Last month, I offered to fast for you intentions. I received eleven requests and added some of my own intentions. While I offered all of my fasting and sacrifices for all of the intentions, each day I kept one particular intention in the forefront of my mind, so that when I was tempted or inclined to indulge myself in some way, a specific person and a real and concrete need came to mind.
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Guest Post: Natural Family Planning Awareness Week
Guest post today at Erin McCole Cupp’s blog, Will Write for Tomato Pie, for Natural Family Planning (NFP) Awareness Week.
NFP Week: Meet Carolyn Astfalk, Captive Panda (July 22, 2015)
“Between my first and sixth pregnancies, they joy and excitement of a sonogram had been replaced by gloom and dread. After that first awe-inspiring sonogram, three of my four subsequent pregnancies were marked by black and white monitors with tiny, motionless babies—if you could see the baby at all.”
Stay With Me Awarded Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval
Stay With Me by Carolyn Astfalk, available from Full Quiver Publishing on October 1, 2015, has been awarded the Seal of Approval by the Catholic Writers Guild. Books are evaluated by the Guild for both their Catholicity and editorial integrity.
The purpose of the Seal of Approval is to help Catholic bookstores and venues by determining the Catholicity of a work. Members of the Catholic Writers Guild are faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Writers Guild is an organization of Catholic writers, artists, editors, and illustrators. Its purpose is “to help build a vibrant Catholic literary culture by offering educational programs that encourage Catholic spiritual growth, teach Catholic writers about their craft as well as how to sell and market their work.”
Patient Much? The Mindset of Endurance
In my Catholic grade school, we played what was known simply as “The Religion Game.” Short explanation: it involved a person guessing a religious terms using clues provided by teammates. One of the vocabulary terms committed to memory was ejaculation.
Ejaculation: a short prayer meant to be memorized and repeated throughout the day
In those pre-pubescent days, before its utterance would elicit a round of giggles and snickers, this five-syllable word had the potential to propel a team into the winner’s circle. In the ensuing years, the use of these little prayers fell by the wayside. Continue reading
May I Fast For You? Send Me Your Petitions.
Some day I’m going to write about weight and weight loss and a slew of related issues. There’s even a novel along those themes that has been percolating in the back of my brain for a while. I’ve established the main characters and formulated an idea of what makes them tick.
I’m not going to write about either of those things just yet, but I would like to bring meaning to the ever-present fasting in my life by inviting you to send me your petitions. I’m not doing a bread and water fast or any kind of wacky diet, but losing weight requires a whole lot of fasting. Fasting from certain foods and portion sizes, obviously, but also fasting from enjoyable sedentary pursuits so that I can increase my activity, fasting from self-defeating thinking, fasting from bad habits and ineffective coping mechanisms, and fasting from instant gratification. Continue reading
Stay With Me, A Prayer by St. Pio of Pietrelcina
I recently came across this prayer by St. Pio of Pietrelcina. It has no title, but it could be called “Stay With Me.” Stay With Me, my novel, is a traditional love story (eros) of a man and a woman, not primarily the story of God’s sacrificial love (agape). But it’s that erotic love that serves as the strong foundation of a lasting marriage, which prepares the husband and wife for eternal union with God, who is Love. It is that union for which St. Pio begs in this prayer.
Why I Remain Catholic. . .
Over at Patheos, Elizabeth Scalia has put out a call to answer the question “Why Do YOU Remain a Catholic?” I’ve mulled over whether I have anything new to say or whether I should say anything at all.
I spent ten years being a public voice for the Church. In some ways, I’m happy to be done with that. For an introvert that dislikes controversy, it can be exhausting. I’m happy to care for my little family, write my little stories, and discover my little niche of readers. But the niggling desire to skip this exercise felt too much like a cowardly cop-out.
O Sanctissima: Memories of May
My memories of May are bound to May altars and crownings. In the small Catholic grade school I attended, the May crowning was not an annual event as it is in my children’s school. Instead of a solemn celebration in which several students are chosen to place a lovely, silk flower crown on the large statue’s head, our small celebrations were held daily throughout May, with crowning duties rotating from one student to another. I anticipated my turn with a mixture of eagerness and dread.
Photo by Michael Astfalk.