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Here are this week’s must-reads:
+ “To the woman who feels like she’s lost herself— Maybe life has been heavy. Maybe you’ve been giving so much of yourself to others that you’ve forgotten who you are. Maybe you look in the mirror and wonder where you went. But God sees you. He knows your heart. He calls you by name—not by your pain, your past, or what others expect of you. He calls you His beloved.” — Carissamae Dei
+ If you love all-things Mary garden like I do, I think you’ll like these Marian pieces 🙂
+ “The invitation to suffer with God is probably the most profound thing that we see in the Christian tradition… St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross speak about compassion [which means ‘to suffer with.’] They speak about the mystery of suffering with Christ. They speak about their suffering as a participation in God’s suffering, and by that connectedness their suffering loses its absurd quality. It is still painful. It is still hard. It is still agonizing. It is still difficult. It is still lonely. But connected with the cross it becomes something new.” (Henri Nouwen)
+ “Prayer heals our relationship with God, fasting heals our relationship within ourselves…and almsgiving…heals our relationship with others.” – Sr. Miriam James Heidland, SOLT
+ “He knows the depths of my heart, my very gut feelings! He knows that it is enough that I desire Him very much.” — (St. Patrick) “Regardless of where you find yourself in life please hear this. Jesus knows the depths of your heart. He knows your very gut feelings! We are simply called to desire Christ and He will take care of the rest.” (Catholic Counselors)
+ “The best self-care is being in the presence of God”
Here’s a look at what’s featured in this week’s newsletter. Everything’s under $60. Sign up for it here – and you’ll also get access to last year’s best-sellers!
+ “To craft a truly welcoming, truly lifegiving home is a deeply satisfying work, one of the great glories of any life.” — Sally Clarkson, The Lifegiving Home
+ I know it might seem weird to decorate for Lent — because it’s a season of detachment, but the things we surround ourselves with and the pieces we thoughtfully placed around our home can have an impact on our heart as we go about our days, so I think there *is* a way to decorate for Lent — in a way that reminds you to return to the Lord. Every hour. Every day.
Consider how the Church changes linens, cloths, banners and vestments for the different Liturgical seasons… Decorating in our homes can have a similar impact on our minds and our hearts at home, especially because we spend so much time here. // Check out Home Decor for Lent here, and how I use some of it throughout this season.
+ “Without intentional withdrawals from the distractions and noise of the world, we run the risk of missing the still small voice of God and remaining trapped in our old habits and desires. Solitude is not necessarily the same as isolation, but time alone with God, without noise (turn off your phone!), trains us to find ourselves in him.” — Pete Burak
+ “Well before the church had stages and social media, it had one main tool: radical generosity… The cross was the most extravagant act of generosity the world has ever seen. Every time we give—whether it’s a tip, our time, or our presence—we echo that generosity. We declare, in the smallest and biggest ways, that we belong to a different Kingdom, following a different King.” — Ian Simkins
+ “Sacraments and rituals shape us over a lifetime. They are the way God continuously draws us into divine life — not just once, but again and again… They don’t erase (grief) and pain, but they carry us through it. They don’t guarantee immediate healing, but they make sure we don’t stop moving toward it. You might not walk away from Mass feeling different, but you keep going, and in the gathering, you remember that you’re not meant to do this alone…” Jurell Sison, The Living Person
+ “Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to Him. That is all the doing you have to worry about.” — St. Jane Frances de Chantal
+ “My favorite prayer habit is I like to clutch the cup of coffee — I feel the warm, the aroma, and I go into Chapel, and I feel like I’m at the kitchen table of God. You know, the kitchen table is where life happens in a family — people are coming and going, sometimes in a rush, we ask questions… Life happens in that kitchen table. So when I’m in Chapel, that’s the kitchen table of God’s home and I’m in that home. I asked my spiritual director once, “Is that irreverent?” And he said no….” — more here, by Dr. Carolyn Woo
+ “In the gospel of Luke, the prodigal son doesn’t return home because of a renewed love for his father. He comes back home simply to survive because he ran out of money and is (hungry). And his father is perfectly fine with that. Just come home. God just wants you home.” — Rich Villodas
More Finds in this week’s Newsletter, which you can read through here.
