Just a Quick Heads Up, Because the Price is So Low

Just to let anyone who's interested know:

You Can Share the Faith is on sale at Amazon today for only $6.58 (cover price is $14.95, so a nice deal!)

I accidentally typed $658 just now.

Umm, I'm proud of the book, but not that delusionally proud.

Advent Reading Recommendations from Nancy Piccione

Many thanks to the lovely Nancy Piccione* for her review in The Catholic Post and her recommendation of You Can Share the Faith for Advent reading.

I'm honored to be in such great company -- Nancy also recommends books from Emily Stimpson Chapman and Colleen Mitchell (and my Amazon list just grew.)

You can read Nancy's column here, at Reading Catholic.

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*I did an interview with Nancy a few years back about After Miscarriage. You can read that interview here.

5 Things You Can Do to Model Joy and Optimism for Your Children

I first posted this over a year ago, but it feels more fitting than ever today, so I'm sharing it again.

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It's an ugly world out there. I don't even have to sum up headlines for you -- you can just pick the one that depresses you the most and we'll go from there.

When all the news everywhere seems bad and the future seems precarious, what do we do? And what do we tell our children?

My instinct is to look for the good (which is kind of funny, since by nature I'm a melancholic INFJ, or, in Inside Out Speak, the character of Sadness.)

Things have always been dire. From the time Moses despaired over the ingratitude of the Israelites ("Please do me the favor of killing me at once!") to the first-pope-elect who denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times, to the Church Militant (which has regularly fallen down on fighting the good fight), to each of us sinners in our fallen state ... the history of humanity is the history of a mess.

But kids are basically optimistic by nature and they're always looking forward to the Next Great Thing, so I like to try to help mine find it. Hope, after all, is one of the theological virtues:

"The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1818)

With that in mind, here are five steps on the road to Joy and Optimism, aka Hope:

1. Remind Yourself and Your Kids What True Joy Is 

And it's not the stuff of this earth -- it's not about jobs, cars, money, success. (There is joy to be found here on earth -- witness coffee and books -- but it's not the main event.)

There will always be pain, challenges, and difficulties in this earthly life. Despite the struggles, the constant disappointments, the inevitable suffering, there is the joy that is my faith. It's something bigger than and different from happiness. It's the firm belief and the reason-defying knowledge that there's something more out there -- that He is out there -- and that everything He allows for me is meant for my good.

He is here with me. There's nothing more joy-inspiring than that sure knowledge.

2. Remind Yourself and Your Kids That Jesus Started the Church and the Holy Spirit Is Guiding It -- i.e., He's Got Things Covered

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. Matt. 16:18

Free will, by its nature, allows the existence of evil and evil choices. That has been true since Adam and Eve, and it will be true as long as time exists. There will be many crosses to bear in this life, but we can't lose sight of eternal life, our final, and ultimately our only, goal.

"Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit." (CCC 1817)

The gates of hell will not prevail.

What am I doing to help build up the Church, this incredible gift, that Christ gave me?

3. Remind Yourself and Your Kids That Prayer is the Best Reminder 

"Hope is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads us to desire." (CCC 1820)

When facing a trial, when listening to the news, when pondering evil, when healing from pain, when wondering what to do ... pray. Remind your kids to pray. Stop what you're doing and pray. Pray alone, pray with them. Remind them to pray for a strengthening of their own faith, for your family's faith and unity, for all sinners (including ourselves), for the church, for the pope, for the world.

Remind them that prayer drives away hate and strengthens love.


4. Remind Yourself and Your Kids To Be Grateful (Especially When Things Are Going Wrong.) 

It's so easy to complain, and so easy to let our kids see us do it. I fail at this a lot, but when I'm being mindful, I actively search for things to be grateful for. When life is chaotic and I'm exasperated, it's helpful to seek out one tiny part of the situation that I can count as something good (or at least as something that could have been worse.)

For every time I ask Jesus, "Why do You allow ....?" He replies, "This is why, and here's why you can thank Me in the moment."  Or, if He isn't making the "why" of it clear, I can still say "Thank you" anyway. He always has His reasons.

Say all of this stuff out loud to your kids.


5. Look to the Gospel 

The Good News is simply, as St. Augustine said, this:

"Wake up, O man! For your sake God became man!"

When we remember that earth-shattering and humbling fact, then we can stop wringing our hands  and just get to work. Do corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Love our families. Give to the poor. Learn and live our faith.

As Pope Francis said, “Everyone is invited to enter this door, to go through the door of faith, to enter into His life, and to allow Jesus into their lives, so that he may transform them, renew them, and give them full and lasting joy."

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Recently, something was going wrong around here (I can't even remember what it was -- nothing horrible, but just something really frustrating) and Betsy said, "Well, there's a bright side! At least we can be grateful for--"

I cut her off and said, "Why are you so chipper about this? I'm so annoyed."

"Hey," she said, "You raised me. I get this from you."

Model and embrace the joy and hope and your kids -- I'm guessing from experience? -- will have no choice but to do the same.

Fountains of Carrots Podcast: Chatting with Christy and Haley

Haley Stewart and Christy Isinger's Fountains of Carrots podcast is one of my favorites. Haley (Carrots for Michaelmas) and Christy (Fountains of Home) keep me company on a regular basis when I'm cleaning my house, transforming odious chores into something I actually look forward to. I love the variety of guests and topics, and the fact that they relish TV talk.

In Episode 48, we talked about my latest book, You Can Share the Faith, and lots of other things: sharing Christ through relationships, the difference between proselytizing and evangelizing, examples of evangelization gone awry, conversion stories, sticky family situations, and the part that popular culture can play in the life of a person of faith. It was delightful, and I was honored to be the first return guest of the podcast.

So, if you've got some housecleaning to do, or just need to sit down with a cup of coffee and some chatty friends, you can have a listen here.

Bits and Pieces of Our -- No, My -- Days

Where have I been? 

What an insightful question.

I used to blog, right? And then, my children suddenly grew up, my youngest became a teenager, and I mostly clammed up about my girls because they were no longer kid-quote-fodder for my blog (other than sharing the occasional witticism.) There's plenty to ponder about raising teenagers and living with young college women, but not plenty to blog about. It's their life, not mine.

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I haven't blogged much about homeschooling, other than books Ramona and I read together, because I keep thinking, "Do I have anything left to say about homeschooling? Haven't I already told everyone it's about Reading Aloud and Talking!? Isn't it all there in the archives?" Maybe, maybe not. I toy with the idea of a book about homeschooling. Not sure.

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Then there's what I call Facebook-Creep. What I used to always, always post on the blog feels more like a quick FB post, so I throw it over there. Then I think, "What about the people who aren't on Facebook? Who don't want to deal with its ridiculous, wonky algorithm? Who don't want a social media platform deciding for them what's a 'top story'?" And I think, "Hmmm. I should blog more."

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Then I think, "There are so many blogs, and so many who do it so well: homeschool blogging, read-aloud blogging, parenting blogging, bookish blogging. Am I just tired of blogging? Do I even remember how to blog about anything other than Poetry Friday? Not that there's anything wrong with that...."

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Then I take a nap.

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I will never stop writing. One of the reasons my blogging has decreased is that other writing--and the necessary promotion of that writing, i.e., my books, by way of radio interviews, etc.--has increased. I guess I'm just in one of those regular, "What am I doing?" phases that I go through.

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Have been doing lots of radio interviews lately, to talk about You Can Share the Faith. Lots of good, thought provoking conversations about what it does and doesn't mean to evangelize, and about how what flows out of us is rooted in our own, ongoing conversion. It's always fascinating to me to hear people's reactions to this book. I think the cover, the font, the cups of tea, indicate something a little lighter, but I've been told that once people dig in to the book, they find the content to be much more serious than they'd anticipated. If you've read it and we haven't talked, I'd love to hear your take on that.

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Coming up: I recorded a Fountains of Carrots podcast with Christy Isinger and Haley Stewart and, as always, enjoyed it immensely. They told me I'm their first return guest. Huzzah! An honor. And of course, it was a lot of fun to talk to them. I'll pass on the link when the podcast is released.

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Hey, I think this is a blog post! I'll try to come up with another one. Before the next Poetry Friday.

Thanks, Our Sunday Visitor -- a 34% discount on You Can Share the Faith, and Discussion Questions for Parishes/Book Clubs

Monday's webinar with Our Sunday Visitor went beautifully, thanks to Tracy Stewart (on whom I have officially bestowed the title, "Webinar Master Extraordinaire" with the subtitle, "I can get Karen to use her webcam correctly!") The webinar can still be viewed at this link, if you'd like to see what we talked about. 

And, Our Sunday Visitor is kindly extending to my blog readers the 34% discount they offered to registrants. 

Just go here, to the OSV shop, and at checkout enter the code YCSTF34. 

(Code expires May 27th.) 

Another thing I'm excited about is that OSV has put together a great set of discussion questions for parishes and book clubs. Just go to You Can Share the Faith at OSV and scroll down to the bottom of the page, where you'll find a link to download the free discussion questions. 

I literally teared up (heart on your sleeve much, Edmisten?) when a registrant let Tracy know that they'd chosen You Can Share the Faith for their parish's discipleship group/book club, saying, "It's a great resource for what we would like to see in our parish." Thank you!

Catching Up: Moving, and Grads, and Webinars, Oh, My!

I've been absent from the blog for all the usual reasons (life, life, and life), plus a few new ones, just to keep things interesting:

• We've been helping my parents get settled in at a picturesque retirement community. They are now only about two hours away from us (instead of fourteen) and we are thrilled. Over the last week, my sister, her husband, my daughters, and I helped my mother sift through many (not all...we're not done yet) of her hundreds and hundreds of books. My sister and I each hauled three boxes of books home because you know how much empty bookshelf space I have: 

This is what my living room looked like after the last used book sale we hit. Then we went to another used book sale. I didn't take another picture. 

• Betsy Ray graduated this weekend from the community college she's been attending. She wants to be an elementary school teacher, so she'll continue next fall at a state college not far from here. College-for-Edmistens, so far, seems to have taken the same shape as Homeschooling-for-Edmistens: piece it together in the way that works best, as economically as possible, keeping goals in mind, while not being afraid to shift gears if something isn't working. Classes in the fall, for both Anne and Betsy, will involve commuting to the state college, taking a class at the community college (Betsy can get one class at a better time/price there), and a couple of online classes at a third college (Anne is dipping into a possible new major, which kind of thrills me because it involves English.) Basically, this means we are dealing with three different schools. The FAFSA is so much fun! 

• I've been doing a lot of interviews for You Can Share the Faith, and tomorrow (May 16, at 11 a.m. central), I'll be doing a webinar with Our Sunday Visitor. They tell me loads of people have signed up, but the great thing about a webinar is that the room is never too crowded. You can find out more about it here, on the registration page. Other recent interviews included Busted Halo and Teresa Tomeo's Catholic Connection. 

• On a completely different note, Ramona's latest favorite website is Creativebug. We sketch, we paint, we play, repeat. 

• To sum up: I'm still alive, in case you wondered. 

Sharing Some Reviews of You Can Share the Faith

I'm extremely grateful for the following thoughtful, thorough, and lovely reviews of You Can Share the Faith:

Julie Davis has written one.

Matt Nelson, at Reasonable Catholic, has one, too.

And Mike Aquilina shared one at Amazon.

Thanks so much!

And Friday morning at 8:15 (Central Time), I'll be on Teresa Tomeo's Catholic Connection to talk about the book.

Can't Stop Quoting Brede

Perhaps the complete but simple message of You Can Share the Faith could be summed up with this short passage from In This House of Brede:  

Nowadays there's a tendency to make everything utilitarian--even the things of the spirit," said Dame Claire. "Beware of this," and, "That wasn't the way of the saints," said Dame Ursula. "They didn't set out to be of use."  

"Nor they did," said Hilary in surprise.  

"And you needn't worry about being useful," said Dame Ursula. "'When you have become God's in the measure he wants, he, himself, will know how to bestow you on others.'" She was quoting St. Basil. 

I finished In This House of Brede about a week and a half ago. Expect an avalanche of quotes.

Thinking Like a Happy Catholic

Julie Davis of Happy Catholic has a quick preview/review of the new book up. See it here, at Goodreads.

In part, Julie says:

Her life story is different from mine, but her Catholic way of life is precisely what I answer when people ask me "how to" be a Happy Catholic.

So happy to hear that I'm thinking in sync with the Happy Catholic!

Living Differently for Lent

Photo courtesy of Free Images 

Every year, it's the same thing: "What am I going to do for forty days?"

One year I wrote a letter to Lent.

Another year, I made a Top Ten List of things to consider giving up.

And I've shared my monstrously long post about Lenten ideas, activities to do with young children, etc., more times than I can count.

How about this year?

In addition to reliving that old letter and adopting some stuff from that Top Ten list, I'm introducing you to Living Differently.

It's a new website/project/collection/thing of beauty from Alicia Van Hecke, a fellow homeschooling mom and the genius behind Love 2 Learn: Favorite Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers.

Alicia and I are very much in sync in our approaches to sharing the faith. It's been fun to see her new site launch and unfold just as You Can Share the Faith is being published, because one would almost think we'd been working on these projects in tandem. (We haven't, but that's how sympatico we are.) We employ the same vocabulary (uncannily at times) as we talk about similar issues and approaches, about engaging the culture, about reaching out a person at a time, and about nurturing one's own faith and the faith life of the family.

Alicia sums it up this way, on the Intro page of Living Differently:

What I’d like to offer here is a kind of guide, especially for parents and their families, to cultivating ideas, attitudes, and spirituality in their own hearts and in those of their children, that will prepare them for this great task that we are all called to do – to go and make disciples of all nations.

We are so much on the same page that Alicia asked if she could give away a copy of You Can Share the Faith, and I told her I couldn't wait to help spread the word about Living Differently.

So that's what I'm doing at the end of this busy Ash Wednesday. I'm throwing out one more Lenten idea for you, just in case you haven't figured out what you want to do from that Top Ten list.

Here's the idea: Read and pray about one nugget per day from Living Differently. There's more than enough there for 40 days, and I think once you start digging in, you'll want to keep going well beyond Lent. You can start in the sidebar on the left, and work your way through the riches that Alicia is curating.

I'll leave you with my choice of reading for today, from the page, "Be Generous."

I wish you a fruitful forty days in the desert.

P.S. I almost forgot! It's been a long, busy Ash Wednesday. :) Here is the link to Alicia's giveaway of You Can Share the Faith. 

My New Book is Starting to Ship!

You Can Share the Faith is starting to ship! If you pre-ordered a copy (and if you did, thank you!), it should be in your hands soon. If you'd like to order one, you can do so from Our Sunday Visitor, or from Amazon. Barnes and Noble is showing a ship date of February 10, and you can also order from Indie Bound, or inquire at your local Catholic bookstore.

I'm excited to share this book with you!

I Wrote Another Book!

Awhile back, I was talking with my editor at Our Sunday Visitor about book ideas. "I'd love to write about the process of conversion, about the things that did and didn't work for me when I was searching," I told her. 

That's how You Can Share the Faith: Reaching Out One Person at a Time was born. 

It's a personal book, with stories from my atheist days and my conversion. But it's not about me. It's about God and the way He worked on me. It's about friends of mine, people who were generous enough to risk sharing stories with me. It's about cradle Catholics, converts, reverts, atheists, non-Catholics, doubters, and seekers; it's about rebellion and love. 

It's about looking around you--in your neighborhood, parish, or maybe in your own living room--and being willing to talk about the changes wrought in you since Jesus came into your life. 

"I want to write," I told my editor, "about what helped me make the leap, and what hampered my next steps. About friends who proved to me that sharing the faith can be as simple as loving someone with whom you profoundly disagree." 

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You Can Share the Faith is due out in February and is available for pre-order now from Our Sunday Visitor, Indie Bound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or check with your local Catholic bookseller.