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Here are this week’s must-reads:
+ “There is something about your specific season that is so important for the work God wants to do in and through you. This specific season. Not the one I planned that didn’t play out. Not the one I wish for when I look at others. Not the one I’m working to get to. This specific season. Whether it feels fruitful, or dry & empty… it is important, for the work God wants to do in me. For the work God wants to do through me.” — Early AM coffee with Jesus
+ We’re praying the St. Monica Novena — you can still join in! This is the novena I say to bring the intentions that you’ve been praying for the longest. Because St. Monica knew what it was like to pray for something for decades. To pray when things seemed hopeless. To remain hopeful and persistent in prayer when others likely told her it wouldn’t work out. St. Monica, pray for us and these long-prayed-for intentions. — here
+ “I’ve collected a lot of Marian art over the years, some of which I’ve passed on to others, and others that I truly cherish. What I love about Marian art is that every image and every devotion has its own story to tell of Mary’s intercession during a specific time period or troubled era in history. These stories, and not just the image or statue, can speak into our depths and can even help us discover or refine our own mission and purpose. Our Lady, ever a tender mother, knows how to speak to us through beauty and truth. Here are a few of my favorite pieces of Marian art that draw me in daily.” — Carrie Gress
Here’s what’s featured in my newsletter, The Collection, this week. Scroll down to see all the modest fashion finds included! You can access this week’s newsletter here. When you sign up, you get instant access to ALL the Collections I’ve shared in July and August! It’s a lot 🙂
Everything featured in my weekly newsletters is always under $60. When you sign up, you get access to a long list of promo codes to some of my favorite Catholic businesses, up to 30% off. Sign up for The Collection here!
+ About Fairness in Marriage — with St. Bernard: “What St. Bernard of Clairvaux noticed is… that in any good relationship it is impossible to add up and even out the love that is contributed. Love creates inequality… Knowing this, maybe the question to ponder is not so much, “Is my spouse treating me fairly?” What we should ask is, “Am I giving all my love to this relationship? Am I holding anything back? How can I give more?”
This sentiment is summed up by poet W.H. Auden, who writes, “If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.” In other words, our focus ought to be not on what we are receiving, but on what we are giving. In a healthy marriage, in which both spouses have this generous attitude as their mindset, love covers a multitude of seemingly unequal arrangements… Our marriage may or may not be equal, and it may or may not seem equal to other people, but that really doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re both contributing all of our love to the best of our abilities.” — read here
+ “For some, healing never comes in this life. Or a spouse is never found. Or children are never born. But when our King returns — He will make up for every gift that never came on this side.” — Greg Morse
+ “Today, change one of your specific prayer petitions to a prayer for peace instead. What is something you want to pray for? Health, healing, work, or other specific problems? Entrust that thing to Jesus’ Divine Mercy, and ask for the gift of peace in that part of your life. Don’t dictate what God should do; open yourself up to what God will do.” — Danielle Bean
+ “Prayer isn’t about getting what you desperately want, but about getting more of the One Who desperately wants you. What if we bravely lived what we humbly pray: Your kingdom come — not our kingdom. Your will be done — not ours. Your story be written — not our way, but Your way, because You alone are The Way. Because you alone are God — and we are not. And our problems fade in the light of Your gentle face, Your tender embrace….” — Ann Voskamp
+ “The Father never tires of us coming home. He RUNS after us while we are still far off. We are the son who often squanders our inheritance. We run away with and to ‘things’ thinking that they will satisfy our aching hearts. What is left? We come up broken and empty. All along, it was THE FATHER who we needed and longed for. Everything He has is ours, yes, but HE is what our hearts were made for and He never tires running to meet us when we turn back to Him. He runs through thorns and darkness, chasms and whatever it takes to bring us back HOME.” — Kate Capato
+ “The Assumption reminds us that Mary’s life, like that of every Christian, is a journey of following — following Jesus, a journey that has a very precise destination… full communion with God.” — Pope Benedict XVI
+ “… it struck me right in between the eyes when Jesus’ response to the well-meaning woman in today’s Gospel, who is praising the Blessed Mother for mothering Him, is to gently correct her: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:27-28). It wasn’t Mary’s motherhood that made her blessed or prepared the place in Heaven for her to be Assumed into—the Solemnity we celebrate today.* It was her listening and observing the Word of God that made her a Saint and the woman God chose to bear Christ.
Physical motherhood is beautiful and can certainly be sanctifying, but it is not the only path to sainthood and we should not believe the lie that our lives do not begin until we take a vow—whether in marriage or religious life. Our lives begin with Christ.” — Sarah Rose
+ “This painting professes a profound and beautiful reality: that Jesus is present everywhere and He feels quite at home wherever He is invited. He is part of the works, joys, and sufferings of our day… He is as truly present in the Blessed Sacrament as He seems to be here… Paintings like this help us to understand ourselves in relation to God, if they are carefully studied. It is what Fritz Uhde had in mind as his end. That we might practice the presence of Christ.” — Denise Trull
Here are the fashion finds in this week’s Collection:
