Try a Little Kindness

Good Monday morning! I'm going to be guest blogging at Faith and Faith Live! all this week. I'm using the format of the daily devotions in our new book, Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Think. Pray, Act. Every Day. to give you an idea of how it works. The book is expected next week, so consider this a sneak preview:-).

In the book, we focus on a virtue each month and look at the wisdom of great spiritual counselors, say a short prayer, and set about doing some small thing to help us grow in that virtue. This week, we're all about Kindness. 

In her gripping, amazing, life-changing, fabulous, testimony to grace and faith and mercy, Immaculee Illibagiza takes forgiveness to a place that most of us will never be challenged to understand. Grace shines through this woman in a tangible, but supernatural way. She once said, "If you have to choose between being right and being kind, always choose to be kind."

With that in mind, knowing that we can be kind no matter what life throws us, let's look together at kindness this week.

Small Steps

Danielle and I had an opportunity to talk with Lisa Hendey about our new books. And, we spent a few minutes giggling with glee over Rachel Balducci's pink news. Still makes me grin like a fool every time I think of her with a baby girl. Click on over for some girl talk about small steps towards God.

Mantel Letters

The purpose of this post is to help along the search process here in the Heart of my Home. I can't count the number of ladies who have written to me frustrated that they have searched and searched for "mantle letters" but they can't find all the posts--the ones telling how to make them or the ones that tell which words I've chosen for which month.Indeed, "mantle letters" is up there among the most popular in the Lijit cloud on the righthand sidebar.

When  you search "mantle letters," you only get two posts. That's because those are the two posts when I spelled "mantel" wrong and hit publish before I corrected it. If you spell "Mantel" correctly, you get lots and lots of hits. And now, even if you spell it wrong, this post will pop up and save me from the awkward situation of correcting someone's spelling when they write to ask:-)

What about the words? How did I choose the words? I'm glad you asked! Now, I can give you the whole answer. For the most part, the words change every month. 

January: Joy

February: Simplicity

March: Simplicity is replaced with Repent on Ash Wednesday

April: Alleluia appears on Easter morning

May: Grace

June: Gentleness

July: Humility

August: Charity

September: Diligence

October: Patience

November: Gratitude (the letters actually say "Grateful.")

December: We have Prepare for the first three weeks of Advent and then we replace it with Joy on Gaudete Sunday.

Our new book is a collection of doable daily devotions. Each month's devotion is organized around a virtue. And the virtues for each month look very much like the ones in the list above:-). In the book, March is Sacrifice and April is Courage and December is Peace. There is a study guide to go with the book. There, you will find an essay on each virtue and some questions and thoughts that will lead a contemplative mom on her own or a whole group of moms studying together. There is also a section in the study guide that contains the Lenten meditations. So, with the study guide, a group of local ladies could gather once a month, talk about the virtues, see what God's word has to say, make some resolutions to encourage each other to grow, and then go home and use the devotional for daily reinforcement from the saints.

And you can paint some letters and put them on your mantle mantel to remind you all month long:-)

Walk with Me?

I've gotten a few notes looking for the Lenten meditations that were posted here last year and the year before last. I'm not ignoring you! I was waiting to let you know that now you have lots of ways to get those prompts. Danielle has all the news and all the links here.

In addition to walking through Lent with you, we have gathered a whole year's worth of doable devotions into a brand new book:-)! You can pre-order it here.

I look forward to walking with you.