"The Life and Lessons of St. Zelie Martin" is Free on Kindle through Christmas

In honor of St. Zelie Martin's birthday on December 23rd, The Life and Lessons of St. Zelie Martin is free on Kindle today through Christmas. Please download! Merry Christmas!

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.

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#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.