When I was little, I was offended by mugs and cards that I saw with this phrase on it because I knew they would be going to moms that weren’t MY mom, so obviously they were wrong.

And then I felt bad that everyone else had to pretend to have the world’s best mom, while I got the real deal.

Later in life I’d learn the difference between fact and opinion.

But here’s a fact for you…

We as Catholics are blessed to have the Best Mother in the World. There will never be another like Our Mother.

She’s not just our mother, but the whole world’s, but we get to know her better than anyone. She gently guides us to Jesus. She does not judge or punish. 

When I close my eyes in prayer I can imagine being wrapped in her loving arms, just how I used to curl up with mon on the couch when I was little and take a nap – completely safe and protected without a care in the world. 

Next month we get to honor our moms on Mother’s Day. Pray for the moms of the world. They wall want the best for their children.

Love to all,
Megan

I snatched up the last of the wood blocks Jen made with this image on it because it can either be hung on a wall or set on a shelf – so it’s perfect for giving as a gift. 

Added bonus? This items ships for free 🙂

$19.99, 6 left

This darling bracelet comes gift-boxed and ready to wrap (or we can wrap it for you)

$59.00, 2 left

L’Innocence on a 12″ plague to hang on a wall. Breathtaking.

Is our faith “easy”? Could it be easy?

Last night my husband asked the typical end-of day questions: “How was your day? How are you doing?”

And “tired” was my one word response. I had been counting inventory all day and my energy was drained. So for supper we grabbed some takeout – that was the “easy button” that I was happy to push.

There are also days/weeks/seasons I’m look for the minimum amount of effort that I need to put forth. Other times I’m so full of ambition are ready to go that I feel like nothing can hold me back.

I’ve been pondering what it would mean if holiness were easy…if I sometimes make it harder than it is.

 How does this relate? Because when I get tired, that should be when I’m most leaning on Jesus to help me through, but instead it seems like those are the times in my life where prayer becomes an afterthought instead of being woven into everything I do. 

I KNOW the saints had their own struggles, but when I read about St. Therese or St. Faustina I tend to get jealous of their unwaving faith. It’s so strong and potent and gets them through every bump in the road.

Or is that just the picture that we see? With these two women we’re lucky enough to have acces to their writings.

The struggle makes us stronger, right? Trees need wind in order to grow strong.  Perhaps the resistance is a blessing – something for us to sharpen our faith on.

But I know I can rest in God, and that is so comforting. 

In peace,
Megan

The Whole World Will Love Me: The Life of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face

One of the most beloved saints in the Catholic Church is St. Therese the Little Flower. The Whole World Will Love Me contains an easy-to-read and completely enthralling story of the life of this great saint and Doctor of the Church. This wonderful book describes in great detail Therese’s holy parents and sisters, her life before and after she enters Carmel, her devotion to the Holy Face, and her death at the age of 24. 

Before her death, St. Thérèse came to an understanding of her own spiritual advancement, for she made several predictions that all came true: that her Story of a Soul should be published as soon as possible, that she would let fall a shower of roses on the whole world when she died, that she would assist anyone who called upon her for aid, and finally, that the whole world will love her. And, surely, it does!

Her faith in God, her complete trust in His will, and her devotion to “the Little Way” makes St. Thérèse an excellent example for us still on earth. The Whole World Will Love Me is a must read for Catholics looking to know this beautiful soul better. 

Made in the USA – handpainted

This stunning statue of Our Lady of Grace is 24 inches tall and made of a lightweight and durable Vinyl Polyresin. The Blessed Mother is clad in white and rich shades of blue, with gold trim. Her arms are outstretched over the globe and her foot is crushing the head of the serpent. Make it a centerpiece in your outdoor shrine or indoor prayer space to stand as a constant reminder of the love this holy Mother has for her children. 

Exquisite. This rosary boasts double-capped genuine glass beads made in the historic tradition in Murano, Italy. The rosary center is a blue and white enameled gold Miraculous Medal.

The crucifix is rich in symbols and historical detailing. Who says a rosary has to be boring? This one is so detailed, beautiful and vibrant you will want to put it on display as a reminder of your faith. Make sure to take a look at the additional image to get a better idea of the amount of detail in this rosary. Richly gift boxed for perfect gift-giving.

Happy Friday!

Below are three more prayers for you on this Easter Friday. Feel free to print them out or use them however you want.

The Prayer for Peace has been drumming through my head all week, so I made sure to include it this week.

We’ve been blessed with much-needed rain all week, and I see a tiny sliver of sky between the clouds this morning! I hope you have a blessed weekend.

Love & prayers,
Megan

O Blessed Saint Joseph, tender-hearted father, faithful guardian of Jesus, chaste spouse of the Mother of God, I pray and beseech thee, to offer to God the Father, His divine Son, bathed in blood on the cross for sinners, and through the thrice holy Name of Jesus obtain for us from the eternal Father the favor we implore…

Appease the Divine anger so justly inflamed by our crimes; beg of Jesus mercy for Thy children. Amid the splendors of eternity, forget not the sorrows of those who suffer, those who pray, those who weep; stay the almighty arm which smites us, that by thy prayers and those of your most holy Spouse the Heart of Jesus may be moved to pity and to pardon. Amen.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

In Loving Memory

Almighty God, through the death of your Son on the cross, You have overcome death for us. Through His burial and resurrection from the dead, You have made the grave a holy place and restored us to eternal life. We pray for those who died believing in Jesus and are buried with Him in the hope of rising again. God of the living and the dead, may those who faithfully believed in You on earth praise You forever in the joy of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Prayer for Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we are recieve
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I hope you had a lovely Easter!

Our Easter was so beautiful! We were not able to spend it with the whole family as we had planned – my little niece was in quarantine after being exposed – but it was still so wonderful!

True to form, I cried at Easter Vigil mass. When Truth hits home, it lets me know with tears. When those bells rang out during the Gloria, there was no going back. 

I realize not everyone is able to return to Mass yet. I’m so exited for your return! Love is in every part of the liturgy. The community of your parish is irreplaceable.

And now the season of sacraments is upon us. We have Divine Mercy Sunday coming up this week, and First Communions will be celebrated in many places. 

I can’t wait to hear your stories!

Love to all,
Megan

The precious blood and tears of Christ are memorialized on this crucifix with bold gold and silver imagery.

This beautiful crucifix is white glass with a pewter corpus. White glass makes this crucifix a lovely gift for Baptism, First Communions, or weddings. 

Due to the hand-craftmanship of each piece, each of these crucifixes are different – no 2 are alike. 

7 Inches tall, Gift boxed

Do you remember Hummel images? These little children are the artwork of Sr. Maria Innocentia Hummel, O.S.F., a Franciscan sister and artist.

Each First Communion gift set includes a mass book, rosary, lapel pin, scapular and rosary case.

The cover of this white bible is so soft and comfortable in the hand you will never want to put it down. Bible is embossed with a single decade rosary on the back. Includes page-edge indexing, silver-gilded page edge and covered in bonded leather.

Features include:

New American Revised Edition

Presentation Page  

Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation 

Origin, Inspiration and History of the Bible 

156-page Encyclopedic Dictionary 

Three Year Cycle of Readings 

Celebration of the Eucharist 

The Succession of Popes

Yesterday a dear friend reached out to me – maybe “lashed out” would be a better term. Her cousin – a young mother of 3 small girls – died quite suddenly at the young age of 42.  My friend, in her pain, told me “No offense to you and your faith, but this is how I know there isn’t one single all-caring God.”

I haven’t responded to her. I don’t know how. 

I’m not offended. I hurt for her hurt, and I hurt for her loss of faith.

At this point, all I can do is keep her in my prayers and love her anyway. Unconditionally. 

On Friday we begin the Divine Mercy novena. One of those days is dedicated to praying for those without faith. I hope you will participate in the novena. 

We are not all blessed with being able to see God’s grace at work in our lives, but opening ourselves to being open to Him pouring grace upon us is a beautiful first step to it.

Love to all,
Megan

11 Available

I cracked this book open a few weeks ago and I couldn’t put it down. Full disclosure: I’m forty years old, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. 

This book spoke to me. For a long time I thought discernment was only for those considering holy orders. That’s simply not true. But that doesn’t take away the mystery of vocational discernment. 

This book does a beautiful job of walking the reader through discernment and hearing God’s voice.

This New American Revised Edition has a soft, burgundy cover, gilded gold pages, and is embossed with a single decade rosary on the back for you to pray along with. Inside it has a variety of additional resources to help further your understanding of Scriptures and the Catholic faith. Plus, the larger print makes it easier to delve into God’s word.

It would also make the perfect gift for catechumens or new members of the Church.

7 remaining 

$23.70 per set

This delightful set of six board books with colorful illustrations inspired by Sister M.I. Hummel feature life lessons for children ages 3-6, including when to pray, how to help others, being a good example and more. Ideal for teaching moments.

Each book is 16 pages long and perfect for parents and young readers. This box set provides parents with valuable teaching moments for their young child’s faith development and in their relationship with God and others. 

Continuing our 3-week long tradition of sending you printable prayers, I picked the 3 below because we are so close to Holy Week.

The Act of Contrition
I know this one by heart -until I get in the confessional. And then I feel silly for not knowing the prayer that I’ve known forever. But let this also be a reminder to you to get to confession!

Beautiful Hands of a Priest
Holy Week is their Super Bowl after running a marathon after training a new puppy. It’s a lot of work for Priests. Please keep them in your prayers.

An Hour in Adoration
If you’ve never been, try it for 15 minutes. It’s so peaceful, it might just become the favorite part of your week.

Enjoy!

Love to all,
Megan

Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for
having offended You, and I detest
all my sins because of Your just
punishments, but most of all
because they offend You, my God,
Who are all good and deserving of
all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of
Your grace, to sin no more, and to
avoid the near occasions of sin.

Amen.

An Hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
Four 15-minute Steps for Adoration

1. Recognize the Presense of God – Enter into His holy Presence with awe and love.
2. Thanksgiving – Praise and thank the Lord. Worship Him.
3. Reparation – Repent of and express sorrow for your sins and those of the whole world.
4. Petition – Ask for your own deeper conversion and personal needs, as well as for those around you and the whole world.

Dear Jesus, You have made Yourself present in the Blessed Sacrament because You thirst for me. O dear Lord, I also thirst for You. I want to be one with You. I bow down before You with faith, hope, and love, from the depths of my heart. I worship You.
Amen.

Beautiful Hands of a Priest Laminated Prayer Card

We need them in life’s early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek it while tasting life’s woes.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their
greatness; Their dignity stands alone.

When we are tempted and wander
To pathways of shame and sin
It’s the hand of a priest that absolve
us not once, but again and again.

And when we are taking life’s partner
Other hands may prepare us a feast
But the hands that will bless and unite us,
Are the beautiful hands of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress,
When can a poor sinner do better than
to ask Him to guide thee and bless?

When thehour of death comes upon us,
May our courage and strength be increased
By seeing raised over us in blessing
The beautiful hands of a priest!

My husband ran into the grocery store to pick up a handful of things, and I waited for him in the car. 

A few spots down from me, a woman had just pulled up, and she had an enormous smile on her face. She was just beautiful!

It took me 2 days to figure out why I kept thinking about her, but I finally got it….

You could tell that she was comepletely herself. There was no one else in the car with her, so it wasn’t a smile out of obligation or social norm. It was a true-blue, from the bottom of her soul, smile.

As I age I certainly have gotten better at just being myself, but I don’t know that I’ll ever outgrow ALL sense of self-consciousness. Perhaps wanting to be a considerate person comes with the extra baggage of being concerned with how one makes other people feel.

So how often, then, do we get to see unabashed, unfiltered, and untainted pure joy on the faces of those around us?

I am so grateful I got that tiny glimpse into that stranger’s life. 

And when we open our hearts to God in prayer, how can we bring that same openess?

Love to all,
Megan

In a few days the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults will be administered in parishes everywhere.

Easter Vigil Mass has always been one of my favorites. It’s so beautiful and holy. We are always in Rochester MN at my sister’s for Easter (except for last year) and this year it’s going to be even more meaningful because this will be the first time our family has been together for well over a year. 

What does that have to do with this cross? I don’t know… It’s just what came to mind when I looked at it. We had a few come in from our vendor today, and I almost cried – I’m that excited!

Whether these are St. Francis’ words or not, they still give me hope and guidance. Perfect for keeping in the visor of your car.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we are recieve
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Last week I sent out a collection of Divine Mercy prayers for you to print and enjoy. It went over really well! The response was enormous, so I thought I’d send out another batch.

I choose the prayers below because of the season we are in, and a few just have a personal meaning for me.

Once again I included the full prayer in case you simply want to print them out.

Enjoy!

Love to all,
Megan

Splinters from the Cross

Little headaches, little headaches
Little griefs of every day,
Little trials and vexations,
How they throng around our way!
One great cross, immense and heavy,
So it seems to our weak will,
Micht be borne with resignation,
But these many small ones kill,
Yet all life is formed of small things,
Little leaves, make up the trees,
Many tiny drops of water
Bending, making the mighty seas.
Let us not then by impatience
Mar the bewauty of the whole,
But for love of Jesus bear all
In the silence of our soul.
Asking Him for grace sufficient
To sustain us through each loss,
And to treasure each small offering
As a splinter from His Cross.

O Mother of Sorrows, by the anguish and love with which thou didst stand at the Cross of Jesus, stand by me in my last agony.
 

To thy maternal heart I commend the last three hours of my life. Offer these hours to the Eternal Father in union with the agony of our dearest Lord in atonement for my sins. Offer to the Eternal Father the most Precious Blood of Jesus, mingled with your tears on Calvary, that I may obtain the grace of receiving Holy Communion with the most perfect love and contrition before my death, and that I may breathe forth my soul in the adorable presence of Jesus.
 

Dearest Mother, when the moment of my death has at length come, present me as your child to Jesus. Ask Him to forgive me for having offended Him for I know not what I did. Beg Him to receive me into His Kingdom of glory to be united with Him forever. Amen.

Prayer to St. Roch

Dear Medicant Pilgrim, you once took care of sufferers from the plague and were always ready to help others by kind service and fervent prayers. You yourself had no home and you died in a dungeon. No wonder countless invalids have confidently invoked your help. Please grant a cure to (name of sufferer), and help us all become spiritually healthy. Amen.

Do you look forward to your prayer time?

For years and years – decades – I thought prayer was SUPPOSED to be boring. It had to be formal and full of not only BIG words, but the RIGHT words.

There were correct ways to pray and that was a short list.

In Catholic school we would stand and face the cross when we started our day, left for recess, left for lunch, came back from lunch and at the end of the day. 

And we had to memorize so many prayers. I don’t know that I even paid attention to the content of the acts of Faith, Hope, and Love. I just didn’t want to disappoint Sr. Armella (she was so loveable!)

But the prayers were a chore. I don’t think God wants our conversations to be a chore – a thing to check off my to-do list.

What if we were to turn our favorite things into a prayer? What if the act of doing things well, of using our gifts to make the world a better place in our own little way, was a prayer?

Planting and tending a garden can be a prayer.

Smiling at the barista in the drivethru can be a prayer.

Doing you daily work – and doing it well – can be a prayer.

…whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

This morning I invite to to make an intention of what you would like to do well today, and offer it to God. 

Love to all,
Megan

This book lays out a 33 day retreat to prepare yourself for consecration to St. Joseph. If you would like to consecrate yourself on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, March 30 is the appropriate starting date. 

This new book has been flying out the door. 

When feelings of frustration, anger, or hurt bubble up in your daily life, this Saint Francis of Assisi necklace reminds you to breathe and become peaceful. Let St. Francis help you de-stress as you turn your actions and thoughts towards those of peace.

This necklace has a modest but elegant look. The St. Francis medal is thick and substantive, as is the “Peace” tag and rhinstone setting.

Comes carded with a burlap branded bag. Miriam Hahn Designs.

Our Lady of Grace lightweight & durable Vinyl Polyresin Statue. Can be used indoor/outdoor.

As we get closer to Easter, we get closer to the season of Divine Mercy.  I wanted to share some of the Divine Mercy prayers with you so…

…below are four Divine Mercy prayer cards with the full prayers they contain typed out so that you can simply print this email if you prefer.

Love to all,

Megan

The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
(for private recitation on ordinary rosary beads)

Our Father…, Hail Mary…,
The Apostles’ Creed.

Then, on the “Our Father Beads” you will say the following words:

Eternal Father, I offer You
the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Your dearly beloved Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for 
our sings and those of the whole world.

On the “Hail Mary Beads” you will say the following words:

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion
have mercy on us and on the whole world.

In conclusion Three Times you will recite these words:

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy
Immortal One, have mercy on us and
on the whole world.

(From the Diary of the Servant of God St Faustina – note Book I, p 197)
Imprimatur: + Joseph F. Maguire
November 17, 1979  Bishop of Springfield, Mass.

Trust
I want the whole world to know my infinite mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to who trust in my mercy. (Diary, 687)  

I fly to Your mercy, Compassionate God, who alone are good. Although my misery is great and my offenses are many, I trust in Your mercy because You are the God of mercy and it has never been heard of in all ages, nor do heaven or earth remember, that a soul trusting in Your mercy has been disappointed.

O God of compassion, You alone can justify me and You will never reject me when I, contrite, approach Your Merciful Heart, where no one has ever been refused, even if he were the greatest sinner. For Your Son assured me: “Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than My mercy fail to embrace a trusting soul”.

You expired, O Jesus, but the source of life
gushed forth for souls and an ocean of
mercy opened up for the whole world. 
O Fountain of Life, 
unfathomable Divine Mercy, 
envelop the whole world and empty
Yourself out upon us. 
O Blood and Water, 
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus 
as a fountain of mercy for us, 
I trust in You.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One,
Holy Immortal One,
Have Mercy on us and ont the whole world.
(3 times)

JESUS, King of mercy, I trust in You!