Welcome to Day 6 of the Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious Blog Tour: Ten Bodacious Basics…Ten Minutes at a Time! Listen to today’s Audio Boo and enter to win your own copy of the book by leaving a comment, and then go visit the other blogs participating to get more great content (and chances to enter!).
Ok ladies — and guys, too, this is an equal opportunity opportunity. If you’re anything like me, the idea of taking a week, or even a weekend for a retreat or personal reflection on themes that are so important to our lives as women is crazy. We’re busy. Or so we say.
But that’s precisely why we need to take time to nurture our spirituality — whether we’re champion church ladies that can whisper a rosary in 5-minutes flat, or we’re curious about some things we’ve heard — perhaps a terminology we’re not familiar with. Or, like me, yearning to know more but not quite knowing where to get started.
If any of these scenarios apply to you, then you’ve come to the right place! Let me introduce you to my friend, Pat Gohn. Wife. Mother. Daughter. Catechist. Writer. Skilled Scrabble player, connoisseur of chocolate, chatty girlfriend, and author of a magnificent little book with a sassy title:
That title caught your attention, didn’t it? I know! What’s inside is even more amazing! Listen to Pat read this excerpt from the book. Her words will move you as she shares about the gifts of prayer in her life and love in action when a group of women respond tenderly to her needs during a difficult time in her life.
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Now reflect and share on this quote from Blessed John Paul II…
“Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts. They see them independently of various ideological or political systems. They see others in their greatness and limitations; they try to go out to them and help them.” (Letter to Women, par 12)
I want you to read the book. Pat wants you to read the book. And the good people at Ave Maria Press want you to read the book, so I’m giving away a copy right here. Just leave your thoughts about Blessed John Paul’s quote in the comments below. The contest ends at 11:59 PM, EST, on April 26, 2013. I’ll pick one winner by random drawing during the live recording of Catholic Weekend on April 27.
Until then, you might want to ponder this:
Just got the Kindle version and am thoroughly looking forward to diving in.
Ooooh. I need to get that so I can share. Come back and anser the question when you get to chapter 6 🙂
I can’t wait to read this book. I am blessed to be part of a wonderful group of catholic women that step up to prayer and service, just as Pat did. I am sharing this link with them, in the hopes we can read the book together.
It’s a great book for discussion, Ani. it’s a beautiful way to look at our relationships with each other, too.
I’m not sure what this says about me, but… It reminds me of a quote from a Melanie Griffith movie, “A Stranger Among Us”. She plays a detective undercover in a Chassidic Jewish community, and one of the men who is in line to become the next rabbi reads something to her “God counts the tears of women.” At the end of the movie the quote is explained as having meaning in the compassion of women, and how they see the world and the people in it.
I’ve also heard that in different contexts. I’m glad posted the link above…gonna go follow it now.
Re God collecting our tears… Psalm 56 mentions that God bottles our tears. http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/56
Thanks for the link. It makes me think of kissing away tears.
Thanks!
This quote reminds me that this is what I do with my children……..especially the somewhat wayward ones, whom seem lost. Much to the dismay of their siblings who are not looking with a mother’s eye, and heart, but we truly can see beyond the “what is” to the “what can be”. That is what looking with the eyes of the heart means to me!
That’s exactly what it is…looking beyond. Isn’t that how Jesus must see us, too? All our potential? All he has meant for us?
I love this chapter for a multitude of reasons. The imagery of the heart, as I work through a Consoling Heart of Jesus retreat (y’all know the Divine Mercy, right?), is something that I think is a part of me even before I began to understand it. As a woman, I always thought that maybe I was hypersensitive to people, instead of realizing that perhaps it’s how I am made as a woman. I’ve always been more sensitive to what people mean, rather than what they say — there’s a risk in that, and the truth is I’ve been burned a time or two, but this sensitivity speaks to me, to be aware and actively thinking of someone and reaching out, whether it’s to help or provide support in a big way as Pat shares in this excerpt, or in small ways to let people know they are a part of your life. Both have merit, don’t you think?
Dear Bego,
Thanks so much for your amazing support and friendship. I so appreciate your sharing my book with your readers here.
It’s going to be finish of mine day, except before ending I am reading this impressive post to improve my experience.
It’s great that you are getting thoughts from this paragraph as well
as from our dialogue made at this time.