Waiting With Hope

In honor of this Jubilee Year of Hope, Catholicmom.com wanted to do a series for July called "Hope Found in Prayer".  Prayer is such a personal experience and different for everyone. We may be saying the same prayers out loud, but the words are being absorbed into our hearts and minds in different ways. Even as individuals, the same prayer or Bible passage can hit us in completely different ways depending on the season of life we are in or whatever situation we are working through.

For this particular Catholicmom series, all of the contributing writers were asked to share about a specific prayer that brings them hope. For me, the prayer that brings me hope is the Seven Sorrows of Mary. 

Mary suffered so much over the course of her life. And because of her experiences, we can be assured that we have a Heavenly mother who understands our own painful life circumstances and who longs to pour consolation into our hurting hearts. 

A Grace From Mary

Learning about the Seven Sorrows of Mary was a grace for me when our daughter, Therese was born with a fatal genetic disorder and passed away at sixteen days old in 1998. Mary's Seven Sorrows gave me a way to connect some of the most sorrowful moments of my life to each of her sorrows during Therese's 16 day journey on earth. In the time of some of my deepest grief, Mary's experiences helped me to feel understood and less alone in my pain.

 The Seven Sorrows

For anyone not familiar with the Seven Sorrows of Mary, it consists of saying seven "decades" that include an Our Father and seven Hail Mary's. For each "decade" you meditate on the following sorrows that Our Lady suffered during her lifetime:

1. The Prophecy of Simeon
2. The Flight into Egypt
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
4. Meeting Jesus on the Road to Calvary
5. Standing at the Foot of the Cross
6. Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross and Placed in Mary's Arms
7. The Burial of Jesus

Out of the Seven Sorrows, it's the Seventh Sorrow that gives me the most hope right now. Which seems pretty ironic ... after all, in the Seventh Sorrow, Jesus has died and is laid in a tomb. Mary no longer even has the presence of Jesus' body to give her any semblance of comfort. She walks away from the tomb after the day when the most horrific pain and grief has pierced her heart. But that's not the part of the sorrow that gives me hope.

What gives me hope is Mary's unwavering trust and hope that remains alive in her broken heart even in the most hopeless of circumstances. Mary leaves Jesus' tomb grieving, but she doesn't despair. She is waiting on God and trusting that He will bring good out of the horror that she had just lived through. As Saint John Paul the Great said about Mary after Jesus had been laid in the tomb, Mary "alone remains to keep alive the flame of faith, preparing to receive the joyful and astonishing announcement of the Resurrection."(Address at the General Audience, 3 April 1996; L'Osservatore Ramano English edition, 10 April 1996, p.7)

When everyone else around her had given up, Mary was the only one who kept the hope of the church alive on that first Holy Saturday. Mary's example gives me hope and courage. Because as women and mothers, how often do we find ourselves trying to keep faith alive within our family? The brokenness in our lives that appears to have little hope, yet we still call out to God and wait for Him to resurrect what seems lost. The relationships that only He can breathe life back into that we refuse to give up on.

What situations are you waiting for Jesus to resurrect in your life?

And while it will most likely take longer than one Holy Saturday for the circumstances and relationships that we are waiting on and praying for to be resurrected, we can wait with our Heavenly Mother for the redemption of our circumstances in God's timing. She will tend to our broken hearts, console us, and give us hope and fortitude in our waiting.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

(If you would like to read more articles written for Catholicmom's Month of Hope, click here)

This is currently one of my favorite pictures of OLOS. You can find it at Sanctified Souls.

Tea For Two & T-Rex For Tea

What do you do when you have a combined birthday party for a sweet two year old little girl and a dinosaur loving four year old boy? Well, you invite some dinosaurs to a tea party, of course!

This past weekend, we celebrated my grandson, Xavier's, 4th birthday and his sister, Claire's, 2nd birthday. We hosted the party at our house, but my son, Andrew, and daughter-in-law, Liz, (aka Xavier and Claire's mom and dad), created the party themes, decorations, and favors for the special day.

I love being a part of themed parties. I really enjoy all of the research to find cute ideas on different blogs and Pinterest. There's always a wide array of creativeness, difficulty, and cost to what people have spent creating party magic. One blog I read mentioned "only spending a few hundred dollars" on balloon arches! (Gulp!) That wasn't in our particular budget...(and thankfully when we have parties with balloon arches, my creatively dispositioned daughter-in-law, Marisa, takes care of that for us for only the cost of the balloons!.)

The day of the party, we had amazing weather for our outdoor party! (Thank you, God!) Warm but not humid. Perfect for swimming in the pool, which almost all the kids took advantage of. There was a nice breeze in the shade that made it perfect for sitting out side. It was just a perfect summer day!

Andrew made this sign:)

And we had to have a Happy Birthday sign with a dino flair, too!

Of course, the food is the most important part of the party! (and was a group effort!) 

A pretty fruit platter for Claire

A dino veggie platter(thanks to Auntie Kate!)

And what's a party without desserts! Adorable tea cup and dinosaur cupcakes(thanks to Babci..she's so creative! and I love the dino cupcake toppers I found on Amazon!), brownies by Aunt Jenny, fun (and tasty) confetti scones by Liz, chocolate chip cookies, dino sugar cookies that Xavier, Ambrose, and Leo helped to decorate and flower sugar cookies that I asked Marisa to make pretty! 

Liz made these cute and tasty tea sandwiches! turkey and pesto, cucumber and chicken salad!

Also served but not pictured: pulled pork, "Brontosaurus burgers", "Gigantosaurus Glizzies"(hot dogs), "Raptor Bites"(dino chicken nuggets), "lava lasagna"(thanks, Grandpa), potato salad(thanks, Grandma Red), "pterodactyl wings"(doritos), "dino scales"(chips), and "dino eggs"(grapes)

The birthday boy!

The birthday girl!

Ambrose and Leo

Charlie

Grandma and Pa with Aurora

Pool fun!

Claire is a cookie monster!

Babci and baby Monica

More Monica cuteness!

Liz created a dino egg hunt that all the kids loved! (Thanks for hiding the eggs Uncle Luke!) and she found the cutest favors for all the kids(we had 13 kids 6 and under at the party!) The kids all loved them!

Xavier trying out the dinosaur party favors!

Our niece, Isla, sporting the girls' tea party favor<3

Ambrose and Leo using the favors for a real life adventure in Dinosaur State Park in CT the day after the party!

It was such a fun day visiting with extended family and family friends. Xavier and Claire had a great time playing with all the kids. (And nobody went home hungry!) I call that a success!

Seeking Hope for Restoration

A couple of months ago, (or maybe even a bit longer since time just feels like it's flying by!), I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Abiding Together. Sister Miriam James Heidland was talking about using our imaginations to place ourselves in the Holy Family's House in Nazareth. She encouraged listeners to imagine spending time with the Holy family and consider what that interaction would look and sound like; maybe a conversation with Mary, or watching Jesus working with Saint Joseph in their workshop. 

And while that sounded peaceful, I can't say that it felt right for me. Peace isn't the word that jumps into my mind when I think of some of the hard things that I navigate in my own family. So imagining interacting with the Holy Family in their home in Nazareth left me feeling unconnected and that I just didn't fit in there.

I kept coming back to Sister Miriam's meditation idea over the next couple of weeks. At some point, I thought about how the Holy Family didn't just live all of their quiet, peaceful years in Nazareth. They also spent several years living in Egypt to protect Jesus from King Herod. 

Escape to a Strange Land

"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."

Mary and Joseph found themselves living in a faraway place without any of their familiar comforts. They left in a hurry, fearing for their beloved Son's life, so what they would have had time to pack would have been minimal. They left their familiar environment. In Egypt, the Holy Family lived without the physical and emotional connection of their family and friends. They lived without their usual faith community or place of worship. And they had to create a temporary life in Egypt without knowing exactly how "temporary" it would be.

Relating to Being Uprooted

Some of us may be facing the challenge of being physically uprooted from our environment because of a move to a new home or even a new part of the country. But more of us can relate to the emotional uprooting that happens when something significant changes our everyday lives. A diagnosis, loss of a job, fracture in a family relationship, death of a love one, etc., can all leave us feeling that we've been stranded in a strange land. Since life is often messy and we live in a fallen world, maybe you can relate better at this moment to the Holy Family living in exile, trying to create a new "normal" in a place they didn't expect to be.

For me, it definitely feels more fitting and comforting to imagine myself with the Holy Family during their time in Egypt. It's a comfort to know that Mary also had to navigate through hard, unexpected circumstances and love and care for her family with what God provided even when His plan contained details and a timeline that wasn't what she imagined. I can imagine how hard it was to adjust to daily living in a foreign country, the concern she had as she encouraged Saint Joseph as he found ways to make a living to support his little family, and the love she poured out to Jesus as she created a home and tried to find community in the midst of all the uncertainty.

Mary's perfect trust in God regardless of her circumstances is always something worth pondering, and that perfect trust is worth asking for the grace to do ourselves, in the midst of our own challenges that life throws our way - especially those crosses that are not quickly or easily rectified. 

Imagine sitting with Mary in Egypt and pouring out all of your fears over the broken details in your life right now, knowing that she understands living in a difficult situation filled with a lot of unknowns. Asking her how to be patient in the waiting and how to trust when it feels like things will never be normal or "ok" again. Asking her how to love and care for our spouse and children in the midst of hard circumstances. 

Most of all, we can ask for the gift of hope as we wait with expectation of how God will restore what has been lost. 

(And introducing our newest bundle of hope: our granddaughter, Monica Michelle)

It Doesn't All Depend on Me

A couple of weeks ago, after a particularly frustrating afternoon that was marked by feelings of inadequacy and failure, I was able to escape outside for a quick walk. My usual walk routine is to listen to a podcast while I circle around our neighborhood, but on that particular day, I felt so emotionally discombobulated that I started the walk in silence. On the surface, the source of my frustration seemed clear: my own tiredness, two rambunctious four year olds that struggled to listen and the daily OCD behaviors of my special needs son that came to a boiling point all highlighted my own impatience and left me feeling like I had no control over anything. I felt like a failure.

As I walked and shared my heart with God, other situations in my life where I felt inadequate and a lack of control also started to bubble up. I realized that some of my feelings were bigger than the issues of the moment dictated. And while it took a quiet adoration hour the next morning to pray and journal in order to get to the root of where feeling like a failure ultimately came from, talking to God on that walk kept my hurting heart open. And He had a little something to say to me, even though He didn't take away all the hard feelings as I walked my usual loop.

After I had spilled out everything to God and kept walking in silence trying to take in the beauty of the spring world around me in an effort to calm my nervous system, I had a thought that I'm pretty sure came from Him:

"I need to let God love them through me."

As I pondered what that meant, I realized that when I start to feel inadequate and like a failure as I try to care for the people that I love, I begin to feel like everything depends on me. That I'm the one who needs to fill them and fix them. (Which is a lie and totally impossible and just makes me feel more inadequate and more like a failure...and perpetuates a negative thinking spiral.)

The reality is that I'm not enough for anyone and I'm certainly not enough for everyone in my life at every given moment! That's God's job, and I can certainly never be successful at that!

Maybe you can relate to the struggle with self sufficiency? It's so easy to get caught up relying on our own strength. The desires behind it are often well meaning. We want our family to feel loved and cared for, and that's a good thing. But if we try to love them and care for them in our own strength, that runs out pretty quickly. Then we are left completely depleted and looking at all the ways that we are falling short. 

There's always so much that I want to give to my husband, children and grandchildren. As mothers, so much of the giving that we do is in the shadows. There are so many ways that we pour into our family that they never even see. We want them to know that they are thought of and loved so often in our minds and hearts. All the planning and the prepping for holidays, birthdays, and milestone celebrations. All the times that we see something that reminds us of them.  We want our love to fill their hearts.

Yet, there are moments when all that we do never feels like "enough". And then there are those times where we lose our patience and say things we wish we hadn't that seem to speak louder than all the love we try to pour into them. Discouragement can slip in and make us feel hopeless - like we are trying to fill up an ocean with a cracked plastic pail.

But like I learned on my walk, "enough" isn't supposed to come from me. It's supposed to come from God through me.

Another Parent Who Tried to Be "Enough"

There's a parent in the Bible who tries to be "enough" for his daughter. Jairus was one of the rulers of the synagogue who was searching for Jesus to beg him to come and save his dying daughter. Jairus does find him and Jesus agrees to come with him. Jairus must have felt such relief, but also a sense of extreme urgency to get Jesus to his daughter before it was too late. 

But then there's a shift in the focus of the story. Jesus stops to minister to the hemorrhaging women. I was thinking about how Jairus might have felt during Jesus' miracle and interaction.  Jairus was carrying such a heavy emotional burden. It must have been so incredibly hard to stop for any amount of time with the worry that he carried about his daughter.  Even though Jairus had sought out Jesus, maybe Jairus felt that it was all up to him to get Jesus to his daughter in order for his actions to be enough and save her. 

In the midst of this interruption, Jairus' worst fears came true. People from Jairus' house arrive and tell him his daughter has died. Grief must have permeated Jairus along with the sense that he had failed his daughter by not getting Jesus to her in time. But we all know that's not the end of the story.(see Mark 5: 21-24,35-43)  Because Jesus' abilities go far beyond our limited human strength. 

This little girl's healing came from Jesus through Jairus' efforts to love and care for his daughter. Because it came from Jesus, it was more than enough. Her healing transcended interruptions, hopelessness and even death.

And this gives us hope as parents. God, not Google, needs to be our first stop when our kids are facing physical, emotional or spiritual situations that seem impossible for us to fix. We need to remember that whenever our best efforts fall short, that is exactly where God is waiting and where His power shines the brightest. We need to remember that we do not fight for our children on our own...and that's something that I need God to remind me of over and over again!

"The Lord will fight for you; you have only to keep still."(Exodus 14:14)

The Gift of Rest

The peace of this school vacation week has been a balm to my very weary soul. After a Lent that was full to the brim, a nonstop Holy Week, and Easter day, having time to just "be" and think, nap and even deep clean(!) has felt so amazing. I've tried to enjoy this slower pace and allow each day to just develop. Going into the week, I actually felt a lot of guilt and stress because I wanted to have a few fun things planned to do with Kate and Luke and I was having a hard time figuring what to do. I still feel out of my element trying to plan fun things for my young teens. I miss the days when trips to the zoo and playground made them so excited and made me feel like a really good mom! It took some work, but I was able to surrender all the hard feelings and spend some time praying each day that God would help me plan what was best for all of us. Because in the past, the guilt has totally derailed the time off I had and left me feeling deflated and discouraged...and I didn't want that to happen again.

And while we haven't done anything big most of the week, the kids have actually enjoyed the slower pace as well. They did some deep cleaning of their rooms(my favorite), and had lots of time to work on their own craft projects.(their favorite!) Kate had some time with friends and they both had a couple of Jackbox game nights with some of their siblings. We went out for ice cream, breakfast and lunch on three different days. Jay was able to get an unexpected day off on Friday, so we are going to take Kate and Luke on a day trip to Boston. (Which makes me feel good that we can provide a little adventure and "small" family time for them!) And Luke and Jay are going to see the 25th anniversary showing of Revenge of the Sith on Saturday, which Luke is really excited about. 

This little hiatus from my usual full time schedule is making me long for summer to arrive quickly to experience even more of this slower pace.  And while I've had moments of anxiety about the return to normal chaos next week, I keep just turning my thoughts to gratitude for the time that I've been given.

Today, after sharing takeout lunch and a boba smoothie with Luke and Kate, I sat on the steps of our deck in the sunshine. The weather was just perfect and I felt so calm as the warmth of the wood seeped into my legs, the sound of birds singing filled my ears, and the beautiful colors of spring filled me with anticipation for the summer weather that will be coming before I know it. 

As I sat on the deck reading a book, (a true luxury in the middle of the day for me), I saw a crow perching at the very tip of the fir tree in our yard. It flew away and a hawk came out from its hiding place in the same tree and flew into the woods.  I felt excited for the buds growing on the trees and plants and I love that the grass is so green! As I looked around, I was able to overlook the spattering of plastic Easter eggs still littering the yard, the dozen tomato stakes strewn across the patio that my grandson, Ambrose, relocated yesterday to make a "bridge", and the shed that needs repainting. My focus was not on what needed to be done, it was on the natural beauty all around me. I'm not always able to see that.

The landscape hasn't changed a whole lot in the last week, but my ability to receive it has. I've finally been able to stop and be fully present and allow myself to truly rest. It's been quite a long time since I've been able to slow my mind and body down enough to just live in the moment. It's made me realize how important this is and that I would like to feel this calm more often. At least for this week, I will receive it as the great gift that it is. 

My two princesses, Aurora and Claire!

Those cheeks!!!

End of Lent Pep Talk!

As Lent draws to a close, I find myself feeling a little disappointed. 

Let me clarify: I'm not disappointed about Lent being over. I'm starting to feel like Lent has been going on for.ev.er! And to be completely honest, Lent has never been my favorite season. It's all those involuntary sacrifices that pop up during Lent...the illnesses, unexpected medical procedures, unexpected losses, and unexpected hardships and inconveniences... that make each week even more, well, "Lenty", than I really wanted Lent to be.

The disappointment I feel comes from a place of unmet expectations about the changes that I hoped Lent would make in me. The growth that I thought might happen during Lent hasn't come to fruition yet. And since we are almost at the end, there's a good chance that I will fall short of my own hopes and goals.

But the key words in that last paragraph are "I" and "my", as in the changes that  "I" expected and "my" hopes and goals. Because Lent is supposed to be about growing closer to God by working on removing the things in my life that keep me from Him and adding things into my life that He inspires that will accomplish greater intimacy with Him. So what really matters isn't the direction that Lent took or how well I did or didn't do on the things I took away or the prayers that I added in. If I can focus on the areas of my heart that God did choose to work on and any growth that I can see, then maybe I can shift my attitude of disappointment to an "attitude of gratitude"!

Maybe some of us, (myself included), need an "End of Lent Pep Talk"!

I really need to remember that, just because parts of my Lent became a journey that I wasn't expecting, that doesn't mean that I haven't experienced growth. God did give me the grace of a big perspective shift right at the beginning of Lent.  By reading "Jesus and the Jubilee" by Dr. John Bergsma and listening to a podcast by Fr. Mike Schmitz on the desert as a place of training for the Israelites, I was able to enter Lent in a whole new way. 

I didn't enter Lent this year with a sense of dread for all those involuntary penances that would come my way. Instead, I entered Lent with a posture of curiosity as to what God was trying to teach me and heal me from. A small change in perspective can make a familiar time like Lent feel like a whole new experience.

I always thought of the Israelite's forty year journey through the desert as a punishment for their doubt, unbelief, and idol worshipping. But the Israelites time in the desert wasn't a punishment, it was a gift. It was a time when God drew the Israelites to Himself and worked to free them from the slavery mindset of Egypt that had been stamped into their hearts for hundreds of years. During the time in the desert, God taught the Israelites who He was and how to depend on Him. That generation spent the rest of their lives unlearning and being healed from all they had suffered.

By doing the hard work with God, the Israelites were writing a new story of healing and faith, not slavery, to pass down to the next generations. The Israelites needed a new story and so do we. 

We spend Lent wandering through the deserts of our own hearts where God is teaching us about who He really is and helping to separate us from our slavery mindset to the idols that we hold onto. Maybe we didn't make the progress that we wanted to this Lent...but I think if we spend some time reflecting, (and get past our perfectionism), that God will show us the progress we did make. And where we fell short gives us the opportunity to embrace our spiritual poverty and continue turning to God and ask for His help. 

We need to remember that our transformation and growth don't stop just because Lent ends. Especially this year! 2025 is a special year because Pope Francis has declared it a Jubilee year. A Jubilee year is filled with an outpouring of special graces given by God for healing and restoration for ourselves, our families, and our communities. In an article for Franciscan at Home titled "Jesus and the Jubilee: Reflections for the Jubilee Year 2025, Dr. Bergsma shares:

"Lived well, this Jubilee year can be a moment of miracle and grace for all of us, a kind of yearlong spiritual Christmas season in which we daily awake to open the grace that God our Father so lovingly gives us."

I don't know about you, but a "yearlong spiritual Christmas" sounds amazing! So even if Lent hasn't finished the way we wanted it to, let's continue leaning into the graces that this special Jubilee year offers to us each day. 

(And let's all try to keep our mind off of our own expectations and focus on the growth that God is doing in His time!)

Prayers for a blessed Holy Week and Easter!

pic from our trip to Niagara Falls last summer:)

When A Saint Reaches Into Our Lives

Sometimes in difficult life situations we go searching for a saint, but sometimes it seems that a saint comes searching for us.  

Several years ago, my daughter was going through some severe trauma that had a huge impact on my own heart. Only three weeks into the struggle, we were still in a state of shock and steeped deep in survival mode where even breathing felt like it took a lot of work. I couldn't figure out how to stop the pain in order to try and find some path of healing I wasn't sure even existed.

As I dragged myself out of bed to head to daily Mass to continue begging God for help, I felt a nudge to invite my daughter to come with me. It turns out that on that particular morning, God was orchestrating a Divine appointment.

Connecting With a Saint

What I didn't realize before we got to Mass was that particular day happened to be Saint Maria Goretti's feast day. While I knew her story, I did not have a deep devotion to Saint Maria Goretti. Yet, in that moment, I knew that God had inspired my daughter to accept my invitation so that He could minister to her through Saint Maria Goretti. And minister He did.

My daughter also knew Saint Maria Goretti's story and during Mass she also felt that God was comforting her heart through the intercession of this special saint. As Mass ended, our pastor at the time announced that he had a first class relic for all of us to venerate. Saint Maria Goretti was literally present at Mass with us. 

After Mass and venerating the relic, we knelt in the quiet church to pray. Our pastor, who knew what my daughter was working through, came up to us and said, "I think that Saint Maria Goretti wants to go home with you today." And he generously allowed my daughter to borrow the relic for several days. There was a great sense of peace that entered my daughter's heart that day. While God did not work a complete miracle of healing through Saint Maria Goretti, He did give us a smaller "miracle of a moment". Saint Maria Goretti brought some respite to our home and reminded us of God's love and care in the midst of a painful situation.

From Tragedy to Sainthood

Saint Maria Goretti was born in Italy in 1890. She lost her father at a young age to malaria and Maria watched her five younger siblings while her mother worked to support them. When Maria was eleven, her neighbor, Alessandro Serenelli, tried to physically assault her. She resisted his attempts, shouting that it was a sin and put his soul in danger. In anger, Alessandro stabbed her 14 times. Maria died twenty-four hours later, forgiving her murderer for all around her to hear. Alessandro was sentenced to thirty years in prison. He was unrepentant and angry until Maria appeared to him in a dream eight years into his sentence. Maria gave Alessandro 14 lilies and repeated her forgiveness for him to hear and for her desire that he be in Heaven with her one day. Alessandro had a change of heart and, when he was released from prison, went straight to Maria's mother to beg forgiveness before joining a religious community. Maria's mother not only forgave him, but she came to consider him an adopted son. When Maria was canonized in 1950, her mother and Alessandro were both present, kneeling beside each other.

Deeper Lessons

It's such a grace when a saint reaches into our lives in such an evident way. Saint Maria Goretti's visit to us on her feast day that year was a gift that I will always treasure. And while it was instrumental in bringing some relief to an acute situation, our visit with Saint Maria Goretti opened a door for greater reflection on her life and a broader focus on our own story.

As a mom, I was drawn to the reaction of Saint Maria Goretti's mother and all that she suffered. Maria's mother, Assunta, suffered the horrible trauma of watching her daughter die from the wounds caused by their neighbor's brutal assault. Assunta had to live with the pain that she wasn't present to protect Maria from Alessandro as she worked through her grief over Maria's death. And yet, Assunta accepted the grace to forgive Alessandro when he came to her after his release from prison. 

Assunta's ability to forgive herself and to forgive Alessandro and allow him to be a part of her life were definitely great graces from God. Assunta, who followed her daughter's example to forgive, continues to give me much to ponder and challenges me in my own life situation to keep my heart open and allow God to work. Forgiveness, mercy, and healing do not come easily (or quickly) to our hearts that are broken when someone has hurt us or our loved ones. But if we can keep our hearts open to God, He can redeem our brokenness into wholeness and use our experiences for His greater glory.

Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us and all those that we love who have been hurt by another. Please open our hearts to give and receive forgiveness, repentance, and to allow God in to redeem the most broken parts of our hearts. Amen

I wrote this post as part of Catholicmom.com’s Holy Women’s History Month. Each day in March a writer has shared a personal story of how different female saints have interceded in their lives. You can check out all of the other reflections on their website!:)