The Bookshelf

Mary and Me

In her book, "Mary and Me," Ginny Kubitz Moyer asks the question, “How does Mary, the Mother of God, speak to the modern woman?” The book offers a compelling look at the breadth of Mary’s influence on women today.

Here is an excerpt:

“Several women I talked to tried to imagine what Mary must have felt at the Annunciation both during and after this surprise encounter.

Donna, a fifty-six year old elementary teacher said: 'I wonder if Mary had a few moments of wonder after Gabriel's visit. How am I going to explain this to Joseph and my parents?'

As an unmarried pregnant women, she was opening herself to harsh gossip and ridicule, even death under the Mosaic Law. Agreeing to say yes so quickly makes it all the more radical.

Andrea, a thirty-three year old marriage and family therapy intern said: 'What she did is hard to fathom at my age, let alone being a teenager! It shows us how we, today, can act on faith, even if we cannot understand what is being asked of us.'

It’s clear from my interviews that even though the Annunciation took place two thousand years ago, today’s woman can imagine it as vividly as if it happened yesterday. Whether they feel admiration for Mary’s courage or awe at her swift 'yes,' many modern women can’t help but become personally engaged in her experience.

In a way, that’s not surprising, for the Annunciation is far more than just one girl’s story: it’s an encounter that has the power to speak to all women everywhere. Through Mary’s response, we’re reminded that some truly amazing things can happen when we let faith overcome our fear.”

Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic

if you have read this book in the past, now may be a good time to bring it out again and re-read. If you are feeling adrift during our current environment, prayer can be the rock that keeps you grounded.

Taken from the book "The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic," by Matthew Kelly.

The Prayer Process provides a consistent format to guide you in your daily prayer. The first barrier to entry for most people who feel drawn to prayer is that they simply don’t know how to pray. They have never been taught to pray.

The Prayer Process overcomes this  first barrier by providing people with a format and a method. It provides the routine within the routine that dynamic Catholics have spent decades developing through the painstaking process of trial and error.

The Prayer Process:

1 Gratitude: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.

2 Awareness: Revisit the times in the past twenty-four hours when you were and were not the-best-version-of-your-self. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.

3 Significant Moments: Identify something you experienced in the last twenty-four hours and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).

4 Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or Him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.

5 Freedom: Speak with God about how He is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the-best-version-of-yourself.

6 Others: Lift up to God anyone you feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.

7 Pray the Our Father.

Awakening Your Soul to the Presence of God

It’s one thing to search for God and another thing to listen to Him once we have found Him. Many people never listen to God because they are not aware the He speaks to them.

Yet God does speak.

When does God speak to us? He speaks at all times, especially in prayer. Prayer is a conversation with God. But it is not a monologue. When we pray, then, we should also listen, because a good conversationalist is also a good listener. We do not pray well when we recite ready-made formulas quickly and distractedly.

We act as if God should only to listen to us, and that we have no need to listen to the thoughts and desires He wishes to for us.

Day by day, we must progress, seeing the hand of God in all things, being aware that He speaks to us and manifests His will in the joys, sorrows and circumstances of our daily life."