Illuminated By Joy

 Happy new year everyone! Personally, I am glad to leave 2022 behind, although a little sad too. It had it's good moments, but all in all it was a hard year for me.  At the start of last year things went downhill and I went through a hard time basically the whole year. I'm hoping this year will be a new start for me.  I hope to repeat the good things, a beautiful growing friendship, progress on crafts like knitting, a few wonderful events.  But there are many more things I hope not to repeat. I'm not going to make a few small resolutions for this new year, I'm going to go for a complete overhaul of my life, and hope I can finally summon up the courage to do it.  I'm aiming for change in four aspects of my life:  Family School Spiritual Social I have learned quite a lot about myself though, and also about hope. I'm a very hopeful person. Giving up at something goes against the grain for me. I may be hopeless for a short amount of time, but soon enough hope r...

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a Blessed Advent! Christmas is now less than 24 hours away, and that means last minute shopping and preparations. However, one thing that many of us (including me) often forget to prepare is our hearts. Jesus is coming, and we don't even spend time truly preparing the one thing that he really cares about. But remember, Jesus always accepts a sincere offering no matter how late you start preparing it. So let's start right now. To me, one Christmas theme that always seems to come up is new beginnings. Christ's birth brought an new beginning for the Church, and for you. He wants to give you a new beginning. How can you let Him do that? Maybe you're still holding a grudge against yourself or another person and it's time to let go. Maybe you're struggling with something and still haven't offered it to Jesus. Or maybe, like me, you keep following Jesus halfheartedly and never seem to truly give yourself to Him. Whatever it is, take ...

 Hello all! Sorry I've been absent for a while. Luckily Ava has still been posting, so you haven't been entirely deserted.  Happy Advent! Anyway, today's post isn't directly about Advent, but it is related to it.  Advent is the beginning of the Liturgical year, and so it is a time of spiritual regeneration. Here are my four tips to grow in the spiritual life based on my own experience.  1. Pray the Rosary often and well.  I found that praying the Rosary every day, though it can be hard to stick to, very beneficial to the spritual life. But especially saying it well, as it was meant to be said,  meditating on the particular mystery associated with the decade as you say it. It might be hard at first, but it will get easier as you go on. (Warning: Don't break your habit of saying the rosary every day no matter what, or else you will lose the habit. I've learned this the hard way.) 2. Recieve Holy Communion often and very well.   This is so  important...

I always loved the stories of the saints. They were always so exciting and full of adventure! But unfortunately, the way they were portrayed made them seem boring, distant, and even a little creepy. It can get so tiring to hear just how holy they were over and over again that they just seem impossible to relate to. However, we know that isn't the case. The saints were just like us. They had their faults, sins, slips, and  bad sides. We just need some more authentic portrayals of them. Luckily, that's where books come in. Books can make the stories with so few details come alive. They can also answer the question: "What might have it looked like if I could go back in time and witness the saint go through their struggles?" They have room for all of the details that those one-page-per-saint biographies don't. So, maybe we could read some of those! Below is a list of authors who have written novels/ novellas of saints. I am only including authors who have written seri...

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting! Anyhow, Happy late All Saints Day and  All Souls Day! These are two days of the year when we can really reflect that we're not alone; we have souls up in Heaven and Purgatory that are praying for us. Together, these three parts of the Church, the Church Militant (us, here on earth), the Church Suffering (those in Purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (those in Heaven) make up the mystical Body of Christ. We can get a small taste of that on earth by partaking in Holy Communion at Mass, where Heaven really does become one with earth. Jesus is really present there, but so is Mary, and all of the saints! It can just make us all reflect on just how amazing it will be when we do get into Heaven. We will all be One in Christ. We will also all be saints, whether the rest of the world knows our story, or not.  Let us all, then, strive to become saints and see one another in the Kingdom of Heaven.

On the evening of May16, 2020, I received a text from a friend asking me if I wanted to join a prayer group. I said yes, and I am definitely glad I made that decision. She created the group with me and a few other friends the following day. It was hard to manage things at first-- we had to find a time that worked for everyone, what prayers we said at the end of the Chaplet or Rosary, and what some of our "customs" were-- but eventually we came through.   I always looked forward to the sessions every day except for Sunday. We video chatted and prayed a rosary or chaplet (it depended on the circumstances of each day) and we concluded with our closing prayers, a litany of our patron saints, and our motto: "Pray, hope, and don't worry." ~St. Padre Pio We were able to continue the group for more than two years, and it helped me in so many ways. It gave me a chance to get to know my fellow members better, and a community I could turn to if I needed support. We were a...

 Happy feast of the Holy Rosary all!  I decided to pop in today to talk about the feast of the rosary, and why it's today. Because today is not the anniversary of our Lady appearing to St Dominic or anything like that. Actually it's the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto!  The battle of Lepanto happened when a huge navy of Turks threatened to sweep all over Europe in the 16th century. A few countries banded together at the call of the Pope, led by the only person who would lead them, the half brother of the Spanish King, Don Juan of Austria.  They had a much smaller fleet than the Turks. The whole of Christendom was in danger. The Pope asked the entire Church to pray the rosary for victory and due to her intercession the Catholic fleet had a decisive victory. And so from then it was at first our Lady of Victory and now it is our Lady of the Rosary!  If you want to hear the battle recounted in epic proportions read G. K. Chesterton's poem, the Battle of Lepanto...