Lisa Hendey's "The Handbook for Catholic Moms"

Kate Wicker interviews Lisa Hendey about her new book:

1. Tell us a little bit about your new book, The Handbook for Catholic Moms: Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul. It almost appears to serve as a primer for "all things Catholic Mom." In fact, I feel like I now have a book that compiles many of the great wisdom and resources that is shared on your CatholicMom.com site. What prompted you to write the book? What are some of the topics you cover?

First of all Kate, thank you for the wonderful opportunity to share about my book with your readers! As a fan of your blog, it’s very fun to be a guest on Momopoly, I think you’re on target when you call The Handbook for Catholic Moms a great companion piece to CatholicMom.com. This was our goal from the start with the book, to provide a lasting, cumulative resource that would serve as the “go to” reference for Catholic Moms.

I was encouraged to take on this project in collaboration with my wonderful publisher, Ave Maria Press, who recognized the work we’d accomplished through the website and wanted to provide me with an even larger and more lasting platform to support and encourage Catholic moms. I can’t thank them enough for their belief in me and for their conviction that this was an important message to share.

As you know, the book is aimed at supporting and encouraging Catholic moms in their mothering vocation. I am convinced that for us to truly serve our families, we need to nurture and take care of ourselves. The book is divided into four sections: Heart, Mind, Body and Soul. The Heart section looks at our relationships. Mind explores all of the intellectual pursuits in a mom’s life – everything from career issues to handling family finances. The Body section of the book urges a mom to care for herself physically. The Soul section, my favorite part of the book, shares all of the wonderful treasures of our faith that can be used by a mom to nurture herself spiritually.

Go to Kate's blog to see the review here.

As we prepare our families for the Lenten season...

Tomorrow is "Fat Tuesday" and the following day is Ash Wednesday, our Church's official beginning of Lent.

Kate Wicker has some advice for families for Lent in her post titled, "Lent for Little Ones." She said, "My oldest daughter is only five, so I don't expect her draw a long list of sacrifices. However, it's my firm belief that even the smallest children can begin their journey to the cross with Jesus during Lent. Here are a few ways I make this liturgical season come alive for my little ones (and I'd love to have others share how they approach Lent with their kids as well):

1. We give up sweets as a family except on Sundays and special saints' feast days. I know this is cliche, but it's an easy sacrifice for kids to understand. It's also a good way to detox from all the sweets we scarfed down back in December. Now I consider myself an understanding mother, so I allow my children to savor their last treat on Fat Tuesday. (Who am I kidding? I NEED the last hooray for myself.) So on Tuesday night we'll be eating ice cream for dinner. It's our feast before the fast, and Madeline looks forward to it every year (I score some serious cool points for serving ice cream for dinner).

Visit Kate here at her blog to see her whole post.

Interview with Kate Wicker about "Mother Teresa and Me"

"Today I'm honored to share an interview with Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle (pictured left), a wife, mom, author, and speaker who is committed to encouraging others to seek holiness in the context of a happy Catholic family.

Donna Marie's most recent book, Mother Teresa and Me: Ten Years of Friendship, recounts the lessons learned from a ten-year relationship with the humble nun from Calcutta who is known for serving the poorest of the poor.

When I was in seventh grade, a close friend of mine led me to fell in love with the wisdom of Mother Teresa. Later in life I first felt an authentic call to motherhood while commuting on a train to work and reading A Simple Path. Coincidentally, I discovered after reading Donna Marie's book that Mother Teresa received her "call within a call" - her first inspiration to start the Missionaries of Charity - while sitting aboard a train as well.

While my devotion to Mother Teresa has been long-lived, the magnitude of her works and her life have often made her seem aloof and unreachable to me. What Donna Marie's book did for me was to make Mother Teresa real. The book includes snippets of personal correspondence with Mother Teresa as well as photographs of the saint-in-the-making with Donna Marie's children. While Donna Marie's book focused on this one pious woman, it serves as a reminder that the entire "great cloud of witnesses" in which we call saints are not impassable, holy people who are just "out there." They are people we can turn to in our struggles and in our joy for inspiration. They are people who have stumbled under the weight of their crosses just as we do. They are people who wrote letters and hugged children and asked for prayers on their behalf. They are true friends in Christ.

I took advantage of a recent weekend on the road and read Mother Teresa and Me in two days. As is true with all of her books, Donna Marie's words encourage, inspire, and reaffirm the value of traditional motherhood. (Go, Moms!) But what sets this book apart is that it takes an intimate look into the life of a small woman who made a big difference not only in the lives of the people she served but in the world.

Now from Donna Marie:

Donna Marie, I am so honored to have you over here at my little corner of cyberspace. Thanks for sharing your time and talents with us all. Now please tell us a little bit about your relationship with Mother Teresa.

I met Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta in Washington DC a little more than 22 years ago at the Missionaries of Charity convent. My spiritual director at the time, Father John A. Hardon S.J., invited my family down to see him at Georgetown University where he taught theology. We had a lovely visit and were then encouraged by Fr. Hardon to visit the patients at the “Gift of Peace” home at the Missionaries of Charity convent. We visited the terminally ill AIDS and cancer patients there and observed the loving care given to them by the nuns. The nuns invited us to come back the next day for Mass at their private chapel. We were told that Mother Teresa would be attending one of their Masses. I had no idea up until that point that she was even in the country!

What prompted you to write Mother Teresa and Me?..." Continued here at Momopoly.

Praying for Kate and her baby...

Let's pray for Kate who will be giving birth really soon. She shares a post here and also at Faith & Family Live.

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Note to Kate: I'm glad that "Grace Cafe: Serving up Recipes for Faithful Mothering" is soothing to you at a time like this. I pray that you will have a smooth and easy childbirth and that soon you'll be holding your precious baby against your heart!

Hugs!

Donna-Marie