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Daily Reflection: 28 April 2024
When my husband and I were dating neither one of us gave a thought about our Faith life. I was the mad Protestant who had turned her back on God and Dustin was a cradle Catholic that lived right across the street from the Catholic Church on campus, but never went. The day our oldest…
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Daily Reflection: 26 April 2024
Recently, my husband had to go on a work trip to Los Angeles. When he got back, he told me about how near Santa Monica, there’s this plane that social media influencers can rent out to make videos, pretending like they are traveling to some exotic place. They get in it, video a fake scenario…
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Daily Reflection: 25 April 2024
I used to love a good battle. Give me a political battle and I’d happily enter the ring. My competitor and I would battle it out with our words and then exhausted, we’d both leave the “ring” not changed one bit. It was after the summer of 2020 when my eyes were opened to the…
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Daily Reflection: 24 April 2024
I finished this book last night and I’m still sitting here wondering what to think about it. Never have I read a book that more clearly shows how mortal sin utterly sinks a soul. Dorian Gray is a young, wildly handsome man who captures everyone he meets. Basil Hallward, a painter, is enraptured with his…
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Daily Reflection: 23 April 2024
I was watching a video of Bishop Sheen the other day and he was talking about the differences in the way God and Satan speak to you before you commit a sin. God says, “Don’t do this.” We hear His voice in a demanding, overbearing way. Satan says, “Do it!” We hear his voice as…
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Daily Reflection: 22 April 2024
Yesterday, as you know, was Good Shepherd Sunday and the Church asks us to pray specifically for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. My priest said, “What does it mean to pray for more priests and religious? Is it simply to ask for more numbers? No, I think there is something else, especially for…
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Daily Reflection: 21 April 2024
If you’ve ever been on a military installation when a lot of active duty members are milling about in uniform, it’s not uncommon to see a little kid pick out the wrong dad. Being so little and among a sea of camouflage pants and boots, it’s easy to see why they sometimes grab the wrong…
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Daily Reflection: 19 April 2024
Oh Paul, how I relate to your story and conversion. Today, in our readings, we get the famous Damascus story. As you know, Saul was running around full of “murderous threats” towards Christians and he was full of pride. He thought he knew better, he was on the attack, and he was going to set…
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Daily Reflection: 17 April 2024
The day I was doing prison ministry, the other volunteer who was there said to me at one point, “You know, it seems like many of the women here have mental issues.” “Yeah,” I responded back, “One thing I learned through my work is that for many, somewhere in their past, someone who was supposed…
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Daily Reflection: 16 April 2024
One of the biggest reasons I turned away from my Faith after tragedy struck was because I was under the impression that Christianity was synonymous with an easy life. I believed Jesus had taken care of everything back in the day and His followers afterwards would live the “good” life. Good meaning easy, comfortable, pleasant,…
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Daily Reflection: 15 April 2024
Last Thursday, my son had a baseball game. Afterwards, his team was going to have a little birthday celebration for one of his teammates. Since they were going to have pizza and cake, I knew I needed to get some gluten-free pizza and a gf cupcake for my son so he could feel a part…
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Daily Reflection: 14 April 2024
Yesterday, after months and months of waiting for them to clear me, I finally got to go with one of my parish priests to do prison ministry. When I was working, I used to go into many different kinds of places where those convicted of crimes were held, including prisons, and I’ve missed serving that…
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Daily Reflection: 12 April 2024
Ave Maria Grotto, St. Bernard Abbey, Cullman, Alabama In 1892, Brother Joseph Zoetl came from Bavaria to begin his monastic life at the abbey. He was in charge of the furnace, but in his spare time, he started building miniature buildings out of anything he could get his hands on. Most of his miniature buildings…
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Daily Reflection: 11 April 2024
If you are someone who knowingly persists in mortal sin there are three responses you can have when they see others engage in mortal sin. 1. Indifference. You just don’t care. 2. You get incredibly angry at the other. It’s a projection thing. You are really angry with yourself for how far you’ve allowed yourself…
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Daily Reflection: 10 April 2024
Hey, Pilgrims, I’ve got my backpack on and am ready to embark on our quest to find sky-god, that “mythical man who lives in the clouds” that supposedly us Christians believe in. So, (big arm wave) come on! Let’s go! “We’ll look high, we’ll look low, to the top of a mountain we will go!…
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Daily Reflection: 9 April 2024
Some of you asked me to tell about the first time I received Communion as a new convert. I realized that I have never actually written about that…so here goes. Before I met my husband, I was engaged to another guy. He was fine, but as my dad said, “we were unequally yoked.” That was…
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Daily Reflection: 8 April 2024
When I was pregnant my senior year of college, I was still in Air Force ROTC. Once I started to show, I stood out like a sore thumb in my maternity clothes. (Side note: Maternity clothes have gotten way more stylish than when I was pregnant with my first.) Everyone else was in uniform and…
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Daily Reflection: 7 April 2024
Twice in our Gospel reading from John, we get the detail that the Apostles were hiding behind a locked door. They were scared and I’m sure I would be, too. You can imagine the mood behind the locked door: Intense with fear, gloominess, anxiousness, every sound making the Apostles tense up. Most of us have…
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Daily Reflection: 5 April 2025
We are out of Lent, I can do a fun Friday with y’all. (Working on my Alabama accent there) 1. The correct word is pop. Not soda, not Coke to cover all soft drinks. Pop. 2. I get asked often (mostly by California residents) if we still drive covered wagons in Kansas. We do. My…
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Daily Reflection: 4 April 2024
This past Sunday at church, after I had received Holy Communion and was praying, I saw the visiting priest put the Eucharist in the hand of a young girl. However, as he went to place it, she moved her hand and the Host fell on the ground. I instantly gasped. Quick as a flash, though,…
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Daily Reflection: 3 April 2024
When I was 16, in a last ditch effort to be seen by my neglectful boyfriend, I drove to his house to beg for his love. He was home, playing some game on the computer. Though I tried with all my might, I couldn’t get him to engage in conversation with me. In cruel fashion,…
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Daily Reflection: 2 April 2024
I’m the bed-maker in our marriage. For 22 years, I’ve made our bed each morning. The other day, I jokingly said to my husband, “If I went on a business trip, like you always do, the poor bed wouldn’t get made here at home.” He said, “Yes, it would. Believe it or not, I make…
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Daily Reflection: 29 March 2024
I’ll be off for Good Friday and Holy Saturday, Catholic Pilgrims. There will, also, be no podcast episode for today. I’ll see you all in a few days. “Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the salvation of the world: come, let us adore.”…
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Daily Reflection: 28 March 2024
Here we are at Holy Thursday. This is the day Christ instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders. In the reading today from John, Peter initially refuses to let Jesus wash his feet. While I know Peter’s intention was an attempt at humility, it is, no less, a false humility. Christ wants…
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Daily Reflection: 27 March 2024
Two days before my husband and I were marrried, we went with our wedding party to the amusement park “Worlds of Fun” in Kansas City. At one point, I sat down on a bench and discovered right beside me a Crown Royal bag. When I looked inside, I found hundreds and hundreds of dollars, maybe…
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Daily Reflection: 26 March 2024
Judas and Peter. Both are going to betray Jesus. As I was reading the Gospel this morning, I noticed something I had never thought about. Both men commit to do something: Judas to do evil, Peter to stand by Jesus. Judas follows through and commits his evil deed. Peter does not, at least initially, follow…
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Daily Reflection: 25 March 2024
“Amy, you cannot live so close to such beauty and not go see it!” On her way home back to Ohio from my house, that’s what my best friend texted to me after her family stopped off to see The Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. My goodness, Catholic Pilgrims, the beauty in…
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Daily Reflection: 22 March 2024
Yesterday, while my son was at nature club, I took a little walk to a pond to pray my daily rosary. It was so nice seeing the signs of Spring all around, hearing the birds, watching the big ‘ole fat bumblebee hover right in front of me, and watching the tallest tree you see in…
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Daily Reflection: 21 March 2024
Isn’t this tree incredible? While researching things to do in Charleston, I came upon this tree—Angel Oak Tree—and planned for us to see it and have a picnic on the grounds. It’s kind of out of the way, but it’s free to see, so with just a little effort, you can stop by and spend…
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Daily Reflection: 20 March 2024
Catholic Pilgrims, I wanted to share some gift ideas for Easter. I recently became acquainted with Dina Zeldon of The Saint Symphorien Institute. She has written the sweetest book called, “The Little Way of Trust.” The book is based off a true story of St. Therese from when she was a small child. It is…
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Daily Reflection: 19 March 2024
For those that don’t love God or those that have a weak relationship with Him, God seems like a rule-making taskmaster. He’s like a spouse that you don’t really love, who you view as demanding all kinds of things. This makes it very hard to want to do what He asks. In fact, you’d sooner…
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Daily Reflection: 18 March 2024
On our last day in Charleston, I knew I wanted to see the oldest parish in the Carolinas, which had been established in 1789. It was getting close to 4:30pm and the church was about to close for the day, so my family quickly headed over so I could at least lay eyes on it.…
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Daily Reflection: 17 March 2024
One of the things that impresses me so much about many of the Saints is that after being removed from difficultly they often went back into the fray or they went searching for those situations that were surely to be a battle. St. Patrick, after being kidnapped and held as a slave for many years,…
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Daily Reflection: 16 March 2024
Hey, Catholic Pilgrims. I recently got to have a wonderful chat with Amy and Jacki from the “Design Your Life” podcast. We cover a wide range of topics: My conversion, meeting my husband, how I started my Catholic Pilgrim page, and the healing from past trauma that I experienced once I entered the Catholic Church.…
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Daily Reflection: 15 March 2024
f you’re gonna laugh, laugh big. This is me with my momma and sister. When I was 17, in my dark place, I was trying to convince my mom to let me go to another high school. We were arguing about it in the kitchen and because I wasn’t being clear in my reasoning, she…
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Daily Reflection: 14 March 2024
I was sitting with my 9-year old son the other day and I asked Him, “Do you understand that God loves you?” He said, “Yes.” “Do you always feel that love?” Shyly, he answered, “Well, it’s kind of hard sometimes.” “Yeah, it can be. He’s not here to hug or play ball with.” He replied,…
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Daily Reflection: 13 March 2024
You’ve all heard my story of how when I was 17, I turned my back on God. I didn’t become an atheist, I was just incredibly angry with Him. In an attempt to punish God, I basically stopped doing anything religious. I didn’t go to church. I didn’t read my Bible. I broke a lot…
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Daily Reflection: 12 March 2024
My priest told a great story yesterday at Mass. He said, “I don’t remember where I read this, but its message is important. There was a Bishop from Europe meeting with a Bishop in Africa. They were having breakfast together. The European Bishop commented on how alive the Church was in Africa, specifically Nigeria. The…
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Daily Reflection: 11 March 2024
Finished another book in my list of recommendations from you all. I finished “The Last of the Mohicans” last night. It’s not my favorite book by any stretch of the imagination, but I am glad that I read it. The story opens with two sisters trying to get to their father, a colonel in the…
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Daily Reflection: 10 March 2024
Recently, when I was in Charleston, my family went on a sailing trip for two hours. The sun was out, the sky was Robin-egg blue, the clouds were fluffy cotton balls, the sun was warm, but the wind was cool, and the dolphins were playing in the water. It’s in those moments, those perfect moments…
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Daily Reflection: 8 Marc 2024
A little Charleston Catholic history lesson for you today, Catholic Pilgrims. Before the year 1716, Catholics were worshipping in South Carolina. However, in 1716, Catholics were banned because there was fear that Catholics would band together with the Spanish Empire and, as we know, Spain and England weren’t exactly best friends through the colonial era.…
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Daily Reflection: 6 March 2024
A couple of days ago, I told you that my husband had a late night talk with a younger guy while on a business trip. They got on the subject of religion and it was clear to my husband that the younger guy is very much searching. There’s a question my husband always asks other…
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Daily Reflection: 4 March 2024
Recently, my husband and our oldest have had good theological discussions with people—people who are searching. My daughter, the Focus missionary, was telling me about a recent tabling experience on campus. (Tabling is where the missionaries just set up a table and engage the college students.) Anyway, a guy with genuine curiosity come up and…
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Daily Reflection: 3 March 2024
I’m a very black and white person. For me, there’s right and there’s wrong and it’s really not too complicated to know which is which once you educate yourself. Basically, for the most part, if the world condones or encourages some issue of morality, beware. And I get it, there are areas of gray, or…
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Daily Reflection: 1 March 2024
Before moving to Alabama, I had told my son that the neighborhood we were moving into was going to be teeming with kids. I knew it was a place where a lot of families lived and so I presumed that the streets would be full of kids riding their bikes and playing games. But, when…
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Daily Reflection: 29 February 2024
Yesterday, I finished reading Immaculée Ilibagiza’s book, “Left to Tell.” Once I finish reading a book, I always add it into my Goodreads account. I like having a list of all the books I’ve read because it helps me remember titles and stories. Plus, I like reviewing the books for other readers. Real quick, the…
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Daily Reflection: 28 February 2024
Awhile back, someone that I know was pretty consistently posting hateful rhetoric about Christianity on their Facebook page. Most of the flat out bigotry, I let pass, as I didn’t have time to address it all. A high number of the posts were memes from other pages. One was called “Religion is Evil” to give…
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Daily Reflection: 27 February 2024
I was making a podcast yesterday and St. Francis de Sales was talking about purifying ourselves from the affection to sin. While no Christian on earth would probably admit to you or themselves that they have an affection to sin, the hard truth is this: We all have at least one sin that we struggle…
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Daily Reflection: 26 February 2024
I was listening to Bishop Barron’s homily yesterday and he was focused in on the first reading about Abraham and Isaac. The story of Abraham taking Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him because God told him to is, perhaps, one of the most challenging passages in the Bible to read. Bishop Barron said it…
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Daily Reflection: 25 February 2024
Have you ever really noticed Abraham’s response when God calls him in Genesis 22:1? Abraham immediately replies with, “Here I am!” Following this response, God asked him to do probably the most difficult thing ever—sacrifice his son…and Abraham immediately sets off to do what God has asked, with a heavy heart, I’m sure. Now for…
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Daily Reflection: 23 February 2024
The time has finally come, Catholic Pilgrims. Season Four of the “Journeying with the Saints” podcast starts this coming Monday, February 26, 2024. We will be reading St. Francis de Sales’ book, “Introduction to the Devout Life.” I’ve been prepping for weeks and I love this book already. It’s such a practical guide for living…
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Daily Reflection: 22 February 2024
Back in 2015, my family went to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. At the end of the week, we got to have Mass with the pope. There were over a million Catholics in the streets of Philly and it was incredible. I’ve never felt the universality of the Church quite as keenly as…
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Daily Reflection: 21 February 2024
My son heard what his dad was doing for Lent and so he modeled a lot of his Lenten practices after him. Not as difficult or intense, but appropriate for a young kid. The other night, my husband was tucking him into bed and asked him how his Lenten practices were going. Our son said,…
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Daily Reflection: 20 February 2024
I woke up greatly missing Turkey this morning. Even 2 1/2 years removed from living there, I still miss it. So, we get a picture from Turkey today. As I was reading through the next chapter in Job, the thing that stood out to me the most was when Job said, “How painful honest words…
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Daily Reflection: 19 February 2024
One day, years ago, I was sitting with a co-worker at our work lunch table and I was lamenting the fact that I wasn’t a patient person. I said to her, “I pray all the time for God to make me patient and I’m still the same.” She kind of good-naturedly laughed at my ignorance,…
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Daily Reflection: 18 February 2024
Oh, how I love the angels. Sometimes, I don’t think we even realize how often they show up in Scripture. When I did my study on angels a few years back, I was struck by how often they minister to different people. I love the image of the angels ministering to Jesus in the desert…
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Daily Reflection: 16 February 2024
For many of us, our first thought when suffering comes our way is, “Well, God must not love me. If He loved me, He’d never let this happen.” Prevalent in our culture today is this idea that any amount of suffering automatically makes life not worth living. If we don’t get a smooth ride, what’s…
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Daily Reflection: 15 February 2024
What lengths do we go to as humans to stop suffering? Now, that may seem like a silly question at first blush, because it could imply that we should just sit around and watch people suffer or do nothing to help ourselves. Many people forget that the Christian life—any life really—entails suffering. Christ told us…
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Daily Reflection: 14 February 2024
I was sitting in the pew yesterday before Mass and thinking about how I am going to read the Book of Job for Lent. Out of the blue, my dark past flooded my mind and the images and memories just wouldn’t stop. I grabbed my son’s hand to have a bit of comfort and tried…
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Daily Reflection: 13 February 2024
Are you leaving me this Lent, Catholic Pilgrims, but still want to get my daily posts? Here are three options for you that keep you off social media. 1. If your church has the MyParish App, you can find me on there. Your church will have to select me as one of their “picks,” so…
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Daily Reflection: 12 February 2024
During my sophomore year of track, I was running the 4×100 relay at a mid-season meet. The first-leg girl of our relay had been off flirting with some boys and my team had to scramble to find her once 2nd call came. Consequently, none of us were warmed up and we were all a bit…
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Daily Reflection: 11 February 2024
One of the most difficult burdens to bear is watching a loved one lose their faith. That, or knowing someone who’s never had a relationship with Christ. We look at them and they look tortured. You can see the lack of God in their lives manifesting itself externally. You feel desperate to give them what…
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Daily Reflection: 9 February 2024
This whole week, I’ve been at Command Spouse Training and my brain is tapped out on this Friday. Consequently, I have no deep thoughts today. Let’s do a top five of pretty random things for fun: 1. Favorite animal: Black Panther 2. Favorite movie from when I was a kid: Goonies 3. Favorite type of…
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Daily Reflection: 8 February 2024
My first boyfriend I ever had, the one who I was desperate to have love me, did nothing to make me a better person. Not one thing. The next boyfriend was even worse. He absolutely tanked my moral compass and set me up for a world of pain. The third was…eh…okay. While he wasn’t horrible,…
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Daily Reflection: 7 February 2024
Lent starts in one Lent starts in one week, Catholic Pilgrims. Believe it or not, we celebrated Christmas yesterday. Now, though, we will enter into the Way of the Cross. I’m not here to tell you what to do, what to remove, or what to add in—that has to be personal to you. Whatever you…
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Daily Reflection: 2 February 2024
One of the problems with us, as humans, is that if things aren’t super entertaining or if they are an obligation, we do them half-heartedly and with little focus. “I mean, I’ll do it, but don’t expect me to get anything out of it.” The Mass often gets accused of not being “fun.” It’s not…
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Daily Reflection: 30 January 2024
When I was in college, I cleaned houses my sophomore year to get by. It was not my favorite job, but I needed the money and I needed something with a flexible schedule. Mostly, I cleaned houses for elderly people and one lady with 18 Persian cats. The cat house is a story for another…
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Daily Reflection: 29 January 2024
The land beyond the Sea of Galilee in this picture is the Golan Heights and it’s over in this area that our Gospel reading from Mark takes us today. You are looking eastward. This passage today about the unclean spirits and the swine is a curious one. The response of the people after seeing the…
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Daily Reflection: 28 January 2024
This is the synagogue in Capernaum, Catholic Pilgrims, from our Gospel reading today. It’s scary to think of people with unclean spirits in them. As scary as it is, we are being bombarded with the demonic pretty consistently now in our culture. Nobody is even trying to be subtle about it anymore. Build-A-Bear has a…
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Daily Reflection: 25 January 2024
My husband and I argued a lot-A LOT-in our first years of marriage about the Catholic Church. During our dating time, we were both lukewarm about our faith and didn’t really give it much thought. My husband literally lived a walk across the parking lot from the Catholic Church on campus and went maybe two…
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Daily Reflection: 24 January 2024
Today is the Feast Day of St. Francis de Sales, whose writings I will be reading for Season Four of my podcast “Journeying with the Saints.” With only a few episodes left in Season Three, I will soon be preparing to read “Introduction to the Devout Life” by this Doctor of the Church. I’ve had…
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Daily Reflection: 23 January 2024
Back in December, I asked you all to give me some book recommendations of lesser-known Classics. You all did not disappoint and I wrote down all the ones that were new to me. It is my reading list for the year. First up, was “Death Comes for the Archbishop” by Willa Cather, who was born…
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Daily Reflection: 22 January 2024
In my last year of college, I found myself unwed and pregnant with this gal. I was terrified. My morning sickness was so bad, I couldn’t go to classes most mornings and so I was falling behind. I was supposed to go to field training that coming summer for Air Force ROTC, which would be…
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Daily Reflection: 21 January 2024
Our first reading today comes from Book of Jonah, which I have always found to be such a fascinating story and very relatable. At some point in our lives, God will ask us to do something for Him, but like Jonah, many times we aren’t particularly thrilled with our assignment. Often, we have *our* idea…
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Daily Reflection: 18 January 2024
Last night, I was blessed to hear Immaculée Ilibagiza speak at our church. If you don’t know her story, Immaculeé survived the Rwandan genocide in 1994 by hiding in a tiny bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. It was so powerful to hear the spiritual journey she went through in that bathroom. She…
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Daily Reflection: 17 January 2024
So, yesterday, I talked about the founding of St. Augustine and how it got its name back in 1565. When Father Lopez said the first Mass here, he claimed it in the Nombre de Dios, in the Name of God. Here on the land of Mission Nombre de Dios, there is a Shrine to Nuestra…
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Daily Reflection: 16 January 2024
St. Augustine, Florida. Where do I begin? Because I can geek out on history, I spent quite a few days researching where the first Spanish Mass was held in what would become the US. I’ve been to the spot of the first Mass said by the English—St. Clement’s Island off the coast of Maryland. The…
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Daily Reflection: 12 January 2024
Before I met my husband, I wasn’t a big traveler and I did not like getting out of my comfort zone. But, when you marry a military man who gets wanderlust every two years and is spontaneous to the nth degree, well, it rubs off on you. Now in my life, if it’s been awhile…
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Daily Reflection: 11 January 2024
The other night, I was lamenting to my husband about how I have been begging God for something for years and nothing was happening. Normally, my husband is very consoling, but he actually kind of rebuked me over my attitude. “Are you begging to satisfy yourself over this issue or are you really begging for…
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Daily Reflection: 10 January 2024
In our Gospel reading today from Mark, Jesus goes off to a deserted place to pray. Simon and some others go on the hunt for Him and when Simon finds Him, he says, “Everybody is looking for you.” I got stuck on this statement from Simon. Is everybody looking for Jesus in this day and…
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Daily Reflection: 9 January 2024
As I was coming back to my seat this last Sunday after receiving Communion, I happened to glance up and down several rows of pews. Laid out all along the seats were rosaries, Magnificats with reading glasses laid on top, prayer books, Bibles, purses, baby toys, diaper bags, prayer cards, and a peaceful sleeping kid.…
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Daily Reflection: 8 January 2024
Nothing Christ did was a nice symbolic gesture. Because He is God, everything He did and asks us to do actually does something within our souls. As I was coming into the Catholic Church, I started thinking of all the ways I had been taught that our practices were symbolic. Communion was symbolic for me…
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Daily Reflection: 7 January 2024
Here is the land that the Wise Men came to so long ago. I was thinking about my late teens and my twenties this morning while reading about the Wise Men traveling to find the Christ Child. Most Sundays during those years, I couldn’t be bothered with getting out of bed for church. Sure, had…
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Daily Reflection: 5 January 2023
Happy Friday, Catholic Pilgrims! Checking in with this week’s musings. 1. My Wildcats won their Bowl Game! It was a great victory with our freshman quarterback. Looking forward to next year when the Big 12 becomes the Big 90 or whatever. Still unsure about how many teams are coming or going. 2. Next weekend, my…
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Daily Reflection: 4 January 2023
n October of 2022, my family visited St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s Shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Here is a picture of her resting place. I spent some time praying here, thinking about St. Elizabeth. We have some notable similarities. She and I are converts and teachers. I’ve been teaching my kids now for 14 years using…
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Update: Sale on Book for Next Season’s Podcast
Catholic Pilgrims, if you are planning on joining me in February for Season Four of my podcast, it has come to my attention that the book is only $5 this month over at TAN Books. This is the book I will be using: “Introduction to the Devout Life” by St. Francis de Sales. If you…
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Daily Reflection: 3 January 2023
Yesterday, I was reading through some comments on a reel I put up about about a year ago where I was standing outside Mary’s house near Ephesus. One woman said to me in the comments, “Remember Jesus, He is the reason for the season.” I responded back to her by saying, “We do remember Jesus.…
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Daily Reflection: 2 January 2024
This is Cappadocia, the land where St. Basil the Great was from in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), whose feast day we celebrate today. On our long drive back to Alabama from Kansas this past week, my husband and I started talking about evil ideologies. My husband asked a question that he frequently asks, “How…
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Daily Reflection: 1 January 2024
One of my greatest titles is that of mom, though my kids call me numerous variations of that word. They are currently cooking up what they want my grandma name to be in the future. (No, I’m not becoming a grandma yet.) To torture me, they have landed on Smeemaw. Even though I’ve failed at…
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Daily Reflection: 31 December 2023
When I was working at a juvenile detention center, I would often have to make house calls. Teens that were on probation had to be checked in on from time-to-time. I never went into a house that was healthy. By that, I mean, it was always a home where one parent was missing, the house…
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Daily Reflection: 21 December 2023
My priest the other day said in his homily that “we try so hard to manufacture joy.” “True joy, though, comes from being in the presence of holiness. We have a tendency to think of John the Baptist as being severe and yelling ruthlessly about repentance, but we forget that he was a joyful man.…
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Daily Reflection: 17 December 2023
All throughout history, since Christ’s coming, man has been trying to downplay who He is. There’s been heresies that deny His divinity. There’s been heresies that basically deny the Incarnation because they deny Christ’s humanity. There are those that deny His existence. Today, Jesus is mostly just a great social justice advocate. In many ways,…
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Daily Reflection: 14 December 2023
Last night, my family was watching some “man on the street” episodes from PragerU. Before I begin, yes, I know “man on the street” things don’t show it all. I know they select out ones that cause controversy. I know there are people who give good answers that are edited out. I know. Anyway, the…
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Daily Reflection: 13 December 2023
The first Catholic Church I ever stepped into was in my hometown in Kansas when I was a young girl. It was a small little church—Sacred Heart—that was, sadly, burned down by an arsonist. I went to that church because I’d had a sleep over with my best friend. It would be another 15 some…
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Daily Reflection: 12 December 2023
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn. Pray for us, that like you, all might be open to life no matter how scary or unexpected a pregnancy might be. May we be people that know it is better to bring life into the world than extinguish it. Pray for us, oh Holy Mother of…
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Daily Reflection: 11 December 2023
My priest, who is from Kenya, in his homily yesterday said to us, “In my country there is a proverbial saying which goes: Don’t pray for the rains until you’ve cultivated the fields.” The point of the saying is that you need to prepare first in order to receive the blessings you ask for well.…
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Daily Reflection: 10 December 2023
My family watched “A Christmas Carol” the other night and afterwards my husband and I started talking about its lessons. My husband said, “You know, I’ve never noticed it before, but Scrooge encapsulates so much of our modern-day ways of living.” “What do you mean?” “Well, the prevailing messages of today are live for yourself.…
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Daily Reflection: 8 December 2023
God has done a lot of things that are difficult for people to believe in because they defy the laws of the natural world. The laws He set up, mind you. He created the universe and everything in it out of nothing. He parted seas. The Incarnation—God becoming man. There’s all the miracles of Christ.…
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Daily Reflection: 7 December 2023
Years ago, I was watching something like 60 Minutes ( Is that still on?) and they were doing a story on a convicted murderer in prison who had found Jesus. As I watched, though, it was quite obvious that the man didn’t understand what being a Christian really meant. Over and over again, the interviewer…
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Daily Reflection: 6 December 2023
When I was a girl, on Christmas Eve, I’d sleep in my grandparent’s drafty upstairs bedroom with my cousins and siblings. Most of us never slept; our anticipation over Santa was too exhilarating. So, we’d lay there in the dark singing every Christmas song we could think of, while we listened for any sound of…