Join committed and enthusiastic Catholic Christian artists as we begin to explore Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter to Artists!
(During my brief visit to Toronto, I am privileged to help “launch” the exploration!)
Pauline Books & Media
A great read for Catholic communicators
My new favorite read: Ex Libris: Fulton Sheen, a book about one of my favorite people written by one of my favorite people!
The past few weeks have been really intense in the carrying out of our mission. Almost immediately after I posted that I would be back to blogging regularly, I was asked to take on an assignment that has basically taken up all my time for the past several weeks. (Which is, of course, not unusual in the world of media!) But now, I am picking back up where I left off several weeks ago, focusing on using God’s gift of creativity to express truth, beauty, and goodness.
The Servant of God, Venerable Fulton Sheen is someone I have greatly admired as a communicator for Christ: he won a television Emmy award for teaching about Christ!
Recently, another Catholic communicator, Emmy-award winning Alexis Walkenstein, published a book introducing the writings, thought, and spirituality of this great man of God. I stole some time this past week to read the entire book and am delighted by the breadth and depth of this easy read.
Alexis focuses on five topics, with excerpts from seven of her favorite books by and about Archbishop Fulton Sheen. She breaks topics into short, 2-3 page chapters. My favorite chapter is “Sanctifying the Moment,” in which Sheen highlights why it is so important for us to live in the present moment:
Every moment brings us more treasures than we can gather. The great value of the Now, spiritually viewed, is that it carries a message God has directed personally to us. Books, sermons, and broadcasts on a religious theme have the appearance of being circular letters, meant for everyone…. But though moral and spiritual appeals carry God’s identical message to all who listen, this is not true of the Now-moment; no one else but I am in exactly these circumstances; no one else has to carry the same burden, whether it be a sickness, the death of a loved one, or some other adversity. Nothing is more individually tailored to our spiritual needs than the Now-moment; for that reason it is an occasion of knowledge that can come to no one else. This moment is my school, my textbook, my lesson….
The University of the Moment has been built uniquely for each of us…. originally from Lift Up Your Heart
I think that the Servant of God had such a profound grasp of the present moment not just from his spiritual life and prayer, but also because he was a communicator. As an exceptionally gifted homilist and TV personality, Sheen knew the value of living in the present moment, because he had lots of practice as a homilist and on TV: it is only by being attentive to God’s presence in the moment that we can receive the grace and inspiration of God to communicate as/what God wants us to communicate.
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen was a tremendous gift of God to the people of the 20th century. With his informal language and rigorous logic, he made divine truth accessible to the ordinary person. Author Alexis Walkenstein shows us how Sheen continues to be a tremendous gift of God to the Church in America today, with his unflinching commitment to the Truth, with his intercession for us, and with his in-depth understanding of what it means to be Catholic in America and how to nurture that ability to communicate Christ with not just our words but with who we are.
More to inspire:
Invitation: Walk in Christ with the Daughters of Saint Paul!
For the past couple of years, I have been assigned to Pauline Digital (our digital publishing apostolate). My assignment arrived as our approach to the possibilities of a digital presence started to radically shift. Up to this point, I have been doing a bit of everything: creating digital magazines and newsletters, helping out with our online Pauline store, putting up websites, and helping with various technical challenges. In the midst of all of this, I have tried to fit in some deeper writing, too–both for our digital media, and new books. It has been a challenging time, as well as a time of growth for me. And now, we sisters have chosen a particular direction that takes advantage of the wonderful possibilities of the internet so that we can really respond to some of the many needs expressed to us. This month, just in time for the beginning of Lent, we have launched a new digital “initiative.”
What if you could have all the things that you long for—readings, retreats, Stations of the Cross, the Rosary, videos, special prayers and meditations, even spiritual accompaniment, and more—all delivered to your computer, tablet, or smartphone every day? The opportunity to have all the resources you want ready for you to watch, read, pray, and absorb, whenever it’s convenient for you.
My Sisters gives you the opportunity to access exactly the spiritual content that you need anytime that you need it.
You can try it out for only one dollar, less than the cost of a cup of coffee. We’re giving you this special trial run because we’re so confident that once you’re part of My Sisters, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it.
If you are anxious, stressed, or overstretched, and you wonder what holiness can look like in your daily life, visit this online faith community that leads you to more clarity, joy and peace in your daily life. Find spiritual companionship for your journey.
This is a great opportunity to join, not only because you can start a trial month for only $1, but because the spiritual companionship of the sisters and online community–including the mini-conferences, weekly guides, live spiritual accompaniment groups, twice-a-week evening prayer, the live online lectio divina and Rosary, and DIY retreats–can inspire, motivate, guide, and challenge each of us on our walk in Christ.
Up to this point, I have been working in the background, on conferences and retreats. I’m delighted that we’ll be able to offer the first retreat as a Lenten retreat on the theme of living God’s will, offered in early March. While I plan to continue blogging here and at CoAuthorYourLifewithGod.com, you will definitely find me often online here at My Sisters.
Check out these features that My Sisters offers:
Video Challenge: Did we communicate the heart of our mission in less than 2 minutes?
October is one of my favorite months of the year. Fall colors, pumpkin-flavored everything, maple syrup, and the bittersweetness of the end of the warm weather and beginning of winter… Fall is often also a good season for movies, which is why I have a whole potpourri of movie reviews to put up. (They are half-written, but not yet complete.) If you miss my film reviews, definitely check out our Sisters’ movie review blog at: www.bemediamindful.org/reviews . (You may never come back to mine because Sr. Hosea and Sr. Nancy’s reviews are wonderful!)
This week, my days and evenings are pretty much taken up with our Mission Appeal and Novena to Our Lady of Fatima, but I wanted to share with you a new video we produced that for the Mission Appeal, which, I believe, powerfully communicates who we are—from the perspective of those who are touched by our mission. In years past, we have found it so challenging to “capture” our mission—which is primarily spiritual—in words, images, and videos, but I think this video does a pretty good job. I’d love to know if you agree! Please send in your feedback by voting in the poll below! (Or you can write in a comment, too!)
What do you think?
If you know someone who might be interested in participating in the New Evangelization by prayer and/or offerings for our #TheWordHeals Mission Appeal, please share the video above or one of our “broadcasts” on Facebook Live (which we are doing from Oct. 5-13, 2017):
God bless you!
Join in Live Fatima Rosary Novena Starting Tonight!
Today, my community the Daughters of Saint Paul, began our #TheWordHeals Mission Campaign, which will run in a concentrated way during the Novena to Our Lady of Fatima (ending on the 100th anniversary of the public apparitions on October 13, 2017). We are inviting people to collaborate with us in the New Evangelization to spread the healing Word of God through prayer and offerings.
Our Mission Campaign goal is ambitious, but we have so many wonderful projects just waiting for funds to go forward. You can see sisters’ stories of how the Gospel has changed people’s lives by visiting www.pauline.org/thewordheals or visiting our Ask a Catholic Nun Facebook Page!
If you can’t make it to any of our live online prayer times, you can still join us by praying the Novena prayer daily for nine days:
Upcoming Retreat in Los Angeles!
Thank you for your patience with me as I return from my trip to Illinois and catch up with a few urgent projects. For the beginning of the New Year, I will be in Los Angeles for meetings with our sisters, and I am taking that opportunity to offer a retreat day at our Pauline Book & Media Center in Culver City, CA, on Saturday, January 7th. Retreat will be followed by Mass at our chapel at 4 PM.
A day of retreat is a wonderful way to “start the New Year right,” to rejoice in the gift of God’s love and to allow his love to transform us so that we can once again align our will with God’s will. If you live in the Los Angeles area, I hope you can join us!
Your Chance to Support Evangelization Through Catholic Media!
Every year, we host a webathon to help raise support for our evangelization efforts. This year, we are raising funds to replace our generator, which died last winter and serves our convent, our infirmary, and our entire publishing house. We will be praying a live Novena to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, daily at 12 noon and 8 PM EST, for the needs of those we serve, and in a particular way for those who pray the novena with us, supporting us with their prayers and sharing their intentions with us.
I hope you can join us: www.pauline.org/webathon2016
Catholics on Social Media & Visio Divina!
Our Sunday Visitor does a marvelous job of periodically “rounding up” wonderful Catholic resources online. The June 26th print issue had a wonderful article entitled “Digital Discovery” written by Mark Shea about Catholics in podcasting. He introduced me to a couple of podcasts that I hadn’t discovered yet, so this is well worth checking this out! I was especially interested because I am researching the possibility of us beginning a Pauline podcast, and he has quick tips for an easy start up.
Another series of recent articles from OSV gives families practical tips of how to make your use of social media balanced, discerning, and healthy. Here’s a list of those articles online.
For those who are visually artistic, I wanted to mention that Pauline Books & Media is publishing two religious coloring books that the sisters hope can become “gateways” to contemplation. Our Lady’s Garden is a simply exquisite coloring book of various images of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the sisters have put up one page of the coloring book online that is free to download (and color)!
The Pinterest Board with the results are beautiful.
Ever since I was introduced to Sr. Wendy Beckett’s work years ago, I have occasionally enjoyed praying with sacred art, which I have heard described as visio divina—a way of prayer that uses visual art as an entryway to prayer. Like cinema divina—a way of prayer that uses film as a way to enter into prayer, visio divina engages our senses directly with an image. Creating sacred images to inspire has a long and sacred history, as does praying with sacred images.
Windows into Christ is the second coloring book that the sisters hope will be used for prayer and meditation.
Enter To Win Today: Risen DVD Giveaway
RISEN is the epic Biblical story of the Resurrection, as told through the eyes of a non-believer. It’s a great faith story of a soldier’s search for Christ.
Here at Windows to the Soul, I decided to take part in a blog tour that a number of Catholic bloggers joined in order to encourage people to see this film, and to encourage filmmakers to make more films about faith. (See Reconciled to You’s blogpost here.) If you haven’t seen Risen yet, you might want to follow the blog tour to learn more about it and decide whether to get a copy!
As a special bonus on the blog tour, I’m hosting a Rafflecopter Giveaway for 3 readers who live in the USA to win a RISEN DVD! (You must be a US resident to enter.) For my blog on May 27th, I will post a downloadable lectio divina guide for watching the film that you can use personally or with your family or prayer group.
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway by clicking on the image below:
Terms and conditions are posted below.
Open to Residents of the US only. Giveaway ends May 27, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST. Winners will be selected randomly via Rafflecopter.com and be notified by email. Each winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. Sr. Marie Paul Curley will send the prize to each winner directly. The product offered for the giveaway is free of charge, no purchase necessary. WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter are in no way associated with this giveaway. By providing your information in this form, you are providing your information to Sr. Marie Paul Curley and Pauline Books & Media (the ministry of the Daughters of St. Paul). We will not share or sell the information in any way, and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner, unless you sign up for the newsletter, which you must confirm separately that you want to receive. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send Sr. Marie Paul Curley an email! Read the privacy policy of Pauline Books and Media here.
Glad to be back to blogging…
Thanks for your patience as I gradually find my way back to blogging weekly. Here’s my update on just a few notable events—some of which have prevented me from blogging the past couple of months!
* Our Pauline digital apostolate has some new features: online novenas, courses, and retreats. I’m in the midst of preparing an online version of a few mini-retreats that I’ve given, which I hope will become available in the fall (on the Eucharist and on God’s love for us), but first we had to put in the structure and put together the website. There are already some wonderful resources there, especially some lovely ones by Sr. Kathryn Heremes. Visit: www.lightalongtheway.com to check it out!
* A 10-day get-away in which I focused solely on completing the rough draft of my next book about discernment. I’m letting it sit for about 6 weeks to gain perspective, and then I’ll begin to revise.
* The privilege of guiding a seven-day retreat for a group of our senior sisters
* A trip to Rome to participate in a seminar on Pauline (apostolic) mysticism
* Continuing to develop plans for the Communicators’ Retreat coming up in October
It seems this is one of those times when the Lord is “stirring the waters” inside me, offering multiple opportunities to deepen the spirituality of communication from several perspectives: the writings of the Founder of the Pauline Family, Blessed James Alberione; the wonderful book In a New Light: Spirituality and the Media Arts by Ron Austin; the Pope’s Message for the 50th World Communications Day; and preparing for the seminar on Pauline mysticism which is, of course, all about the mysticism of communication. All of these have been wonderful companions during this time of reflection. In particular, I’m seeing the connection more clearly between:
- the need to keep our gaze on Christ the Master-Communicator—including our thoughts and our hearts, our focused attention
- the importance of attentiveness or “being awake” so as to live in the present moment (which includes Alberione’s insight about the importance of sanctifying our thoughts and attitudes)
- the “spirituality” of encounter, wherein it is possible to discover the sacredness of every interaction with another person
In the eyes of Alberione, the call to holiness of life and holiness of communication are intimately connected and could be described as the “integration” of our entire person and life in Christ, Way, Truth, and Life; an integration in which we are transformed in Christ and thus all our communication is also transformed.
Windows to the Soul Blog 