We presented flowers to Mary and to St. Joseph on our wedding day, which tells you all you need to know about how I feel about the foster father of Jesus.
I have a whole saint posse who are my role models and intercessors, but there’s no saint I feel closer to than St. Joseph. His intercession and example are responsible for the biggest blessings in my life.
Ite ad Joseph. Go to Joseph. His example of how to love Jesus will inspire and encourage you. His fatherly intercession will change your life.
If you want to learn more about devotion to St. Joseph, here are two starting points. I’ve also written about him for Catholic Women in Business, Live Today Well Co, and my own blog, Everyday Roses.
What I’ve Been Up To:
I was very excited to have my first piece published in Public Discourse, about the ways our culture treats fertility and gynecologic conditions.
I was happy and grateful to interview the first Sister of the Children of Light, the new religious community dedicated to Catholic Montessori education, for an article for CatholicMom.com. She shared some beautiful statements with me via email about children, education, and motherhood.
For Catholic Women in Business, I reviewed a new daily devotional that shares quotes from St. Thérèse and The Imitation of Christ. Highly recommend!
Favorite Recent Content:
I love Edith Stein, particularly her Essays on Woman, so I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation between Father Gregory Pine (Godsplaining) and Professor Catherine Pakaluk (Catholic University of America) on the Thomistic Institute podcast.
This essay from
was a great take on Ireland’s proposal to amend their constitution in ways that could harm mothers. (Good news: the proposal was rejected!)I write this newsletter on World Down Syndrome Day (3/21 in recognition of Down syndrome’s cause, a third copy of the 21st chromosome). It’s particularly timely, then, to share this decree by Pope Francis of the heroic virtue of Jérôme Lejeune. Ven. Jérôme Lejeune was a French pediatrician and geneticist who discovered trisomy 21 and then spent much of his career working to protect children with Down syndrome from abortion (at a great cost to his professional reputation, including quite possibly preventing him from winning the Nobel Prize).
This Pints With Aquinas interview with Sarah Mackenzie of Read-Aloud Revival is long but well worth the listen, even if you don’t homeschool or aren’t planning on homeschooling. (Although if you don’t and aren’t planning on homeschooling, you may vehemently disagree with Matt Fradd’s belief that pretty much everyone should homeschool!) Pair it with this Catholic Exchange article by Dr. Helen Hoffner on the Catholic history of penmanship (which, as a devoted user of cursive, I applauded!).
As an amateur musician who loves to sing, wife of a man with a great voice, and mother of a child who is also discovering her own love of music, I thoroughly enjoyed this Hearth and Field essay by
about the value of spontaneous (non-professional) music.Lent is almost over, but I still think you should read this short Aleteia article by Joseph Pearce about Bilbo Baggins (one of my favorite fictional characters) and Lent.
I always enjoy Kathryn Jean Lopez’s writing, and this piece for OSV on contemplation was no exception.
Pope St. John XXIII is a favorite saint of my business partner, Elise Gallagher, and the patron saint of Catholic Women in Business. So I was delighted to learn that he had a great devotion to my favorite saint, St. Joseph, and wrote this prayer for tired workers (reported by Kathleen N. Hattrup at Aleteia). Pair this read with this Catholic World Report article by medievalist
describing the history of devotion to St. Joseph (including a history of art depicting him).This Public Discourse essay by
shares an (excellent) case for remote work for conservative organizations. Pro-life leaders should be leading the way toward a return to a family-centered economy!
Books I’ve Enjoyed:
By far the best Christian children’s book I’ve ever read, I checked out The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt and illustrated by Tim Jonke, and now want a copy for our home library. It’s beautiful—the story, the writing, the illustrations … everything. Granted, I’m pregnant, but it made me cry.
I read The Modern Miss Mason by Leah Boden and highly recommend it, whether or not you homeschool or are planning on homeschooling. I moved on to Charlotte Mason’s own writing and am fascinated and encouraged.
I remember enjoying Jane Yolen’s books for teens when I was younger and am now discovering her picture books, like Emily Writes: Emily Dickinson and Her Poetic Beginnings, a picture book biography of Emily Dickinson illustrated by Christine Davenier. My daughter and I both loved it.
Another one I picked up off the Women’s History Month display in the children’s section of our library was Ada Lovelace: The Poet of Science, written by Diane Stanley and illustrated by Jessie Hartland. Again, we both enjoyed it a lot! (I did have to ask my computer scientist husband how to pronounce a word.)
I read A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy, and Triumph, a memoir by C.S. Lewis’ friend Sheldon Vanauken, for Well-Read Mom. It’s a beautiful story about his relationship with his wife and their conversion from agnosticism to Christianity. The second half of the book is especially moving, and we had a fantastic conversation about it at our group gathering. Several of us are hunting for his second memoir, about his conversion to Catholicism, but it’s out of print. (If you know of a used copy for sale, let me know!)
Some of our Well-Read Mom group is following up A Severe Mercy with Lewis’ memoir (really a collection of journal entries) of his grief after his wife’s death. Also a powerful and beautiful book (spoiler alert: It’s natural to be angry at God when you lose someone you love!).
I read Private Equity: A Memoir, by Carrie Sun, and wow. That’s all I’ll say for now, but stay tuned for my review for Catholic Women in Business.
Finally, I just finished my second read of Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh—our next Well-Read Mom book. If you’ve never read it, it’s a must-read (and when you wonder why it’s a must-read … just keep reading until the end). If you’ve only read it once, I can now say it’s a must-read for at least a second time, because when you know where it’s going, it’s even more powerful.
I'm so happy that you enjoyed by music piece, Taryn! Thank you for sharing it.
I really appreciated your Public Discourse piece. Before my first exam (16), a nurse came in and asked me to sign a form requesting birth control. I hadn't even seen the doctor yet. When I protested, the nurse said, "Well, what else do you think he's going to do for you?"
Shameful. Automatic chemical sterilization is not a treatment.