.png)
When my husband and I were first married, he was the lukewarm cradle Catholic and I was the lukewarm Protestant. But, because we had our new baby girl, we both realized that we wanted her to have faith in God. Where we once didn’t think our religious differences mattered, now it did and so we met on the figurative battlefield to square off. I was strongly anti-Catholic and a bit of a hot head. My husband is an engineer and the calm to my storm, so with his logical way of explaining things without getting too mad at me, I was continually proven wrong about Catholicism. When he would talk about the Eucharist, it was like he was speaking another language. The real Body and Blood of Christ? What?! As my husband dismantled all my arguments and after having a very strange experience when I went up to take the Eucharist without being a Catholic in a state of grace, I decided to look into things. John 6 was huge for me. Then, I also started reading what the early Church Fathers said. St. Ignatius of Antioch, who heard from St. John, so he would have learned from him, once wrote, “Take care, then, to partake of one Eucharist; for one is the Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one is the cup to unite us with His Blood, and one altar.” When I started reading things like this, I started to open my mind and soul to the possibility of the Eucharist being really what Christ said it was—His Body and Blood. Once I got it. Once it clicked for me, I knew I had to be Catholic immediately. I could barely wait. Because once you realize not what the Eucharist is, but Who, everything changes in your life, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday. St. Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us!
Continue ReadingI just finished reading a book called “All That Remains” for my book club. It’s written by a forensic anthropologist from Scotland. The book was a bit disappointing for reasons I don’t have time to go into, but much of the book was centered on the author talking about death. There was one point in the book where she was describing different family members that had died. Commenting on the day of her uncle’s funeral, she said, “I realised that day that when the animation of the person we were is stripped out of the vessel we have used to pilot our way through life, it leaves little more than an echo or a shadow in the physical world.” Later, she commented on how when someone is sleeping, they are still animated. We know the difference between someone asleep and someone who is dead. The reason we can tell the difference is because the soul has gone in death. We’ve all experienced this at funerals. We see our loved one lying there and we know it’s no longer them. As humans, we are both body and soul, but it’s the soul that truly makes us who we are. Twins essentially have the exact same body, but they are two distinct persons because of their souls. Why do I mention all this? Well, today is the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila. I read her book “The Interior Castle” for my podcast last year and I grew to love her. She once wrote, “Because we have heard and faith tells us so, we know we have souls. But we seldom consider the precious things that can be found in this soul, or who dwells within it, or its high value. Consequently, little effort is made to preserve its beauty.” The more we care for our souls, Catholic Pilgrims, and the more we make them an acceptable place for God to dwell, the more we will transform into who God envisioned us to be at the moment our soul was created by Him. Take care of your body, take care of your soul. Have a beautiful day. St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!
Continue ReadingI was teaching my son about purgatory the other day during school. He’s learned about it before but we were talking about how the stains of even forgiven sin have to be cleaned from our souls. He said, “It’s like tomato sauce.” I asked, “What?” “When you get tomato sauce on your white shirts, you always get mad and run away to clean it because you say it stains really bad. But, I can still see the tomato sauce on your shirt after you clean it. Like it’s still there just a teeny bit. So, stains of sin are like that. You might be able to clean it off here on earth, but if you don’t you’re still going to need to be cleaned in purgatory before Heaven.” “So, you can still see the tomato sauce on my shirt after I clean it?” “Yeah, a little bit.” “You didn’t want to tell me?” “I don’t know, you seemed happy about it.” (Sigh) “Well, yes, you are right. The stains of sin are like tomato sauce on a white shirt that’s been cleaned.” Guess I need some new white shirts, Catholic Pilgrims. 😂😂 Have a beautiful Monday!
Continue Reading.png)
.png)
.png)