Draw Closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

Do you want to have a closer relationship with the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Love Him Ever More: A 9-Day Personal Retreat with the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr. Joe Laramie, SJ, is designed to help you open your heart to unite with the heart of Our Lord. It is a follow-up to Fr. Laramie’s previous book, Abide in the Heart of Christ (which was excellent), but you don’t need to have read that one to benefit from this book.

This at-home retreat can be done over nine days or nine weeks, alone or with a group. Each “day” begins with a spiritual quote, an essay that pulls from the author’s life or the lives of others, a contemplative prayer rooted in Ignatian spirituality, questions for personal reflection or journalling, and a short prayer.

Days one through three invite us to look at our own hearts. We can contemplate how “we are created in love. We are created for love” (6). What are the desires of our hearts? What is God asking us to do? Fr. Laramie discusses how St. Ignatius explained consolation and desolation and offers advice on what we should do in both circumstances. He reminds readers that God is always there even when we don’t feel His presence. He also explores how to cope when our hearts are heavy with grief and suffering. “To heal our brokenness, we must encounter Christ” (36).

On days four through six, we are called to reflect on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Fr. Laramie reflects on the Incarnation through which “God now has a beating human heart” (53). Jesus desires for us to relate to Him on an intimate level as we would a spouse or close friend. Day six tells of the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alocoque which helped to establish the Sacred Heart Devotion.

The final three days focus on our mission. We unite with Christ so that we can then share His heart with others. The Apostleship of Prayer was started to help everyone all over the world join with others in prayer and sacrifice. Jesus calls each of us “to labor with him, in ways big and small” (119). By praying a morning offering and giving our “prayers, works, joys, and sufferings” to Christ (107), every part of our day “has meaning and grace” (132).

The appendix includes the Litany of the Sacred Heart, Pope John Paul II’s Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart, the Anima Christ, and other prayers to help foster devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Love Him Ever More is highly recommended for anyone who wants to cultivate a deeper connection with God.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Purchases made after clicking a link help support this site. 

#OpenBook for December 2023

 

Welcome to  #OpenBook. I'm joining up with Carolyn Astfalk who hosts an #OpenBook Linkup on CatholicMom.com. Here's what I've been reading this past month. The dates indicate when I finished the books. Thanks for stopping by!

 

11-1-23 Amish Love Letters - Shelley Shepard Gray, Charlotte Hubbard, and Rosalind Lauer -  This Valentine's Day collection features three novellas of Amish romance, all of which involve love letters in some capacity. My favorite was The Wrong Valentine in which a young widow gets a second chance at love after one of the valentines she once made for her husband ends up in unexpected hands. (Read for a book review publication).

 

 11-5-23 Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner's Call to Science - Jeannine Atkins - This novel in verse is meant for younger readers (age 10 and up), but I truly enjoyed learning about this scientist I had never heard of before. Lise had to fight for her right to get an education and then worked in Germany in the early part of the twentieth century. She was Jewish and needed to flee during World War II. Some of the science she discovered was ultimately used to develop the atomic bomb, although she refused to help with that project and had very mixed feelings about her discoveries being used in that way. This book could foster a lot of conversation and I definitely recommend it for homeschoolers. 

11-8-23 Prepare Your Heart: A Guided Advent Journal for Prayer and Meditation - Fr. Augustino Torres, CFR - This is a lovely Advent reflection book that can be used year after year. Each week focuses on a different "way" - The Way of Nazareth, The Way of the Saints, The Way of St. Joseph, and The Way of Mary. For each day, there is a spiritual quote, reflection questions with room to journal in the book, and a closing prayer. It provides an excellent way to spiritually prepare for Christmas.

11-13-23 The Amish Quiltmaker's Unlikely Match - Jennifer Beckstrand - This book is part of a series, but it works great as a standalone. Mary Yoder is considered an old maid by Amish standards, but her life is about to change when a drunk professional baseball player crashes in to her family's barn. This is a heartwarming Amish romance with lessons about overcoming one's fears and healing from trauma. (Read for a book review publication)

11-16-23 I Would Like to Travel the World: Therese of Lisieux: Miracle-Worker, Doctor, and Missionary - This is an English reprint of a book originally published in French in 2003. It shares testimony about several miracles obtained through St. Therese's intercession, discusses the process by which she was declared a Doctor of the Church, and then traces the travels of her relics around the world from 1994 to 2003. If you aren't familiar with St. Therese, there are many better books to pick from, including her autobiography Story of a Soul, but I found the chapter on how she was declared a Doctor of the Church interesting and this book also made me reconsider my feelings on relics.

11-18-23 The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip - Sara Brunsvold - This was a beautiful story about a remarkable woman dying of cancer and the young reporter who is sent to interview her for her obituary. It is a faith-filled Christian novel with important lessons about accompanying someone as they prepare for death. I highly recommend this one!  

11-22-23 Miracles at Promise Lodge - Charlotte Hubbard - This is the last book in the series about a community in Missouri where Mennonites and Amish live side by side. Promise Lodge is made up of people who have all left their homes for one reason or another and get a second chance at life and love in this new place. This particular installment focused on two love stories and also brought back some characters from previous books. If you are interested in this series, I think it would be better to start with the first book: Promise Lodge. (Read for a book review publication.)

11-26-23 The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life - Janice Kaplan - I read this one over Thanksgiving weekend. I do try to be thankful in my life, but I admit I can be prone to negativity. This book offered a good reminder to be thankful for every day's blessings. Kaplan spent a year working on her own attitude of gratitude and offers some scientific backing for why being thankful is good for us. This is a secular book with a touch of new age thought in it, but the message is important. Those of us who come from a faith perspective know to give thanks to God, which should inspire us to be even more thankful! Since reading this book, I've been trying to think of something to be thankful for whenever I start to have a negative thought. It's only been a bit over a week, but I do think it is helping.

 12-3-23 Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math - Jeannine Atkins - This book was written for young people ages 10 and up, but even as an adult, I enjoyed it a great deal. It features short biographies of seven remarkable girls/women who took their love of math and made a difference in the world. Several of these women also raised families. The women profiled are Caroline Herschel, Florence Nightingale, Hertha Marks Ayrton, Marie Tharp, Katherine Johnson, and Edna Lee Paisano. Before reading this book, I had only heard of Nightingale and Johnson. The biographies are written in free verse, but it reads like prose. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about amazing women who were pioneers in their fields.  

12-4-23 'Twas the Day Before Christmas in Bethlehem Town - Leslie Bond Diggins - This is a sweet picture book for young children told from the perspective of a shepherd boy in the crowded streets of Bethlehem. His father explains about the census and tells him to welcome strangers with love. The boy performs a generous act, and then that night is among the shepherds who see the angel of God proclaiming the good news that Jesus was born. The shepherd boy is honored to get to meet the baby Jesus.

Since spring of 2019, I have been making my way through the Great Books Curriculum of Thomas Aquinas College (I'm currently working on the readings for junior year). 

11-29-23 Principles of Philosophy - Rene Descartes - This was first published in Latin in 1644 with an expanded edition published in French in 1647. I read through Part 1, "On the Principles of Human Knowledge" which is the source of the famous "I think, therefore I am" quote. Descartes urged readers to trust in natural enlightenment as long as nothing contrary is revealed by God. I also appreciated his take that just because we can't understand something doesn't mean something isn't true. Parts II through IV dealt with scientific topics regarding both space and the earth. I mostly scanned those sections. He gets props for trying to explain the physical world, but by current standards, his scientific explanations were faulty. Still, it is interesting to see some of the theories that were being put forth in the 1600s.

My twelve-year-old daughter and I read the following book this month:

 

11-30-23 Return to Sender - Julia Alvarez - The main characters in this story set in 2006 are two twelve year olds, an American boy who lives on a farm in Vermont and a Mexican girl who comes with her father and uncles to work on their farm. This story brings a human face to illegal immigration and touches on some tough issues, such as when the girl's mother is kidnapped trying to return to the US from Mexico after she had gone home to see her dying mother. This story can foster conversations on immigration, friendship, and bravery. Both my daughter and I enjoyed this book.

 

 

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St. Therese's Mission Continues After Death

 

I’ve always struggled a bit with the Catholic Church’s use of relics. After all, one of the corporal works of mercy is to bury the dead, which apparently applies in all cases except when one is a saint. Instead of being buried, the remains of saints’ bodies are put on display and separated into pieces so that people around the world can venerate them. I’ve never quite understood the logical disconnect there. However, I am not God, and God in his wisdom chooses to make use of relics as a vehicle of healing.

This is clearly the case when it comes to St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  I Would Like to Travel the World: Thérèse of Lisieux: Miracle-Worker, Doctor, and Missionary by Archbishop Guy Gaucher is a new English version of a work originally published in French in 2003. Archbishop Guacher directed the compilation of the complete works of St. Thérèse, an undertaking that helped pave the way for her to be declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 1997.

The first part of this work focuses on some of the modern miracles that have been attributed to St. Thérèse. These miracles include both physical and spiritual healing. This was what she wanted before she died. Her work wasn’t done.

Part two explains the process by which St. Thérèse was declared a Doctor of the Church. In 1932, Pius XI refused to consider a petition to give her that honor due to her gender! (He had previously denied St. Teresa of Avila on the same grounds.) It would take another sixty-five years and a pope who had a much greater appreciation for the feminine genius for her to receive the title. She was the third female Doctor of the Church (after St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena who were both given that honor in 1970). It was only a hundred years after her death, the shortest span in which anyone had been declared a Doctor of the Church.

St. John Paul II stated:

Thérèse is a woman, who in approaching the Gospel knew how to grasp its hidden wealth with that practicality and deep resonance of life and wisdom which belong to the feminine genius. Because of her universality, she stands out among the multitude of holy women who are resplendent for their Gospel wisdom. (95)

The last section of the book focuses on St. Thérèse’s role as a missionary. In life on this earth, she was a cloistered nun, but she always wanted to be a missionary. Pope Paul XI declared her the Patroness of the Missions in 1927. Her relics had the opportunity to travel around the world in a way she never did in her earthly life. From 1994 through 2003, her relics traveled to twenty-seven countries, where great crowds gathered to pray and venerate her, including many people who had not been to church in a long time. There were many healings and conversions as a result.

Regarding relics, St. Gregory the Great declared that saints’ remains could accomplish miracles, and that God is the “one who acts through these signs.” (116) Archbishop Gaucher adds, “To venerate the ashes of someone or his remains is to acknowledge that this person’s influence doesn’t end with death . . . In faith, we proclaim that these people are more alive than we are in our earthly condition.” (275)

As an aside, it just so happened that a relic of St. Jude was visiting my area soon after I finished reading this book. St. Jude hears a lot from me on a daily basis, and after reading of all the miracles attributed to the intercession of St. Thérèse after people visited her relics, I decided that St. Jude was worth going to venerate. Did I obtain a miracle? No. But I trust that God heard my prayers and that St. Jude will keep interceding for me. Ultimately, that faith is what matters most.  

  I Would Like to Travel the World: Thérèse of Lisieux: Miracle-Worker, Doctor, and Missionary isn’t designed for those with little familiarity with St. Thérèse. It doesn’t tell much about her life or why she is a saint. However, for those who want to learn more about the miracles attributed to her throughout the world, this is an interesting book.  

Catholic Writers Guild Online Conference

 The Catholic Writers Guild is hosting its annual online writing conference February 23-24. It features presentations on faith and writing, chances to meet fellow authors, and opportunities to pitch to Catholic publishers like Ave Maria and Chrism Press. It’s totally online—no travel!—and costs $60. Learn more at https://catholicwritersguild.org/online-conference

Nurture Your Spiritual Life this Advent

 Advent begins on Sunday, December 3rd this year which makes this the perfect time to start thinking about preparing your soul for Christmas. It's so easy to get focused on all the physical preparations for Christmas and lose sight of the true meaning of the season. The decorations and gifts and yummy foods all add to the season and to our family's joy. They do matter, but what matters most is reflecting on the mystery of the Incarnation - Jesus came to the world as a small baby to live and grow among us and to ultimately die on a cross to save us. These three books provide an easy way to incorporate some spiritual reflection into your Advent.

 Messages of Patience for Advent and Christmas 2023 - Michael White and Tom Corcoran -  This one offers short devotions with a Scripture verse, brief reflection, and a question to ponder. The theme is on having patience as we listen to God and discern his will for our lives. It is designed especially for Christmas 2023 and offers reflections for December 3rd through January 6th. This is a perfect book if you only have a few minutes a day to spend in Advent/Christmas reflection.

 Draw Near: Daily Prayers for Advent and Christmas - This Advent/Christmas book features a Scripture or spiritual quote to reflect on, a reflection, a prayer for morning, a question to reflect on during the day, and a prayer for evening. The themes covered are Waking Up, Preparing a Way, Rejoicing, and Receiving the Light, with the Octave of Christmas focusing on Wonder. This one provides reflections for December 3rd through January 8th.

 

Prepare Your Heart: A Guided Advent Journal for Prayer and Meditation - Fr. Augustino Torres, CFR - This is a lovely Advent reflection book that can be used year after year. Each week focuses on a different "way" - The Way of Nazareth, The Way of the Saints, The Way of St. Joseph, and The Way of Mary. For each day, there is a spiritual quote, reflection questions with room to journal in the book, and a closing prayer. It provides an excellent way to spiritually prepare for Christmas.

 

 

#OpenBook for November 2023

 

Welcome to  #OpenBook. I'm joining up with Carolyn Astfalk who hosts an #OpenBook Linkup on CatholicMom.com. Here's what I've been reading this past month. The dates indicate when I finished the books. Thanks for stopping by!

 

10-6-23 The Seamstress of Acadie - Laura Frantz - This is a leisurely work of historical fiction that unfolds slowly, tracing the life of Sylvia Galant, who works as a seamstress in Acadie (present-day Nova Scotia) in the 1750s, but then her family is driven from their land and she ends up in Virginia after a shipwreck, where she must build a new life. I never knew much about the Acadian people (who were French Catholics) or their history. This is a long work (over 400 pages), but if you enjoy historical women's fiction, it is worth checking out. (Read for a book review publication)

10-9-23 The Country of the Blind - Andrew Leland - Leland has retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that has caused him to steadily lose his vision since he was in his teens. Now in middle age, he still has some vision, but it is markedly reduced. In this book, he tells his story of adjusting to life while losing his sight. He also shares some fascinating information on the development of assistive tools for those who are blind. There is also a discussion of what it means to be disabled, whether blindness is a disability or simply another way of being in the world. 

10-9-23 Messages of Patience for Advent and Christmas 2023 - Michael White and Tom Corcoran - With Advent right around the corner, it is time to review Advent devotionals. This one offers short devotions with a Scripture verse, brief reflection, and a question to ponder. The theme is on having patience as we listen to God and discern his will for our lives. 

10-13-23 The Shakespeare Requirement - Julie Schumacher - This is the second book in a trilogy about a disgruntled English professor who is currently the head of his department in a school where there is a movement to downsize the English department and get rid of a Shakespeare requirement for English majors. This series is a bit more vulgar than books I usually read, but there is something about the humor of it and its portrait of academic life that appeals to me.

10-14-23 The English Experience - Julie Schumacher - This is the third book in the series. It was recently published. I had seen this one advertised and decided to read the full series, but this one works great as a stand-alone. Honestly, I think it is the best of the three books. The disgruntled English professor is roped into taking a group of college students to England for a three-week intensive.

10-20-23 In Every Life - Maria Frazee - This is a lovely picture book designed for young children. It has a simple text and beautiful illustrations about the blessings found in every life. This is one of those soothing books that I could see being read night after night as a bedtime story.  

10-17-23 The Bookbinder - Pip Williams - This book is tangentially related to Williams' first book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, which I read and enjoyed, but you don't need to have read that one to appreciate this one. This book focuses on Peggy Jones and her intellectually-challenged twin sister, Maude, who both work as bookbinders for the Oxford University Press. They are supposed to bind the books, not read them, but Peggy takes home books and fragments of books that did not pass quality inspection and adds them to her library. World War I, however, will sharply change everyone's lives. I enjoyed this story. I never even thought about bookbinders before reading this book. It is a secular novel and does have a few racy passages.

10-30-23 Draw Near: Daily Prayers for Advent and Christmas - This Advent/Christmas book features a Scripture or spiritual quote to reflect on, a reflection, a prayer for morning, a question to reflect on during the day, and a prayer for evening.

 

Since spring of 2019, I have been making my way through the Great Books Curriculum of Thomas Aquinas College (I'm currently working on the readings for junior year). 

10-20-23 Politics - Aristotle - I found this exploration of different types of governments and their pros and cons interesting. Regarding politics, it seems like not much has changed since ancient times. At the end of the work, Aristotle discusses marriage - according to him the ideal age for a woman to get married is 18 and a man at 37 (he states this is when both are at their prime and will decline together). A man should not, however, sire children past the age of 55. While a woman is pregnant, she should eat healthy and exercise her body but not her mind. He also endorses abortion and the killing of any deformed infants. He also discussed education which he felt should be completely under the control of the state.

My twelve-year-old daughter and I read the following books this month:

 

 

 

 

 10-12-23 Before We Were Free - Julia Alvarez -This book is listed for ages 12 and up and I definitely second that recommendation. It has been compared to being reminiscent of The Diary of Anne Frank, only this time the girl in hiding is in the Dominican Republic in the early 1960s. It deals with some very difficult themes (the possibility of rape and murder) as well as all the coming-of-age issues that a 12-year-old girl faces. The main characters are Catholic. 

 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods - We're almost done this one. I think I was even more excited than my daughter to read this one! I've always enjoyed this series and this new book is a great addition. I think it is the first book of a new trilogy. Percy is now a senior in high school and needs to complete three quests to get letters of recommendation for college.

 

 

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Purchases made after clicking a link help support this site. Thank you!

#OpenBook for October 2023

 

Welcome to  #OpenBook. I'm joining up with Carolyn Astfalk who hosts an #OpenBook Linkup on CatholicMom.com. Here's what I've been reading this past month. The dates indicate when I finished the books. Thanks for stopping by!

 

9-9-23 Dear Committee Members - Julie Schumacher - The third book in this trilogy just came out and it looked interesting, so I decided to request the first book in the series from the library. It is an epistolary novel telling the story through letters a frustrated English professor writes, many of which are letters of recommendation on behalf of his students. It did feature a few swears and some less than ideal behavior, but overall this was a fun, snarky book with more than a little truth in it about life as an academic in a humanities field. She author is a faculty member at the University of Minnesota (or at least she was at the time this book was written nearly ten years ago) and perhaps knows something of which he speaks.

9-12-23 In the Trenches: Finding God Through Parenting Littles - Kelsey Gillespy - Even though my days of parenting littles are behind me, I enjoyed this book and its reflections on the spiritual lessons to be learned in that life stage. Gillespy wrote In the Trenches to help other moms suffering from the exhaustion and loneliness of parenting young children to feel seen and less alone, and she succeeds in that goal. The spiritual lessons, however, are good regardless of your life stage and help readers reflect on how God sees us. (Read for Catholic Library World)

9-15-23 Arise to Blessedness - Jen Norton - This is a lovely book that combines word and image to help readers reflect on the Beatitudes and how they were lived by eight modern saints. There are also journal prompts and blank pages to use for journaling. 

 

9-17-23 Thinking Inside the Box - Adrienne Raphel - I'm really not a puzzle person. Most puzzles just leave me frustrated. However, my second son got me into doing the daily crossword puzzle with him and we've been doing it on most days for about a year. This was an interesting book on the history of crossword puzzles, different sorts of word puzzles, how to make a crossword puzzle, and crossword competitions. While it meandered in some spots, it was a fascinating look at something I knew little about.

9-22-23 Ruth's Ginger Snap Surprise - Anne Blackburne - Ruth Helmuth has no children and has been widowed for a year. Her bishop thinks she should sell her farm to someone to could make more use of it. He also thinks maybe she should marry him (even though he is much, much older). Ruth is horrified. She loves her farm and has no desire to marry the bishop. She comes up with ways to make more use of the land and in the process falls for the widowed Joanas Hershberger and his sweet young daughter Abigail. This was a tender Amish romance that I enjoyed. (Read for a book review publication)
 

9-24-23 Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture - Virginia Sole-Smith - I'm really not sure how I felt about this book. It was definitely thought-provoking. The author is working against fat bias, which is great. All people have equal dignity and should be treated the same regardless of size. However, her embrace of "eat anything you want whenever you want" might be taking it a bit too far. Also, she has logical inconsistencies. For example, she has no problem with medical interventions that force anorexics to be supervised in their eating and made to eat a reasonable amount of food as part of their treatment, but any restriction of food for someone who is overweight should be avoided at all costs due to the psychological damage it can cause. Another example is that she is against diet and exercise regimens that cause girls or women to stop menstruating, but she is also for "gender-affirming" care which, while she doesn't discuss it, often includes puberty-blockers. So, this book made me think, but it also got me annoyed and downright angry at times.

10-1-23 The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club - Julia Bryan Thomas - This book had my name written all over it. It featured young women at college in the 1950s and a book club. And I did enjoy it, but it took an unexpected dark turn about half way through. 

10-1-23 The Glory of God - Maria J. Bain - This is a beautiful picture book that helps teach children about the value of following the Ten Commandments and the Sacrament of Reconciliation and how those tools can help them be the person God wants them to be.

Since spring of 2019, I have been making my way through the Great Books Curriculum of Thomas Aquinas College (I'm currently working on the readings for junior year). 

9-26-13 Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle - This was a moderately interesting book that explored topics such as happiness, the work of man, virtues, justice, friendship, and pleasure.

My twelve-year-old daughter and I read the following book this month:

 9-21-23 Running Out of Time - Margaret Peterson Haddix - This book was originally published in 1995, but the author recently wrote a sequel so it has been rereleased. Jessie lives in 1840, or so she thinks. When the children in her village start dying of diphtheria, her mother tells her the truth - that they are living in an historical recreation and in the outside world it is 1996. With no one allowed to leave, Jessie has to sneak into the modern world and try to get help. This was a really good book, although in reading it to my twelve year old, I also had to explain what life was like in 1996! I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

 

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Purchases made after clicking a link help support this site. Thank you!