prayer

Walk in Her Sandals: A Creative Approach to the Passion

/ CAstfalk / Leave a comment

Walk in Her Sandals“Walk in Her Sandals will allow you to enter more fully into life in Christ by praying over his passion, death, and resurrection. It will help you experience a conversion of heart and recognize your own giftedness.”

Walk In Her Sandals, edited by Kelly M. Wahlquist, takes an innovate approach to meditating on the Passion of Christ. By combining fiction and nonfiction, this little volume offers the best of both types of writing. It draws you into the heart of Holy Week with Scripture and Stephanie Landsem’s wonderful prose, then takes you a step beyond with reflection and questions designed to draw you closer to Jesus.

Best of fiction & nonfiction to draw you into the Passion. Walk In Her Sandals https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KOLL59O/ Click To Tweet

If you’ve read Stephanie Landsem’s Living Water Series, which I highly recommend, you’ll recognize her hand here as she draws you into the life of Christ from the margins. By offering the perspectives of women of various ages on the periphery of Jesus’s ministry, you’ll become immersed in the life-changing events of Holy Week. Continue reading →

Small Success Thursday

/ CAstfalk / 6 Comments

Small Success Thursday

Why small success? Because that’s the only kind I know! Even the big ones come in small steps. Here’s my paltry offering for the week:

  1. Finished a novena – This is a fairly large success for me. I’m notoriously bad at completing novenas, which are simply nine days of prayer with a particular intention, usually through the intercession of a particular saint. I’ve tried all sorts of tricks, and remembering to spend about two minutes with a prayer nine days in a row is barely shy of miraculous for me. But, with the help of the free Pray app, I did it! And I’ve even begun another novena. The app is simple and clean. Choose a novena and tick off the days as you complete them. You can even invite friends to pray with you. A once-daily reminder is the key for me. I could do with more nudges, but apparently the reminder and seeing a little notice by the app icon is enough.

    Novena app screenshot

    Pray: The Catholic Novena App

Continue reading →

Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Reasons I Haven’t Given Up on the Rosary

/ CAstfalk / 3 Comments

The Rosary drifts in and out of my life. Seasons change, lifestyles are uprooted, and my interest in the prayer waxes and wanes. Yet, same as the beads scattered across the dining room buffet, it remains within reach.

October is the Month of the Holy Rosary, and I’m bothered by the fact the Rosary isn’t part of my routine the way it once was. I had no experience with a family recitation of the Rosary, so praying it privately during my daily commute for years suited me just fine. Then the commute ended, and I’ve struggled ever since. Continue reading →

Things Change, You Change, It’s Okay

/ CAstfalk / 2 Comments

Some changes happen in the blink of an eye. (Think a lightning bolt strike.)

Some changes are such gradual transformations that the difference is nearly imperceptible except when glimpsed from afar. (Think the Grand Canyon’s creation.)

Changes may be monumental, calamitous, or inconsequential. The big changes are instantly recognizable, but the small, subtle shifts are often missed. Continue reading →

May I Fast For You? Send Me Your Petitions.

/ CAstfalk / 3 Comments

May I Fast For You?

Some day I’m going to write about weight and weight loss and a slew of related issues. There’s even a novel along those themes that has been percolating in the back of my brain for a while. I’ve established the main characters and formulated an idea of what makes them tick.

I’m not going to write about either of those things just yet, but I would like to bring meaning to the ever-present fasting in my life by inviting you to send me your petitions. I’m not doing a bread and water fast or any kind of wacky diet, but losing weight requires a whole lot of fasting. Fasting from certain foods and portion sizes, obviously, but also fasting from enjoyable sedentary pursuits so that I can increase my activity, fasting from self-defeating thinking, fasting from bad habits and ineffective coping mechanisms, and fasting from instant gratification. Continue reading →

Stay With Me, A Prayer by St. Pio of Pietrelcina

/ CAstfalk / 4 Comments

I recently came across this prayer by St. Pio of Pietrelcina. It has no title, but it could be called “Stay With Me.” Stay With Me, my novel, is a traditional love story (eros) of a man and a woman, not primarily the story of God’s sacrificial love (agape). But it’s that erotic love that serves as the strong foundation of a lasting marriage, which prepares the husband and wife for eternal union with God, who is Love. It is that union for which St. Pio begs in this prayer.

Prayer by Padre Pio, Stay With Me

Five Favorites: Lenten Check-in, Check-up

/ CAstfalk / 5 Comments

Five Favorites

Prayer Edition

LentI missed the Lenten midway checkpoint. Maybe on purpose. I haven’t exactly done a bang-up job with Lent this year. I can’ t say I mustered any great ambition to kick off the annual forty days of preparation for Easter. I share a bathroom with five other people, have no automatic dishwasher or microwave, and no hot water in the bathroom sink. Don’t I sacrifice enough every day?

Uh, no. Not really. Not that those couldn’t be legitimate sacrifices, but it would require performing them with the right intention. Which I haven’t.
Continue reading →