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I’ll never forget what Fr. Mike told me and my friends that year we left for summer break.

It was the last week of my second year of college. Exams were wrapping up. My friends and I were anxious to cut loose and bask in the freedom of summer. But until then, we were coming to daily Mass at the college parish.

Fr. Mike knew we were about to leave the campus and the parish for summer work and travel. He wanted us to keep up with our faith. As far as he was concerned, the change of scenery and schedule didn’t let us off the hook.

So he looked at me and my friends from the pulpit and said, “Don’t take a vacation from your vocation.”

What did he mean? Of course he wasn’t telling us to spend hours upon hours praying every day. Summer was a time for us to visit family and friends, work a job and travel for fun. By “vocation,” he meant the universal call to holiness.

The universal call to holiness is one of my favorite Catholic teachings: Everybody, whether you’re a student, parent, son or daughter, teacher, fireman, janitor or CEO, is called to live a holy life. 

That’s what the great St. Francis de Sales always came back to in his writings. He knew it wasn’t realistic for people like you and me to follow the daily prayer regimen of a monk or priest. But that didn’t mean you were off the hook from holiness, anymore more than my college friends and I were. As laypeople, our vocation is to make sure our faith informs and inspires everything we do – including how we spend our free time, treat our family and friends, and conduct ourselves on the job or on vacation.

“Don’t take a vacation from your vocation.” If St. Francis de Sales said holiness is for everyone, Fr. Mike reminded me that holiness is for everywhere and every time.

So what about your summer? How can you bring your Catholic faith into your work, free time and vacation?

Just remember, though, that we never get it perfect. St. Francis de Sales knew that. He had great advice for people who try to live a holy life and find themselves messing up a lot (basically, every one of us). You’ll find some of that advice in the book “Searching for and Maintaining Peace” in your box this month.

So, happy reading and happy summer! Have a blessed June, and see you next month.

Inside your CatholicMonth.ly box for May, you’ll find one of the most beloved traditions in the Church: the miraculous medal. 

From its humble origins, this devotion has brought about thousands of favors, cures and conversions.

Where did it come from?

It all started when St. Catherine Laboure heard a voice in the middle of the night. 

Catherine was a nun with the Sisters of Charity in France. On the night of July 18, 1830, a child woke her up and told her to go to the chapel. The Virgin Mary was waiting for her, he said. So she got out of bed, dressed, and obediently followed the child.

Sure enough, Mary appeared by the altar and spoke to Catherine. She revealed that Catherine was going to receive a special mission from God.

A vision and a mission.

Four months later, Mary appeared to Catherine again. This time Catherine saw her standing on a globe with her arms held out, as rays of light poured out from the jewels on her fingers. The rays represented the graces Mary pours out on all who ask for them. An oval frame surrounded the vision, with the words “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

Catherine was told to have this image inscribed on a medal that people would wear around their neck. She was also shown how the back side should be designed: an M with a bar and cross, surrounded by twelve stars.

Mary told Catherine that everyone who wears the miraculous medal with devotion and confidence will receive great graces. 

Sure enough, once the first medals were made and worn, people immediately began to report stories of blessings and conversions. The devotion spread like wildfire, and it kicked off a new age of devotion to Mary in the Church. The many stories and blessings associated with the medal quickly earned it the nickname “the miraculous medal.” The name has stuck ever since.

Now you too can wear a miraculous medal.

As Mary promised to Catherine, when you wear the medal with devotion and trust, you will experience many graces. A miraculous medal necklace also makes a wonderful gift for family and friends.

Grow your Marian devotion with CatholicMonth.ly.

The miraculous medal is one great way to grow in Marian devotion. The CatholicMonth.ly team can tell you firsthand how praying to Mary will deepen your spiritual life.

Learn to Pray with Mary

Few things are more Catholic than praying to Mary. But actually, many Catholics have a hard time with it. 

I know, because I used to be one of them.

I could easily ask things from God and from Jesus. But when it came to Mary, I hesitated. What did it actually mean to have a spiritual relationship with Mary? In many ways, I felt like a good Catholic, except when it came to this. I felt more guilty than inspired when I heard saints like Louis de Montfort say that devotion to Mary is “the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus.” 

So imagine how I fretted when a priest I knew asked me to give a talk about Mary to his parishioners.

I had a week to prepare for it. So I prayed. And read. And prayed some more. 

As I did, I realized more about Mary than I ever had before. All because I really looked at Mary as a mother. She’s the mother of Jesus, and she’s our spiritual mother too. 

When I thought about Mary and what good mothers do, things really began to click.

Here is what I learned from preparing for that talk: Like any good mother, Mary suffers for you, provides for you and prays for you.

Like a good mother, Mary suffers for you.

Mary was sinless, but she still suffered. Intensely.

She once had to travel a long distance away from home to flee from a king who wanted to kill her child. She had to live away from all her friends and family in a foreign land (Egypt) for years, in the middle of strangers who didn’t share her faith and values. She experienced the nightmare of losing her son for three days. And she watched her son die a most cruel and torturous death. 

Mary endured these sufferings and offered them up to God so that His will would be done. And because she was sinless, that has an incredible effect.

The rest of us fast and make sacrifices because we need it. It turns us away from our sins and attachments, so we can turn toward Heaven. We can even offer up our own fasting and suffering for the sake of others. But if Mary was sinless, then everything she offered up, all her sacrifices, all her sufferings, became grace poured out for the benefit of everyone else in the Church. 

Like a good mother, Mary provides for you.

Mary provides for you through example and through grace. Her life without sin was an extraordinary grace given to her alone, but it didn’t make her a robot. She said “yes” to God, cooperated with His will and practiced virtue. As members of the Body of Christ, we are called to do those same things in our own way. Mary did them perfectly as an example to us. 

But her example actually makes a difference for us, because (once again) of the way grace works. The graces we receive from God are given not just for our sake, but so we can bless the people around us. That means everything Mary did through God’s grace overflows to us as blessings!

Like a good mother, Mary prays for you.

Chances are that at some point in your life, your mom helped you out when you were in trouble. Mary does the same thing as your spiritual mother. 

As Christians, we pray for each other and ask others to pray for us. And although Mary is the Mother of God, she still shares our humanity. So it makes sense that she can intercede for us too. In fact, her intercession is especially powerful. Mary loves us as perfectly as she loves Jesus. Love of Jesus and love of neighbor go hand in hand. If Mary loves us, she wants what is truly best for us, which is the same as what Jesus wants for us too. So Jesus will always listen to His mother’s intercession, because He loves to do what she asks!

Take the story of the wedding feast at Cana. When Mary said, “They have no wine,” she was worried about the well-being of the wedding hosts. Jesus listened to her and went into action, performing His first miracle (and one of his most memorable). What confidence we can have in Mary to make our requests known to Jesus!

Get to know your mother.

The more I learn about Mary, the more I love her! She brings me peace and helps me deepen my spiritual life. As St. Louis de Montfort said, “He who finds Mary finds life, that is, Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.”

I hope this CatholicMonth.ly box will help you do the same!

Have a blessed May, and see you next month.

Intimidated by Scripture? Don’t worry. We used to be too.

Fortunately, the Gospels are an easy point of entry. But when it comes to Scripture, it’s not just what you read, it’s how you read it. 

Here are four things we wished someone had told us the FIRST time we tried to read the Gospels.

When you put these four tips into practice, you’ll get so much more out of your reading!

1. DON’T read one chapter at a time.

Your Bible conveniently lays out the Gospels chapter by chapter. As you read, it’s tempting to think you should get all the way to the end of each chapter. But usually before you get there, you’ll hit a verse that jumps out at you. 

When that happens, STOP.

And just stay there.

This is THE KEY to getting more out of the Bible. We’ve heard people say, “I try to read the Bible but I don’t feel like it speaks to me.” The problem is, they’re likely trying to read it like any other book. But the Bible, of course, isn’t like any other book. It’s the word of God, so we have to take it slowly. Spend a lot of time with a verse, or even just a word or a phrase.

2. Take it personally.

We’re supposed to see ourselves in the Gospel characters… in the good ways and the not-so-good ways. Everything Jesus says has two layers of meaning: one for the person or group He said it to in the moment, and one for you, reading it today.

So read with an open heart.

There’s a reason certain verses will stick with you. Ask yourself why. Does it give you hope? Does it make you uncomfortable? No matter how it makes you feel, or whatever it makes you think about, it’s an invitation to grow closer to God.

3. Pay attention to the details.

The Gospels are all about the most important person who ever lived: Jesus Christ. So when you think about it, it’s funny how much information got left out.

But what IS there is more important than what’s NOT there. Because whatever details are there, the Gospel writer included them for a reason.

As you read, notice the details the author included. What light do they shed on Jesus’ words? How do they make the stories more meaningful for you?

4. Put yourself in the scene. 

The stories in the Gospel really happened. That means they looked, sounded and even smelled a certain way. So dive below the surface of the text and explore that.

Use your imagination. Picture the glare of the sun, the sweat on foreheads, the stomach-lurching dips and the spray of a storm at sea. All the human expressions of the disciples and other characters. Smell the smells: straw and animals around the manger, raw fish in nets. Hear the sounds: the murmur of a crowd, the emotions of joy, anger or sadness behind spoken words.

Read with your imagination, and the Gospels will come alive! 

P.S. Bonus tip! Bring in a guide.

Sometimes the Bible is hard to understand. (“Yeah, no kidding,” we hear you sigh.) 

But here’s the good news. Tons of smart, spiritual people have read the Bible before you and written great books about its deeper meaning, historical context and more. 

The CatholicMonth.ly team has gotten you started with a trusty Catholic Study Bible guide for the Gospel of John. We also recommend “You Can Read the Bible” by Peter Kreeft. Solid resources like these will help you do all four tips listed above.

Have a blessed April, and see you next month!

-Your CatholicMonth.ly team

Ah, Lent. A time for ashes on foreheads, forgetting the no-meat rule on Fridays and trying to decide what to give up this year.

And it’s a great time of year to do some spiritual reading.

But trying to find a book that’s right for you can feel as hard as deciding what to give up for Lent. Don’t sweat it! Here are five book recommendations from the CatholicMonth.ly team.

Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Fr. Michael Gaitley

This book reads like a retreat. Fr. Gaitley combines his own retreat talks with the insights of saints like Ignatius of Loyola, Therese of Lisieux and Faustina Kowalska. The result is a guidebook for a DIY retreat, chock-full of spiritual wisdom in a conversational style. Take and read with an open heart, and you’ll be moved like never before.

The Tears of Christ by St. John Henry Newman

Newman was a brilliant scholar and preacher. His sermons are famous for a reason: They really make you think, but they also grip your heart. This book presents his Lenten sermons in nice bite-sized chunks.

The Noonday Devil by Jean-Charles Nault

During Lent, we examine ourselves and root out what prevents us from growing closer to God. This penetrating book explores one such obstacle: “acedia,” a spiritual weariness that saps your joy, makes you restless and keeps you from sticking with your good intentions. You’ll learn how to recognize acedia in your daily habits and then combat it in your prayer life.

What Jesus Saw From the Cross by A.G. Sertillanges

Do you like to use your imagination in prayer? This book is a perfect way to do that. Sertillanges gives so many vivid details as he describes Christ’s journey from Gethsemane to Golgotha, you’ll feel like you’re watching it right before your eyes. You won’t want to put this book down.

The Gospels

Okay, perhaps this doesn’t technically count as a “book,” but it’s totally worth your while. Pick one of the four Gospels and read a little bit of it every day. When you read it from beginning to end like a story, you pick up on details you may not have noticed before. It’s like getting to know Jesus in a whole new way.

Happy reading! Have a blessed March, and see you next month.