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Jan 23, 2017
Faith· Resources

Heroic Women; Inspiring Resources

More than once I have been asked if I”live in a cave” because I often do not know about current events, or celebrities, or tv shows – I think you get the picture.  In fact,  I recall one of my students drawing a picture of me “living in my cave” once.  What a funny memory – I laughed then and I am smiling now.  However, I digress . .  The point I am getting at is I think you would have had to be in a coma to not know about the Women’s Marches in the U.S. this weekend.

The coverage had me thinking of many different topics.  It also had me thinking about how blessed I have been in my life with a family so full of wonderful women. My mother, grandmothers, and aunts have been incredible role models and have truly loved me for who I am.  One of the aspects I have long noticed about the women in my family is that they never seem to gossip, always enjoy a good laugh and really, truly listen to one another.  Although we may not always agree, I love them dearly and see them as a gift from God.

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I also started thinking about the women I have read about that have inspired me to be a better Christian, a harder working woman, and simply, a better person.

Here are some inspiring resources I recommend about some truly heroic women:

Our Blessed Mother

Although there are an unmeasurable amount of resources about Our Lady, there are two I’d like to rccommend . . . The first is 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley. 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration is an easy read and not only serves as a personal retreat, but is also incredibly informative about Our Blessed Mother’s role in our faith.

The second resource about Our Lady is the fascinating Our Lady of Guadalupe. I heard someone give a talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe and she referred to this book Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love.  So much she said fascinated and intrigued both my husband and I.  It’s not only on my “to read” list – it’s on his as well!

OurLady.jpg

Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Katharine Drexel

Sitting in Eucharistic Adoration once, I came across the book titled, 15 Days of Prayer wit Saint Catherine of Siena.  One of my favorite quotes is attributed to her:

Be who God wants you to be and you will set the world on fire!

I LOVE that quote.  I often pray – Dear God, help me to be who you want me to be – and set the world ablaze!  However, there is much I do not know about this saint.  Reading this book in the chapel was quite interesting to me and gave me more knowledge about the truly heroic woman.  Not to long after, I was in the Eucharistic Adoration chapel again.  I came across a similar book, but this time the saint was Katharine Drexel. As I read 15 Days of Prayer with Saint Katharine Drexel, I truly felt as though I was receiving advice from heaven.

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Saint Gianna

We live in quite an amazing time.  Saint Gianna Beretta Molla- wife, mother and physician has been canonized and three of her children are still living!   Gianna Emanuela, the daughter of the great modern saint, stated to me in an email  that this is her favorite book about her “Saint Momma”: The Journey of Our Love: The Letters of Saint Gianna Beretta and Pietro Molla. As someone who not only feels Saint Gianna has interceded for my own personal prayers, but also a person who loves history and reading historical documents – this type of book is a gold mine!  How cool is it to be able to read the letters a saint wrote to her husband – and that he wrote to her!  The art of letter writing has become almost an ancient ritual in modern times, but also quite a nostalgic memory for many of us.  I wish I could read the letters my grandparents wrote to one another during WWII.  People wrote with such elegance and detail.  Having this book as a way to model marital love is quite a blessing and treasure.

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Saint Zelie Martin

Speaking of love letters . . . and motherhood . . .and marriage . . . I have a fairly new addition to my “favorite saint list”.  For years I have been quite fond and devoted to Saint Therese’ of Liseux.  Not so long ago, both her mother and father were canonized.  One time I was reading a letter Saint Zelie wrote to her brother, and I was so struck by the love she had for her husband.  In this particular letter, dated January 1, 1863, Zelie writes:

I’m always so happy with him, he makes my life very pleasant.  What a holy man my husband is.  I wish the same for all women; that’s my wish for them for the New Year.” 

It is my belief that if asked, she intercedes for husbands and wives.  This book, Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (1864-1885) is an incredible way to see how two very faithful people dealt with daily struggles and real challenges.

Immaculee Ilibagiza

Immaculee lives in New York and survived the Rawandan Genocide.  Her experience and the way prayer and faith helped her through unimaginable horror and enabled her to truly understand forgiveness is more than inspiring.  Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust  and  Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide (Left to Tell) are both incredible accounts of a woman who is most certainly a hero of faith.

Immaculee.jpg

If you are looking to be inspired by women of faith . . . I strongly recommend these women!  Who inspires your faith?

 

Who is a hero to you?


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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anni says

    January 23, 2017 at 10:35 am

    This is a great list! I think these women are fantastic role models. Their messages are profound, and they truly epitomized being open to the call of the Holy Spirit. Great list!

    • Amy says

      January 23, 2017 at 10:39 am

      Thank you Anni!!!

  2. Alicia says

    January 23, 2017 at 10:54 am

    I’m so glad you included Immaculee as a modern woman who has faced unimaginable trials and come through by faith.
    I also appreciate Abby Johnson for her work in the pro-woman, pro-life movement.

    Thanks for sharing this list of strong, heroic, faithful women! 🙂

    • Amy says

      January 23, 2017 at 12:47 pm

      Abby’s books are on another post I am writing – books I want to read this year!

  3. Aleesa says

    January 23, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    This is so uplifting, I love it!!!

    • Amy says

      January 23, 2017 at 8:19 pm

      Thank you Aleesa!

  4. Sara @ To Jesus Sincerely says

    January 23, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    Now THESE are some heroic women! I love this list! And thank you for including the resources. I feel like I have so much learning to do! So much I want to know about!

  5. Alicia Potvin says

    January 24, 2017 at 8:24 am

    I think I live in that cave too as I just don’t pay much attention to the outside stuff as most of it isn’t the whole story or even true in some cases. Sure I know the big stuff but all that other stuff, no it really isn’t important in our journey home. Reality shows that are not reality, news that only reflects the awful and not the amazing, like these women are – I have done portraits of St. Catherine S and St. Katherine D which got me to really study them and all the wonders of their lives.

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never hesitate to invite someone to pray the Rosary with you!

Katie embraced the Rosary as a Christian 
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How can we love our identity and still be humble? How can we love our identity and still be humble?

Does that sound like a good title for a talk?

I’m working on a “Talk” on Identity (or a blog post if I chicken out 🐓)… and I’m really liking the topic of humility… along with modesty.
My plan was to post this morning and ask for your prayers… but along the way I saw that today is Saint Philip Neri’s feast day.
So, naturally, I googled “Saint Philip Neri humility”.
To my delight, I found this quote:

“Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. 

For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost. I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.”

I feel like some great message is coming together here, but, I need your prayers.

I mean, I don’t even know if posting about humility on Instagram is like, a total oxymoron?

I’m so thankful to have Scripture and the writing of Saints to help me. I’m also extremely grateful for your prayers.

May we both live as it is written in 1 Peter 5:5 ~
“And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for:
“God opposes the proud
but bestows favor on the humble.”
* if you like that Saint Philip Neri quote, you can see and share it over at @catholicsonline 

Do you have any questions or thoughts on humility?
Let me know in the comments!

Photo taken by @nadiapittmanphoto 📸 

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Do our sons understand what it means to be a “sp Do our sons understand what it means to be a “spiritual warrior “? Do we?

I learned and relearned a ton of things writing Be Yourself: a Journal for Catholic Boys.

Here’s what we all need to know about being a “Spiritual Warrior “:

1. Yes, there is a battle between good and evil and we are all in the midst of it. Years ago, in cartoons, it was common to see a devil on one shoulder and an Angel on another. It was CLEAR which voice was good and which was evil. The animation gave us a visual of what we were very familiar with.  Today, we must work a little harder so that all of us are detecting what is good and what is evil.

2. You don’t walk out onto a battlefield unprepared.
You put on your suit of armor and you bring your weapon. You do this FIRST! Faith is our shield, prayer is our greatest weapon. In other words, God has to be number one if we want to truly protect our soul. Knowing God has to be not only a priority, but our first priority.

3. We are not alone, but not everyone is going to grow in virtue. The virtues are our “armor of light” that protect us from the enemy. We would be wise to follow the advice of St. Francis de Sales in this, “Love everyone with a strenuous love based on charity, but form friendships only with those who can share virtuous things with you.”
Want to help your son on the battlefield?
Get him a copy of this journal today!
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I asked him to show me his favorite page and he chose the “mad libs like” activity 😆.

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Prayer of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus O Jesu Prayer of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus

O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
for your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields;
for your tempted priests;
for your lonely and desolate priests;
for your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in purgatory.

But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptized me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;
the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way (especially …).

O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.
Amen.
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I have a super sweet story to share with you! Las I have a super sweet story to share with you!

Last evening my husband and I decided that we were long overdue for praying a Rosary with the family.

We have friends searching for jobs that have asked us to pray and many others intentions.

Our kids were outside playing with a little girl who lives up the road.

I walked outside with a bunch of tangled up Rosaries (see reel I made yesterday) and told my 3 children they had to come in to pray the Rosary.

My daughter, who made this Rosary for me, asked if their friend could pray with us.

I said she was, of course, welcome to pray with us!

All 4 kids came inside and my son volunteered to lead the first decade. Our 9 year old guest led a decade too!

She stumbled a little with the words to the Hail Mary but by the end of her decade, I was so impressed.

Once we were done praying my husband complimented our young guest on how well she did.
It was such a beautiful, unexpected event.
What a great reminder… courtesy of my daughter in Kindergarten… to always invite others to pray with you!
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We haven’t even started yet and there’s an iss We haven’t even started yet and there’s an issue 😂 🪢 
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“I don’t even remember that”~ my Mom. When I “I don’t even remember that”~ my Mom.
When I told my mom how she inspired the title of the Be Yourself Journal, that was her response 😂.
As a tired Mama, I so appreciate this now.
It’s amazing what God’s grace and a mother’s love can do!
My mom felt bad that I felt left out. But, she was also tired and was probably in survival mode with 3 or 4 children at that point.
I get that now.
But God took what my mom didn’t say and placed in my heart the contents of the book I get to the author of!
I am finding so much relief in this realization today.
I often see my shortcomings as a Mother.
I’m tired.
I’m still disorganized like I was before motherhood.
But I do have faith in God and love for my children.
I believe that God knew exactly what He was doing when He chose me to be the mother of my children.
He knows my strengths and weaknesses.
His grace is sufficient… for all mothers.
Praise the Lord!
Happy Mother’s Day!

Share this post and remind others that it’s totally okay to not be perfect.
Keep loving!
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Did you know Our Lady of Fatima taught the three y Did you know Our Lady of Fatima taught the three young children a couple of prayers?

The Blessed Mother taught the children to offer all their personal sacrifices to God by praying:
O My Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Another prayer Our Lady taught the children was:

O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.

I love how Our Blessed Mother encourages to us to start a prayer by addressing the Lord with these words:
“O my Jesus…”
One of my favorite prayers was taught to the Fatima children by an angel.
This is that prayer:

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.

Today, May 13th, is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

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Sometimes, when I go to Mass, the homily isn’t e Sometimes, when I go to Mass, the homily isn’t exactly stellar…

But bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes, when I attend Mass, the other people in the pews don’t participate in the prayers or sing the hymns…

But bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. The whole Christ is truly present.

Sometimes, when I’m at Mass my own mind wanders and I’m distracted by children who can’t sit still…

But bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

An incredible miracle happens at every Catholic Mass… 

The whole Christ is truly present -- body, blood, soul, and divinity -- under the appearances of bread and wine, the glorified Christ who rose from the dead. This is what the Church means when she speaks of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the body of Jesus Christ, which was given up for me and you.

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There is not one person out there that understands There is not one person out there that understands ALL THE THINGS. This is another reason why it is so important to network with others.
We can help one another. All for the sake of His Kingdom.
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Long before “influencer” was a common term or Long before “influencer” was a common term or familiar word in our vocabulary, our actions and example made a difference in the lives of others.

Sometimes… perhaps more often than not, our choices impact the decisions of other people without us even realizing it.

When I was a teen, I ran cross country and track.

To my surprise, I was … not terrible at it.

I realized, through this sport, that God had not completely skipped me when giving out talents.

But, I questioned God.
Why give anyone the talent to run long distance?

How on earth could that talent be helpful to anyone?

I was young and the truth is… wisdom does come with age.
There was a ton of personal fruit that came to me from running.
But to my surprise… my example to continue running, even though I often thought it was a “stupid talent” didn’t just impact me.

For years I kept running because my Catholic education taught me that if God gave me a talent, it was my job to use that talent.

So even though I 💯 % thought it was the dumbest talent ever… I kept using it.

Years later my brother shared how my example led to him giving running as a sport a try.

He’s much more talented than me.

And I am still in shock that my actions grabbed his attention.

I strongly believe young people need to hear stories like this.
Blind faith and trust in God is not a waste of time.

I wrote more about this in Be Yourself: a Journal for Catholic Boys.
My brother, who really is a GOOD SPORT, allowed me to take his picture with the book that shares a part of this big story.
It was all in God’s plan.
Thank you Brian for sharing that story!!!

If you teach children or teens to trust God, even when they don’t quite understand why… comment and share below!
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Stop scrolling… we need to talk. Yes… you! Do Stop scrolling… we need to talk.
Yes… you!

Do you have a Bible?
Who gave it to you?
What year was that?

I realized very recently that the only reason why my husband and I have a Bible is because his Aunt, who happens to be a nun, gave us one as a wedding gift.

I had a Bible before I got married.
I had it because I went to a Catholic high school and it was a required book for our religion classes.

So as I was thinking about this … I started to wonder…
How many Catholics don’t have Bibles???

I ask you to consider giving a loved one a Bible the next time you’re thinking about giving a gift.
There’s a rumor going around that Catholics don’t read the Bible very much…
Let’s make sure that’s not true.
This Bible is the one used by @fathermikeschmitz for The Bible in a Year podcast.

I was given a copy in exchange for promotion. I don’t think there has ever been anything easier to promote!

On a side note… my very good non-Catholic friend is becoming Catholic this month and this Bible and that podcast have a lot to do with that.

So friends… go spend some time with Jesus. Read your Bible and give someone you love a Bible too.

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