Embracing Motherhood: June 2013

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Best Books for Catholic Women 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Today's Reflection

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Today's Reflection: From Catholic Mom's Cafe for June 25th: PONDER : True love causes pain. Jesus, in order to give us the proof of his love, died o...

Monday, June 24, 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Immediately encouraged and hopeful

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Immediately encouraged and hopeful: Catholic Mom's Cafe, Five Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year by Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Div...

Reading Catholic: A Tale of Two Books About .... Pregnancy

Reading Catholic: A Tale of Two Books About .... Pregnancy: When I review certain books, I have often shared them informally with others--such as medical experts or even kids--to help me discern if t...

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Prayers for Adele update

Adele suffers from brain cancer

Remember little Adele whom I spoke about recently? Her mom is desperate for prayers for her. She said:

And our plans have changed again.

We've been discussing with Adele's doctor her inability to stand up on her own and her leg weakness but he hadn't really gotten to see it himself until today. She is having a really hard time walking and is not able to stand up from being seated. A few weeks ago when she originally presented with legweakness she had an MRI that showed her tumor had grown. She started on steroids and regained her strength. She is now off steroids.

Originally her doctor wanted to get her started on her next round of chemo before doing a scan but today he changed his mind. If she has an MRI that shows her tumor has grown she can't stay on this clinical trial she is on. It makes sense, if her tumor grows then this isn't the right treatment for her. Her doctor decided it would be wise to see what we are dealing with instead of putting her through more chemo that might not be working.

There is a little confusion over her MRI time because they just scheduled it today. I believe it is set for 9 am tomorrow but we won't know for sure until tomorrow morning.

Peter is hanging tough in KC for now and I am in a holding pattern here in Wichita. We have no idea what we are doing at this point. No matter what the MRI shows she can't start chemo until this bacteria is gone.

I'm really scared that we will get bad news tomorrow. Of course, things are already bad. Maybe I should say worse news.

I am just begging God to let us keep our sweet girl. It's killing me being away from her this long, I will not let her go. We are in a very critical place right now. This is one of the worst possible tumors anyone could get. It has a very low survival rate and those that do survive undergo grueling surgery, chemo and radiation with many sometimes devastating long-term side effects.

I can't even think about side effects right now, I just want her to survive. I might just implode if I start thinking about things like long term effects. She already has no hearing in her right ear. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining and I welcome deafness if that's what it takes. It just sucks. It sucks to have to beat up our baby to try to maybe cure her.

Like I said, I'm begging Jesus to let us keep her. I told him today, now is the time. It's time to step up. We trust in You, we are ready to take Your hand and walk out on the water. Please Jesus, Mother Mary, all the Angels and Saints in Heaven, pray for Adele that she be completely healed of this at/rt cancer. Fr. Kapaun, we are really lobbing you a softball here, this is your chance to knock it out of the park. Please heal our Adele.

UPDATE: Adele's tumors have shrunk! Please keep praying!

Please pray for Adele and her family.
God bless!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Prayers for Adele

Recently while in Olathe, Kansas to give a key-note address at Prince of Peace, I met a woman named Tami who was wearing a blue wristband with the words, “Prayers for Adele.” She approached me at my book-signing table and told me immediately about baby Adele who is just 18 months old and has brain cancer. Little Adele is currently undergoing chemotherapy and needs a lot of prayers.

Tami is a friend of Melissa (married to Peter) who is baby Adele’s mother. They live in Wichita, Adele is the youngest of four children. She has a brother, Simon, and two sisters, Cabrini and Mattie.

I asked about where I could get a bracelet and Tami took it off promptly and gave it to me. I immediately put it on and right then and there my prayers began for baby Adele.

I'm happy to wear this wristband to be reminded to pray for Adele

There’s a Face Book page set up for Adele: https://www.facebook.com/InGodsHandsPrayersForAdele?fref=ts

This is from the face book page: “Stormin' heaven with prayers for sweet, baby Adele! Adele and her family have been given a particularly heavy cross to carry with her being diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 16 months old. PRAYERS!!”

If you would like to help support baby Adele with prayers, please do. You can also get the wristband that I wear which are $1 each and come in adult and kid sizes. There’s a $5 charge for shipping.

Orders can be submitted to Michele at prayersforadele@yahoo.com Somehow this small donation helps the family and the wristband will be a constant reminder to pray for baby Adele.

Adele at the hospital being silly. :)

May God bless little Adele and her family.

God bless you and keep you!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Wonderful prayer support!

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Wonderful prayer support!: I'm sharing a part of a personal letter to me from my dear friend Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke (Prefect, Supreme Tribunal of the Aposto...

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Coming up this week end on EWTN's Bookmark show!

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Coming up this week end on EWTN's Bookmark show!: From the EWTN's "Wings" newsletter: BOOKMARK CATHOLIC MOM'S CAFE AND ROOTED IN LO...

Thursday, June 6, 2013

View from the Domestic Church: A recent LIVE radio conversation on EWTN

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Embracing Motherhood

"In this small volume, Embracing Motherhood, Ms. Cooper O'Boyle offers a sensitive reflection on what it means to tune into faith, hope, and charity, living out the vocation of raising children, passing on our Catholic faith, and providing our kids with the necessary roots and wings to live virtuously. Mothers and fathers too can grow spiritually from this book, and draw inspiration from her tender perspective. This is a substantive and practical gem as well as an ode of joy for God's gift of motherhood!"~Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York

Prayerfully Expecting: A Nine Month Novena for Mothers-To-Be

I wrote this book while on complete bed rest during a high risk pregnancy with my fifth child, Mary-Catherine. Blessed Mother Teresa whom I knew at that time, gave me a foreword for the book. Pope John Paul II blessed it. It is a book to celebrate pregnancy as a wonderful time of anticipation as mothers await childbirth and it offers the expectant Mom the opportunity to transform her pregnancy into a novena of prayer to God. It's a "baby book" for the unborn baby! An expectant Mom will be able to follow her baby's progress and record her thoughts and prayers as well as save her ultrasound pictures to cherish in years to come.

Here's a link to my chat with Brian Patrick on the Son Rise Morning show discussing pregnancy and motherhood. My spot is about 3/4 through the segment. Click here.

A Catholic Woman's Book of Prayers

With all the mixed messages that women receive from society today, women can be distracted from--and even unreceptive to--the deep and abiding love that Christ has for them. Whether single or married, religious or consecrated, parenting children, or spiritually mentoring others, women need to know that the Lord understands the many challenges they face, their desire for inspiration, and, above all, their need to be affirmed as women.Through this book of original and traditional prayers from one of the top ten most fascinating Catholics of 2009 as rated by Faith & Family Live, women can realize God's divine Love, thrive in inspiration from Saints and the Church and rest in the affirmation of the "feminine genius." (order above by clicking book image)

My radio segments with Teresa Tomeo on "Catholic Connection" on Ave Maria Radio

First,*** Second,*** Third, *** Fourth, *** Fifth - Prayerfully Expecting and how I met Mother Teresa,*** Sixth - Addressing the comments in the media about Mother Teresa's supposed "crisis of faith",*** Seventh - Culture's pressure on our girls,*** Eighth - Halloween, All Saints and All Souls Days,*** Ninth - Thanksgiving: Keeping it sane, simple, & holy,*** Tenth - Christmas reflections*** Eleventh - Discussing the International Women's Congress in Rome*** Twelth - Discussing our Vatican trip as delegates*** Thirteenth - Discussing Holy Week*** Fourteenth - Interview with Teresa about my new book, Catholic Saints Prayer Book *** summertime prayer and proper summer attire for Mass, among other things, you can listen here. My two newest books coming out in early October, Teresa's new book and our EWTN segments airing all throughout August by clicking here. Teresa Tomeo and me discussing my new books and other topics brought up by the callers who called in to the show and won copies of my books, just click here. you can click here to listen at any time. Teresa and I chatted about the new book I am writing as well as taking the time to pause and recharge your "batteries" by going on retreat and with prayer. Pressures on Moms these days and some prayer strategies. Just click here. Back-to-School - Just click here to listen. Here's an Autumn theme - Halloween, All Saints Day, retreats, news, helping the youth, and more. Just click here to listen. A Christmas theme: "Jesus at the Post Office," Just click here to listen.

Catholic Exchange

"Donna has submitted a number of articles that have found a place on the Catholic Exchange website, enriching our readers with her insights into the lives of modern women. She writes with a broad comprehension of the rapidly changing scene of this world, and with deep understanding of the challenges faced by Catholic women – and all women – today. It is clear from her writing that she believes in the power of women to make the world a better place and she is not afraid to challenge women to start that transformation in their own hearts and homes. Catholic Exchange readers have been very blessed to have Donna share her thoughts with them and as editor, I have been blessed by the high professional quality of Donna’s work." --Mary Kochan, Senior Editor

Radiating Christ

Dear Jesus,help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your Spirit and Life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that my life may only be a radiance of Yours. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let then look up, and see no longer me, but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I will begin to shine as You shine, so as to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine. It will be You, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise You in the way You love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for You. Amen.

Composed by John Henry Cardinal Newman and one of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's favorite prayers. She TRULY LIVED this prayer!

Totus Tuus

Immaculate Conception, Mary, my Mother. Live in me. Act in me. Speak in and through me. Think your thoughts in my mind. Love, through my heart. Give me your dispositions and feelings. Teach, lead and guide me to Jesus. Correct, enlighten and expand my thoughts and behavior. Possess my soul. Take over my entire personality and life. Replace it with yourself. Incline me to constant adoration and thanksgiving. Pray in me and through me. Let me live in you and keep me in this union always. – Pope John Paul II

In addition to my books, I have written for...

The English edition of L'Osservatore Romano (Vatican newspaper)

Currently write for national publications: The National Catholic Register and the Our Sunday Visitor newsweekly. Have written for: The Catholic Transcript, The News Times, The New Milford Times, Hearth magazine, Canticle magazine, Lay Witness magazine, Faith & Family magazine, CarbLite magazine, On the Web - Catholic Exchange, Catholic Lane, and Catholic Online, and Catholic Mom.com. I wrote a parenting column for Irish Family Press (print edition), a Catholic weekly newspaper published in Ireland, (online edition now available). My articles have appeared in other countries, such as Nigeria and Singapore. My book Catholic Prayer Book for Mothers has been translated into Russian.

PRAYERS ARE NEEDED...(prayer requests change periodically, so please look through) for a man who died whom his sister feels what not in a state of grace, for a woman I met at a retreat I gave in Texas whose baby died, for a woman who struggles with her husband's addiction and for help for the family, for a young family in need of prayer, for a friend with breast cancer, for families everywhere who struggle in our culture today, for the folks at EWTN who work hard to bring you Catholic news and inspiration. Let's be sure to pray for all of our priests everywhere who are certainly in need of prayers to continue their work each day!

Parents are the FIRST and foremost educators of their children!

"Since parents have conferred life on their children, they have a most solemn obligation to educate their offspring. Hence, parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it. For it devolves on parents to create a family atmosphere so animated with love and reverence for God and others that a well-rounded personal and social development will be fostered among children. Hence, the family is the first school of those social virtues which every society needs."--Gravissimum Educationis (one of the documents of the Second Vatican Council)