St. Thomas More is one of the most familiar Saint names to me.
My grandfather was an extraordinary man of great faith. His influence on my spiritual formation as a kid is something I hold close to my heart to this day.
He founded an all-boys Catholic boarding school named after St. Thomas More. I grew up on the campus.
In elementary school, instead of getting on the bus, my grandfather used to pick me up, take me to daily Mass at his school’s chapel, bring me out to breakfast, then finally drop me off at school.
It was a time of peace and joy, feeling special, loved, and chosen.
I always associated St. Thomas More with the strength of my grandfather. And as I grew to learn more of the Saint’s life and death as a martyr defending the permanence of marriage, he just got stronger in my eyes.
Today, I remember with love my grandfather and his marriage to my grandmother. They used to teasingly argue with each other incessantly. My husband and I love to teasingly argue with each other, too.
This beautiful wooden St. Thomas More medal from @kindredforestco reminds me to pray for St. Thomas More’s intercession in our marriage – especially in today’s culture that’s all about attacking marriage.
And it reminds me to pray for the repose of the soul of my beloved grandfather, who inspired in me a love and desire for daily Mass, and showed me what it means to be a strong and holy Catholic.
What Saints played an important role in your faith as a youth?
@kindredforestco wooden saint medals and stickers launching July 24th. Affiliate link in bio. Sign up now to be on the launch list.
#kindredforestco #befriendswithsaints
Yesterday I bought cookies. Today I slammed them in the garbage.
It was a moment of weakness at the grocery store. I was too tired to say no, and the kids got the treat they asked for.
They ate cookies for lunch. They snuck cookies before dinner. Then again this morning, I saw the cookies coming out at breakfast time.
Enough is enough. The cookies had to go.
Just because we make one bad choice doesn't mean we need to keep making bad choices. The desicions of the past don't need to have a hold on our desicions right now.
Just because we bought it or spent money on it or invested in it doesn't mean we have an obligation to it.
No, our obligation is to pursue what's best for us right now, to let go of the mistakes of the past, and to learn from our mistakes.
So I let go of the "I spent money on these" guilt, threw away the cookies, and served my children grapes to satisfy their sweet tooth.
Your TEMPERANCE #VirtueChallenge - What mistakes of the past are you letting have a hold on you today? Do you need to slam anything in the garbage? Cancel any subscriptions? Delete any follows or favorites? Be brave: go and do it.
#MyMassTakeaway - you guyyyys our new parish does these processions and I am addicted.
My husband, always the wise guy, said "Public display of faith? I'm surprised this isn't illegal here in NY." Dude, don't be giving anybody any stupid ideas.
There was something powerful about walking up and down the streets with a whole group of Catholics - singing and praying while following a statue of Mary around.
Here is our faith right out in public.
The traffic stopped for us.
The people came out of their houses to watch us go by.
They ran to the statue to pin money on her dress. The procession stopped to greet them.
This is exactly what our faith needs to be like in our personal lives.
It needs to be out there in public for the world to see.
It needs to make people stop and notice theres something different, special, going on in our lives.
It needs to meet people where they are, and draw them out to encounter Christ in us.
Am I living my faith this way?
Am I a testimony to they joy of the Christian life?
Am I providing a place where people can encounter Jesus?
I will be praying for the grace for it to be so.
I went to Mass on a recent Saturday and noticed it was the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
That Solemnity isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation for me (Latin Rite) but I happened to know (don’t ask me how) that it was a Holy Day of Obligation for our Byzantine friends.
So I got to wondering how those in the Byzantine rite would fulfill their Holy Day of Obligation, if they couldn't get to the Byzantine Mass for some reason, but COULD get to, say, a Latin rite Mass.
Rewind to Ascension Thursday.
Ascension Thursday is a Holy Day of Obligation for me, and pretty much everyone else in the Latin rite, unless your bishop moves the day to Sunday.
Which, the bishops did in the U.S. military archdiocese.
I have some involvement in the military Catholic community, though we’re civilian, so the question of how exactly to fulfill the Holy Day obligation became important for me.
Since we’re under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of New York as a civilian family, we did have the obligation to fulfill the Mass requirements for Ascension Thursday.
I was of the understanding that in order to fulfill my Holy Day obligation, I had to attend a Mass that was celebrating the correct Ascension Thursday liturgy.
So here’s how it went down.
I drove an hour to a Mass on Ascension Thursday morning for the installment of the new officers of the Catholic women’s group.
I was under the impression this Mass didn’t fulfill my obligation.
So when Mass was over, I grabbed my kids and we rushed to Mass at our parish within the Archdiocese of New York 40 minutes away – an Ascension Thursday Mass.
We were going to make it just in time.
Until we got stuck in traffic.
We made it to Mass at the Consecration.
Which I know is way too late to count as fulfilling your obligation.
So we went home, had some lunch to fend off the hangries, and rearranged the rest of our day to allow us to hit up the 7pm Mass as a family, finally fulfilling our Ascension Thursday obligation.
Phew. Is your head spinning?
Here’s the thing. I was wrong.
New post on the blog will give you the lowdown on fulfilling your Mass obligation on Sundays and Holy Days. Link in bio.
What are some habits you have?
Do you hit snooze when you wake up? Do you grab a chocolate bar when you're stressed? Do you scroll your phone when breastfeeding baby? Habits are things we do so routinely, we hardly even think about it anymore.
Virtue is a habit.
Giving to a charitable cause one time to check off the "alsmgiving" box on our spiritual to do list is not virtue. Praying once is not a virtue. Saying no to chocolate to say yes to cookies five minutes later is not a virtue.
For temperance to be a virtue, you have to do it over and over and over until saying "no" is second nature to you. You're going to be really bad at it at first, and that's okay.
Don't give up.
Keep practicing until it's a habit. You will get there slowly and surely. And one day, you'll wake up and realize: hey! I haven't even *felt tempted* to gluttony/lust/porn/bingewatching - whatever it happens to be - in a long time.
Praise God! Until then, your #VirtueChallenge - practice building habits of temperance, starting today.
Bracelet by @telosart
What controls your life?
In Eden, a simple piece of fruit was the downfall of Adam and Eve. They had all that they needed, and still they wanted more. It was a luxury they couldn't resist.
And because of it, they lost everything. Their whole lives changed. Their food, their clothes, their work, their relationship with each other and with God.
Don't let the temptations of this world control your life. Coffee. Sugar. Screens. Work. Don't let them have that hold on your relationship with God. Don't let them come between you and eternal happiness.
Your TEMPERANCE #VirtueChallenge: ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you're allowing to have control over your life. Then ask him to help you detach from it and give that control back to God.
