Among Women # 139: Conversation, Conversion & the Comics

Join me for this week's Among Women 139 where I talk about the power of conversations that can lead to conversion, as in the life of St. Joan Delanoue, a French businesswoman-turned-founder-of a religious order. 


Joining me in conversation today is wife, mother, catechist, and creator of a comic strip online, also known as a web-strip, Ellen Austin, who shares her faith, and also has a remarkable knack for seeing life through the eyes of children through her heroine of "Gracieland". 


Plus get all the details about the Catholic New Media Conference, Aug 29 - 31 in Dallas.


Listen or download this episode, AW 139, here.

Among Women ReadHER 4.28.12... converts, moms, daughters, and Stephen Colbert

Among Women ReadHER 4.28.12

A Letter to the Neophytes
By Dr. Timothy O'Malley from Oblation: Catechesis, Liturgy, and the New Evangelization 
An excellent read... for new Catholic converts, and the rest of us, frankly. If the joy of Easter is waning for you, this will jolt you back toward "Alleluia!"


How I Feel Out of My Mini-van and into My Identity
By Jennifer Fulwiler, book excerpt
This is a chapter excerpt from a new release, Style, Sex, and Substance, edited by Hallie Lord. You can dial back and listen to Hallie's visit to Among Women last year.


Stephen Colbert and Faithful Citizenship
By Katherine Schmidt at Archidiocese of Cincinnati
The role humor plays in getting important messages heard.


Why They Left
By William J. Byron and Charles Zech at America magazine
Just more ammo for why we need evangelization, and love... lots of love. Two professors with quotes from exit interviews regarding a study on why Catholics leave the Church. 


When "Sorry" Just Isn't Enough
By Rachel M at Catholic Sistas
A good start on what to say/do when someone faces miscarriage or baby loss. (Don't forget, Among Women recently had a two-part series on miscarriage.) 


The 30 Day Plan: Once a Month Cooking Can Be Easy and Fun
By Kate Wicker at Catholic Mom
So says Kate Wicker, and I usually love her cooking posts elsewhere. Hear Kate talk about her recent book, Weightless, on Among Women 107. 


Keep Laughing, Keep Listening, Keep Loving
By Marcia Morrissey at Patheos
Are we talking too much and not hearing God? Good one, Marcia! 


Calling a Truce between Mother-Daughter Conflict
By Elizabeth Bernstein in the Wall Street Journal
Dealing with adult - adult child relationship... some good tips here. The best advice? Ask what your daughter needs help with...


A great podcast with Dr. Meg Meeker and Dr. James Dobson on the subject of "Strong Fathers and Strong Daughters" - A Catholic pediatrician and an Evangelical Christian psychologist weigh in on this important topic.


Speaking of daughters, a little girl grows up before our eyes in this extraodinary video:
H/T Deacon Greg at The Deacon's Bench.


And one for road... this one for all the mothers... (yes, this is ultimately a Proctor and Gamble commercial, but very well done.)

A Word in Season: A Shrug is Meager Exercise... Or, whatcha gonna do with venial sins?

My column this week at Patheos is one part confession, and one part resolve.  I got some habits that be needin' some kicking.

Pardon me, but my spiritual mediocrity is showing. 

Lent is approaching -- Ash Wednesday on February 22 – and it’s causing me to consider my spiritual health. For a Christian, the resolution to be good and do good should permeate every day, not just at the onset of the penitential seasons. The call to holiness is in season and out. 

The trajectory of our lives should be a movement from our initial conversion -- a turning away from mortal sins and toward Christ. Indeed, the full maturation of the children of God is the call to be living saints, resembling Christ by imitation. 

Yet sometimes my witness is a bit shaky. 

No, let me say that more truthfully: I often settle for mediocrity. 

I settle for well, I haven’t broken any of the Ten Commandments recently, and I don’t have any mortal sins to confess, and so I coast. Even though I am old enough to know better, I am not immune to the lure of bad habits

Read the rest.

Please feel free to subscribe to this column for your RSS reader or email. 

Oh, and if you want a insightful look at the deadly sins in modern language, check this out, again at Patheos.

This makes me think... about the gap between faith and life

In speaking of conversion, the New Testament uses the word metanoia, which means a change of mentality. It is not simply a matter of thinking differently in an intellectual sense, but of revising the reasons behind one's actions in the light of the Gospel. In this regard, Saint Paul speaks of “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). This means that true conversion needs to be prepared and nurtured though the prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture and the practice of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Conversion leads to fraternal communion, because it enables us to understand that Christ is the head of the Church, his Mystical Body; it urges solidarity, because it makes us aware that whatever we do for others, especially for the poorest, we do for Christ himself. Conversion, therefore, fosters a new life, in which there is no separation between faith and works in our daily response to the universal call to holiness. In order to speak of conversion, the gap between faith and life must be bridged. Where this gap exists, Christians are such only in name. To be true disciples of the Lord, believers must bear witness to their faith, and witnesses testify not only with words, but also with their lives.

---Bl. John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, par. 26, (1999.)

Among Women Podcast #109 - Metanoia*

Among Women 109 welcomes AW listener and current third-order Carmelite aspirant, Erin Aldrich Miller, as she recalls the many steps of her reversion and her quest to learn to pray. From her challenges in her college days to being a young wife with a baby on the way, Erin shares the ups and downs of life... from grief, mistakes, and emptiness, to being "recruited" by St. Teresa of Avila and learning the ways of Carmelite spirituality.

I also profile the wisdom and exemplary life of St. Teresa of Avila, with a reading from the saint, and commentary by Pope Paul VI and Pope Benedict XVI on her exemplary life. Listen to the podcast here.

And time's a wastin'!  Remember, I am also taking audio feedback and written feedback for an upcoming AW Special Edition: What I Love About the Rosary.  To participate, just share what you love about the Rosary, by calling our feedback line at 206-203-2024, or message via Facebook at the Among Women Podcast page. Or email me at amongwomenpodcast@me.com. Audio files that you record on your mobile phone or via iTunes are good too! 

Entries must be received by 6pm EST, Monday, Sept. 26. All participants will have their names placed in a free drawing for a handcrafted rosary from Rustic Rosaries by Margaret Rose (made of beautiful blue pearls!) You can see it here...

*Metanoia - A Greek word that means "change of mind". The biblical term for that repentance or complete change of heart which turns one away from sin to serve the living God.

Among Women ReadHer... 6.11.11

Among Women ReadHer

6.11.11

Miscarriage
-- Fr Frank Pavone from Priests for Life on Catholic Lane
Sensitive commentary.


Things I've Learned in Times of Doubt 
-- Karen Edmisten on her blog of the same name
Thumbs up, Karen!


Faith in the Time of Breast Lumps 
-- Elizabeth Esther
What to do while you're waiting for the diagnostic exam.


Pagan Convert: Christie Martin 
-- Christie Martin at Why I'm Catholic
Her conversion story in her own words.

How to Tie Your Shoes
-- courtesy of Julie Davis at Happy Catholic
Gosh, a small revelation.


Taking Class with the X-Men 
-- Maria Morera Johnson at Patheos' Catholic Portal
Got super-hero fans at your house? Need some help conversing with them? Check this out.


Teaching Self Control [to children] is Great Summer Exercise
-- Mary Beth Hicks
One of the fruits of the Spirit, don't ya know...


The Ins and Outs of Opening a Door for a Woman 
-- Brett & Kate McKay
So, what's your experience?


Finally, a story of a remarkable woman...
Watch this video clip about forgiving your son's killer. 
HT: Deacon Greg at The Deacon's Bench

Cries of the Heart: Honest Prayer and Filial Love

I've over at "Summa This, Summa That" today, and wondering aloud about how the honest depth of our most difficult prayers really connects us to the truth of who we are... by virtue of our baptism.

Here's a snippet:

Sometimes it takes a while to get honest about who we really are before God. Years even. But when our egocentricities and mistakes take their toll, the cry from our heart leaks out. Fortunately for us, God knows all about it. And he has been waiting for us to bring him whatever is tearing us up inside. Closer than my next breath, God my Father is ready to move in my situation if I give him room to act.

 In our moment of relinquishment God does his best work. God waits for those honest moments – conversion moments! —when we lean more into him, and less on ourselves.  Its then we unpack the truest gift of baptism – our redemption! 

Read the rest here. 

BTW, I thought Amy Grant's "Better Than A Hallelujah" fit the bill rather well for this post. So here it is:

Conversion Story: from Jehovah's witness to Catholic

Mary Kochan, senior editor over at Catholic Exchange, reveals a portion of her testimony in this article.

Here's a snippet:

This is my 16^th Easter.

For the first 38 years of my life I did not celebrate Easter because I was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a pseudo- Christian group with a very strange economy of salvation. It is not easy to describe life in a cult like Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is very dark. Even their light is darkness.

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity, so they do not believe in the deity of Christ.  They believe that Jesus was Michael the Archangel before he came to earth, and that after he was resurrected, he went back to being Michael the Archangel — but with the name “Jesus.”  They do believe Jesus died (but not on a cross) to save mankind from sin and death by atoning for the disobedience of Adam.  Jesus had to be a perfect man, to match Adam in every respect, and thus he takes Adam’s place as our father.  I know this is weird — not to mention the whole ontological problem of how he is an angel, then a human, and then an angel again — but I’m telling you about it because I want you to know that I had an idea that I could call myself a Christian and believe Jesus died for me, without conceiving of Jesus as God.

Most of you reading this are like my grandchildren who have heard all their lives that Jesus died for you and that Jesus is God the Son –- true God from true God.  It has never dawned on you, because it was always the light that you lived in.

But it dawned on me.

Read the rest, here.

Confidential to Mary: enjoy a "sweet 16!" ~Peace & joy,  Pat

Among Women Podcast #45

This week's Among Women kicks off the Lenten season with a look at the Eucharist through the eyes of St. Gemma Galgani, a young Italian saint who was both a laywoman and a stigmatist.  Plus Pat chats with Corrie Norris, wife, mother, and grandmother, about her life story of conversion from Calvinism to Catholicism, and the role the Eucharist has played in her life.