Need an Advent Penance? Meet the Ember Days
During Advent, the traditional Ember Days invite us to slow down, enter into the quiet and stillness of Advent, and truly prepare Him room.
4 Ways to Reclaim Christ as King
Sarah Damm details four simple ways families can celebrate Christ the King, on His feast day and every day.
6 Ways to Prepare a Quiet Advent Now
Sarah Damm offers 6 ways to prepare now for a quiet Advent so we can truly be ready for Christ’s coming this Christmas.
Welcome Home: Creating a Cozy Space This Fall
Sarah Damm reviews a new decorating book that encourages us to decorate our homes with what inspires our love for fall.
Liturgical Living Between Christmas and Lent
After Christmas, we enter a short season of Ordinary Time, before Lent begins. Here are a few ideas for living liturgically during winter’s Ordinary Time.
How to Ensure a Peaceful Advent Season
Sarah Damm details a plan to allow more time for family, friends, and holiday traditions as you experience a peaceful, prayerful Advent season.
Being Present to November: It’s Not Christmas Yet
If I had to guess the calendar date based on my favorite store’s décor, I would get it wrong. Fall pumpkins, cornucopias, and leafy garlands are nowhere to be found. Only messy remnants of Halloween remain on the clearance racks. Instead, I see Christmas trees, twinkle lights, and stockings. Signs and symbols of December, not early November. Whenever I see Christmas coming too early, I feel rushed and anxious. Suddenly, I think I am behind, as if I’ve missed a…
Savoring Summer: 10 Things I Love About the Season
Last week, one of my kids told me, “Summer is almost over.” Say what? When I shared this with Greg, he didn’t sound surprised. Apparently, one of his coworkers said something similar to him. Something along the lines of it being the end of July. On July 10. I returned to my child, and we counted the remaining days of summer. We discovered that we have a few more than 40 days left of summer break. I thought that would…
Keeping the Sabbath Holy: Six Tips for Living Sunday Differently
Remember the sabbath day — keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your work animal, or the resident alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh…
Lenten Inspiration: Heart, Home and Family
Lent begins tomorrow! Ready or not, the season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is upon us. Are you ready? Or not? I am mostly ready. God has given me a very personal invitation to spend more time in prayer, so that is going to be my focus. And with my ongoing struggle with Hashimoto’s (an autoimmune disease that attacks my Thyroid) and the various symptoms that accompany it, I am also going to pay closer attention to my diet by…