This wallpaper by Tara of Frameworthy Designs is such eye candy! Here we are all preparing for the birth of the Son of God. What hope this beautiful image gives. You can download it for free for your phone and desktop below! Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

Advent is here. Honestly, it feels like the preparation for Advent has been long over here. We were, for the first time, ahead of the game in writing and designing this year's journal. We have so many women praying together this Advent. As the world swirls by, frantic to prepare for Christmas, all of us, together, sit by the manger in the morning. We wanted to give you something for your tech devices - whether it's your mother in law calling for the fifth time, your phone calendar dinging that you have another final in 2 hours, your late night scrolls on Amazon getting your loved ones gifts - that you would pause and see this wallpaper and remember Who we are preparing for. That it might remind you to take a breather. When the idea of flowers overflowing the manger came into my head - I was thinking about how it is really from this Baby that my life blossoms. In the dead of winter, my soul rejoices and blooms because of that Babe born in the manger. So to be reminded of this daily - grab this free download below with the words of Elizabeth Foss: "Be overwhelmed by a huge God who loves you intimately." And if you didn't get a change to buy the journal, you can still download a digital version and join us! - Erica Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

Who doesn't love a fresh wallpaper on a Wednesday. It sure feels like the weekend as we all quickly prepare for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I for one, am trying to get all my work done before I'm supposed to be in the car for a road trip to my parents' house in... five minutes. (LOL) This wallpaper by Katrina of Hatch Prints comes from the readings of Sunday's Mass - and luckily is very relevant for our whole week - especially as we step into gratefulness tomorrow. (Have you seen any of our videos on our FB page about what we are all grateful for? I made one yesterday!) You can also tag #BISgrateful on social media to connect with others cultivating gratitude in their lives. One thing we are SUPER grateful for is that we SOLD OUT of our entire inventory for our Advent journals, prints and Jesse Tree cards. The good news is that I just uploaded digital versions of the print and journal so if you *forgot* to order before we sold out, you can now still participate in this time of prayer and preparation of Advent season. You can find them here. And below you can download this wallpaper for your devices for free! We are so grateful for you. Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

This is the second post in our Grateful Heart challenge. After reading this post from Megan Hjelmstad, feel free to share your own post at the bottom, or share your thoughts and gratitude on Instagram. I’d never spoken to her in person, but whenever I got dressed in the morning she was there in my mind’s eye: that effortlessly chic, trend-setting gal from school who always seemed to have it together. I rifled through my closet and made list after mental list of the things I needed to make me feel as good as she looked. But invariably when I passed her, my outfits seemed less refined, my hair and makeup unsophisticated, my entire being inadequate. Nothing I owned, nothing I was seemed good enough; I was diving headlong into the compare and despair game and coming up so terribly, horribly empty. It’s always something, isn’t it? A nicer house, a newer car, the latest trend, a more enviable brand—a beautiful, status-elevating something or other. We "need" it to be respected. Accepted. Successful. Worthy. We tell ourselves that if we just had [insert object], we’d be happy. Life would be good. And even if we manage to fight those obvious lies, almost all of us still fall into the trap of “if only I had x amount of money, I could breathe easier. Things would be a little better.” Certainly, it’s never a bad thing to be able to cover expenses, and material things themselves aren’t bad—in fact, God can [and does] use our appreciation of the material, our attraction the beauty of created things, to inspire us and draw us closer to Himself. But it depends on the state of our heart. So often we hang our hats on material comfort as the solution to our worrying or stress without truly allowing God into our need. Yet deep in our souls, the whisper of truth is ever-present: more stuff and money isn’t gonna make every little thing alright. We know very well that’s not the end game of our soul. We can’t take it with us. We can do well to take a step back and look at our attitude toward stuff; how deliberately we dispose our hearts to the material elements of our lives. Do we condition ourselves to view everything we have, everything we buy, as a pure gift from God? Or do we thoughtlessly chase after them in a direction opposite of God’s love, believing that we’ve earned it by our own merit or that we deserve it more than others? Or—most tragically—do we chase after the material because we’ve allowed the world to convince us that it could somehow “improve” our God-given worth and fill the hole of love and acceptance we crave? This week, join in the Blessed is She Gratitude movement by focusing as a community on being thankful for the things we already have. Let’s also prayerfully consider how our soul’s needs contrast or align with our material wants, and reflect on how we can help with the true material needs so present in our global Body of Christ! Join the linkup below and use the hashtag #BISgrateful on social media to share. Week 2 of #BISgrateful: Cultivate gratitude for the material blessings in your life in any of the following ways: Make a list, say a prayer of thanks for the material things you use or buy throughout the day, or maybe even fast from spending on those superfluous “extras” this week, and ask God to enter that space in your heart and fill that desire instead. Donate at least one box of material goods, preferably in good shape. Check locals stores (some even offer store credit) like those mentioned in this article [http://www.today.com/kindness/h-m-madewell-other-retailers-invite-you-unload-old-clothes-t55301] to recycle items too old or stained to donate. An InLinkz Link-up

I love that two weeks in a row we are reminded of joy. This week's wallpaper is made by Lauren of When Beauty Met Truth. As we inch closer to the holidays, the mad rush of Thanksgiving and Advent and Christmas, let us remember that we must remain in joy. If you haven't purchased your Advent journal yet, make sure to head to the shop so that you make sure to receive it in time! But before you go, download the wallpaper for free below! Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

At times when the sun casts its light over our lawn I feel like I am looking at a stage in a play. Especially when it's the orangey-yellow-green light before a storm. It makes the whole yard look like it is lit up with artificial glow and it makes it appear surreal. I am not particularly fond of artificial light. I much prefer natural light, but it can feel so nice to be suddenly transported to another perspective. It can feel so good to be jostled out of your daily grind and stupor and to be reminded that this world is something beautiful, surprising, and mysterious. And perhaps more importantly, that you have a part to play in it. In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton, captures this thought much better than I could. He wrote, "Fairy tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water." For a few hours yesterday, I felt cornered into darkness. A funk had cast a dark shadow over me as the sun went down, and with it a heavy cloud latched onto me like a cold, wet blanket. It didn't make any sense. It was a perfect Friday evening. We were making a nice dinner and later in the night, my husband and I, would watch some Masterpiece Theatre. Perfect really, in my little world. I am sure a glass of red wine and a shopping spree on Amazon would have solved things fast enough. Feeling resolute, I instead chose to talk about these feelings with my husband. The usual downers are the same. Money is tight. Our appliances are broken. I don't have enough time for everything I need to do. So many things are simply beyond my control. I feel alone. I feel needy. I feel my brokenness. Talking with my husband can be like a spoonful of medicine. Sometimes it comes bitter. Sometimes it comes sweet. These little conversations have been countless in our twenty years of marriage. I start naming off a litany of dismays. He catalogs them into things that can be fixed, things that can change, and things to accept. We pray about them, but there is one thing that always remains before us, and if we lose sight of her, everything is lost - the beautiful presence of Gratitude. It's a practice we keep, this gratefulness. A sort of game where we list all the things we are grateful for: our children, our marriage, our daily bread, our faith. We think of hard times and how things worked out. We think of how we have grown and how we can still grow. We think of other people in hard times. We recollect small blessings: a working fridge, a cow that got bred, a hot cup of soup. We try to step outside ourselves and see things from another perspective. As I was swimming around in the darkness, I got jostled back unexpectedly into the light. Our twenty month old tripped onto her tummy while pushing a train car around. She was having so much fun chasing her older sister around with her "arr," as she calls it. And then, suddenly she was planted right onto the top of the plastic train with her tender, chubby tummy. It is always so heartbreaking when they go from so happy to so sad, so fast. What purpose I felt to be able to pick her up and love her. To just smother her back into safety. In that baby hug, I was revived. My litany transformed. Me just hugging her makes it all worth it. Come broken water heater and heaps of laundry all the days of my life. Yes, this is why I am doing what I do. I am so thankful for her, for him, for them! My ingratitude melted away that hug. This morning as the light pours in through our east window I am again transported. The darkness has left me, finding me either unwilling or perhaps the chemicals are just back in sync. I am thankful that as the darkness clouded my vision yesterday, I managed to bask in it without thrashing about, only to hurt myself and others. Call it chemicals or hormones. Call it seasonal or spiritual. It's probably all those things. Whether we like it or not, whether the sun is shining or not, this is our call time to stage. We don't get to manage the lighting offstage or write the scene for our part. We don't get to decide we aren't worthy of the part we are given and we can not play the role someone else has been given. We only have the choice over the sort of character we play, what we do, and then, there is always the hope we can change for the better. Am I the selfish, bitter woman I loathe, or, am I the strong, gracious woman I admire? Gratitude, God's lovely maiden, should be my script, our script. She is our guardian of happiness. She is our fortress of peace. She is our gaze to heaven. Erika Pearson is a convert to Catholicism and the mother of seven (well, currently) on a hippy, homeschooling homestead of sorts. She does most of her serious work up in the clouds and comes down on occasion to write about her findings at aestheticmomma.com.

This is the first post in our Grateful Heart challenge. After reading this post from Megan Hjelmstad, feel free to share your own post at the bottom, or share your thoughts and gratitude on Instagram. The wailing of the alarm jerks me from a blissful sleep. I pry open my eyes to behold the blank slate of a new day, but a gloomy darkness meets me. I groan and promptly clamp them shut again. It’s not my alarm. It’s my husband’s. Thank God, I have thirty more minutes. But within seconds, crying and arguing reaches my ears; I reluctantly open my eyes once more to find a small, round face with big, blinking eyes a mere two inches from my own. “Is it morning yet?” “Yes,” I grumble, “it’s morning, alright.” Sigh. He scampers off gleefully. I did have thirty more minutes. Now I’m officially on referee duty for three kids who woke up too early. Ding! A text sounds on my phone and I sigh again. Probably more work demands. I force myself out from under the warm covers and into the chill of the autumn air. Time to grab some clothes and make sure the kids aren’t late for our school carpool. Buzzzzzz. My phone again, reminding me that emails are piling up. It’s probably a reminder about my appointment today. Distractedly, I grab my phone with barely a second glance, but suddenly freeze as a subject line catches my eye: “Start your day in prayer, Sister.” I come to a halt, taking a second to reset, reframe. Deep breath. Thank you, God, for giving me another day to live. I offer everything in it to you. But God wants one more second of my time. He gently nudges in to view those souls I’ve encountered today in my few short waking moments. I am so easily annoyed by how their actions inconvenience me. But what about the flip side? Do I spend even half as much time cultivating gratitude for how their everyday actions also sustain me? My husband, always waking long before me, does so to support our family with long hours of work. Thank you, God, for my loyal, hardworking husband. My children, so eager to encounter life, meet me with love and help me see the world with fresh eyes as I work to meet their needs. Thank you, Lord, for these little ones so in love with life. That text I groaned at? It’s from a friend, telling me I’m in her prayers. And our carpool? Set up by my beloved neighbor who has selflessly helped us more times than I can count. Thank you, God, for faithful friends. The email reminder for my doctor’s appointment also reminds me of how blessed I am, unlike many women in the world, to have easy access to such caring and knowledgeable medical professionals. That other email that caught my eye, inviting me to prayer—it speaks of the vibrant community of incredible, faith-filled women surrounding me every day. And the work and scheduling demands that are, as always, still there – involving conversations with individuals who aren’t always my favorite – they are teaching me, when I open my heart enough, about a new dimension of the human person, challenging me to practice a greater, more authentic charity. Thank you, Wise Father, for those you place in my life to help sanctify me. --- Who is God nudging into your view today, sister? Maybe it’s a co-worker, family member, classmate, professor. Maybe it’s that person who knows exactly how to get under your skin, an acquaintance in need, or a saint on earth who shows up day after day for you. Maybe it’s someone who’s hurt you and compelled you to learn the necessity of healthy boundaries and forgiveness. It could be any number of the 7 billion people sharing this earth with us – and this week, we’re called to remember that every one of those 7 billion souls is made in the image and likeness of God, created to love and serve each other. Whoever it is and whatever shape it takes, we want to hear how you are cultivating gratitude! Join the Blessed is She Community this week in practicing more abundant gratitude for the people in your life. Share in a blog post, on Facebook or Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter using the hashtag #BISgrateful. Let’s encourage each other in our journey toward bountiful gratitude, sisters! How to cultivate gratitude this week: Buy flowers for someone or write a heartfelt note to express your gratitude. photo of Blessed is She Liturgical Planner by Little Flower Studios An InLinkz Link-up

This weekly wallpaper is from Kristin Foss reminding us of true joy found in God's glory. Where will you find joy this week? You can download this free wallpaper below for your computer and phone! Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

"Oh Lord, you are the lover of my soul and I am yours!" Gorgeous wallpaper by Tara of Frameworthy Designs. You can download it for your phone and desktop below for free! Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

Last week our designer, Erica of Be a Heart, visited Mexico City for inspiration. Not only did she create for us a weekly wallpaper, but she also prayed for our community at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe and specifically for all the women who join us in our Advent study this year. We think it's going to be all of our best Advents ever because the content is SO good, written by Elizabeth Foss. You can download the free wallpapers below with today's Psalm, "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves" Psalm 34:19 This is His promise to us and we believe that one way for Him to work in our lives is to join in this Advent journey together. Elizabeth's words will make you think, reflect and prepare for the Babe in the manger. We promise it's good. You can get it here. Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

There is something about the long, slow pace of a fall unfolding with unhurried grandeur that softens my defenses against the coming of colder days. Hot afternoons, crisp nights, crickets and tall shadows creeping--it is a feast for the senses and it means the gathering of the harvest from the fields. I was reminded of this over the weekend as my family caravanned through the Rocky Mountains, mouths open at the sight of the yellow, sun-drenched Aspen trees creeping up the mountain sides. We hiked. We celebrated. We ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed.’ Our family sat mesmerized in our cabin as a herd of elk traipsed by our window. It was glorious. And, I can already feel my body tensing into the memory of the way the previous autumn erupted with change and heartache. It was mid-October. I was thrilled to be hosting group young women in my home for dinner and conversation. The early evening was filled with chatter, laughter and the smell of apple cider. Everyone had arrived but the last car. Uneasiness settled into the group when the phone calls began to take on a concerned tone about the whereabouts of one young woman. Real fear surfaced when we learned of her bicycle accident and the name of the hospital where she had been taken. Cars dispersed. Unable to visit her room, our group gathered in the hospital’s chapel and pleaded for the life of a friend. We begged that the doctors would be wise in their diagnoses, that her heart would be strong enough to endure treatment, that her pain would subside, that she be surrounded by love and that it would suffice until we could personally offer her our encouragement. We prayed that she would heal. We prayed with the fervor of those who love. Very many, myself included, prayed from an unpracticed place somewhere between dumbfoundedness at the circumstances and a naïve streak of certainty that only particular outcomes would be an ‘acceptable’ response from a loving God with regard to a 23 year old woman with a servant’s heart. God heard our prayers—of this I am certain. And, Kaela died. Holding these sentences in tension is startlingly difficult and it has shaken me to my core. I have grieved her loss as a parent, a minister and a friend. I am not sure that I will ever understand the ‘why’ of this loss. I will not pretend that I have been comforted with pat explanations; nor will I offer one to numb the feeling of hurt. Though, I have learned enough in this space of grief to appreciate that putting the love and wisdom of God into a box that I could comprehend would be to drastically limit the movement of the God who both gives and takes away (Job 1:21, NRSV). What I do know is that both her loss and her life have come to define what I am slowly learning about the love of God and the way the Holy Spirit permeates our lives. I know that Kaela loved and honored God with her life and that that relationship had an enormous ripple effect. Stories like that of Lazarus, Job and Sarah are evidence that God’s faithful are not exempt from loss or heartache. Interestingly, in each of those scenarios, God intervened in the story personally. What an expression of God’s tenderness! I had the privilege of grieving well with Kaela’s mother and friends who walked through this journey with courage, vulnerability and story-sharing which is itself a rare gift and one which Jesus modeled. As October nears, I am doing my best not to tense in fear of the memory of loss, but to allow myself to feel the depth of love Kaela brought to the world and to reflect that love for those who are in my life. In the words of Henri Nouwen, I find myself leaning into the challenge of seeing Kaela’s death as a “new way for us to send our own and God’s spirit to those whom we loved and who have loved us.”

Katrina of Hatch Prints reminds us to proclaim the word with our free downloadable wallpaper this week! "Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching." 2 Timothy 4:2 as from the second reading. You can get them for your phone and desktop below! Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

The readings today remind us to grateful. To look at all the parts of our lives that God has blessed us, that God has done work in us, that God has cured us and turn to Him in gratitude. Lauren of When Beauty Met Truth made us a beautiful wallpaper to remind us of this all week long. You can download it for free for your phone and desktop below!   Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

I was so struck by the readings this week with the message of hope. "If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late." Habakkuk 2:3 How many times do I want to give up praying because I don't see any answers. But wait for it! It will surely come! It will not be late! It is God's timing, not my own. If you find yourself losing hope, wishing for answers, download this free wallpaper below for our phone and desktop. Made by Erica of Be A Heart. Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper

My parents are making their way to the airport. The “Cajun Mafia” invaded Denver for a few days to “grandparent” and celebrate 35 years of marriage. Thirty-five years is proof of God’s existence in today’s culture. During dinner, I asked my parents to share some with us some wisdom after so many years. After explaining that divorce was never an option and that their relationship seems to continue to strengthen, my dad turned the question on us. “What had we learned being their children?” I have been thinking about this question for a while now because my parents and I mixed like oil and water until I was twenty-five. I had always wanted a friendship with them and yet it seemed impossible because we rarely saw eye to eye. Now, I consider my parents to be my friends and have been asking myself, “What took so long?” The answer. Our capacities to love were too different. Theirs was big. Mine was small. See, it is a sacrifice, suffering, for the sake of the good of someone else that increases the ability to love. The more we truly love, the more wisdom we can truly gain as we continually lay down our own interests for the sake of someone else. As a young woman, I rarely had to sacrifice for anything. Everything I did was in the end about me. My parents made money, sacrificed their time, and repeatedly laid down their pride for my sake. If I studied, it was for my grades. If I suffered practice, it was so that I could master the task before me. As young men and women in today’s society, we spend most of our time on our futures, our personal development, and our social lives. While these are not bad things, they, by their nature, can never increase our capacity to love because they are self-focused. My parents on the other hand (and I know that this is not all parents) were naturally at a point in their lives where they had lived for themselves, and decided that there was something better for which they could give their lives. First, they chose to give their lives to each other. They willingly laid down their singleness for their togetherness. Their decisions were no longer about their individual well-being. In this life decision, their love was expanded. Their marriage conditioned them to be able to make greater acts of love than they could when they were single. And then, they had children. Whole. New. Level. What I now know about having children is that parents, maybe for the first time in their lives (maybe not) are forced to expand their love into the realm of the unconditional. My parents sacrificed for me for FOUR YEARS before I even had my first memory. I could not pay them back; I could not return the favor. I stole their sleep, I cried for no reason, I took away their freedom to go and do whatever they wanted and I did very little for them in return. This total, complete sacrifice expanded their love beyond my comprehension. I had not yet suffered in this manner. My worldview could not match theirs. Then I got married. I laid down the life that was all about me for a life with my husband. When people say marriage is hard, they mean that the sacrifice for the other hurts. It hurts because I have had so much “me” for so long and the chipping away of that is painful. It leads, however, to joy. My husband and I now have an 8-month-old. She steals my sleep. It is for her that we have laid down our freedom. She and her future siblings will take all of our money. We will put up with their crying before they ever have a memory and they will most likely pay us back with eye rolls in the future. My capacity to love is now big enough to close the chasm that existed so long between my parents and me. I have learned over the past two years that the purpose of human connection in its purity is to grow in our capacity to love in a way that reflects the love of God. The key to growing that love is suffering, but we live in a world that is allergic to anything less than comfort, rendering us a society of people was little capacity to truly love. If we can’t pay the price for love, we must settle for politeness and land in isolation.My generation is not marrying or reproducing because they are afraid to give away their freedom. Little do they know that a perpetual adolescence stifles one’s ability to love and is starting to literally kill society on many levels. [bctt tweet="The purpose of human connection is to grow in our capacity to love in a way that reflects God." username="blessedisshe__"] If we look at many of the major problems plaguing our society today, most stem from the desire to preserve the self. Internet pornography, the lack of commitment to marriage, the refusal to have children, technology addiction are decimating true culture and killing the connections that make us human. We have to rediscover the Truth that “Fun” is not Purpose and that suffering is not bad. Yes, it is hard, but it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. When I was forced suffer, I found a purpose that cannot be gained through selfishness. Let us not be afraid to rid ourselves of ourselves and reclaim the purpose for which we were made. Mallory Smyth is never far from a bag (full of stuff), a book, a bible (also a book), a big smile, a banging cup of coffee and a beautiful friendship.

Let’s get to know each other a bit more, as sisters in Christ. Feel free to share your answers to these questions in on our Instagram post and/or your own Instagram post, tagging #BISsisterhood. Patty Hubbard is a runner, big dreamer, writer, and youth minister ordinaire. She loves all things John Wayne, a tasty mimosa, and is learning to find grace in all things. Find her blogging it all at A Modern Grace. What is your favorite religious text or book? Current favorites are Making Sense Out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft and Seven Last Words by Fr. James Martin. Do you have a special Saint that you feel a strong connection to? How so? As a little girl, I loved Mother Teresa. I wanted to be her when I grew up and was known to play dress up as her. I also love St. Ignatius of Loyola; the beauty of his spirituality and steps in discernment have been so helpful for me. Which virtue do you find yourself working on the most throughout your day? Trust...and patience when I'm driving sometimes. What keeps you Catholic? The sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Do you have a motto / quote / saying you live by? Hands down, the Serenity Prayer: God grant me serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. How do you "walk the walk"? I want to love and serve others as best I can in the most authentic way. I strive to show more grace and love, and less judgment. When people are around me, I hope they experience a glimmer of God's love and compassion. How does Christ call you to serve - is it prayer/contemplation/acts of service, etc.? Through loving and serving others well...just be a joyful sign of Him in the world.

You are the chosen child of God, precious in His eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity. And we want to celebrate Y O U and this beautiful truth. Join us in October in California and/or March in Arizona to dive in to Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. Pray with us, worship with us. I want to come to the Beloved Retreat! We can't wait to see you. Grab your special Beloved desktop and phone wallpaper for free from the lovely Erica of Be a Heart, right here --->>> Phone wallpaper Desktop wallpaper