Author: Maria

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Review: Living Memento Mori

I first met Emily DeArdo in 2015 at a conference in Charleston, SC. Jennifer Fulwiler was broadcasting her Sirius XM radio show live from a meeting room in the conference hotel, and we were sitting in the audience laughing and enjoying the excitement leading up to the wacky and inspiring Edel Gathering.

As far as first impressions go, I liked Emily on the spot. Her joie de vivre was as contagious as her smile. This gregarious young woman was delightful, and we exchanged pleasantries.

Here was a woman who was alive and loving life. And then I heard her story and I knew she couldn’t be any other way but joyful. Joy, a fruit of the Holy Spirit that brings us close to God. A love of life that comes from having faced death.

Living Memento Mori: My Journey Through the Stations of the Cross invites the reader to journey with Christ, as Emily has, by contemplating suffering through the Stations of the Cross. It sounds like a heavy book with a deep subject, and it is undeniably so. But it is much more.

It is a lesson in the power of vulnerability.

Emily shares her hardships of living with cystic fibrosis, and subsequently, a double lung transplant. She shares how this challenge and suffering informs her relationship with Jesus Christ, and what that means to her mortality. Her story is one of hope, not despair.

Emily invites us to walk the Via Dolorosa with Christ. We see in Emily a model for bearing our own crosses with gratitude and joy. In contemplating our deaths, we come to appreciate our lives. I recommend this book for anytime, but it’s a perfect book for Lent.

Pre-order yours now — it releases on January 24th!

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let the little children come

the evidence

This morning at Adoration I looked down to drop the kneeler and encountered a lone little cheerio. I picked it up and popped it in my back pocket to throw away later, but first I rolled it around in my hand for a moment and smiled.

It reminded me of my grandson, and his sweet ability to snuggle with me and be content to sit in my lap endlessly, wanting nothing more than to be held and reveling in that comfort and then in a split second want to squirm away to explore. I’ve seen first hand how a fistful of cheerios or goldfish instantly calms the explorer.

That rogue cheerio tells me that a little one was here at Adoration, and maybe, after getting a little restless, Mom or Dad, or maybe Grandma, offered some cheerios in exchange for a little more quiet time. It probably worked for a little while, too. I’m sure they cleaned up after themselves even though this last rogue cheerio escaped. Perhaps I was meant to find it and pray for the family that sat in that pew before me.

So pray I did, and not just for this family, but for all the families with young children who may struggle but make the effort to go to church. Who sometimes feel judged or unwelcomed and keep coming back. Next time you feel an unkind look in your direction, remember there’s a grandma somewhere in Adoration, remembering you in prayer. Cheerios optional.

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3 Things to Start Your Day

an aptly named gratitude journal
  1. Gratitude — express gratitude to God for a quiet lazy morning with no rush or the mad chaos that rules in some seasons of our lives.
  2. Prayer — it can be simple or structured, an earnest “Jesus, I trust in you” or a Rosary. Make a connection with the Lord.
  3. Action — offer up your day’s sufferings or joys. We often think of offering up our pain, but let’s also offer up the good in our lives, too!

Have a great day!

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