Motherhood

J1ST 081: Friendship with Mary

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Hey there friends!

It’s a big day around this small corner of the internet. Today I am sharing the LAST installment of the VIRTUES OF THE ROSARY. I can hardly believe it! I started discussing these virtues last summer, and here we are finishing them up as we approach another summer.

So, today is all about the virtue attached to the final Glorious Mystery: the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. The virtue for this mystery is FRIENDSHIP WITH MARY.

Since I feel like I have been talking about being close to Mary for this entire series, I start this episode by looking at Friendship in general. First of all, we need to remember that clearly friendship is important to God. While on Earth Jesus went out of His way to form friendships and He seems to even had had various types of friendships, and His best friend was likely St. John, the Beloved Disciple.

There are two problems with modern friendships:

We often USE our friends for our own gains, and don’t really love them.
We think that one friendship (or marriage) should be the only friendship that we need. And this is simply not true.

True friendships require time, vulnerability and listening. These are the building blocks for any friendship and we can apply them to our friendship with Mary as well.

We are called to spend daily time with Mary, share the secrets of our heart with her and listen to what she has to share with us. We need to listen, in particular to her message from Fatima: to Pray the Rosary and to accept suffering for the redemption of sinners.

And that is it! I certainly enjoyed recording these episodes and I pray that they have enriched your own praying of the Rosary.

Once again, if you would like to grab a copy of the Rosary Booklet where I offer reflections of each mystery of the Rosary, you can grab one right here: https://catholicsprouts.com/rosary-book

And, the Just One Small Thing Podcast will be taking a break for the months of June and July! But, I will be back with new weekly episodes in August (God willing).

Your sister in the small things,

J1ST 078: Hope

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

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Hey there!

Let’s continue on with our investigation of the virtues of the Rosary! Head here if you would like beautiful coloring pages with the virtues of the Rosary and right here if you would like to grab a Rosary Booklet of your very own.

Today’s podcast is all about hope, but not hope in the sense that we use the word every day. In common usage, hope is like optimism. We might say, “I hope I’m not late.” Now, it is perfectly fine to be optimistic, but optimism is not a virtue.

Hope as a virtue means places all of our trust in God. Hope is also what connects us to heaven. When we hope in Jesus Christ we acknowledge that we are not God, that or God loves us and wants what is best for us, and that this world is not our home. Our home is heaven and we should keep our eyes fixed on heaven.

Hope is attached to the second Glorious Mystery because when Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples stood looking up at heaven, with their eyes fixed on heaven. And we should do the same.

If hope is the virtue, then there are two vices that we can choose to embrace instead of hope: pride and despair. Pride believes that lie that I am everything and I have no need for God. Despair believes the equally destructive lie that I am worthless and horrible and God has no need for me.

Hope acknowledges that there is a God (and it isn’t me), I am His beloved creature and I was created to be with Him in paradice when this life is over.

In the episode I spend time reflecting on an area where I struggle to let go of pride and despair and instead fully place my hope in God: Motherhood. I feel like the older my kids get the worse this gets. Listen and let me know if you can relate.

Thanks for being here!

Your sister in the small things,

When you join the Catholic Sprouts community, you not only will be part of a thriving community of over 11,000 Catholic Parents, but you also will get instant access to the Catholic Family Digital Resource Library. Simply head here to sign up!

https://catholicsprouts.com/catholic-family-resource-library-signup/

J1ST 076: Rise with me through Prayer

by Nancy Bandzuch · 2 Comments

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Hey there, friends!

This week the Just One Small Thing Podcast is a challenge for you (and for me!). Since we are in the Easter season I think it is the PERFECT time to take stock of life and our faith life. Have we been moving forward? Do we actually, deeply believe the things we processed during Holy Week and on Easter Sunday? And, perhaps as important as anything, am I committed to prayer?

Because, as I have learned over the last year, it all comes down to prayer.

In the podcast I take you on a bit of a journey of thought with me (hopefully the path isn’t too twisting!). In recent months I have discovered that it ALL COMES DOWN TO PRAYER. I realized this while thinking up (nearly 200 episodes now) the Catholic Sprouts Podcast. When I challenge kids to do something at the end of each episode, it really doesn’t make sense to challenge anything but prayer. I also felt this hit home as I learned about the early Christians and that first Easter Sunday.

And, so, if you feel called to deepen your prayer life…or finally really learn how to pray, I would like to invite you consider joining the PRAYER COURSE from Catholic Sprouts.

The course is open for enrollment right now. In the course you learn Why we need to pray, How to pray, When to pray, and How to combat the struggles we all face with prayer. And not only this, but you will be part of a community of women also learning to deepen their prayer life.

But, I will only be enrolling students this week (ending April 29th, 2019). At that point I will be closing the doors and starting the course.

Think about it, pray about it, and for more details, head here: https://catholicsprouts.com/prayercourse/

https://catholicsprouts.com/catholic-family-resource-library-signup/

Thanks for being here!

Your sister in the small things,

Catholic Teaching on Miscarriage

by Nancy Bandzuch · 4 Comments

Today we are talking about the Catholic Church’s teaching on Miscarriage. There has been a LOT of confusion on this point, and with the help of this GREAT BOOK written by two wonderful friends, Grieving Together (find it here: https://amzn.to/2MgFnO0), I work hard to answer some of those questions.

I cover the following questions:
1. Can we baptize our baby?
2. Can we name our baby?
3. Can we bury our baby? What do we do if we don’t have the baby’s remains?
4. Is my baby an angel? A saint?
5. Is my baby in Limbo? Heaven?
6. Is there a funeral or burial rite we can use?

I hope this information brings you comfort during this time of grief. I have been through 2 miscarriage and 1 stillbirth loss, so I know how hard this time is and how hard it can be to find some of this info.

You are in my prayers, sisters! I also encourage you to connect with and follow my friend Laura, who wrote this book with her husband. She has a beautiful ability to speak about grief. She blogs here: https://motheringspirit.com and she has a beautiful instagram feed here: https://www.instagram.com/thismessygrace/

And, don’t forget to check out her incredible book! It offers so much more helpful info for you as you grieve! https://amzn.to/2MgFnO0

And please consider joining us on Facebook! We Catholic parents need each other, so come and join a group where we can talk about raising saints, what is means to be Catholic and life as a Catholic!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2125545047685401/

Your sister in the small things,
Nancy

This video first appeared on the Catholic Sprouts for Moms Youtube Channel. To enjoy more videos like this one, that are added each and every week, just head here: https://youtu.be/aJpKhBRnWSU

I’ve also shared about my own losses a couple of times. You can read about those losses here:

Ideas for Memorializing Your Loss: https://catholicsprouts.com/over-30-ideas-to-memorialize-your-miscarriage/
Because Miscarriage Changes Everything: https://catholicsprouts.com/because-miscarraige-change-everything/

How to Find More Time For What is Important

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

Many of us feel like we simply don’t have enough time to get everything done…and one of these things we struggle to fit in each day is prayer. We want to live a good and holy Catholic life, and raise a good and holy catholic family, but there just isn’t enough time! And I get it, especially while raising babies, life is very full!

But, there is time to get the important things done, and this video will show you how! In this video you will find out:
1. The CORRECT order of priorities you should live your life by.
2. How creating a daily schedule can be life-changing.
3. That you need to make sure your own needs are met BEFORE you can go out and effectively meet the needs of your family.

To help you with this work (and it is on-going work, even for those of us that have been at it for awhile!!!) I have 2 resources I would like to offer you.

1. THE DAILY DOCKET FOR CATHOLIC MOMS
This simple little book offers you space to plan out and live your life based on the priorities we discussed in this video. I use my daily docket every day, and it has transformed my life!
Check it out here: https://catholicsprouts.com/daily-docket-day-planner-for-catholic-moms/

2. RECLAIM THE DAY EMAIL COURSE FOR CATHOLIC MOMS.
Want a little more help getting your life in order? Please consider signing up for a free email course. Over 7 days I will walk you through all of this information and give you ideas for putting it into practice.
Sign up here: https://catholicsprouts.com/reclaim-the-day

Thanks for being here! Consider joining us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2125545047685401/

Your sister in the small things,
Nancy

This video first appeared on the Catholic Sprouts for Moms Youtube Channel. To check out the other videos and subscribe, head here: https://youtu.be/fO3hKtW3aBo