Podcast

J1ST 097: Novenas

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Hey Friends!

Before we dive into this week’s topic, two quick announcements! One: We will NOT be releasing a new episode next weekend. We’re taking a week off for Thanksgiving. BUT (two), we will be back the First Sunday of ADVENT with the first episode of our book study series! The book we’re reading is Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Philippe. You can snag it right here!

This week, we’re discussing another one of those Special Catholic Things: Novenas. What is a novena? Where do we get the tradition? Do I have to start a novena on a particular day (like do the dates matter)?

The root of the word “novena’ is Latin for nine. The original novena was prayed by the apostles and Our Blessed Mother as they waited for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. From there, novenas have been composed to many of our Saints and for many of our Feast Days (Christ the King, for example). Usually, a novena is prayed leading up to the Saint’s feast day so that the ninth day of the novena is either the eve of or the actual feast day, but you can begin a novena whenever you’d like!

Pray More Novenas is our favorite go-to for all things novenas and they have a great FAQ page that you can check out and learn even more about our Church’s awesome form of prayer. They also offer a FREE novena reminder service via your email. The prayers of whatever novena is currently “going on” will be sent to your email as a daily reminder. It is So Cool.

One thing that is important to remember about novenas… it can be tempting to believe that God can’t possibly respond ‘No’ or ‘Not right Now’ to your novena prayers, but the fact is, He often does. A novena isn’t a magic formula for a ‘Yes’ and we are powerless to make demands or attempt to control God. Sometimes, prayers are answered in a way that is not immediately apparent or more subtle than what we were expecting. It could be a change of heart, renewed energy, or inspiration to pursue something different.

In this episode, we both share an intention that is near and dear to our hearts right now. We also ask that you share your intentions with us. It would be an honor to carry your intentions to our Lady and our Lord. Just email Nancy at [email protected] and she will pass everything onto Katie so we can both be praying for YOU.

Your sisters in the small things,

Nancy and Katie

Mentioned in this episode:

Advent book study of Interior Freedom

Pray more Novenas

Katie’s new devotional for Catholic Women facing Infertility (15% off all November)

Flying Novenas ala Mother Teresa

St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena

J1ST 095: Relics Part Two

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

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** Before we jump into this week’s episode, we want to let you know that we’ll be doing a book study this upcoming Advent!!! The book is Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Philippe. Have you read anything by Fr. Philippe yet? He is AMAZING. Such a gentle, yet wise voice… our hope is this study will help us all stay centered this Advent on what (or WHO!) truly matters. You can snag a copy here. First episode/discussion will be on December 1st!! **

And we’re back with Part 2 of our Mini Series on Relics!! We thought it might be good to distinguish between veneration and worship. Besides the fact that relics are pieces of dead people or things that have touched dead people, those unfamiliar with the practice might also take offense at the idea of us giving “worship” to something/someone other than God. But the fact is, we *don’t* Worship relics. We venerate them. In the words of one of our Church Fathers, St. Jerome,

“We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are.”

So if you have friends thinking you’re weird for worshiping pieces of dead people, you’ve got your reply right there. It ISN’T worship. Holding, gazing, praying with (not TO) relics can help us feel a stronger connection to the holy people we are asking to pray for us. Relics are a powerful reminder that the Saints are Real People who had Real Bodies. Also: the fact that there are no first class relics of Christ or Our Lady strengthens our belief in the Ascension and the Assumption. Where are their bodies? Not on Earth!

Anyways, this week on the podcast, we’re diving into specific relic stories. Namely the Holy Stairs, the Crown of Thorns, and the Shroud of Turin.

The Holy Stairs were brought to Rome by St. Helena. They are the stairs that Christ ascended to appear before Pilate.

The Crown of Thorns were in the news earlier this year when a fire broke out in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It, along with many other relics and the Eucharist were saved from the blaze.

The Shroud of Turin is arguably the most fascinating relic of our Faith. It is the cloth in which Christ was covered and buried in and a ‘negative image’ of His face was left. Studies of the shroud have shown us just how much Christ suffered on Good Friday before dying on the Cross.

Have you visited any of these ‘extreme relics?’ Tell us about it in the comments!

Your sisters in the small things,

Nancy and Katie

J1ST 094: Relics Part One

by Nancy Bandzuch · 2 Comments

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Welcome back!

Today, we start a two part series on relics… What are they? Are there different kinds? Why do Catholics hang on to pieces of dead people?

It might surprise you to find out that the practice of keeping relics is not something that started with the early martyrs, or even with Christ. No! The first example of relics we found in scripture is in the second book of Kings (13:20-21). Some men were burying a dead man when they were attacked by Moabites. They threw the body into the tomb to flee and the body landed on the bones of Elisha, a prophet. Immediately, the man came back to life and stood up.

A dead man came in contact with the bones of a holy prophet and came back to life! How cool is that?

In the New Testament, we have the story of the hemorrhaging woman touching the hem of Christ’s garment and being healed (Matt. 9:20-22), Peter’s shadow having healing power (Acts 5 14-16), and the clothes and handkerchiefs of Paul bringing healing as well (Acts 19:11-12). Even the way in which Christ’s body was treated after the crucifixion points to the importance and sanctity of the body.

There are three ‘classes’ of relics. First class are actual pieces of the person’s body (bone, hair, etc.). Second class relics are things the person owned or used (piece of clothing, their rosary, etc.). Third class relics are things that have been touched to a first or second class relic.

Have you ever encountered a relic? Maybe you had a relic come ‘on tour’ to your parish? Did you know that there probably is at least one relic in your own parish permanently? Most altars have a relic inside them and many parishes have some relics in the sacristy. Just ask your priest if you can see them!

We’ll be back next week with some more awesome relic stories!

Your sisters in the small things,

Nancy and Katie

Bishop Robert Barron speaking on relics and Gnosticism

J1ST 093: All Souls’ Day

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

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Welcome back to another week of the Just One Small Thing Podcast!!

Continuing on our ‘Fall Triduum’ theme, we’re discussing All Soul’s Day today. Although the last day of this great Triduum of our Faith, it seems to be the ‘middle child’ in some ways… It’s not an eve. It’s not a Holy Day of Obligation. It’s also kind of sad. We all have people we have known and loved and they’ve passed on and we’re not exactly sure where they are… Did they go straight to Heaven? Are they still in purgatory? How exactly are we supposed to celebrate it?

First of all, it’s really truly beautiful that our Church gives us a feast day expressly to remember our beloved dead. Many (most?) of us will spend some time in purgatory after we die and the only way we can get to Heaven is the prayers of those on Earth or in Heaven. There are actually indulgences attached to praying for the dead during the month of November! It’s also comforting to have this time to remember those we’ve lost personally.

That’s exactly what we do in today’s episode… Nancy and I both share a bit about our beloved dead and discuss ways to remember and honor them on All Souls’ Day and throughout the month of November. Some ideas are:

1. Visit, clean, and decorate their graves (check out this beautiful tradition in Poland!)
2. Speak their names
3. Ask them to pray with you
4. Display their pictures/names
5. Pray the St. Gertrude Prayer (see below)

We also discuss how we talk about death with our kids. As uncomfortable and sad it might be, death is a reality our children need to be aware of.

We’d love to pray for your beloved dead too! Please comment here or email us so we can add them to our list.

Your sisters in the small things,

Nancy and Katie

The St. Gertrude Prayer (pious tradition is that 1,000 souls are released from purgatory upon each recitation… more about that here):

Eternal Father, I offer You the most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for all sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

J1ST 092: Is Halloween Evil?

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

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Hi There!

We’re getting seasonal today and tackling Halloween… If you’re like us, you probably remember the annual struggle to narrow down your costume ideas to a single CHOICE and then the excitement of running door to door to get candy (FOR FREE) from strangers.

Halloween was quite different as we went on college and post-graduation life. Halloween seemed like nothing more than an invitation to dress immodestly and drink to excess, so no thank you, Halloween, we’ll just move on to All Soul’s Day.

Through Katie’s husband’s obsession with the history of All. The. Things, however, we’ve learned that Halloween does have some deep roots in Catholicism, even if the ‘seeds’ had been pagan. As Catholics, when we evangelize, there should always an effort to respect the traditions and culture of the people we are preaching to. We should not seek to eradicate all former ways of life, but seek to find ways to ‘baptize’ some traditions and tie them into our beautiful Liturgical cycle.

For example…. according to pious tradition, St. Boniface was working hard to spread the Good News to the people of Germany, but there was the issue of this huge tree they worshiped. St. Boniface knew a tree doesn’t have any supernatural power; only the Creator of that tree did. And so to drive home the point, he chopped it down. Yet, he allowed the people to continue on with the tradition of bringing smaller trees into their home in the middle of winter and those trees became a reminder of The Tree of our Salvation, the Cross. Christmas trees are a ‘baptized tradition’ from pagans.

Another example of this is the harvest festival of Samhain (Gaelic word pronounced ‘sewing’). On October 31st, the Gaelic people would have a celebration to mark the changing of the seasons and the beginning of the ‘darker half’ of the year. These celebrations involved bonfires, costumes, prayers (to false gods), and feasting. When saints like Patrick and Columba came to the island, they took the fact that Samhain occurred on the eve of All Saints’ Day and gradually turned Samhain into All Hallow’s Eve. Catholics like to party, so the costumes and feasting could remain, but the praying to false gods was left behind. So, Halloween is actually the first day of the triduum our Church celebrates each fall.

Beautifully, these three days connect the three parts of our Church: Militant, Triumphant, and Suffering. In some of the earlier celebrations of “All Hallow’s Eve” children would dress up as angels and demons and ‘battle’ each other, reminding us of our daily battle to choose good over evil. We are the Church Militant. On All Saints’ Day, we remember those who have been victorious in this earthly life, those who now enjoy the heavenly banquet, and can intercede for us: the Church Triumphant. And finally, on the last day of the triduum, we pray for the Church Suffering, those in purgatory who require our prayers to get to Heaven.

We hope you enjoy today’s episode as much as we enjoyed recording!

Your sisters in the small things,

Nancy and Katie