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I 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!
I 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!
Because I’m a public presence, I definitely draw the ire of people who are extremely opposed to my views. This is fine. It exhausts me sometimes, but some people’s arguments are so bad that it really takes asking one question and they go silent and delete their initial comment to me. This past week, two people didn’t like a comment I made on a video and one told me “I wasn’t too bright” and the other told me that “perhaps your college owes you your money back.” Now, none of these comments bother me. They come from people who have no real argument and they are just trying to make me mad, which they don’t. It used to bother me, it doesn’t anymore. What bothers me is the glaring lack of wisdom. We have nearly all the information in the world at our fingertips. We have more people with college degrees than ever before. Most kids in first world countries get nearly year-round education, but we are not the wiser for it. You can have all the education in the world, but if that knowledge is not married to the wisdom of God, our ethics will suffer and all our degrees will essentially amount to not much. The Book of Wisdom is my favorite OT book and that is where we get our first reading today. “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne…” Wisdom 7:7 We will not seem too bright, Catholic Pilgrims, if our intellect is not led by the wisdom of God. So, we must plead and pray for it daily. Have a beautiful Sunday. *Picture is from Sequoia National Park. I’m sitting in The Senate.
When I was a kid, I used to have to sell trash bags door-to-door for school. 😂 Anyone remember this? There were big yellow ones for leaves and brown ones for regular trash. Believe it or not, they were very popular. Now, I normally hate selling anything or asking people for donations or money, but there was a curiosity within me about what lay behind people’s closed doors. You have to knock on doors to see what people are like. Some people’s houses were dark and too clean. Some people’s houses were messy and noisy. Some people’s houses smelled like delicious food. Some people’s houses had a weird family scent. Some older ladies flung the door open and were so happy to see you. They’d bring their candy bowl over and insist you pick something. There was this one house down at the end of my street that seemed so mysterious and I was dying to know what the inside looked like. It did not disappoint when I finally knocked on the door. But, no matter what, to ask my neighbors if they wanted to buy trash bags and just to get to know them, I had to knock on their doors. With each knock, my neighbors were known to me a little more and a little more and they become less scary or unknown. If fact, as I did this through the years, (also selling GS cookies) people looked forward to my coming and I felt more a part of their lives. Jesus tells us to “knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds.” We will know Jesus better and better the more we knock at His door, Catholic Pilgrims. He will always be happy to open the door and see us, so never be afraid to knock. Have a blessed Thursday.
Recently, VP Harris went on a podcast called, "Call Her Daddy." Now, I don't recommend ever listening to this podcast, but it is the 2nd most popular podcast in the world. Right behind Joe Rogan. I'm not a listener, but I've heard enough to hear enough about what it is about because other people have played clips of it here and there. It's a podcast for women that basically just encourages women to be as sleazy as possible. Sleep with lots of men, even men that you aren't really interested in. Be as vulgar with your language as you can be. Use sex as a weapon. A recent clip I heard was so vulgar that so much of it was bleeped out that all you basically got were words like "and, the, and bed." In all my years of being around men, I've never heard men speak at a level this depraved and, believe me, I've heard a lot from guys in my time. Nothing on this level, though. In an attempt to ape men and be the "girl boss," women are encouraged to "raise their body count," brag about their STDs, and describe bodily functions with zero decency or shame. It's less than base, actually. There is no cultivation of the woman as a beautiful, feminine, intelligent being. The mind of the woman is not being enhanced. Women are not encouraged to bring beauty, light, or warmth into the world. The women on the podcast come off as animalistic instead of interesting, graceful, or charming. This is what feminism has done. Modern-day feminism is actually the rejection of everything that is uniquely feminine. It is the rejection of women by women, because they see men as superior and, therefore, they attempt to be just like a man. This was what was preached to me in college: What women offer means nothing. Go be more "man-like." And in trying to accomplish that, women just become a shell of themselves--bitter, self-loathing, advocates for death, lonely, and, ultimately, supremely unhappy. We live in a world that preaches so many conflicting messages. One being that men are bad and toxic, but women need to be more like them. Huh? Anything that doesn't promote life, love, purity, beauty, intelligence, and gratitude, Catholic Pilgrims, is going to leave people hollow and lost. We need to be very prepared to help these people when they finally see the wrong path they've been led down. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Wednesday.
I was watching a Trent Horn video the other day where he was watching another video of two abortion survivors speak with two ex-abortion “doctors.” The “doctors” were describing the horrific ways that children are killed in the womb and after watching, I commented, “It’s just unconscionable. We are a sick, sick nation.” Enter a woman whose handle you’ll find ironic, as she calls herself “kindintelligence.” First, she tried to prove that abortion is fine because the UN agrees with it and 80% of developed countries are cool with it. I responded by saying that the UN is not the moral authority on anything and once upon a time, slavery was an accepted practice the world over. Did that make slavery okay? Just because a majority agrees with something doesn’t make it right. She then pivoted to tell me that the embryo/blastocyst/fetus only becomes a human child once birthed. What is the child before that? She couldn’t say. What magic happens in the birth canal to supposedly change a different organism into a human child? She didn’t explain. From there she said that only a birthed child has a “fully-formed body” allowing them the right to live. I replied that babies don’t have a fully formed body, only a body sufficiently developed enough to live outside the womb. Humans don’t get a fully formed body until late teens, early twenties. Brains aren’t fully formed until around 25. Are people below the age of 25 subhuman? Ignoring what I said, she then moved to telling me that newborns aren’t wholly reliant on their “host” anymore and so that makes them okay to live. To which I informed her that newborns are wholly reliant on their parents to feed, clothe, and care for them. In fact, my 10-year old is still wholly reliant on his dad and me to feed, clothe, and shelter him. Reliance on others does not determine your worth. With nothing left to say, she let me know that she was fine that she “killed her pregnancy” and she had no “regrets or remorse.” I pointed out her constant use of euphemisms and said, “You didn’t kill a pregnancy. Your baby was killed thereby ending your pregnancy. I hope someday you can acknowledge your child and when the pain comes calling, I would be happy to walk with you and help you heal.” She declined. October is Respect Life Month. All through our conversation, this woman forced the unborn to prove their humanity and nothing was ever enough for her. Being pro-life is so simple, Catholic Pilgrims. A human is a human from conception to death. That’s it and that’s all. No need to prove your humanity. It’s consistent, logical, just, and loving. Have a blessed Tuesday.
These are my two favorite rosaries. My prettiest one was handmade for me by a jeweler in Turkey who became a friend. In Turkey, there is a stone called Zultanite and it changes color in different lights. The beads here are lab-produced Zultanite. The Mary medallion and the crucifix were found at a very old shop deep in the labyrinth of the enormous market in Izmir, Turkey called Kemeraltı. The wooden one was the rosary I picked up in the Holy Land and it traveled to the site of nearly every mystery we meditate on when praying the Rosary. In my home there is a rosary by my bed, in my purse, and in every bedroom. We have a bag o’ rosaries, as I like to call it, in our music room for when we come together as a family to pray the Rosary. I love the many different ways people pray the Rosary. Some people pray it on a morning walk, some to end their day. Some pray a decade here and there as they go about their busy days especially when little ones are underfoot. Some moms pray it while feeding their babes. Many pray it on their way into work. I like to offer a specific group for my intention depending on what mystery I’m meditating on. If it’s the Wedding Feast at Cana, I pray for married couples I know. If it’s the Scourging at the Pillar, I pray for those I know that reject Jesus. Meditating on the life of Christ and His mother is such a beautiful way to travel through the Gospels and stay close to the most important events in history. May we always look forward to the many graces and blessings that praying the Rosary provides us, Catholic Pilgrims. On this special day of Our Lady of the Rosary, I encourage us all to find time to pray one. Have a blessed Monday. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!
Back in 2005, our middle daughter decided to come early. My water broke while I was cooking lunch and I thought to myself, "Oh, no. It's too soon." Upon arrival at the hospital, the doctor calmly came in to check me and within seconds she was yelling for surgery. I was flown down the hall on my bed, nurses came out of nowhere, I was crying and shaking, my husband was fighting off nurses to get to me. Thanks to amazing doctors and nurses, she was out within 10 minutes. I had been put under and didn't wake up until later only to look desperately into my husband's eyes to read whether she was okay or not. He smiled. I knew she was okay. Because she was born early, she had to stay at the hospital in this little plastic box, hooked up to wires. Once I was released from the hospital, I cried the whole way home. It was so hard to leave without my child. But, my husband was an absolute superhuman man those days in the hospital. He took care of me, took care of our oldest. At night, he would go to the hospital to hold our daughter so she wouldn't be alone. I would pump milk for him to take and he would rock her and feed her. He didn't sleep for nine days. During those days in the hospital, our daughter was doing okay, but she was losing weight and not really getting any better. My husband decided it was time for her to come home. We had a meeting with the doctors and they were adamant that she stay. We understood their caution, but my husband ultimately said, "I'm her father. I know that she needs to be home with us and I'm taking her home." The second we walked in the house, my daughter fell asleep on my chest and my husband, exhausted, collapsed into sleep. Immediately, my daughter began to gain weight and improve. People have asked me, "Why Christianity?" In the way my husband cared for our daughter and our family lies the answer. Relationship. God loves us so incredibly that we can't even fathom. He goes to the extreme--death on a Cross--to save us. He is always trying to find ways to draw us to Him and to love us. He will go the distance to be in a relationship with us. My husband mirrored the love of God in the way he strove to love our daughter. She didn't even have any idea the lengths he was going through, but that didn't matter to him. He gave completely of himself, barely eating and sleeping all to show that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her. Christianity is about relationship, communion, and love, Catholic Pilgrims. God wants a relationship with His children and that is amazing. When someone asks, "Why Christianity?" this is one of the main reasons why. Have a blessed Thursday.
One of the great tragedies of Protestantism is the removal of nearly all the helps God gives us. Growing up, I could never lean on the saints and angels because…well…they weren’t even talked about. I didn’t even know it was a possibility. Sure, I heard people say that a loved one who had died was now an “angel in Heaven” and they might “watch over you.” But, that’s the extent to what was said. Upon becoming Catholic, I came to see the importance of angels. I learned, that humans, upon death, do not become angels. Angels are entirely different creatures and a human soul does not change into an angelic soul in Heaven. If you are a human in Heaven, you are a human saint. I also recognized that God sends angels to help, guide, protect, and to deliver messages numerous times in Scripture. Upon the closing of the Canon, God didn’t say, “Okay, Angels, no more from you all. You can’t help these humans anymore.” Why would He do that? Our guardian angels are meant to be a help to us and we should rely on them. God gives us many helps to strengthen us on our pilgrimage through life and angels are one of those helps. The power of the angels and saints doesn’t come from themselves but from God. Including them in our lives does not diminish God’s power, it shows just how powerful He is. That He would allow for us humans here on earth to have such access to the supernatural is amazing. Today, we celebrate the Feast Day of the Holy Guardian Angels, Catholic Pilgrims. May we ask them daily “to light, to guard, to rule, and guide” us. Have a blessed Wednesday.
When I was working, my boss asked me to go out and collect donations for an upcoming fundraiser. I would rather clean toilets than ask for donations. I would literally rather cut the lawn with scissors than ask for donations. But...I went. I would walk into a store, slink around to try and get a feel for the person I would have to confront, hide behind some column or product display and talk myself up to emerge from hiding to go ask. Once in front of the person, I'd awkwardly explain my cause, who I was, and ask for a donation. I'd always try to give them an out. Midwesterners do not like to obligate anyone to anything. Basically, it went something like this, "We'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to donate to our fundraiser, but if you don't want to, I understand. If you do, that would be great, but I feel like I'm annoying you, so I'll just leave, bye." I went back to work completely defeated. Some people gave me like a pack of gum and some just flat out rejected me and that's what I had feared all along. I hate rejection. Back at work, I went into my breakroom with a deflated self-worth and one of my co-workers asked how it went. Sliding out of my chair like a pile of goop, I explained that I had basically gotten nothing. She laughed and was like, "Did you act like this? Come with me, I'm going to show you how to do this." So, we went back and I followed her into the stores, hiding behind her shoulder like a small child. I watched her walk in confident, smiling, sure of her cause that she was asking for donations for, and engaging. In nearly every store, we got something. Some rejected us and when they did, she just smiled and said, "That's alright. You have a blessed day." I was in awe. I asked her how she handled the rejection. She said, "Girl, it's not personal. You take it too personal." Jesus experiences rejection in our Gospel reading today and while He doesn't take it personal, his Apostles do. Rejection is hard and it can crush our self-worth IF we allow it to. We all will experience rejection in this life, but we have to learn to "shake the dust off our feet," Catholic Pilgrims. While we will experience rejection from others, we will never experience it from God. That's the important thing to hold on to. Have a blessed Tuesday.
Yesterday at the Bible study my husband goes to while I teach OCIA, the group was talking about suffering. One of the older guys said, “We understand that in order to be good at sports, you have to suffer and sacrifice. We also understand that if you want to be good in school, you have to suffer and sacrifice. It’s not the same bodily suffering that you get with sports, but you still will to some degree. But, with the spiritual life, so many think it must be suffer-free. We are willing to suffer for sports because we know the end goal. We want to be good in order to win a certain game or event. We are willing to suffer for learning because we know the end goal. We want to earn a degree or learn a trade. But, it’s like we don’t know what the end goal is for the spiritual life and because we don’t really get the end goal, we don’t think we should suffer or sacrifice for it.” Reading through my Magnificat this morning, I was reading about Job. Job had it all and God permitted Satan to cause him to suffer greatly. Job lost nearly everything. Satan says something that I think gets to the heart of what the guy was saying at the Bible study: “Is it nothing that Job is God-fearing? Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection?” In essence, Satan is saying, “Job’s faith is easy to have because he hasn’t suffered or sacrificed. His love for God is just a product of feeling good. Could it possible be real?” Your love for something will be measured by your willingness to suffer and sacrifice for it, Catholic Pilgrims. May we take all our trials, sufferings, and crosses and unite them to Christ on the Cross in order to give us strength to bear them. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
Many moons ago, I used to belong to this message board that was for K-State fans. It was a place for news to be shared, to discuss new recruits, and to talk about games. Initially, my husband and I really enjoyed belonging to it because it helped us to feel connected to fellow Cat fans. Slowly, though, we began to see a shift in the conversations on the message board. Where once it was relatively positive, it began to be very divisive. I remember one day, the football team had lost and there was a guy on there reminding everyone that everything was going to be okay. "The team had a bad game, but let's remember they are young guys and they need our support." To which this hoard of criticizers swooped in and just devoured the guy. "You aren't a true fan! Only true fans can criticize and don't live with their heads in the sand!" It turned into this huge fight and I was embarrassed. Nobody, absolutely nobody, seeing this thread would have thought that K-State was a good place to belong. I left the group. Today, in our first reading and our Gospel reading, we see people--good people--get upset that others aren't doing things exactly perfect. I see this all the time online. Catholics fighting to the death about who is the best, who is the most pure, most pious, most, most, most. There are somethings that are meant to be debated. However, practices or devotions that the Church allows for Catholics to have a difference of opinion on, should not be something we are battling to the death over. People see us and they are watching. When they see Catholics tear each other apart and criticize each other so horribly, they are not inclined to join us and we embarrass ourselves. All of us are guilty of this, Catholic Pilgrims, all of us. Christ is not pleased when we bicker and rack each other over the coals. I will not practice the Faith just like you and you will not practice the Faith just like me. Truth matters. Obedience to what Christ and the Church teaches matters. Foundational beliefs in Christianity matters. Debate those things, but with charity and a desire to draw the person onto your team. Have a blessed Sunday. *Church ruins are from St. Mary's Church at Ephesus, Turkey where the Council of Ephesus was held in 431.
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