Pilgrimage to a Monastery
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I wrote on my yearly pilgrimage to Surrey, UK to pray with the monks. I daydream about this place. It is featured greatly in my upcoming book.
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He is Right Here
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I saw a reel on Instagram showing pictures of Jesus present in our everyday lives. There was Jesus, sitting at one of those low Kindergarten tables, in a much-too-small-for-him chair, coloring with a small child. He looked as if he were having fun.
Read MoreEvent: Keynote Speaker at Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature
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I am pleased to announce that this Friday, November 15, I will be the Keynote Speaker at the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature at the University of Dallas. Join me at 5pm as I speak on the topic “May We Never Lose Our Sense of Wonder.”
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The Family Cheerleader and God for Us
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Reframing changes everything. When I know God is rooting for me, I don’t need anyone else to. Being my family’s cheerleader is no longer fueled by me but by God.
Read MoreFinding God at the Airport
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You may know I love to travel. This is why writing about Finding God in the Airport for Loyola Press was a delight.
Read MoreReview: The Picture of Dorian Gray
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“What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
This is the premise of Oscar Wilde’s compact novel The Picture of Dorian Grey.
Read MoreVacation Reads Under 200 Pages
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I get it. You think you are going to read War and Peace on your vacation. You think of all the time you’ll have at the airport, on the plane, waiting in line for tickets, but the reality is that you’ll see the Barbie movie is available on the in-flight entertainment system and you’d rather stare and quietly judge other families, than read.
Read MoreThe Audacity of Creating Something Beautiful
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I wrote about finding God in a quotidian painting like Jean Siméon Chardin’s Soap Bubbles for Ignatian Spirituality.
Read MoreCover Reveal for Undaunted Joy
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We have a cover reveal!
Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight will be out April 22, 2025 with Zondervan.
Undaunted Joy is available for Pre-Order
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Don’t worry—this isn’t the cover. The cover will be revealed soon. But the book Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight is now available to order.
Read MoreGod in the Details
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Then I saw it: tiny specks of dust floating in the shaft of light. There seemed to be millions of them! ...I was a superhero with super-amazing vision to see such tiny, little specks of dust.
Read MoreAnnunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World by Sally Read
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Parenting has always been difficult. Yet in the last few years, as a Christian, attempting to guide my children toward holiness has become increasingly more difficult. My children are inundated daily with lies about who they are and their place in this world.
It was in the midst of this frustration that I found Sally Read’s Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World.
Read MoreApostolic Joy
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“I convert because the Catholic Church is apostolic. We can trace Pope Francis all the way to St. Peter and all the Apostles; I want to be a part of that.” She was absolutely beaming when she told me this. As someone who grew up in a church founded in the 1970s, I understood. To be part of something with all that history made me feel connected to the panorama of the Church throughout time.
In the book, First Belong to God, Austen Ivereigh quotes Pope Francis when he writes, “Joy is apostolic. It is ‘a clear indictor of grace.’”
Read MoreJoy Books
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When I decided that I wanted to write a book on Joy, (Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight coming 2025 at Zondervan) I started to look for writers to be in conversation with. I read books already written on joy and then also books that were similar to what I wanted to do. What were these writers doing? What did I want to emulate? What did I want to do differently?
You might find a book or two to inspire you from this list. They are all joyful and thoughtful texts which I will return to and continue to have “conversations with” for years to come.
Read MoreZoom: Shimmering Moments: Discovering God's Presence in Our Lives
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I hope you will join me on Monday as I Zoom into Catholic Women’s Literature class at University of the Incarnate Word!
Read MoreFirst Communion and Confirmation Faith Filled Gift Ideas
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Sure I put candy in my kids Easter Baskets, I’m not a GRINCH!
But I love to put a few faithfilled gifts to remind them why we celebrate.
And with Baptisms, First Communions and Confirmations filling up my calendar for the next several months of Sundays, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite faith filled gifts with you.
Read MoreThe Thing WIth Feathers Podcast
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I had so much fun talking about Bald Eagles, my sons and JOY with Courtney Eliis on The Thing WIth Feathers Podcast
I hope you will listen and laugh with me. Or at me.
Read MoreMother-Son Summer Book Club
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Reading Classics with your children doesn’t have to be painful.
Read MorePreparing for a Big Trip
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I did not grow up traveling. We were poor and did not have time or the means for travel. Our vacations were usually a weekend camping trip to a site close enough that our beat-up car could make it there and back.
So in 2018 when my husband told me he had a two month Sabbatical and we were going to take our children out of school and spend it in Italy—I was shocked. Since that Sabbatical, we have done quite a bit more, each time becoming more efficient and streamlined so we can just enjoy the experience, instead of stressing.
Friends often ask me for pointers, so I thought I’d put them all in one place.
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