My Message from Heaven to Stay Awake and Pray the Rosary

      I learned to pray the rosary in 1989 while in my early thirties. I vowed to say it daily. But a few weeks after the birth of a new baby, I decided to skip it in favor of getting to sleep. That’s when a Divine message let me know, it's worth staying awake to pray the rosary.

      When I was around ten years old, my parents decided to pray a family rosary one evening. It was the first time ever.  We knelt together in the living room and began. But before finishing the first decade, things began to break down.  I don’t recall the specifics but making faces and giggling were involved.  My mother declared it a failure, and we never prayed one again during my childhood, although years later my parents became very devoted to it.

Be the CEO of Your Life, Lessons from JPII

I am the CEO of nothing except my own life--and even then... I have ten kids that I attempt to direct onto heavenly paths but then leave the rest to God. 

 Books on leadership in business are not on my shelves. Yet, I have found meaning in The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Pope John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard by Adreas Widmer. He was a mere guard—although guarding the very vicar of Christ—at the time he learned these lessons. They have served him well, not because they were lessons for corporate America, but because they are lessons for authentic Catholic living.

So amid laundry piles and washing floors; negotiating with and leading children, I have learned that JPII's lessons are less about rising to the top of corporate America and more about rising all the way to the very top--heaven.

"Watch What You Pray For," by Liz Gary

Everyone has heard the saying: “Watch what you pray for; you may get it.”  When Liz Gary was was pregnant with her third child,  she prayed that God would take her unborn baby before he was born. Her husband Mike and she had two adorable children; six-year-old Abby-Lynn and four-year-old Cameron. They had room in their hearts for another child...but just not this one, or so Liz thought.  Here is her story.

Amniocentesis revealed that the little boy I carried had Downs Syndrome with a heart defect and other possible major anomalies. The news hit me like a sledge hammer. For some reason, ever since I was a child, I had a deep fear that one day I would have a Down’s child. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I feared Downs children and turned away from them.

"5 Steps to Finding God’s Will for Your Life" by Sarah Christmyer

When I was a kid, we had no problem making choices. We went with our gut, and if someone disagreed, we “shot it out” with Rock, Paper, Scissors or tossed a coin, then threw ourselves into whatever it was.

Somewhere along the line, things got complicated. We read “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood” and learned that a choice can define a life. Wanting to do God’s will, we began to agonizing over those choices.

What is the will of God for my life, and how can I find it?

Lessons from Charlotte Catholic School

The story of Dominican Sister Jane Dominic Laurel of Nashville, TN has gone viral.  Secular news organizations that did not see fit to report on the trial of Dr. Gosnell’s abortion house of horrors are grabbing this one; thereby proving Lesson #1: News is in the eye of the beholder—or rather in the politics of the beholder.

To recap, Sr. Laurel had presented her talk on "Masculinity and Femininity: Difference and Gift," at Charlotte Catholic High School.  She has a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Her presentation was based on a series of instructional videos created for Aquinas College in Nashville where she is an associate professor.  Sr. Laurel was previously well received at the school. This time, however, comments on the causes and dangers of homosexuality caused  a huge uproar.

Your Essential Guide To Rome and The Vatican by Luke Armstrong

Going to Rome and the Vatican for the canonization this month, or wanting to do some armchair traveling?  My son, Luke, posts this recommendation for travelers. 

     I witnessed history in the making during my pilgrimage to Rome in 2004.  Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass with the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, before an enthusiastic crowd in the Vatican.  It was the first time that a pope and patriarch had celebrated Mass together.
     History will be made again on April 27 this year with the canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXII.  It will be the first time two popes are canonized at the same time.  Pilgrims are expected to travel to the Vatican for this in record-breaking numbers.  During Pope John Paul II’s funeral in 2005, the crowd had chanted, “Santo Subitio! Saint Now!” Less than a decade later, many who chanted for his canonization will return to see John Paul II declared a saint.  Many others will be first time travelers to Rome.