Journeying With The Saints

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we are talking about obedience, which has become a very distasteful word in our culture.   There's a scene in the "Ten Commandments" where Moses says to Ramses, played by Yule Brenner, "Here His Word Rameses and obey!" Ramses looks at Moses and says, "Obey?" I just love how he says, "Obey." Such classic Yule Brenner.   There is this general feeling that if w...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Ahhhh….gotta love things that make you feel nostalgic.   If you grew up in the 80s and 90s there seemed to be this huge push to be a multi-tasker. People took great pride if they felt like they could multi-task well. Books were written on it and ways to successfully multi-task were touted.   Even in my younger years, it never seem...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. I'm so glad to have you with me.   If you are a devout Catholic, you know that we are to be striving for holiness. Sainthood is the goal. You, also, know that as a devout Catholic, we all fall short sometimes. And while I'm not one to listen to excuses or give an easy pass, it is important that we be gentle with ourselves as we travel down the road to sainthood. No...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we are going to dive into one of the things I struggle with the most and that is anger.   Anger is an emotion that I've struggled since I can remember. I have gotten better, I will say that, but it's a work in progress. Early on in my life when people would try to tell me that my anger was getting the better of me, I would get angry and tell them, "This is just who...

Catholic Pilgrims, welcome back. Thank you as always for tuning in today, it really does mean a lot.   Do you have a good reputation that you work to preserve? Has anyone tried to tarnish your good reputation and, if so, how did you deal with it? Does humility demand that we just take it when someone tries to ruin our reputation?   Whenever I think of a good reputation, I always think of the story...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. I'm glad you are here with me today. Just a word before we read: I'm back on a Air Force base and the jets are flying all the time. So, sometimes, you'll hear some jet noise in the background. It's the sound of freedom, as we like to say on base, so just enjoy. :) Before we begin, we need to make sure we understand the terminology from today's reading. St. Francis is goin...

My fellow Pilgrims, welcome. How is going today? Good? Not so good? So-so? Well, however you are feeling, I'm glad you showed up here today to join me for another reading.   The other day my daughter and I were watching this video of a MadTV skit. The actors were all dressed up in wealthy 1900-period garb and they were standing around in a room as if at a dinner party. One of the ladies asks one o...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Glad to have you back. Today, our topic is on external humility and while I know not everyone will be listening to this in the month of June, I think it's a great time to discuss pride and humility. If you have young listeners, you may want to wait to listen.   I wrote something the other day when we entered into the month of June that said, "Instead of pride, let us ha...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, welcome to our reading on patience. I don't think it's a mistake that this is the first virtue St. Francis choose to write about. Patience, I believe, is one of the hardest virtues to practice.   And to be very honest, there are some things that I just have no patience for, such as most of what the secular culture is pushing these days. I just have no patience for it—none...

How is it going, Catholic Pilgrims? I hope life is treating you well wherever you are in the world.   Today, our reading is a continuation of last time. To refresh, last time St. Francis was talking to us about living out the virtues, which is what he is going to be talking about in the Third Part. He is continuing on with the overview of the virtues and so we won't see any particular virtue singl...

Hello, Pilgrims, welcome back! Today, we are entering into the Third Part and it is all about practicing the virtues. Our first reading today is longer than normal and so I want to jump right in and get started. Everybody's time is precious, I know.   So, go ahead and grab your books and open to Chapter One of the Third Part.  

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back to our last reading in the Second Part. In summary, the whole Second Part has been on how to approach prayer and the sacraments, mainly the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Eucharist.   Today, St. Francis is going to talk about how to communicate and he doesn't mean how to talk to people. He's referring to Holy Communion. How should we go up to receive Our L...

Fellow Pilgrims, welcome to our reading today.   Most Catholics know and understand that we need to go to Mass on Sunday. It is an obligation and while that it is a dirty word in our culture, it needn't be. We are obliged to give a meager one hour to God, once a week.   There are certain things about receiving Holy Communion at Sunday Mass that are extremely important that we know. A few things ar...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims! Welcome back to another great day with St. Francis de Sales.   When I was around six years old, I became somewhat of a thief. I was stealing lots of things: Toys from church, toys of neighbor kids, and a lady's purse. Yes, you heard that right. I stole a lady's purse and hid it under my Smurf three-wheeler.   I got in some major trouble for it and maybe you've heard that...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Oh, I love today's reading. It's so good and a fresh way to look at inspirations.   Because it is a longer reading, I don't want to take too much time talking myself. Instead, let's jump right in to Chapter Eighteen of the Second Part.  

Hello Catholic Pilgrims, welcome back!  When I was younger, I would pick up my Bible, intent on reading it straight through. I'd get through Genesis and Exodus, but once Leviticus it was all I could do to hang on and stay awake. It wasn't long after that I'd give up reading Scripture until I felt inspired again. But then I would go through the whole scenario all over never getting through the whol...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back to another great day with St. Francis de Sales.   As you all well know, I grew up Protestant and, because of this, I did not grow up knowing about the saints or even the angels, really. Mary was only considered around Christmas time. So, when I became Catholic, it took me a hot second to learn to bring the saints and angels into my faith life.   This was some...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Good to have you back with me. I'm going to totally date myself today, that's fine, I don't really worry to much about people knowing my age. Anyway, I grew up watching "The Andy Griffth Show" with my dad. Several years ago, when my family wanted to watch something that didn't scar our souls, we started watching "The Andy Griffth Show." There are many things about that sh...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, our reading is on one of my favorite topics—Holy Mass. Recently, my husband has been working with a small-business out of California that is owned by some crazy smart young guys. My husband, being in the Air Force, brought them on base for some testing. It's always so fun to see a base through the eyes of someone who has never been on one before.   I've been...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, welcome back. Today is our longest read yet, but I don't want that to scare you. It's packed with some really good things. Because it is longer and I know everyone's time is precious, I don't want to offer a reflection at the end. Instead, here at the front end, I'd like to give you what I think you should focus on.  So often in our Christian life we are told to invite Go...

Welcome to another reading, Catholic Pilgrims. T Okay, we are going to be talking about spiritual retreats, but not the kind you normally think of. Usually when someone speaks of spiritual retreat, you think of going away to some monastery or retreat house to spend a weekend. While those are good to do, that's not what St. Francis is going to discuss today. I'd be curious to know if they had organ...

How y'all doing, Catholic Pilgrims. I'm working on my Alabama accent there for ya. I was recently giving a talk and I sat down next to this lady before the talk began and she said something to me and I responded. As soon as she heard me speak, she said, "Oh, you ain't from the South are ya?" I said, "No, ma'am, I'm from Kansas originally." I think it's so cool how different part of the country hav...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to another day with St. Francis.  When I was working, I couldn't even imagine a morning prayer routine. I was so busy getting ready, getting my girls ready for school and daycare, packing lunches, laying out something for dinner, and getting everyone out the door on time, that there was no way I could squeeze time in for prayer. Or so, I thought.  See, my idea of m...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for coming back to join me in another reading.  Have you ever looked in the comment's section of a celebrity's social media page? We all know that celebrities, or at least very few, manage their own social media pages. If you look in the comments, you see person-after-person heaping praise and adoration on the celebrity. Obviously there are some haters, too, in...

Pilgrims, pilgrims. Welcome back for another reading.  What do you do when you are done praying or meditating on some aspect of God? Do you then get up and have your breakfast? Turn out the lights and go to sleep? Maybe you go get ready for the day?  If life were always perfect, we would be able to leave our prayer life and just quietly slip into the rest of our day or end our day peacefully. But,...