Family / Women
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Mary Gannon Kaufmann describes the life-giving nature of womanhood and seeks to guide women to live a deeper contemplative life of faith and prayer that can awaken holiness in themselves and others, in their families and the priests and deacons that they pray for.
Even though this call to effectively intercede for others is not new, today the call to spiritually uplift the Church and her clergy stands in new brilliance. Using Venerable Concepci n's work as well as the insights of other saintly women, Awakening a Life-Giving Heart helps women learn to negotiate the ups and downs of their lives as prayerful sacrifices for others.
Who am I? What is my purpose? Where do I belong?
These questions linger in every season of our lives, but, as Mary Lenaburg learned the hard way, answering them becomes possible only when we direct our hearts to the God who made us and loves us best of all. Following Lenaburg's example in Be Bold in the Broken will give you the courage and inspiration you need to accept who you are--the good, the bad, and the awkward--and become the woman God made you to be.
Lenaburg desperately wanted to be part of a girl tribe in middle school. She wanted to belong, to have friends--to be seen. So the unathletic, gangly sixth grader tried out for the cheerleading squad. She didn't have fancy clothes like the other girls and she noticed that everyone else had "a chest." So Lenaburg stuffed a pair of her brother's sweat socks into her bra. You can probably guess the rest: One sock fell out when she started a tumbling routine.
When she was still feeling humiliated after several weeks, her father gave her some life-changing advice: "How about next time you just be you, do your best, and let God figure out the rest."
Lenaburg--the author of Be Brave in the Scared--explores her journey to self-acceptance as she struggled to make sense of who she is and what she had to offer. Relatable anecdotes will make you laugh as Lenaburg answers the questions she is most often asked and shares how she finally learned to own
With personal stories and faith-filled reflections, Lenaburg blazes the path to true identity and purpose in Christ.
It can be scary to hold your newborn--especially your first time! Yet God's grace and spirit are present. Blessing and Prayers for New Parents calls attention to these holy moments by offering reflections, prayers, Scripture, special suggestions for growing as a parent, and ways to remember how much you love your child as you grow together as a family.
Enjoy the new life of your child as author Matthew Beck shares prayers and blessings as you "anxiously await the wonder" on up through "God and toddlers" and beyond--all through the eyes of a new parent and all wrapped up in God's care.
Paperback
Lisa M. Hendey, founder of the award-winning CatholicMom.com and bestselling author of The Handbook for Catholic Moms and The Grace of Yes shares her passion for the saints by introducing fifty-two holy companions as guides for the amazing vocation of Catholic motherhood.
Guided by the example of the saints, Hendey eloquently links personal stories, scripture, prayer, and soul-strengthening exercises into a spiritually rich and deeply practical resource for Catholic women. This edition includes a new preface and cover and is updated with information about saints canonized since the first edition.
Allow The Book of Saints for Catholic Moms to help you grow in your faith and enrich your heart, mind, body, and soul by spending each week of the year with Lisa M. Hendey and a different saint. This award-winning spiritual guidebook introduces you to popular saints such as Thérèse of Lisieux, Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, and Patrick, as well as lesser known but equally inspiring saints such as Gianna Beretta Molla and Damien of Molokai.
Each week Hendey offers:
If you've been wondering how to bring the rich traditions of the Catholic Church's liturgical year into your home and into your family, this is the book for you. If you have no idea what the liturgical calendar is, this still might be the book for you, if you are looking for ways to bring your faith home from Sunday Mass, in every season, all year long.
Catholic blogger and mother of many, Kendra Tierney shares how her family incorporates traditional Catholic practices into today's family life throughout the Church year--from Advent and Christmas, through Lent and Easter, to Pentecost and beyond. She provides ideas for stories, decorations, activities, and foods that will help you to celebrate your Catholic faith with your family and friends without expertise or much advance planning. She also offers tips and tricks from her fifteen years in the Catholic mommy trenches on things like surviving bringing young children to Mass and saying a family Rosary.
Whether you're a convert or a revert, an expert theologian or a brand-new Catholic, a member of a big family or a little one, a stay-at-home or a working parent, you're sure to find ways to make your Catholic faith a memorable and meaningful part of your busy family life. And have fun doing it!
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Do you hear yourself saying the same things over and over to your kids?
"Do you need help?"
"Say thank you."
"Wait a minute."
In Don't Forget to Say Thank You: And Other Parenting Lessons That Brought Me Closer to God, Lindsay Schlegel reimagines the common phrases we repeat as parents and applies them to our relationship with God. In doing so, she demonstrates how reflecting on our vocation as mothers can inform and illuminate our role as a daughter of God, drawing us closer to him.
What if we took the statements we repeat to our children and apply them to ourselves?
In Don't Forget to Say Thank You, writer Lindsay Schlegel shares fifteen relatable phrases she frequently uses as a parent and how her faith and life changed when she envisioned God telling her these same things.
When we start to hear the things we're telling our kids as wisdom from God, it's clear that the lessons we are trying to teach our kids are ones we also need to learn as children of the Most High.
Asking her daughter, "Do you need help?" caused Schlegel to reflect on the importance of the Communion of Saints and reaching out for the assistance she needs. Telling her children, "Say you're sorry" reminded her of the necessity of Confession and seeking forgiveness. And pleading that a toddler "wait a minute" while she looked for her crackers forced Schlegel to consider how she needed to have both more patience and more trust that God would take care of her.
Schlegel invites us to apply the same lessons she learned to our own lives as parents and as children of God through reflection questions and a prayer at the end of each chapter. She also suggests saints to whom we can look for inspiration and guidance, reminding us that we are not alone as we strive to more accurately reflect the image of our heavenly Father.
In A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare, Kathleen Beckman offers you potent advice from her 12 years of active participation on an exorcist's team. She shows you how to "clean up" your household by cultivating in your family a civilization of love "€" and how to withstand the spiritual attacks that inevitably come to destroy the harmonious family life you create.
Beckman reveals how you can recognize diabolical disguises in your home and offers proven means of protection found only in the Church's arsenal of spiritual weapons.
Demons wage war against families because families are vital to God’s plan of salvation. This stark reality requires that your family members become well-trained spiritual warriors who actively secure your home and fight to keep it off-limits to demonic activity.
In A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare, Kathleen Beckman offers you potent advice from her 12 years of active participation on an exorcist’s team. She shows you how to “clean up” your household by cultivating in your family a civilization of love — and how to withstand the spiritual attacks that inevitably come to destroy the harmonious family life you create.
Beckman reveals how you can recognize diabolical disguises in your home and offers proven means of protection found only in the Church’s arsenal of spiritual weapons.
You’ll also learn the devil’s strategies — how he does not necessarily seek to possess but simply to seed your family with the venom of hatred, desolation, envy, and vice. This, she explains, is why it’s so important for spouses and children to become schooled in the art of spiritual combat. It’s the only way you can destroy the works of the devil and unmask the hidden evil that weaves in and out of your daily family life.
Along with more than two dozen effective prayers for family healing and deliverance, you’ll also learn:
How to understand the spirits working for — and against — your family, and what to do in response to them
What specific actions to take if you believe your family has come under the influence of demonic activity
How to use your baptismal, spousal, and parental authority in spiritual warfare
How curses can become effective — and what can be done to counteract them
The difference between diabolical temptation, oppression, obsession, and possession
The seven ways your family can wear the full armor of God
The diabolical counterparts to each of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes
The 13 weapons you can use to defend yourself and your family against evil spirits
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Feeding Your Family's Soul: Dinner Table Spirituality has won second prize in the Family Life category from the Catholic Press Association!
Feeding Your Family's Soul is a vital tool to enable parents to transform a regular dinner time into a prayerful faith lesson for their elementary school to high school aged children. It will indeed help to fulfill the Catholic Church's vision for evangelization in the family and beyond. Through 52 fun and creative faith lessons (one for each week of the year), this one-of-a-kind book will encourage parents and caregivers to seize the opportunity in teaching the Catholic faith to the children (the captive audience waiting to eat!) while gathered at the dinner table, and while reminding them of the value of coming together as a family to break bread and share hearts. See her interview on Boston Catholic TV: www.feedingyourfamilyssoul.com
Do you ever feel like a raging tsumani, running through the house like a whirlwind and yelling at the top of your voice while the kids drag their feet and fight with one another as you desperately try to find lost shoes and get out the door on time? Overwhelmed, over-extended, and guilt-plagued? With honesty, humor, and practical wisdom, Getting Past Perfect helps moms overcome Pinterest-inspired perfectionism by replacing your deepest fears and anxieties with a steady trust in God and the freedom to love authentically. If you have ever felt that you were not "enough" as a wife or mom, or if you're someone who struggles to do it all, Getting Past Perfect offers a realistic and reassuring portrait of Catholic womanhood, placing motherhood in the context of every woman's primary role as a child of God. Kate Wicker--journalist, popular speaker, and author of the highly-acclaimed Weightless--shares how she shook off doubt and negative self-perception, finding self-acceptance as a mom and the desire to stop controlling everyone around her. Getting Past Perfect invites you to make this same journey as you learn to embrace the primacy of your role as a daughter of God, even amidst the daily chaos of raising children. Each chapter is designed to debunk the lies and expectations that moms often face, replacing negative self-perceptions with the truths of a woman's true calling. Wicker, a recovering perfectionist, helps you realize:
Winner of a 2020 Catholic Press Association book award (second place, gender issues-inclusion in the Church).
Is it possible to be both a Catholic and a feminist? Claire Swinarski, writer and creator of The Catholic Feminist podcast, believes it is: "I'm a feminist for the same reason I'm bold and honest and sometimes ragey: because Jesus was all of those things."
In Girl, Arise!, Swinarski reconciles the two identities by demonstrating the strength and abilities women have to share with the Body of Christ, the importance of women throughout the history of the faith, and how the love you experience through Christ and the Church can change you and the world around you.
In Girl, Arise!: A Catholic Feminist's Invitation to Live Boldly, Love Your Faith, and Change the World Swinarski points out that while both "feminism" and "Catholicism" can mean different things to different people, both feminists and Catholics desire to make the world a better, fairer place. And she shows that by treating women with dignity equal to that of men--by calling them his friends and teaching them--Jesus acted as a feminist as well.
With humor and sass, Swinarski addresses her frustration with the traditional concerns churches ascribe to women, as shown by the many talks directed at women focused on marriage and modesty rather than social justice. But she pinpoints the areas where modern feminism goes too far, arguing against abortion and exploring what it means to serve others rather than focus on our own needs first.
Swinarski also tells the stories of holy women--including Vashti in the book of Esther, Sts. Thérèse of Lisieux and Joan of Arc, Mary Magdalene, and the Blessed Virgin Mary--to show how their faith influenced their actions, even when those actions went against traditional norms and roles of women.
You will be empowered to embrace your God-given abilities as you follow the women who have gone before you in faith who--by announcing Christ to his disciples, believing in God's promises, and being faithful in hardship--changed the world.
Fr. Urteaga (1921-2009) is a writer who gave exceptional value to the human side of life, and its enrichment by an ongoing struggle for virtue. Likewise, he never lost sight of the importance of grace. He addresses parents in their sometimes-difficult job of raising children to be not only men and women, but Christian saints. His modus operandi is that life is truly worthwhile if it is lived for the love of God.
In these chapters, he draws on his own rich experience as a teacher and spiritual director. He adds Christian doctrine, humor, and common sense to make God and Children a book for all parents and especially those of young children.
Originally printed in 1960, this newly revised and slightly abridged version of Urteaga's book captures the spirit of his advice which is grounded in truth and is timeless in quality.
Each chapter includes relevant scripture references, quotations from saints or noted Catholic figures, commentary and perspectives from other Catholic writers, and checklists of suggested steps moms can take in bringing better balance and integration to their lives.
Winner of a 2020 Excellence in Publishing Award from the Association of Catholic Publishers (second place, ministry); 2020 Catholic Press Association book award (second place, family life).
Do you struggle to know when or if it's appropriate to step in to help a teen who seems stressed, anxious, or depressed? Do you know the signs to look for to determine whether a teen is in distress?
In Helping Teens with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression, Roy Petitfils--a Catholic author, speaker, and psychotherapist--offers his personal experience, advice, and faith to give parents, pastors, and youth leaders the knowledge, courage, and tools they need to step in, make a difference, and be the presence of Christ for teens in crisis.
Roy Petitfils knows what it's like to be an addicted, depressed teenager, filled with self-loathing and desperate for help. He describes himself at high school graduation as by far the largest person in his hometown and yet feeling as though he were "stuck in Harry Potter's invisibility cloak." Weighing more than 500 pounds, he was addicted to food and hated himself.
Now a leading Catholic voice in youth advocacy and creator of the popular podcast Today's Teenager, Petitfils entered adulthood a very different person than he is today. His life was radically changed by a handful of people in college who reached out in friendship and helped him set a new course.
Using personal life lessons and expertise gleaned from more than twenty-five years in youth ministry and private practice as a licensed counselor, Petitfils teaches parents, pastors, and youth leaders what they need to know about mental health issues among America's youth. Whether teens need help coping with healthy levels of stress or face persistent, more serious problems with anxiety and depression, Petitfils will help the adults in their lives get comfortable with stepping in.
Petitfils offers information and advice on:
He explores the support and comfort available through the sacraments, Catholic devotions, different forms of prayer, and reading the Bible. Ultimately, Petitfils identifies how to gently, yet persuasively guide hurting young people to deeper trust in the tender mercies of God.
Are you blessed with perfect teens? Teens who never argue, disobey, or talk back? Teens who do as they're told the very first time, or even before you ask? If your answer is "yes," then you can move on. This book isn't for you.
If, however, your answer is "keep dreaming," "I wish," an eye roll, or any variation of the word "no," then this might be the book for you. A teenager's life is full of change, turmoil, fights, hormones, overreactions, and ideas that seemed liked good ones at the time... But so is the life of a parent of a teen, and some days you just have to throw up your hands and ask God for help.
This book will give you 365 days of reflections and prayers to help you get through a year of "What were you thinking?!" With God's help, you might just find you can do all things - even raising a teenager.
"Today, the family is in crisis--it is in crisis worldwide," Pope Francis has said. "Young people don't want to get married, they don't get married, or they live together. Marriage is in crisis, and so the family is in crisis." The main problem with the family in the Church today, contends Cardinal Gerhard MUller, is not the small number of civilly remarried divorced Catholics who want to received Holy Communion. It is the large number of Catholics who live together before marriage, who marry civilly, or who do not even bother with marriage, as if these choices were sound options for Catholic living. It is also a failure of many who marry "in the Church" to understand marriage as part of their Christian discipleship.
In this engaging conversation, Cardinal MUller, one of Pope Francis' top advisers in the Vatican, addresses the challenges facing marriage and family life today. The loss of faith in many traditionally Christian societies has led to a crisis. In turn, cohabitation, civil marriage, and divorce and civil remarriage, further undermine faith because they harm the family as the "domestic Church" and the place of initial evangelization. The solution: the Church must undertake a robust new evangelization of the family: sharing the fullness of truth about marriage and family in Christ, encouraging families to worship and pray together, and helping them witness by their lives to the joy of the gospel.
Cardinal MUller stresses mercy and compassion in pastoral minstry with struggling Catholics, but he does so without contradicting the teaching of Jesus about divorce and remarriage and minimizing the power of grace to transform lives. In this way he proclaims hope for the family rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In this booklet, Allie Johnston offers great suggestions for talking to children about God—God’s goodness, God as Creator, how we understand the Blessed Trinity, God the storyteller, God the listener, the God who forgives, and the Good Shepherd. Excellent family activities and short prayers to stimulate further conversation and comprehension are also included.
In this booklet, Janet Schaeffler offers great suggestions for talking to your children about Jesus’ life and times, why Jesus has so many different names, whether or not Jesus ever cried (important for children to know!), some of Jesus’ most important teachings, how Jesus prayed, why he had to die, what happened afterward, and where and how do we see Jesus today. Excellent family activities and short prayers to stimulate further conversation and comprehension are also included.
24 pages
In this booklet, Tom Quinlan gives solid advice for how to make the Mass more accessible and relevant to even the youngest child. Offering simple explanations of the Mass itself, as well as the crucifix, font, lectionary, tabernacle, and more, Tom helps everyone appreciate what we do when we gather.
24 pages
By Stephen Gabriel
The best givers of advice are those who encourage while they share their own accounts of learning through failure and celebrating success. This book offers just that.
As a father of eight adult children, Stephen Gabriel has years of flubs, wins, trial-and-error, joys, sorrows, lessons learned, lessons shared, observing, trench-time, and plenty of reflection on the vocation of fatherhood. His book offers a go-to virtue-checklist of sorts, full of relatable stories that relate to the grind of the Everyday.
Dads: use this book as a measure and reminder of your indispensable role as virtuous leaders of your family!
With reliance on the grace and guidance of the Heavenly Father, the sacraments, a life of prayer, the blessing of friendship and community, and common sense, Gabriel’s insight is a source of invigorating support for all fathers.
Are you interested in connecting with other women who share your faith, interests, and everyday concerns?
A vibrant, self-sustaining women's ministry will help you achieve this goal, can take many forms, and is a key component of any vital parish, says Elizabeth Tomlin, who for nearly a decade has launched and grown Catholic women's ministries in the United States and abroad. In Joyful Momentum, Tomlin shows you how you also can start, expand, strengthen, or retool an existing women's group or ministry in your own Catholic parish.
God can use even the most unlikely people to build up a successful women's ministry, Elizabeth Tomlin says. "If someone had told college-aged me that I would someday lead a global women's ministry, I would have said, 'No way. I'm not smart enough. I don't know enough. I'm too sinful. I'm not good enough.'" And yet, that is exactly what happened. Tomlin is a founding member of the Military Council of Catholic Women Worldwide, the women's ministry organization of the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA.
Whether you are interested in starting a spiritual book club or a group for moms with young children, retooling an existing ministry for moms who work outside their homes, or revitalizing a languishing prayer group or committee, you may feel underqualified and overwhelmed when first facing the challenges. Joyful Momentum provides the tools you need to get started, including "Momentum Builders" that will give you the confidence to do what needs to be done.
Tomlin shares her personal stories, spiritual insights, and practical tips to show how almost any group can create a spirited, sustainable outreach. With natural warmth, honesty, and self-deprecating humor, she makes a compelling case for the importance of women's ministry in the life of a parish, and coaches you through all the details.
Used for personal formation or as a group study, this book conveys the important elements of women's ministry--from a small book club to a larger undertaking that might include social media-based prayer supports, on-call childcare helpers, or multi-committee annual festivals or parishwide events.
This book will teach you:
Each chapter offers practical advice and inspirational stories to help you discover how to cultivate Christ-centered friendships; discern a call to women's ministry in yourself and others; invest in prayerful preparation, biblical hospitality, and faith formation; develop a leadership team; and create a mentoring plan that will sustain the group over time.
Many Catholic parents are tempted to leave the religious education and spiritual formation of their children up to their parish or Catholic school. Professional catechist, popular blogger, and father of two, Marc Cardaronella has a passionate plea for those parents: be your child’s primary educator in the faith by what you do and say. This practical guide gives parents what they need to be a bigger partner in handing on the faith to their children by creating a faith-nurturing environment at home.
When Marc Cardaronella started his job as a catechist, he could empathize with parents who came to him to talk about how their now-grown children had left the Church because he had been there: Despite years of religious education and regular Mass attendance, Cardaronella never really practiced his faith. He fell away from the Church right after his Confirmation and stayed away for twenty years. Now it’s his mission to equip families like yours to hand on your faith.
His passionate message is that the kind of faith formation children need is not taught in standard religious education classes and probably never will be. Cardaronella is on a quest to help you fill the gaps by first strengthening your own faith—opening your heart to God, practicing trust, clearing away obstacles to God’s grace, and creating regular prayer and study routines at home. He gives you the tools to pass that faith on to your kids and make it stick by teaching you how to pray with your children consistently, about adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the power of the Examen prayer, and how to motivate your kids to be engaged in parish life and Christian outreach.
Keep Your Kids Catholic offers equal shares of inspiration, challenge, and practical advice. Each chapter includes Reflect, Pray, and Live sections to help you integrate Cardaronella’s message into family life.
Organizing and tidying up has become a national obsession. We are on an endless quest for the perfect containers, boxes, totes, bags, bins, shelves, files, folders, and labels to tame our closets, corral our clutter, and eliminate chaos. Books and television shows promise the magical secrets to getting and staying organized. "So," you think, "if I just buy these things and follow these instructions, I will finally be organized and joyful!"
Author Lisa Lawmaster Hess is going to let you in on a secret: that doesn't work.
Why? Because you have been chasing one-size-fits-all solutions. But you are not a one-size-fits-all person. You're unique. (Just ask God, who created you!)
Know Thyself is an effective and fun way to discover your personal and organizational styles, and will help you own your style. You'll take what you might have thought was a flaw and learn how to make it a strength. And that, plus Lisa's help and a sense of humor, will guide you toward an organization method you can really stick with.
Winner of a 2020 Catholic Press Association book award (third place, first-time author).
Popular blogger Kathryn Whitaker is a Dr Pepper super fan, Aggie-loving, type A mom of six with a personality the size of her native Texas. The stressful premature birth of her fifth child threw her orderly world into chaos and ultimately led her to rethink her priorities. In Live Big, Love Bigger, Whitaker shares her journey and challenges readers to understand that they, too, can live a life of authenticity with joy-filled purpose, love, and faith. Along the way, she'll help readers see that choosing to say no is the only way they'll be able to say yes to what matters most--Jesus.
It's not every family who would plan a week-long Texas barbecue pilgrimage for a family of eight, much less expand the idea to a multi-month quest to experience the state, eat amazing food, and visit some awesome religious sites along the way. But Whitaker did it--when she decided imperfect family road trips trumped a vacation at a luxury resort. "Barbecue encouraged us to hit the road, while Jesus met us at every single stop along the way--proof that he loves brisket as much as we do, right?"
Ditching the fancy vacation was one way Whitaker learned to give up control and say no to perfectionism and over-achievement in order to live a new, more intentional life and discover what God truly has in store for her family.
Whitaker's sassy authenticity will make readers laugh--and cry--while encouraging them to be honest about mistakes in every area of their life, embrace them, and find a way to let God redeem it all.
Topics include: Living Together Outside of Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage, Divorce, Contraception, Abortion, Reproductive Technologies, Modesty, Pornography, Transgenderism, Homosexuality.
Silence can no longer be an option. If we' re not teaching our children how to understand tough moral issues, then the world will!
One night, in desperation, Rachel Balducci cried out to God, and he answered in a startling, freeing, and life-changing way. If you are feeling more chaos than peace, more panic than joy, take heart. Make My Life Simple: Bringing Peace to Heart and Home gives you down-to-earth practical pointers to achieve peace and order:
- In your home: Establish a peaceful environment for you and your family
- In yourself: Design an ordered way of living to benefit your body, mind, and spirit with Rachel's friend-to-friend advice
- In your spiritual life: Create order in your spiritual relationships with Jesus, yourself, and the others in your life
This is the challenge Alan Migliani makes in this honest and insightful book for fathers who want to raise confident, strong, God-centered daughters.
Many men feel detached from their daughters, unable to connect with them or even influence their decisions and actions. Here Migliani shares his own successes and failures as he transitioned from an overworked, outof-touch father to one that has become a beloved leader in his home.
He shows how you, too, can come to more fully fulfill your role as head of the household, and how to lead your family with love, understanding, and a guiding hand.
Read these pages, and you'll also learn: how to repair a damaged relationship with your daughter "" and even your wife, why it's important to know your daughter's friends "" and how to do it, why respecting your wife is critical to raising strong daughters, three things you must know about dealing with your daughter's boyfriend, how to teach your daughter to defend herself physic
