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A Little Update

We Moved AND I Have a New Book Launching in Spring 2025!

It has been some many months since I reach out to you. 2023 proved to be a very challenging year for us, starting with a couple of health crises that overwhelmed us. We came to the difficult decision of selling our beautiful home on Mobile Bay and leaving dear friends and a lovely parish community to move closer to our children and grandchildren. I don’t need to say how this has been a wonderful boon in our lives!

We’ve been spending this year settling into our new home in the Washington, DC area, in north Virginia, and we love it. I’ve started doing some gardening as the weather has warmed up, and I am hoping to be enjoying the summer with the grandkids with plenty of pool time.

I’ve also returned to a deeper writing life. You may know that I have been working at CatholicMom.com as an editor for a couple of years, and have been podcasting more for the Momcast and Prayercast. I am encouraged to return to my personal podcast.


ALSO, I am DELIGHTED to share with you first that I am under contract with Ave Maria Press for a new book that launches in Spring 2025. It is a follow-up to the award-winning My Badass Book of Saints. The new book is the logical next step in our lives, where I talk about the excitement and challenges we face as we enter mid-life and beyond and seize the opportunity for a Second Act, a daring exploration of what we can do next with the gifts and experiences God has given us in our lives. I hope you’ll stay tuned for more news as we get closer to launching this fun new book.

In the meantime, Badass is featured on Ave Maria Press’s Summer Reading Sale, so if you’ve never read it, I invite you to join the fun and discover a bold and beautiful saint-companion. Use DISCOUNT CODE: SUMMER2024 for $5 off your order! You might want to pick up Super Girls and Halos and Our Lady of Charity, too!

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Review: Irena’s Vow

Irena’s Vow (2023), directed by Louise Archambault, left me speechless. Based on a true story, Irena Gut, a Polish woman conscripted to serve as housekeeper to a Nazi officer in Warsaw after it fell to the Nazis, witnesses an unspeakable atrocity against a mother and infant. Powerless to do anything to protect them, she returns to work, shaken. Her supervisor, a kind German civilian, instructs her to keep to herself and survive as she can. She will—in a heartbreaking sacrifice.

Irena supervises a group of Jews forced into labor as tailors to the German officers. They become her friends, sharing the fear of their impending deaths. Irena becomes their source of information for the progression of the Nazi plan in their village. She learns they will be executed soon and acts quickly to hide them in the German officer’s cellar.

As housekeeper, Irena has the run of the household, and keeps her friends hidden for many months before being discovered. During this period, we learn about Irena’s vow to save as many lives as she can. Her vow, buoyed by her Catholic conviction, saves one more life.

In the 1980s, while living in Miami, I had the unique experience of meeting Holocaust survivors. Each personal story of survival carried with it the meaning of the dignity of the human person. When we think of the Holocaust, images from death camps spring to mind, and certainly, as the heinous end for the 6 million persons murdered at the hand of Nazis. We should also know the other stories of that persecution, stories that should horrify and enrage us at the depths of the inhumanity that led to those camps.

Irena’s Vow is one such story of courage, the instinct for survival, remarkable generosity, and the ultimate miracle of life.

Highly recommended for mature teens and older.  In theaters April 15-16

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Review Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know

Mark Giszczak’s book, Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know (Ignatius Press) resonated with me. Truth be told, I didn’t want it to affect me as deeply as it did. Long time readers of this blog know of my husband’s illness, and other members of my family are struggling with serious health concerns, as well. Beloved friends, too, have their share of suffering.

I hoped to glean a better understanding of the Church’s teaching on suffering, and I did. If that is all I had taken away from this book, I would have had a strong foundational understanding of the Theology of suffering. I knew there would be deep theological points, but Giszszcak has a direct style that remains formal, but flows conversationally. I enjoyed reading the book, even though the topic is close to my own experience.

Coping with suffering as Christians is not just about pain management but also includes certain spiritual practices that lead us to surrender our lives more fully to the Lord. (10)

What struck me right away is how I experienced all the things that Giszszcak names. Suffering is universal, a part of the human condition, as misunderstood as it is pervasive. He doesn’t avoid the WHY that so many of us ask of God. And so, he begins with the story of Job, and goes on to describe how suffering is deeply personal, yet filled with the power of hope and redemption.

I reflected upon the various times of suffering in my life, as daughter, wife, and mother, as friend and companion, spiritually and physically, and I was consoled.

In suffering, we are transformed. It aligns us with Christ’s suffering on the cross, and brings us closer to Him. Suffering is not endured in vain, but is a great spiritual gift.

A recommended read in good times and in bad.

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Augustine Institute – Ignatius Press; 1st edition (February 26, 2024)
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1955305587
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1955305587

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