Leadership #BISblog //" via="no"]

Padre Pio said that, “Once I take on a soul, I also take on the entire family as my spiritual children.” I know this to be true. My son has always been drawn to him and that devotion has only continued to grow. When asked who his favorite Saint is, he always says, “Padre Pio!” My son’s devotion to this great Saint has encouraged our family to take him on as our patron. Spiritual Children Even though I had gone on a pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo, I was never naturally drawn to Saint Padre Pio. In fact, I was intimidated by him! A man who bore Christ’s wounds in the Stigmata, could bilocate, read souls in the confessional, and is now incorrupt seemed too great of a Saint for me to even approach. It was my son, who was born almost a decade after my pilgrimage, who taught me, through his pure, child-like confidence, to ask Saint Pio’s intercession with joy and trust. Since doing so, my life has truly transformed. Do Not Be Afraid My son helped me understand a beautiful lesson: never be afraid or intimidated by the holiness of the Saints. Approach them with confidence and love. There are so many graces available to us when we ask for their intercession. Fear is not of God and all that the Saints desire is for us to be in Heaven with them, glorifying God beside them for eternity. They have all struggled, they have all sinned. They know that the remedy of sin is Jesus Christ. Their lives, their witness, always encourage and point to Him, our salvation. The Communion of Saints Because of our son, and now our own devotion, we have filled our home with images of Saint Padre Pio and we are learning more about him through books and film. We have venerated his relics at a chapel close to our home and ask his intercession each day, throughout the day. His words have given us such comfort, as well as the many miracle stories that we continue to read about him! A Saint of Our Time Francesco Forgione (Padre Pio) is a Saint of our time, born during the late 19th century in Italy. His parents were devout Catholic peasant farmers. Francesco was a devout child and dedicated his life to Christ at a young age. Francesco entered the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in Morcone, Italy, where he took the name Pio. Pio finally became a priest, after years of study, filled with illness and frequent spiritual warfare. Saint Pio served briefly during WWI, yet because of his poor health was discharged twice. After his permanent military discharge in 1918, Padre Pio moved to Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo. It was there that Padre Pio started a medical clinic for the poor, a place that now serves as one of the greatest research hospitals in Europe. Saint Pio’s greatest joys were offering the Sacrament of Mass and Confession. He, like all the great Saints, loved Our Lady and encouraged devotion to her. On September 23rd, 1968, Padre Pio died. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II, the pope he had met and offered Confession to decades prior, in June 2002. Miracles continue to occur through his intercession. Words From Padre Pio // “Fear nothing. Jesus is and will always be totally yours, and nobody will take him from you. Do not allow yourself to be overcome by discouragement if you don’t always visibly see your every effort crowned. Jesus sees, rewards, and commands good will and not good success, because the latter does not depend on human efforts and work.” // “Place all your cares in Him alone, because He has very great care of you.” // “Don’t be discouraged if you experience spiritual dryness. This does not mean that the Lord has abandoned you. All that is happening in your soul is due to the exquisiteness of Jesus’ love for you. He wants you entirely for Himself, He wants you to place all your trust and all your affection in Him alone, and it is precisely for this reason that He sends you this spiritual aridity, to unite you more closely to Him, to rid you of certain little attachments which do not appear as such to us and which, in many cases, we do not even recognize or detect.” // “How happy are those souls who live by faith; who adore the holy plan of God in everything.” // “Try as best you can, without excessive anxiety, to do what you must and wish to do with perfection. But once it is done, think no more about it, but rather attend only to what you must and want to do or to what you are doing. Walk with simplicity in the ways of the Lord and do not torment your spirit.” // “Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart.” // “O daughter of little faith, I also repeat to you with the divine Master, Why are you afraid? No, do not fear; you are walking on the sea amid the wind and waves, but be sure that you are with Jesus. What is there to fear? But if fear takes you by surprise, you too shout loudly: “O Lord, save me!” He will stretch out His hand to you; and this hand is precisely that tenuous ray of trust in Him which you feel in the depths of your soul. Squeeze His hand tightly and walk joyfully, at least in the apex of your soul.” A Prayer Written By Padre Pio Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You. Stay with me Lord, because I am weak, and I need Your strength, so that I may not fall so often. Stay with me Lord, for You are my life, and without You, I am without fervor. Stay with me Lord, for You are my light, and without you, I am in darkness. Stay with me Lord, to show me Your will. Stay with me Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You. Stay with me Lord, for I desire to love you very much, and always be in Your company. Stay with me Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You. Stay with me Lord, for as poor as my soul is, I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love. Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late, and the day is coming to a close, and life passes, death, judgment, eternity approach. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches. I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile. Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You. Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart. Stay with me Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to you, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love. Stay with me Jesus, I do not ask for divine consolation because I do not merit it, but the gift of Your presence, oh yes, I ask this of You. Stay with me Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more. With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen. Here For Us Saint Padre Pio suffered not only physically, but also spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. We each have a cross and the Saints, like Christ, help us in our suffering. The intercession of the Saints is powerful. Call upon Saint Padre Pio to be with you in both your joys and suffering. And rest in knowing that you are never alone, you are surrounded by a communion of Saints, a communion of grace. Are you a spiritual child of Padre Pio? What will you entrust to him today? [bctt tweet="Be a Spiritual Child of Padre Pio #BISblog //" username="findphilothea"]

Then Peter approaching asked him, 'Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.’ -Matthew 18:21-22 What sin do you think Peter was thinking of when he approached the Lord with this question? Perhaps it was a recent conflict and he came to Jesus right away, his heart stinging with the pain of a recent offense. Or maybe it was an older wound, one numbed by the passage of time, but still gnawing at him, no matter how hard he tried to move forward. Surely, he had already tried to forgive, but now, seven times later, he had grown weary. “I don’t want to forgive anymore,” he must have thought. A Merciful Heart I have felt the same way. I am quickly offended. I hold tightly to grudges. I avoid conflict, but when it finds me, I am painfully slow to forgive. I, with Saint Peter, often wish Jesus has responded with, “Yes, seven times is more than enough.” But that is not Who our Lord is. That is not how He forgives us, and so that is not how He asks us to forgive others. Love and Mercy Itself Jesus revealed to Saint Faustina: My daughter, do you think you have written enough about My mercy? What you have written is but a drop compared to the ocean. I am Love and Mercy Itself. There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy, neither will mercy exhaust it, because as it is being granted—it increases. The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I Myself take care of it. Just as we turn to Jesus, Love Incarnate, with our needs to love more completely, we turn to Him Who is Mercy Itself to cultivate more merciful hearts. Here are a few ways we might increase our devotion to His mercy, and, in turn, ask Him to help us reflect that mercy to the world. Learn about His Mercy Showing mercy is impossible if we do not know what mercy is. Along with praying, asking God for the grace to understand His mercy more deeply, explore the resources of the Church. Saint Faustina’s diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, is a perfect starting point. Don’t let the page count intimidate you; since the book is divided into numbered paragraphs, it’s incredibly easy to digest piece by piece, meditating on just a paragraph or two at a time. Pope Saint John Paul II has also written and preached extensively about Divine Mercy, including in his encyclical Dives in Misericordia. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet My favorite thing about the Rosary is that it gives me a prayer to say when words fail me. It may be because I am too tired, too overwhelmed, too anxious, or even simply too distracted to speak to the Lord from my heart, in my own words. The Rosary gives me exactly what I need and what I can never pray for enough. Likewise, the Divine Mercy Chaplet is a gift from God, revealed to Saint Faustina, to give us a prayer for mercy—on us and on the whole world. I believe this encompasses the mercy we show to others as Jesus’ disciples, His hands and feet on earth. The Chaplet is short, easy to remember, and beautifully meditative. Find instructions on how to pray it in this post. WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Practice Forgiveness for Small Offenses Mercy is like a muscle. We can hardly expect to be merciful in the face of big, painful moments when we struggle to show it in small annoyances or inconveniences. To strengthen your ability to show mercy, make a point to practice it often. When we open our eyes to look for them, we quickly realize that opportunities abound in our daily lives! Take a deep breath and offer a prayer when you’re cut off on the highway. Complete an undone chore in your house with joy, giving the person who neglected to do it the benefit of the doubt. Let go of an overly harsh word, a sarcastic remark, a mean-spirited comment. Working this muscle means that when a situation that is truly difficult to forgive occurs, your mind and heart are better poised to handle it well. [bctt tweet="Mercy is like a muscle. We can hardly expect to be merciful in the face of big, painful moments when we struggle to show it in small annoyances or inconveniences. #BISblog //" username="lisajanelkirk"] Consecrate Ourselves to Divine Mercy To truly immerse yourself in the message and promises of Jesus’ mercy, consider making an act of consecration to Divine Mercy. Father Michael Gaitley authored a beautiful devotional entitled 33 Days to Merciful Love as an easy way for people to do exactly that. In a few brief pages per day, he walks the reader through a preparation for consecration to Divine Mercy, inspired by St. Therese of Lisieux’s Offering to Merciful Love. Each time I’ve completed a “do-it-yourself retreat” by praying through the book, I have come away with a deeper understanding of Christ and what it means to both accept His mercy and show it to others. Go to Confession Have you ever felt as though there was a physical roadblock keeping you from full forgiveness? There very well may be: our own sin. We can best show mercy when we ourselves are filled with it. Carefully examine your conscience and make a good Confession. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a gift to us. It exists so that we can be freed from the chains of our sins through grace, and go forth into our lives with greater virtue—including that of mercy. Endless Mercy Showing mercy and forgiveness can truly be one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian life. If it is something you’re struggling with right now, do not be discouraged. Human mercy may run dry, but Divine Mercy never does. Jesus will not refuse our prayers when we ask Him to help us be more merciful. [bctt tweet="Human mercy may run dry, but Divine Mercy never does. #BISblog //" username="lisajanelkirk"]   Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.   [bctt tweet="Cultivating a Merciful Heart #BISblog //" username="lisajanelkirk"]   This post contains affiliate links. Thanks so much for supporting the ministry of Blessed is She!

Welcome to our first Blessed Chats series! Each month, we will dedicate an entire week of blog posts to a topic that affects many of us. These conversations often come up in our Facebook groups and in our real life friendships. We want to share a variety of perspectives on the topic at hand, so we've asked women to share their stories and how the teachings of the Church have guided and comforted them. In this first series, we're talking all about fertility. We'd love for you to join the conversation! I can honestly say that I’ve never taken a pregnancy test and gotten a positive result that was not a complete surprise. The first pregnancies shook up my world in a jumble of chaos that inevitably comes with new motherhood. I found myself very quickly with three babies under the age of three! I was overwhelmed of course, but I did have a supportive husband, stable life circumstances, and family support. I bobbed along the ocean of baby needs for those three years, knowing that these babies were meant to be because my husband and I had been trying our hardest to learn and practice NFP to postpone pregnancies. I was working with a very knowledgeable NFP teacher who was regularly going over my charts, teaching me about the variables of women's cycles, and encouraging me that what appeared to be indecipherable would one day become clear. To the Brink And then I became pregnant for the fourth time—completely unexpectedly and while following all the NFP rules—when my youngest child was 14 months old. Not only was I overwhelmed but completely emotionally exhausted. I felt like I couldn’t possibly be happy about another unexpected pregnancy. Processing bringing another life into the world by experiencing feelings of being completely out of control of my body, my life, and my family was all-encompassing. Practicing NFP and having any amount of trust that I would not spend my entire fertile years always pregnant felt hopeless. My fourth child was born safe and healthy, thanks be to God, but six short months later I was again pregnant when the chances of conception seemed beyond slim. I was at my breaking point emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. My marriage felt as if it was on a brink, and the daily work of keeping four very small children alive while pregnant felt crushing. Making Choices My husband and I were going to have to make some hard choices. It was more than apparent through my charting and various medical testing that I had undetermined health issues that were affecting my cycles and the ability to effectively identify times of fertility. The upending hormonal cycles of pregnancy, postpartum, and breastfeeding for the past six years was making any clarity impossible to determine. Without some spacing between pregnancies my hormonal challenges and charting would remain difficult if not impossible to understand. Another pregnancy honestly felt like it could end either our marriage, my mental and physical health, or our family life. The stakes felt astronomical. The stakes were not just every part of our lives as a married couple but also our Faith. Every one of us knows that the option for birth control in its myriad forms is easily available at any time. But it was even easier to find people who told me that the choice of birth control was totally warranted in my situation. I was told it was no big deal, I had had enough kids, sex was important to keep a marriage together! The Teaching is Purposeful But the Church’s teaching on birth control is not an arbitrary teaching because old guys in the Vatican were mad about the sexual revolution. The Church’s teaching on birth control is wise and true because it reflects the importance of sex, the dignity of each spouse, and of course, the importance of the process that creates a new human life. Yes, the position I was in was extremely hard, but no matter where I looked in Scripture or the Catechism, I could not find a clause stating that when circumstances got difficult and hard choices and sacrifices were required, someone could stop adhering to the teaching they know to be true. Actually, Christ calls us precisely to do difficult, sacrificial, and hard things. The fact that my difficulty was found in marriage, sex, and family planning was not a good enough reason to choose to deny the Faith I professed. [bctt tweet="Nowhere in Scripture or the Catechism does it state that when circumstances get difficult and hard choices and sacrifices are required, someone can stop adhering to the teaching they know to be true. #blessedchats //" via="no"] WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Long-Term Abstinence The difficult decision my husband and I had to make was to abstain within marriage until we could understand what was going on with my body enough to practice NFP again with a reasonable amount of confidence. We made the choice together, with the support of a faithful priest and spiritual director, and it was a choice we continued to make for over two years. It was never easy. It caused frustration and pain. It was a decision that demanded we seek healing and confront disordered ways of relating to each other and made us have a lot of difficult conversations we otherwise could have ignored for years. We knew we were making a huge sacrifice by choosing abstinence because it was difficult on a daily basis! But we also knew that this mutual sacrifice was being done for the sake of our respective mental health, for the future of our marriage, for our current family which required so much of our time, attention, and presence, and ultimately for our souls. We loved each other enough that we were willing to make such a large sacrifice because we didn’t want the other to jeopardize their soul by using birth control. The Virtue of Chastity in Marriage This is what chastity lived out in marriage can look like. As Catholics we need to recognize that the virtue of chastity is a call for every person. Chastity is not simply for single people: it is the call of priests and religious, people with same-sex attraction, and people who are married. We don’t get to abandon a virtue simply because we get married. The Church is calling us no matter our vocation to integrate our sexuality properly to our stage of life. [bctt tweet="The virtue of chastity is a call for every person. #BISblog #blessedchats //" via="no"] NFP can be difficult to practice because there are many seasons of married life that can require abstinence, my experience is just one of them. My experience of married life is unique just as yours is unique, but what remains the same for all of us is the fact that marriage and the rest of our lives call us to growth in chastity because that is a part of growing in holiness. A Lifelong Journey to Growth in Holiness and Marriage NFP for me today looks like continuing to chart daily, continuing to work with doctors and NFP professionals, continuing to watch my health, and taking medication. I’m still happily married and we still have to have many difficult conversations about our sex life. We are still guided by God’s plan for our family while our youngest child is now seven. I haven’t arrived at a magical and unrealistic place where charting is unnecessary and sex can happen anytime I want; that is not the goal of NFP, marriage, or chastity. I’m still firmly on the road of practicing natural family planning not because it’s easy or fun but because it’s part of what practicing chastity looks like in my marriage. And if we’re called to the vocation of marriage, we need to recognize that it will be through marriage that we will be purified and made holy through the practice of all the virtues. How has practicing the difficult parts of NFP helped you grow in virtue? Please share your story with us in the comments below! If you want more help with finding your own story, our popular Write + Pray course offers 9 topics, nearly an hour of guided video, and almost 50 Scripture verses and questions for you featuring Managing Editor Nell O'Leary. Find your story today.   [bctt tweet="Blessed Chats: Fertility // An Honest Post about NFP #BISblog #blessedchats //" via="no"]

Welcome to our first Blessed Chats series! Each month, we will dedicate an entire week of blog posts to a topic that affects many of us. These conversations often come up in our Facebook groups and in our real life friendships. We want to share a variety of perspectives on the topic at hand, so we've asked women to share their stories and how the teachings of the Church have guided and comforted them. In this first series, we're talking all about fertility. We'd love for you to join the conversation! I married my husband at the age of twenty-five. We knew that he would work, I would stay home, and we’d have five babies, one every two or three years. We would live happily ever after. The End. Obviously it would all work out this way. We were repeatedly assured by everyone in the Catholic Natural Family Planning (NFP) world that this is exactly what could and would happen. Yes, there were some rules we’d have to follow, but NFP was easy! So easy! And we were so naive. The Babies Just Kept Coming We started our marriage with the sympto-thermal method and it worked well. We successfully used the combination of taking my morning temperature and recording my mucous signs to achieve the pregnancy of our first child, avoid pregnancy after his miscarriage, and then again achieve pregnancy when we were ready to try again. Postpartum charting with my first-born was difficult, but we were repeatedly assured that the on-demand nursing and no use of bottles or pacis meant my fertility would be successfully suppressed. It wasn’t long before a positive pregnancy test proved that while ecological breastfeeding worked for some, it did not work for my body. And the babies just kept coming. We looked into other methods, even meeting with different practitioners, but the prices and attitudes we encountered left us feeling like we had no options. We were barely living paycheck to paycheck and could not afford to spend hundreds of dollars on special monitors or sticker charts. And the comments we received about the number and spacing of our children by pro-life, Catholic, NFP teachers were belittling and hurtful. WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Abstinence By the time we had our fifth baby in five years and we were in a tough spot. My whole family suffered through my undiagnosed postpartum anxiety and depression, which had become worse with each year. Things had to change and so we took two huge steps. First, I started medication—which was life-changing! Second, we went an entire year without sex. For the first six months I didn’t even chart because we didn’t want to be tempted to even think I was safely in phase III. When our baby turned seven months my cycles returned and I began observing my mucous again, but it took many more months before we felt confident in charting. And then I got sick, took a prescription medicine, forgot how meds can mess with a woman’s fertility, and got pregnant. The Missing Piece It was hard. That year of abstinence had been incredibly difficult. We barely touched, our communication struggled, and tension and fear reigned in our bedroom. People either disrespected our religious views and told us to contracept or patronizingly told us that all our problems would be fixed if we would just try X method of NFP. There was no empathy, no understanding. Only isolation. We knew we had very legitimate reasons to not get pregnant and we knew the only way we could guarantee not getting pregnant was full abstinence, but spiritually we were not mature enough to know how to go through the suffering. We felt like we were sinking. I often found myself crying out the prophet Jeremiah’s prayer, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped!” We both were angry that following the rules had not worked and we resented the Church’s teachings. Additionally, my husband was having a very difficult time with the pressure and fear of another mouth to feed, another season of PPD, another potentially terrifying birth experience. Babies should enter the world with joy, but this one entered with fear and anger and it was heart-breaking. Obedience But even in our bitterness we never turned away from the Lord. At times the only thing we could offer God was our obedience. At times we could only pray, “I believe, help my unbelief.” It took a long time before we saw it—surely over a year—but Christ had entered into our angst and brought healing. My husband and I used prolonged abstinence again, but this time we prayed together. We took the whole family to Adoration. When the kids went to bed we drank wine and played board games. We talked openly about how hard the previous years had been and how scared my husband had been watching me suffer in deliveries. We also formed close friendships with several couples who also love Jesus, are happily married, and practice NFP. We were not alone, and there was so much grace in that. [bctt tweet="We were not alone, and there was so much grace in that. #BISblog #blessedchats //" via="no"] Acceptance God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, allowed us the cross of hyperfertility. We very sincerely wanted to carry the cross that God gave us, but, like St. Paul, we were also kicking against the goad (Acts 26:14). The yoke never felt easy, nor the burden light, because we were fighting it. In the end, we had to accept some truths: God does not promise us all the sex all the time, nor even most of the sex most of the time. Sex is not necessary for a good and happy marriage. The Church asks us to abstain at times and God allows us to suffer but only because Jesus Christ has made all things new. If I expect divorced people, priests and religious, and men and women with same-sex attraction to follow the Church’s teachings on marriage, sex, and chastity then I better have the same standard for myself. Promoters of NFP had not been intentionally dishonest to us, but they were never really talking to us. The information we were given was for couples with normal fertility or infertility. We needed to forgive and move on. Joy When our next surprise pregnancy came I smiled. No, I beamed as I touched my womb and told my baby how much I loved her. I blessed the Lord with my whole heart. I was nervous to tell my husband, not sure of his reaction, but when he heard he laughed with joy. The news of our eighth baby brought the same reactions. Joy. Peace. Gratefulness. Who else experiences hyperfertility? Please share your story with us in the comments below! If you want more help with finding your own story, our popular Write + Pray course offers 9 topics, nearly an hour of guided video, and almost 50 Scripture verses and questions for you featuring Managing Editor Nell O'Leary. Find your story today.   [bctt tweet="Blessed Chats: Fertility // Hyperfertility #BISblog #blessedchats" via="no"]

Welcome to our first Blessed Chats series! Each month, we will dedicate an entire week of blog posts to a topic that affects many of us. These conversations often come up in our Facebook groups and in our real life friendships. We want to share a variety of perspectives on the topic at hand, so we've asked women to share their stories and how the teachings of the Church have guided and comforted them. In this first series, we're talking all about fertility. We'd love for you to join the conversation! There I was, sitting on the bathroom floor staring at two little pink lines. My heart was pounding, I could feel my blood pulsing in my ears, and I could not breathe. I walked over to the foot of my bed where my husband was waiting. I sat down next to him and broke down in sobs—gut-wrenching, cannot-catch-my-breath sobs. He held me and rocked us back and forth. His face was nuzzled in my hair and he was whispering that everything was going to be okay and that we are blessed and that we will manage everything together as always. But I could not see it that way. Truthfully, I was terrified. Terrified at a future I found overwhelming, terrified at being unprepared, terrified of the unknowns and the what-ifs, and mostly, terrified that none of this was planned. Finally Saying Yes I am a planner. I am an organizer. I live comfortably in the known zone. You’ll find me with my calendar and planner, filling out every moment of my schedule. I’ve lived by spread sheets and timelines and to-do lists and checkboxes. And it worked for me—or so I thought. If you have lived like I have, planning every moment, day, week, and year, you will find that anything that does not go according to plan completely throws you off balance. And here I was, completely spinning. When my second child was born, I felt a pull by the Holy Spirit to change my mindset on contraception. Like all other aspects of my life, I was trying to control something so innately feminine and precious about me—my own fertility. My Journey to NFP It started when I was around seventeen years old. I had been experiencing excruciating menstrual cramps in high school, sometimes to the point of fainting. And when seeking help from my doctor, I was placed on hormonal birth control. Like so many other women, instead of trying to figure out the root of my pain, I was given a bandaid. I took hormonal birth control every day, set to my alarm, for years. When preparing for marriage to my college sweetheart, I finally learned about Natural Family Planning (NFP). I am a cradle Catholic but I had never understood what NFP meant for my fertility and for my future marriage. I thought it was another thing to checkoff during my marriage preparation. I learned about my temperatures and mucus, but ultimately, I did not think I would need the information. I did not understand on any real level what contraceptives would mean for my marriage or my saying yes to God’s plan over my own. My Plan. Not His. And while I never actively decided to reject the plans of God for myself, I definitely did not allow them to guide me in my daily decisions. I lived in ignorance. Was I faith-filled? Yes. Did I love God? Absolutely. But did I live a prideful and selfish life? Completely. I decided exactly when I wanted to have my first child. I stopped the contraceptive and got pregnant the next cycle. My plan. Not His. After I gave birth, I started the contraceptives right back up again. My plan. Not His. [elementor-template id="415212"] A Yes that Led to More Yeses But in 2014, something changed. God brought something into my life that completely changed my entire way of thinking. It changed everything. And that something was Blessed is She. One day, I saw a message that would change my life. “Are you a Catholic woman interested in this writing project I have in mind?” I thought, I am Catholic. I write a blog. I am interested. And my involvement in this life-changing ministry was born. I was a new mom, a dental student, and a wife trying to navigate a world that felt lonely and incompatible with my Faith. I met the other writers through emails and video chats during that summer before the first devotion went live in September of 2014. These women completely changed my heart. Here was a group of women, in every life stage, from every background, with an infinite number of perspectives and experiences different from my own, and I was completely inspired. The Witness of Other Catholics Several women in particular inspired me greatly. These women had multiple children and they still kept their hearts open for more. I was in awe of their bravery, their selflessness, and their own yes to God’s plan. It made me question my own hesitation and pride. I wondered why I could not trust that the Father had a greater plan for what our family would look like. They shared their struggles and fears so openly with me and yet they kept saying yes. I was jealous of that trust. I had never been able to trust the Father so fully. Several months after the birth of our second child, I kept feeling that stirring in my heart. The Holy Spirit would whisper to me in the quiet of the night while nursing my baby. He kept saying, "Trust, love, be open, say yes. I will guide you, I will protect you, you are safe." As someone who planned every minute of my life, I could not imagine what it would look like to fully trust. Relinquishing my control and death grip on my life would take more than a nudge. It would take a giant push off of the cliff. Being Open to Life Several months of discernment, prayer, and arguments conversations with God, my husband and I decided that we would start the process to learn to trust and be open to life. A Blessed is She friend started teaching us an NFP method. I learned about charting, mucus, stamps, and more about my own body than I thought possible. When my menstrual cycle resumed, I continued to track my symptoms daily. A yellow stamp here, a white baby stamp there. If this was my way of saying yes, at least I had a chart that made me feel productive and in control. I finally felt like I was getting the hang of it. By saying yes to my own fertility and allowing my mindset to shift from one of contraception to one of openness, I saw other aspects of my life change, too. I learned to lean more heavily to the guidance of God. In January of 2018, I felt the Lord calling me towards a career change. I took on a huge responsibility of leadership at work and I felt like I had finally learned to listen to God’s plan. But then, just as I started this new position at work, I saw those two little pink lines that terrified me. I was flabbergasted! God, how could You so clearly lead me towards this change at work and now add a baby into this chaos!? I was frightened because this was my first pregnancy that was not planned to the day. I had to trust again. And it was scary. But I turned to those sisters who inspired me and to a loving Father with a plan for me. I finally said yes. [bctt tweet="Allowing my mindset to shift from one of contraception to one of openness to life changed other areas of my life, too. #BISblog #blessedchats //" via="no"] Freedom from Fear What I learned so entirely from this change in mindset is that God does not promise to remove the chaos or lay out every plan with neon signs and arrows. He promises that I am never alone, that to say yes to His plan is to say yes to the unknown, too. He turned this type-A, control-freak, planner extraordinaire into a trusting daughter. And while you’ll still find me planning every moment of our family schedule, you’ll also see me now including God in the mix and mess of it all. Has anyone else made the shift from contraception to natural family planning? Please share your story with us in the comments below! If you want more on the Church's rich teachings on these engaging topics, our best-selling study, "Blessed Conversations: Rooted," dives into the Catechism's teachings and now offers a video companion series along with it featuring Theological Editor Susanna Spencer and Managing Editor Nell O'Leary. Get it here.   [bctt tweet="Blessed Chats: Fertility // From Contraception to Natural Family Planning #BISblog #blessedchats //" via="no"]

Welcome to our first Blessed Chats series! Each month, we will dedicate an entire week of blog posts to a topic that affects many of us. These conversations often come up in our Facebook groups and in our real life friendships. We want to share a variety of perspectives on the topic at hand, so we've asked women to share their stories and how the teachings of the Church have guided and comforted them. In this first series, we're talking all about fertility. We'd love for you to join the conversation! Secondary infertility is a deep wound. It’s a wound that pierces who I am as a person. It has affected every aspect of my life and has led me to moments of overwhelming sorrow. And it can totally consume me if I allow it to. It’s brought heartache and heartbreak. It’s left me empty and lonely. Secondary infertility is a cross. Yet precisely because of this—the penetrating pain, the sorrow, the cross—it’s led to joy. It took me four years to enter into the mystery of the joy of suffering. By a miraculous gift from God, I was able to understand the truth that everything God allows to happen in my life He will use for my salvation. Everything He permits is for His greater glory. Knowing this truth has allowed me to trust in Him and His plan for my life. It has brought joy. [bctt tweet="Everything that God allows to happen in my life He will use for my salvation. #BISblog #blessedchats //" username="findphilothea"] Big Family Dreams Ever since I was young I always dreamt of having a big family. I have five siblings and they are counted among my greatest joys. I became pregnant with my son just two months after marrying my husband, Mike. The thought of possibly being infertile was the last thing on my mind. Secondary infertility is defined as being unable to become pregnant, or to carry a full-term pregnancy, following the birth of one or more children. I don’t remember learning about secondary infertility in nursing school; and if I had, like most, I passed by it without a thought. Yet after months of physical tests and exams, it became my diagnosis. For a few weeks, it was a diagnosis that totally and painfully consumed my heart, mind, and soul. When I found out from my doctor that I was experiencing secondary infertility, my entire being filled with sorrow and anger. I felt foolish for all the pregnancy tests I had purchased over the past two years. I felt like I had wasted time each day wondering when I would be pregnant, keeping a room open for a nursery, and daydreaming about Peter as an older brother. The diagnosis sounded cold and harsh. I told God that I knew it is completely in His power to allow me to become pregnant, and it is a good and beautiful thing that I want to become pregnant. So why, why God, wasn’t it happening? WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Getting to the Root There is always an underlying issue for infertility, and with my secondary infertility diagnosis came another diagnosis: polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS. Through practicing NFP and tracking my cycles, my doctor was able to confirm that PCOS was one of the causes for my secondary infertility. It was during that time I was introduced to Natural Procreative Technology, NaPro Technology, a natural and pro-creative approach to fertility. NaPro helps discover the “why” behind fertility issues, offering hope not only in a diagnosis but also with treatment. After my diagnosis, conception was my goal and I worked closely with my doctor who practiced NaPro techniques. Shifting My Focus After another two years of trying to conceive and taking medications to help ovulate and hcG shots to raise my low progesterone and estrogen levels, I decided to focus on my health instead of conception. This shift in my mind and heart changed everything for me. Though I had been exercising consistently and eating well since my diagnosis, I felt free for the first time in years. Free from taking such time-sensitive medications, free from the pressure I was putting on myself and my husband to conceive. With this new goal of health, I felt renewed and full of hope. It was during this time that I decided to have an ovarian wedge resection, an OWR. Though there is no cure for PCOS, an OWR is the closest thing to it. An OWR removes a section of the ovaries so that there are essentially less cysts to cause issues and side effects. During my OWR, my NaPro surgeon, Dr. Kyle Beiter, also found Stage I Endometriosis that he removed. My recovery aligned with Lent, and it was one of the most powerful of my life. Suffering and Mercy A few hours before Lent began, I decided to fast from Instagram. Instead of scrolling, I filled my time with reading the Diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska. In those pages I discovered Faustina’s journey with suffering and the deep joy she found in it. She wrote of not only comforting Christ but saving her own soul and other souls through her suffering. She wrote that God revealed to her that if angels could be jealous of men it would be for two things: the Eucharist and their ability to suffer. As I was finishing her Diary and reading these powerful words, I realized how terrified I had been to suffer. Physical suffering scared me and I had been trying to avoid it at all costs. I had been afraid of the pain of surgery before my OWR and as I lay recovering I was scared for my heart to continue to suffer with the cross of infertility. I was full of fear. Yet I had opened the door just enough for Christ to enter into my heart, and grace began to pour into my life. Jesus healed me not only physically but also spiritually and emotionally. A few days before Lent ended, I sat on my bed and looked at the San Damiano crucifix that hangs in my bedroom. I saw the suffering Christ, hanging, dying, for me. I looked at Him and repeated, “I surrender.” I told Him I surrender to all He has in store for my life. I said yes to the infertility, if that is what He willed for my life. I said yes to the suffering, if that is what His plan was for me. The most profound peace and joy I have ever experienced immediately flooded into my entire being. That joy has continued to grow as I surrender each day to Him and His will for my life. There is freedom in the surrender. There is joy in knowing that our suffering has merit. [bctt tweet="Jesus healed me not only physically but also spiritually and emotionally. #BISblog #blessedchats //" username="findphilothea"] You are Bearing Fruit If you are experiencing infertility, know that your life is bearing fruit, and you are called to be a Christ-bearer. We may not all be called to carry our own children physically within us, yet we are all called by Christ, by name, to live out His mission of discipleship. We are called, as women, to bear Christ just as Our Lady did—in all we think, do, and say. When we do this, when we surrender to His plan for us, we will flourish, we will be free. Say yes to all He has in store for your life, say yes to His will for you. Do not be afraid of His answer. Do you experience infertility or secondary infertility? Please share your story with us in the comments below! If you want more help with finding your own story, our popular Write + Pray course offers 9 topics, nearly an hour of guided video, and almost 50 Scripture verses and questions for you featuring Managing Editor Nell O'Leary. Find your story today.   [bctt tweet="Blessed Chats: Fertility // Secondary Infertility #BISblog #blessedchats" username="findphilothea"]

Welcome to our first Blessed Chats series! Each month, we will dedicate an entire week of blog posts to a topic that affects many of us. These conversations often come up in our Facebook groups and in our real life friendships. We want to share a variety of perspectives on the topic at hand, so we've asked women to share their stories and how the teachings of the Church have guided and comforted them. In this first series, we're talking all about fertility. We'd love for you to join the conversation! We sat on the floor of his living room in a small house where he rented a room from a friend in Ypsilanti, Michigan. My feet pushed out the ottoman and my back rested against the couch. I stretched forward to my toes, arms out, forehead down. He began, “Well, we both come from families of five . . .” and the daydreaming about our someday-maybe-future family began. I had a pretty good idea he would propose after I graduated law school in a few weeks. I had a pretty good idea of what our year apart while I worked and he finished school would look like. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what being married and having kids would look like. I was flat-out wrong. A few months later, we picked my wedding band with five small diamonds, partially for the symmetry and wistfully for that magic number five we joked about. Honestly, with being Catholic and open to life and not using any birth control or contraceptives, I figured we’d have eight or nine kids. Married at twenty six with no gynecological health problems that I knew of and a mom who had no issues around babies—the sky and God’s providence would be our limit! The Unexpected Surprise Fast-forward to age thirty-seven, eleven years into marriage, already having welcomed four kids in six years. One evening I cried into my husband’s pillow—far be it from me to keep that mess to my own pillow—that I felt so awfully out of it, I could even be pregnant! I had cycles like clockwork and figured this was just the hormone swing of PMS as I was on the brink of my cycle starting again. "FINE," I snotted into the pillow once more for good measure. These hormones will slow down in a few days. But they didn’t. The day came and passed. The next day came and passed. I pulled out my old stash of pregnancy strips, four years old now as our youngest was over three. One, two, three, four, five. That faint line couldn’t be it. I headed to the local pharmacy to buy the $16 two-pack tests. Both announced “you’re pregnant!” as I stared in the bathroom mirror. I did the math over and over again: trying to figure out how this was physically possible given our peak day and phase-three intimacy. The numbers didn’t add up. [elementor-template id="415212"] Being Open to Life While Trying to Avoid Conception The Catholic Church provided us with insights into discerning what being open to life actually meant. The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses trying to avoid conception in section 2368: For just reasons (de iustis causis), spouses may wish to space the births of their children. It is their duty to make certain that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood. Moreover, they should conform their behavior to the objective criteria of morality. Well, what is a just reason? The Church doesn’t give us a bright-line rule but rather guidelines for the individual couple to figure it out together. In his encyclical Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI writes that: with regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time. The Reality of My Motherhood For our family, the reasons evolved over time. The first two babies came with relatively easy births twenty-two months apart. Our second had the most peaceful water birth in a hospital with a midwife. Our third babe was two weeks overdue, came barreling out at ten pounds, and left my body a bit of a postpartum Wreck of the Hesperus. I was re-hospitalized for a life-and-death uterine infection two weeks out and then treated for eight months for ongoing trouble from the two-hour repair surgery we’d undergone after he emerged. We gingerly abstained and waited a little longer before being open to baby number four with a combination of the Creighton and Marquette Methods of NFP. Another reason for us to avoid another babe was the crippling hyperemesis throughout my pregnancies. We managed it some with medications and IV fluids, but it made every day challenging to care for the little ones at home underfoot while trying to keep my body and the babe within healthy, too. Our sweet and rowdy fourth baby was the one to push us deep into avoiding conception. She arrived in this world after many IV fluid bags and all sorts of unmentionable side effects to medication, dehydration, and nausea at nearly eleven pounds. She got stuck in the birth canal with a condition called “shoulder dystocia,” suffering a brachial plexus injury and broken collar bone when she was born. My body was also broken open with split and torn ligaments, rendering me unable to walk and needing a pelvic floor physical therapist for a year postpartum. Additionally, when she was nine months old, I began to experience a series of auto-immune disorder symptoms and have since worked with a neurological team to treat. The unknown condition left me bedridden many afternoons and evenings, another confirmation that a fifth baby wasn’t a prudent idea. Joyful Acceptance of the Gift So when I stood before my husband with an overflowing handful of positive pregnancy tests, he was surprised and also a little in disbelief. All of our years of obedience to Church teaching on chastity and abstinence in natural family planning flooded over me as well. How, but also why, God? Minutes later, sitting in our little music room on an overcast morning while slurping his coffee, my husband remarked that NFP had worked. We were open to life always, even in our measured hormone levels and charting way. So God found a way. Not a way to punish us but to stretch our hearts, minds, bodies, and trust in Him that this fifth babe was meant to be part of our family. Never an Accident In case you also need this reminder, as I did from my husband on that day, God never punishes us with children. New life is always a gift. Now it might take us a while to be ready to receive that gift, and that’s okay. God gives us a gift with the patient knowledge we might take time to warm up to it. This baby isn’t an accident or a “whoopsie” (as an extended family member was quick and loud to proclaim about him). This baby is an unexpected surprise present. One who has already changed our minds and hearts and lives and will even more when he arrives in January 2021. You might have a story like mine. You might have had an entirely different journey of finding your vocation, your number of children born from your heart or from your uterus, your “grave” or “just” reasons. But what we all encounter, and what I’m challenged to live out, is the joyful acceptance of God’s gifts. As mysterious and unpredictable as they are! Anyone out there have stories of surprise babies? Please share your story with us in the comments below! If you want more on the Church's rich teachings on these engaging topics, our best-selling study, "Blessed Conversations: Rooted," dives into the Catechism's teachings and now offers a video companion series along with it featuring Theological Editor Susanna Spencer and Managing Editor Nell O'Leary. Get it here.   [bctt tweet="Blessed Chats: Fertility // A Surprise Baby #BISblog #blessedchats //" via="no"]

Suddenly, there is no one pounding on your door or yelling at you to get up and go to school. No one to tell you to go to bed. No one to do your laundry (unless you are like me and did wash in my teen years) and no one to make you dinner. You are officially adulting, and all the responsibility is on you! On top of all this, you have classes and possibly a job to pay for those classes, and there never appears to be enough time in the day to do it all. Now you know why mom and dad were so tired all the time. Tips for Time Management in College Adulting is exhausting and requires some acute time management. So, I want to help you with some tips that are sure to save you time and organize your time wisely. Calendars are Necessary Google Calendar, paper planners, class syllabi, alarms, alerts, reminders, and so many other calendar tools are life in college and beyond. There is no way you can live without a calendar to keep track of your commitments and schedule. Use them all, especially Google Calendar. When your new semester comes out, export your class schedule to your Google Calendar and use a specific calendar for your classes. Look over your class syllabi and create a separate calendar for big tests, quizzes, papers, group projects, mid-terms, and finals. You can set reminders to prepare and not rush the last minute (unless you are one of those people who works better under pressure). This may seem insane, but on weeks when you know you need sleep to pull off a paper or do well on mid-terms, create a sleep schedule to make sure you stop and get the rest you need. Keep It in View Print out a semester-long calendar for your dorm or bedroom wall to visualize your months, weeks, and days and celebrate when you have completed a big paper or test. Use a paper planner like the Blessed Is She Mini to write out daily to-do lists and important reminders that you can transfer to your Google Calendar later. Most importantly, put “Date with Jesus” on your calendar to intentionally spend time with the Lord in Adoration, daily or Sunday Mass, or even 10 minutes of silence throughout the day. If you don’t make your relationship with God a priority, it will not be a priority by the end of the semester. Trust me; you need God in college. Without Him, your life will look radically different. Your Job is School Your primary responsibility during your college years is going to class and doing well in school. Why else would you pay thousands of dollars per year and take on the debt of college? And as important as the social aspects of college are, your focus needs to be on your classes. Don’t skip classes where attendance is not taken, oversleep, or blow a class off. It is appealing when no one is forcing you to get out of bed, throw on some leggings, and rush to class to let it slide, but that is what will happen to your grades; they will slide down, down, down. Many students in their first semester in college end up on academic probation because they prioritize college on their social life verses where their financial investment is of school. Invest your time where you are invested, and you will succeed not only in your classes but also in life. Get Into the Zone Are you a morning person or a night gal? Do you get tired every day around 3 p.m. (yep, that’s me)? Knowing your peak hours is essential to help you succeed in college and your career. There is typically a time when you can get in a zone and accomplish more than you can at any point in the day. For example, right now, I’m writing this blog at 9:00 am because I am a morning person. I get the most done in the morning hours, I’m less creative in the late afternoon, and by 9:00 pm I am useless. Knowing this, I do most of my original work early in the day. Figure out your peak hours and use them to your advantage to get in the zone writing your paper or studying for tests. Squirrel One of my favorite parts of the movie Up! is Dug, the golden retriever who belongs to Charles Muntz. When he is talking through his collar that translates his thoughts and gets distracted by a squirrel, I lost it laughing out loud in the theater. This is all of us! We are distracted by email alerts that pop up on the corner of our computer, sound notifications, a buzz on our Apple Phone to move (that is a good distraction), or a text message. We have so many distractions that interfere with our time management. Take this advice, and when you need to get things done, turn off notifications, put your phone on airplane mode and flip it upside down, put on noise-canceling headphones, and listen to some classical music (or whatever music will keep you focused). Organize your phone apps to keep your priorities straight. Take off your Apple Watch, so you don’t get buzzed, and do not visit any social media like Twitter, Instagram, or Tic Tok for a quick distraction unless you want to lose an hour of your study time. Don't Multitask As much as we all want to say we are a “Jack (or Jane) of all trades,” we must remember that the rest of that phrase is “master of none.” We all consider ourselves great multi-taskers, but the reality is we are not. Binging The Office while trying to write a paper or study does not work as well as you might think. So, here is some advice. Don’t watch Netflix and study—just study! Schedule in time for things like Instagram, YouTube, and texting your friends’ verses, fitting them in a while trying to finish a project for work or school. I know that seems tedious, but it will help you stay focused. Plus, you will learn to be more intentional and present in your classes and relationships, which will be a blessing to you and the people who matter most to you in your life. Keep a Running To-Do List One of the most effective time management tips I learned is the Top Five, Next Five, Future Five list. Here is how it works. Every day write out in your written planner (I like to use the BIS Planner or a Monk Manual) the most important five things you have to get done that day or in the coming days. These are the things that cannot be put off, they have a deadline, and it is today or tomorrow. Once they are completed, you can turn to the Next Five things and pull them up to the First Five. Next, write down your next five things that need to get done but have a later deadline or need the First Five to be completed to do them. Finally, write down your Future Five, which can be dreams, future spring break plans, but things you hope to accomplish in the future. They are not something that will happen in the coming week or even month. They could be things like a paper due in three weeks, but I like to reserve at least three things to my future plans, such as reserve an Airbnb for girls’ weekend on my Future Five. This tool keeps me focused and helps me get my tasks completed by the end of each day. It's OK to Say No There will be so many invitations to be a part of a club, Bible study, sorority, party, or even a date. Discern what God is calling you to do and what you need to have time to do. You can say no to friends and various positions or volunteer opportunities. You can even say no to a date if you are not interested in the guy. Saying no is part of your time management. If you know you have a paper due on Monday and you need to crank it out over the weekend and still make time to go to Mass on Sunday, say no to the dinner invitation or the concert you would love to attend. Let’s face it, the Covid-19 pandemic has made this easier to navigate because the typical distractions of events are lessened, but we will return to a time when we go to parties, concerts, and movies again. So, learn now how to say no! It is a necessary skill of adulting. Keep Your Relationship with God Central Part of your time management should be factoring in how you will make time for your relationship with God. In the last post in this series, Freshmen Spiritual Training Program, I laid out ways to do just this. I encourage you to read it over to keep your faith in God, the most essential relationship you develop in college and your adult life. There are a ton of time management hacks out there, but the thing is only you can make it happen. You control your schedule. Either hit snooze or wake up; either you schedule in when you work out or don’t. It’s on you and no one else, and I believe that you can and will do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Phil 4:13). Now, do it! What time management tips do you have for collegiate students? LITURGICAL PLANNERS Our Liturgical Planners are based on the Litany of Humility. Enter into prayer every day alongside this beautiful Litany. Order your days in His peace. GET YOUR PLANNER

Way back in January, most of us were excited to begin a new year and a new decade. Typically, January means a “fresh start” and “clean slate.” It is filled with hope for good things to come. There was something even more exciting than usual about entering 2020. It seemed so monumental. I recall a member of my women’s group suggesting that we choose a word for 2020. This is not a unique practice; many people select a word, phrase, or Bible verse to guide their year. Similarly, in January, we set goals and dreams for the year ahead. Hope Derailed, Hope Restored Do you remember your word of the year, hopes, and dreams for 2020? My word was “stand.” But by March, I had long forgotten it. So far, 2020 has been completely unprecedented. I don’t need to list the myriad of trials we have faced. We have had to navigate uncharted waters, and as a result, our goals, dreams, peace, and natural rhythms of life have been completely disrupted. Our Lord never promised an easy life. In fact, He assured us that we would experience trial and tribulation. But He also promised that He would always be with us, right in the middle of every mess, difficulty, and struggle. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world! // John 16:33 [bctt tweet="Our Lord never promised an easy life. But He also promised that He would always be with us, right in the middle of every mess, difficulty, and struggle. #BISblog //" username="sarahcdamm"] His Presence is Our Hope All over Scripture and within our beautiful Catholic Tradition, God reminds us of His presence. Our God calms the storm. He leads us beside green pastures. He removes unnecessary burdens. The Lord promises a lighter, freer path. His Heart beats in every Tabernacle in every Catholic church across the globe. When reminded of this, fall seems like the perfect time to reclaim our hope in Christ. No matter what 2020 has brought us so far, let’s remember our words of the year, our goals, and our dreams for 2020. Yes, my friends, let’s hit the reset button and begin anew. WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Fall = Fresh Start Many of us naturally equate fall with a fresh start. We begin using a new planner, we prepare ourselves or our children for a new academic year, and we refresh our wardrobes and home decor. Reset 2020 in 3 Simple Steps Perhaps we can take this fresh start one step further by resolving to renew our spirits, too. Let’s utilize the month of September as a time to pause, reprioritize, and choose peace, calm, and hope for the remainder of 2020. 1. Pause to pray. If prayer has fallen by the wayside, or if your faith feels like it is fizzling, fall is a beautiful time to renew your prayer routine. If you selected a word, theme, or Bible verse in January, it’s time to reclaim it. You may be surprised by how powerfully, even prophetically, it speaks into all the unexpected events of 2020. For the remainder of the year, pray with a new Bible verse that offers you whatever you need most from the Lord right now. (Search “Bible verses” on the BIS website for ideas.) Refresh your prayer routine by discovering a new devotion: Rosary Divine Mercy Chaplet Eucharistic Adoration Novenas Prayer journaling 2. Reprioritize. Life can feel overwhelming and even out of control. Especially recently. With so much going on in the outside world, we can easily lose sight of what is truly important to us. We read in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Fall is a wonderful time to take this Scripture passage to heart. This month, let’s ask ourselves a series of questions, in light of this passage from Ecclesiastes, in order to reprioritize what matters most: What season am I in? What is it time for? Is it time for renewal? If so, what must die, in order for new life to grow? Is it time to plant seeds, lay down roots, and hunker down? Or is it time to harvest, to step up in an area that I’ve been neglecting? Is it time for healing, building, and restoring? What is important to me right now? What do I want my days and weeks to include? What is God inviting me into? 3. Begin anew. After prayer, reflection, and discernment, choose things that bring peace, calm, and hope to your life. Implement tangible practices that nurture your body, mind, and spirit, in order to safeguard against anxiety, fear, and doubt, which only desires to damage and destroy our precious wellbeing. Step one is to adopt a renewed prayer routine. Next, return to good habits of sleep, nutrition, family time, work, and leisure. Fall is an ideal time to cultivate a practice of gratitude. Consider not only what you are thankful for but why. How does this change your perception of life? Do Not Lose Heart My dear sisters in Christ, even in the midst of the hardships, difficulties, and uncertainties that have defined 2020, all is not lost. We can still experience the peaceful promises of God, and we can learn how to hold onto them, even when our world feels like it is spinning out of control. We may not know when the hard stuff will go away—and we can count on more hard stuff to follow—but we never have to wait for things to magically get better to pray, reprioritize, and begin anew. Because when we resolve to hit the reset button and start fresh, we can count on God’s grace to bless us with peace, joy, and the courage to testify to His immeasurable love for us, His beloved daughters. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. // 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 How are you starting fresh this fall?   [bctt tweet="The Fresh Start Season // 3 Ways to Begin Again #BISblog //" username="sarahcdamm"] 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

Labor Day is a day of rest, given to us to slow down from our fast-paced world. Author Josef Pieper offers us a way to find true and restorative rest everyday, whether it be a federal holiday or not. Leisure, the Basis of Culture He does this in his book, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, by showing us how to transport ourselves “out of the weariness of daily labor into an unending holiday”. Section 1 // Leisure as Contemplation Did you know that the history of the word “leisure” comes from the Latin word scola meaning "school"? It indicates the place where we learn and also where we teach. The root word for leisure becomes easier to understand when we think of education as taking the good of the entire person into account. Pieper writes: Education concerns the whole man, man capax universi (meaning "containing all"), capable of grasping the totality of existing things. This doesn’t mean being trained in one particular thing or the other, it means to have the ability to contemplate, and to contemplate means to experience leisure. Section 2 // Difficulty Does Not Equal Better Hard work is celebrated, as it should be. But we must watch out for the danger of falling into a Kantian way of thinking that the more difficult something is, the better it is. Aquinas refutes this idea in his Summa Theologica where he states “the essence of virtue consists in the good rather than in the difficult. Not everything that is more difficult is necessarily more meritorious.” For example, having a good time while hosting friends for dinner is a good and beneficial thing. No hardship is necessary to make it meritorious. Pieper also points out the importance of not counting the cost of our suffering. We do not suffer simply to say we endured something difficult and therefore our actions are “higher.” We suffer because it leads us to salvation and ultimate happiness. Pieper quotes Aquinas' words, “The end and the norm of discipline is happiness” and as we practice virtue, we are able to choose the moral good more naturally. Section 3 // Leisure, Idleness, and Acedia Our culture today often equates leisure to idleness, but Pieper begs to differ. He writes that idleness means that man “does not want to be as God wants him to be, and that ultimately means that he does not wish to be what he really, fundamentally, is.” This leads one to the sin of acedia, a sin which makes leisure impossible. Pieper writes that acedia takes place when man realizes that God resides within him, but is saddened by this realization because he doesn’t want to live as God intends. When I first read this idea that man could be saddened by the knowledge of God living in him, I was confused. But then I was reminded of how easily we become conditioned to have sin live in us and the security we find in our weakness (like the false feeling of control). Just think of the rich young man in the Gospel of Matthew. When he asks Jesus what is needed to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven “he went away sad” because it meant he would have to sell his many possessions and give alms to the poor. Embracing Jesus means embracing His call to us. Choosing to live a life of virtue is not easy, but it is what God created us for. So what do idleness and leisure look like? To go to the beach to enjoy a sunny afternoon and the glistening of the water is leisure. Being able to sit back, to be at peace, and to sense God’s love is leisure. Idleness on the other hand, is a “deep-seated lack of calm which makes leisure impossible.” It would look like being at the beach, but mindlessly scrolling through your phone. As author Dr. Michael Naughton writes in Getting Work Right: Labor and Leisure in a Fragmented World, “modern leisure amuses us into escaping from our lives”, it removes us from uncovering our identity as it often takes us out of reality. Leisure allows one to be steeped in the wonder and contemplation of God’s creation and to worship God through recognizing its goodness. My favorite line that Pieper gives is when he describes leisure as “like a man falling asleep, for one can only fall asleep by ‘letting oneself go.’ When we really let our minds rest contemplatively on a rose in bud, on a child at play, on a divine mystery, we are rested and quickened as though by a dreamless sleep.” Of course, this doesn’t mean we are to always be “sleeping.” Work is necessary to, after all, income is needed in order to support the family. Yet we must put work in its proper place. Section 4 // Vocation Over Career Pieper describes that to be addicted to work is interiorly impoverishing. He argues that if man is only fulfilled by the utilitarian process of his work or career “his life has shrunk inwardly, and contracted, with the result that he can no longer act significantly outside his work, and perhaps can no longer even conceive of such a thing.” Pieper is not saying that fulfillment in the workplace is a bad thing; indeed it is very good. The point he is making is that work should not be the only place we find fulfillment. It is key that fulfillment be found in our faith and our community, and this leads us to what Pieper describes as “festivity.” [bctt tweet="To be addicted to work is interiorly impoverishing. #BISblog //" via="no"] Section 5 // Leisure = Celebration/Festivity Now it’s time to party! At least that’s what Pieper would say, for in his own words, “to hold a celebration means to affirm the basic meaningfulness of the universe and a sense of oneness with it, of inclusion within it.” The kind of celebration he is implying is not the holiday that is created by society or political powers, but celebration in terms of feast days and holy days. Celebrating holy days and the Sabbath are excellent ways to foster leisure and prioritize and honor one’s vocation over their career, through generously offering ourselves through worship. Worship not as a means to an end, but worshipping God for His own sake. The Catechism of the Catholic Church even encourages us to celebrate through leisure: The institution of the Lord’s Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, and religious lives. -CCC 2184 Finding Leisure Contemplate and Receive Take a few minutes of silence to receive the world around you. Is this a bouquet of flowers in your home, the depth of your child’s eyes, birds singing outside, or the turning color of the trees? As Pieper writes, leisure is “a receptive attitude of mind, a contemplative attitude...the capacity for steeping oneself in the whole of creation.” Listen to Music Taking five minutes of my day to listen to Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune fills my heart with peace and gratitude. I can’t help but have awe and wonder of God’s creation as I listen to the notes of the piano. Praise God through praise and worship, either by sitting and being mindful of the words, worshipping with your voice, or playing your own instrument. Celebrate Holy Days As Catholics, we have a variety of reasons to celebrate throughout the year, for example, feast days! Celebrate by going to Mass or spending time in Adoration. Then, think of an activity that corresponds with the day. For example, on the Feast of Saint John Paul II you could cook a Polish meal to celebrate the country of his birth. How will you find leisure today?   [bctt tweet="BIS Reads: Leisure, the Basis of Culture #BISblog //" via="no"]   This post contains affiliate links. Thanks so much for supporting the ministry of Blessed is She!

Love does no harm to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. // Romans 13:10 Love this beautiful print from Carolyn of Brass & Mint Co. Let His word dwell in us richly, sisters. Remember, Members, you get this 8x10 digital download for free! Click here to get the download. Download your F R E E wallpapers right here --->>> Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper