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LESSONS FROM ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA Unlike so many saints who are fixed in my mind with holy-card haloes and serene smiles, my mental images of Teresa of Calcutta are fresh and vivid. Posed in iconic photos with President and Mrs. Reagan or with Princess Diana, alive in clips on CNN or YouTube, she’s the spiritual mother I watched become a saint before my very eyes. Although I never met her in person as did my childhood pastor, Fr. Collins, or my friend and fellow author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, I felt—as you probably did—as though I’d lost a personal friend when God called her home to heaven in 1997. And yet in those first moments when I heard of her death, I knew already that she was a saint, and I have been in quiet conversation with her ever since. Teresa was a humanitarian hero who eschewed the spotlight. Any…

By Teresa Tomeo  “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28  Recently, as I was catching up on the latest news, a popular song from the sixties kept running through my head: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” Those lyrics, originally sung by Jackie DeShannon, seem just as meaningful now as they were in the turbulent sixties—an era that included the Vietnam War, the Detroit riots, and other conflicts that divided our nation. Many of the problems we grappled with then are unfortunately still with us today.  We’re still in need of love and not just any kind of love. The love of God, in our hearts and toward our fellow man, is and always has been the thing we need more of in this world. If we’re looking to spread God’s Fatherly love, we should look to the Feast of the Sacred Heart…

Promise #9  I will bless every place in which an image of my heart is exposed and honored.   “The Sacred Heart of my adorable Master has given me to understand that his desire to be known, loved, and honored by men is so excessive that He has promised to all those who consecrate and devote themselves to it in order to give it this pleasure; that He will never allow them to perish.”  St. Margaret Mary, Letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque  A dear friend recently handed me a copy of an article from our local paper that was first printed in 1955 and rediscovered by her family in the late 1970s. The article, titled “Religion Gives Fullness to Life,” shared how her family lived out their Catholic faith in their daily lives, including how her family enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus in her home.  “We practiced the faith as a family in the 1950s,” my friend explained to me.   We said the Rosary daily, went…

By Emily Jaminet When you are feeling overwhelmed, confused, and burdened, Jesus wants to set your heart on fire with his love. He desires to come into your heart and home to deepen your faith and provide hope, healing, comfort, and love. One of the most meaningful devotions we can practice is enthronement to His Sacred and Merciful Heart.  In our lives, stress and personal trials are inevitable but there are graces in the Sacred Heart that help us respond to life’s challenges. This devotion was once known, loved, and honored by most Catholic families and served as a bedrock, especially in the 1940s and 1950s in America. What did parents of this era know and experience that we can learn from? I believe they learned how to live and let go and experience the freedom that comes from loving Christ and entrusting your family to his heart.  We can…

by Catherine Fowler Sample “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 I moved to Southern California when I was a fresh-faced twenty-year-old. I was transferring to a new college, but it may as well have been a transfer to another planet. The West Coast was radically different from my landlocked hometown in the Heartland, and I barely knew a soul there aside from Great-Aunt Patsy. This early January in SoCal was unlike any other I had experienced: The sun was warm. The sky was blue. Jacaranda trees were filled with amethyst blooms. Although it was winter, it smelled of spring, and the world was full of possibility—a mingling of trepidation and hope. In a new environment, I couldn’t help but take in the world with fresh eyes and live differently. When I was outside, I slowed down and stopped to smell the roses (quite literally!). For…