Inspirational messages for encouragement and healing.
It was about a month into my divorce when my former spouse stopped by the house to pick up something. She was all decked-out and clearly very excited about that night’s “big date.” I will never forget it. Here I was being crushed under the emotional weight of the divorce, yet she seemed so unscathed […]
Divorce always sounds like the word “divide” to me. I am no Latin expert, but my guess is they both have the same root word. Sadly, divorce is a time marked by division. Much of what you love and cherish has been lopped off. You tend to be consumed with fighting to keep what is […]
“I have to tell you that I have gotten some feedback that the name of your ministry is making some people uncomfortable,” my spiritual director advised me. When I probed further, I was told that promoting a ministry with the name “Divorced Catholic” was interpreted as promoting divorce, and, further, my zeal for helping divorced […]
I was putting my son to bed one evening, as I often do, and I was laying next to him joining him in his evening prayers. When we were done, I reached over, kissed him, blessed him, and told him goodnight. He replied, “Goodnight, I love you.” I then replied, “I love you more!” He […]
Divorce can bring a tremendous amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt. In a moment, a lifetime of dreams and plans can be destroyed. It is during these times that it can feel like you were dropped in a foreign land-with no map-in the dark. It can be a very scary feeling! Scripture repeatedly reassures us […]
My daughter recently graduated from school and was embarking on a major job search. It was rather nerve-wracking for her as she marketed herself to prospective employers. She spent hours working on her resume until it was just right. She would meticulously do her hair and makeup, and make sure she was dressed perfectly. Then, […]
I have a cat. When my kids were younger, they used to love to dangle a string over the cat’s head to make her jump and twirl. They used to say the cat was “dancing.” It looked more like “squirming” to me. I was never really sure if the cat enjoyed this or not. Frankly, […]
Recently, I was speaking to a group on the virtue of chastity. A highly charged topic, for sure. One woman raised her hand and offered that what she was most afraid of was being alone the rest of her life. She felt she was in a Catch-22 of sorts. She was afraid that if she committed to […]
Everyday is an opportunity: an opportunity to try again, an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, an opportunity to make an improvement in your life. Seize those opportunities every chance you can. It is so easy to live in the pain of yesterday, or be overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the future, that you can […]
I thought that once my divorce was final, life would get back to some sense of normal and most of my divorce-related struggles would disappear. Yeah, right. I quickly discovered that the primary change was the types of struggles I faced, not struggles themselves. My main struggle initially was committing to a chaste lifestyle. That one […]