Category: From the Vault

The Mom Weekly Volume 136: March 17, 2026

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes: 

First of all, I just realized that I’ve been incorrectly dating most of the weeklies for 2026 with “2025” so I apologize! I’ve corrected it going forward.

Second: Apparently, last Wednesday (or this past Sunday, Laetare Sunday) was “Mid-Lent,” which is, as it sounds, the midpoint of Lent. So that is good news for me and many others! We have less ahead of us in Lent than behind us.

Finally: Happy St. Patrick’s Day! What a fun weekend we have had celebrating the wedding and family. (I’m writing this well ahead of time, so I’m just going to assume that we did, in fact, have a fun time.)

I’ll be making soda bread and I think we will be having corned beef and cabbage. I hope you enjoy this day too!

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Eleazar’s Commonplace Book, or Shine Like Lights, Part 2 (From the Vault, 2016)

More Definitions: 

COMMONPLACE BOOK

How many of you know what a commonplace book is?

I’ve always thought of it as a “quote book” in which a person writes down interesting lines. They’ve been around since the 17th century, and certainly earlier, without the name (Leonardo DaVinci’s notebooks in the 15th century come to mind, for instance)

—kind of a scrapbook/notebook combination—a way for a scholar, a writer, or a learned person to gather all sorts of information in one place.  I guess today we call that the Internet.

Here’s a link to John Milton’s Commonplace book.  

John Locke’s A New Method of Making Commonplace Books.

So, from a very early age, I was a lover of commonplace books, but I didn’t know that I was. 

I have loved quote books, which I inherited from my Dad. In high school, I had a folder filled with song lyrics I had written out in pretty handwriting (including, yes, Barry Manilow), and friends would ask to see it. In college I had an index card file filled with quotes from 1. my English major works, from Pride & Prejudice to Frankenstein to Anna Karenina and,  2. again, song lyrics. 

Sadly, at some point in my younger life I got rid of them, thinking it silly for just writing down the quotes of others (I didn’t know that commonplace books existed back then), but I really wish I still had them.

As a mom, I’ve developed a huge love of children’s literature, from great picture books to easy readers like “Little Bear” and novels like Narnia, Little House on the Prairie, and tons of others.

I’ve kept quote books and book logs, and while I don’t have a physical commonplace book at the moment, I do still collect quotes like coins.

So you may be able to tell that a commonplace book is rather varied, and sometimes unconnected. It’s random—the only thread is quotes and great books.

And that’s how my talk will be, but it’s all to get YOU thinking and YOU coming up with ideas to keep you shining like a light all your life.

MAKING SOMETHING

Now we will Make Something

— a hot dog booklet

So, let’s make our own mini Commonplace Books

My oldest sister, artist and book-maker, showed me and my kids how to make books years ago, and it was wonderful.

(2026 note: At this point in the talk, we each made a hot dog booklet. Here is a description of a hot dog booklet so you can see what it is, and make one if you want! )

Now, to get to

(ELEAZAR’s) COMMONPLACE BOOK  

All the time, I want YOU thinking to think about the context of resolutions to make time to pursue thing that energize you.  That you do because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to.  (More on that later)

(2026 note: I read different quotes from books or other places, to inspire questions for each of the attendees to reflect on their own—thus the question after each section).

When I prayed the Office of Readings today, the second reading (this one is usually not from Scripture) is 

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD

St Gregory of Nyssa on the Beatitudes

(Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God)

Bodily health is a good thing, but what is truly blessed is not only to know how to keep one’s health but actually to be healthy. If someone praises health but then goes and eats food that makes him ill, what is the use to him, in his illness, of all his praise of health?

We need to look at the text we are considering in just the same way. It does not say that it is blessed to know something about the Lord God, but that it is blessed to have God within oneself. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I do not think that this is simply intended to promise a direct vision of God if one purifies one’s soul. On the other hand, perhaps the magnificence of this saying is hinting at the same thing that is said more clearly to another audience: The kingdom of God is within you. That is, we are to understand that when we have purged our souls of every illusion and every disordered affection, we will see our own beauty as an image of the divine nature.

QUESTION: How is the Kingdom of God Within You?

Being a DECIDER

City of Saints: A Pilgrimage to John Paul II’s Kraków by George Weigel. 

papal biographer, wrote “Witness to Hope”

 He was a moral reference point for his friends and did not hesitate to be a challenging counselor and confessor. But the pastoral stress … was always on personal responsibility. He was not the decider for his friends; they must be their own deciders, he insisted, if they were to be true to the moral dignity built into them as human persons and as Christians.

I love that expression, “DECIDER”

QUESTION: How can you be a decider?  How can you be a good decider, filled with personal responsibility?

WIN HAPPINESS

I am a huge fan of happiness kinds of books. I’ve read dozens of them, from positive psychology people like Marty Seligman to happiness researchers like Barbara Frederickson and Sonja Lyubomirsky, who wrote “The How of Happiness.” There are so many good books to read in this vein, but I’d like to mention one in particular.

I’m going to quote from Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery (she wrote the Anne of Green Gables books). I dearly love all of the Anne books, and this is the last in the series about her family, and about Anne & Gilbert’s youngest child, darling, charming and growing up Rilla (named after Marilla). Rilla of Ingleside is such a good book as a coming-of-age story, but also great historical fiction about WWI written close to the time.  Noble and heartbreaking without being completely depressing, as a lot of fiction about WWI is, and rightfully so, since it’s the first modern war.

At one point, Rilla is bemoaning in a conversation with her brother Walter how the war is changing their whole community and family. Her brother Walter says:

“Now we won’t be sober any more. We’ll look beyond the years—to the time when the war will be over and Jem and Jerry and I will come marching home and we’ll all be happy again.” 

“We won’t be—happy—in the same way,” said Rilla. 

“No, not in the same way. Nobody whom this war has touched will ever be happy again in quite the same way. But it will be a better happiness, I think, little sister—a happiness we’ve earned. We were very happy before the war, weren’t we? With a home like Ingleside, and a father and mother like ours we couldn’t help being happy. But that happiness was a gift from life and love; it wasn’t really ours—life could take it back at any time. It can never take away the happiness we win for ourselves in the way of duty.”

QUESTION: What kind of happiness have you won in the way of duty?

2026 note: the completion of this next week! It was a long talk 🙂

Interesting/Notable

How to Break Your Screen Addiction: The Lamp Catholic magazine (UK)

This is (slightly) tongue-in-cheek piece by a British Dominican sister. Well written! I can’t recall how I came across this.

I Make Connections. This is What I’m Actually Thinking—NY Times Gift Article

If you like Connections, you will LOVE this article by the author of all of them. I actually read through some of the comments, and they are hilarious and delightful (the nice ones, that is).

The Mom Weekly, Volume 135: March 10, 2026

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes: 

Whenever a certain reading from 2 Macabees comes up at Mass, I think about the title of a talk I gave at a local women’s conference in 2016 called “Finding Your Fiat.” I think to myself, “Darn, that was such a pretentious title for a talk. What was I thinking?”

Anyway, I went looking for it because I knew that I had written about Eleazar and honoring our old age, and I wanted to write about that topic. When I found the text of my talk, and read it for the first time in a decade, I thought (and not for the first time):

THANK YOU, years ago me, for being such a good writer and good thinker. You were way too hard on yourself about your skills or your ideas.

I am remarkably proud of that talk. I am proud of how I was trying to encourage the (mostly) young moms who were in attendance at the conference. I had to edit it down because it was really long, but the gist of it is still there, and I had a lot of solid insights and thoughts to share. You can let me know whether you think the title is pretentious or just right.

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Eleazar’s Commonplace Book, or Shine Like Lights (From the Vault, 2016)

Finding your Fiat. When I mentioned to my theologian husband that I was speaking at a conference called “Finding Your Fiat,” he had to tell a joke. He reminded me that one of his first cars was a Fiat. (In fact, virtually every car he has owned as an adult stopped being sold in the US after he bought it—first Fiat, then Peugeot, then Saab.) Now Fiat is back.

Anyway, he said,“It’s like an older person wondering where his car went in the mall parking lot (here he used a crackly old person voice)—Where’s my Fiat? I am finding my Fiat if it kills me.”

So, first I’d like to ask for the intercession of two Venerables—really saints, just not canonized by the Church yet.  

Venerable Matt Talbot, patron of those who struggle with addiction. I visited many Matt Talbot sites earlier this year in Dublin, and I just love him.  

Next is Venerable Father Solanus Casey. 

(2026 note: Solanus Casey was beatified in 2018, and I wrote about him here )

Two of Solanus’ great quotes are:, “Gratitude is the first sign of a thinking, rational creature.” and “Thank God ahead of time.” So I’d like to thank God—and Matt Talbot and Father Solanus — ahead of time for getting me through this talk.  

So let’s officially start with Prayer, and Scripture:

Shine like lights in the world,

as you hold on to the word of life. —Philippians 2:15-16

This was the gospel acclamation several weeks back, and I thought, YES! This is exactly it.

Here is the complete passage:  

So then, my beloved obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.

Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among who you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

A little bit more complicated, but, regardless: we as Christians are meant to SHINE LIKE LIGHTS.  (as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling).

What does that mean?  Ponder it during this day and weekend.

My prayer for you?

When my husband and I were first married, sometimes he would say that the Holy Spirit protected me from bad sermons. And I agree! It’s been a great gift.

So, I pray you will hear the things that are helpful and daydream during the time that is not helpful for you. You have permission to take with you what is helpful and leave behind what is not.

What I am going to do today?

DEFINING MY TALK TITLE -oy vey, it’s a little pretentious, I know.

2. MAKING SOMETHING 

We’re going to make something — each of us will make her own commonplace book. You can jot down some notes in it, or just decorate it however you want.

3. MY COMMONPLACE BOOK — Quotes to get you thinking about what energizes you.

I’m going to share some ideas—my virtual “commonplace book,” as it were. 

4. RESOLUTION  — You’re going to consider one or two things that energize YOU and make YOU happy, and you’re going to  make resolutions about being intentional about including it in your life over the next few months.  How can you have pursuits that energize you and help you persevere as long as Eleazar?  

Here’s what I want you to come away with:

1. encouragement

2. a few new books to read or re-read

3. a resolution about one, possibly two, things that you will add to your repertoire to keep you happy and shining

DEFINITIONS

—Now let’s do some definitions:

ELEAZAR

Eleazar: a scribe in the persecution of Jews recounted in 2 Maccabees 6, martyred under the persecution. 

He is martyred just before the seven sons of the mother are martyred, and she urges them on “filled with a noble spirit that stirred up her woman heart with manly courage.” Wow, it is so inspiring to read the accounts of these martyrdoms and their strong faith in throwing away their lives. The mother was the last to die, after her sons.

Eleazar, an old man who is being forced to eat unlawful food, and the people around him tell him to pretend to eat it, but not really eat it. And here’s what happened:

But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs that he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.

“Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life,” he said, “for many of the young might suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year had gone over to an alien religion, and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty.  Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.”

The older I get, the more I realize it can be hard to persevere. It’s easy to want to give up.  

I call on Eleazer to bless this talk since I want to be the person who is “worthy of my old age.” I’m not “old” yet, whatever old is, but I have reached the “gray hairs,” and I want to be able to stand firm all my life. 

To shine like lights all the way to the end. I want us to shine like lights, but not to burn out. I want you—and me—to persevere through not just this year, or this decade, but to the end of your life, clinging to your faith, working out your salvation in fear and trembling, to your last day.

2026 note: (more of this talk next week!)

The Mom Weekly Volume 131: February 10, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes:

Tomorrow is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the birthday of one special sister!

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is also the World Day of the Sick. Pope Leo XIV has chosen a theme for this year’s World Day of the Sick: 

“The compassion of the Samaritan: loving by bearing another’s pain”

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Lent was Made for Man, Not Man for Lent

Lent starts next Wednesday, February 18, and as we know, it’s that fun time of year that we all love.

This is not the first time I have pondered how to make Lent more spiritually fruitful without it being a slog. As I looked back at previous posts, I have written about this a lot! 

But it bears repeating these ideas, to help myself and maybe help some of you, dear readers.

I have a reminder to keep looking for the Holy Father’s Message for Lent, but as I write this in early February, it has still not been released. In years past I try to print it out and read it during Adoration times. Once it is released I will post a link to it.

Let’s start with some Scripture:

One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck ears of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, when Abi′athar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”  And he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

—Mark 2:23:28

The reason I shared this Scripture is that I recently had the thought: “Lent was made for man, not man for Lent.”

I hope this isn’t misinterpreting it (but the theologian in the family will correct me if I’ve gotten this wrong, I hope!). 

But: the idea that “the Sabbath was made for man” means that we have been given the Sabbath because it’s good for our bodies and spirits to have regular times of worship, rest, and leisure. 

God made us that way, and then He gave us the Sabbath as a weekly reminder to focus on worship of God, rest, and leisure. Not because God needs anything from us, but because we benefit from ordering our lives in this way. 

And then God made it a rule (one of the 10 Commandments!) to ensure that we would do it. (Or at least try, in my case, because I’m often not great about this.)

In the same way, God made humans (and the world) to need rhythm and change. We benefit from seasons, time of rejoicing and contemplation, and feasting and fasting. It’s obvious to anyone who looks around, or experiences life, that any “one” of those things is good for us, but not all the time, 24/7, 365. 

So Lent becomes one of those “rules” as a time to foster silence, contemplation, fasting, and prayer. In the same way that Easter time becomes one of those “rules” to foster praise, rejoicing, and feasting.

Looking at Lent that way—that it was made for us, to help us live in harmony with the way we have been made—could help us live a better and, dare I say, more joyful Lent.

There really are very few “rules” to Lent, but it bears repeating them:

*fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday

*refrain from meat on Ash Wednesdays and all the Fridays of Lent.

Here’s a brief article I shared about this last year.

The three “pillars” of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Each of us should have a focus on those areas during Lent. What does that mean for each individual person? It’s really up to each of us.

Once we formulate a plan—and simpler is better here!—the difficult part might be not to compare ourselves to others. 

Someone else is doing meatless all of Lent? A friend is giving up social media until Easter? Etc., etc. Good for them! We can appreciate what they are doing, but really stick to the small things that we have chosen.

Last year’s beginning of Lent post covers a lot of this same ground, and I encourage you to take a quick read through that for some ideas.

Lent, Lent, Time to Repent …

Interesting/Notable: 

Interview about Eternize Cross

Here’s another video from the Gosplaining, the Dominican podcast. This time for a new item that is a great technology item: the Eternize cross. Fr. Bonaventure 

“It’s like a hammer —it’s a great tool. When you need a hammer, it’s a great tool. A hammer does not demand things of you when you’re not hammering. You don’t get tempted to start hammering walls. It’s just a perfect tool for the job it does. … (eternize cross)… perfect for what it does. Spectacular application of technology at the service of prayer.”

If you haven’t guessed already: yes, I ordered the Eternize cross after listening to this video. Just in time for Lent! I’ll let you know how it goes.

An Action Item: Start (or Continue) Your Taxes

February is a great time to begin or continue working on your taxes. It gives you plenty of of time to gradually input your information, or, if you don’t do your own taxes, to gather documents  in a file (digital or paper) for your accountant or tax preparer.

I’ve been trying to do for about 10-15 minutes on the days when I can get to it. Give it a try! You’ll be glad you did so.

The Mom Weekly Volume 128: January 20, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes:

This Friday is the feast of St. Francis de Sales. He’s the patron saint of writers & journalists (raising my hand) as well as the baptism anniversary of a certain family member. I still remember that baptism so well!

Anyway, I’ve had versions of this in my writing file for some time. I hope it conveys the humor that I find in St. Francis de Sales’ writing (intentional or unintentional).

No matter what, remember how much I love you,

Mom

Saint Francis de Sales Always Cracks Me Up

While we were dating, Dad pointed out to me a copy of St. Francis de Sales Introduction to the Devout Life in a Catholic bookstore, and I bought it, or maybe he bought it for me?

Saint Francis de Sales was a late 16th and early 17th century French/Swiss bishop, writer, and spiritual director. This context from the Wikipedia page really helps see where his idea for “the devout life” came from:

In 1586, Francis de Sales attended a theological discussion about predestination that convinced him of his damnation to hell. A personal crisis of despair resulted. …. Sometime in either late December or early January 1587, he visited the old parish of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, Paris, where he prayed the “Memorare” before a famed statue of Our Lady of Good Deliverance, a Black Madonna. 

De Sales ultimately concluded that God had good in store for him because “God is love”, as the First Epistle of John attests. This faithful devotion to God not only expelled his doubts but also influenced the rest of his life and his teachings. His way of teaching Catholic spirituality is often referred to as the Way of Divine Love, or the Devout Life, taken from a book he wrote of a similar name: Introduction to the Devout Life.

——

I did not know at the time that Saint Francis de Sales is the patron saint of writers and journalists (me!), or that our first-born daughter would be baptized on his feast day. I just know how influential that book has been to me over the decades.

Anyway, I read it and loved it right away. Something about his style, even with the flowery language and random odd analogies of fruits and animals, I found very spiritually fruitful. And so over the years, I’ve re-read it during many Lents.

One of the hallmarks of St. Francis’ teaching is that “devotion is compatible with every station of life.” Rather than holiness, or living close to God, being only for priests and religious, it’s really meant for every person, whether a laborer, or a king, or a mom, or a professor.

Whenever I’ve read Introduction to the Devout Life, the thing that always “convicts” me, or helps me focus on what really matters, are the ten meditations in the first part of the Introduction.

1. on our creation
2. On he end for which we were created
3. On the benefits of God
4. On sin
5. On death
6. On judgment 
7. On hell
8. On heaven
9. On the choice of heaven
10. By way of Election and choice which the Soul makes of Devout Life

These meditations are kind of Ignatian in spirit, because there’s a lot of imagining yourself in different situations, such as near death, your judgment. It’s quite moving, despite the flowery language that is present throughout the book. 

The last meditation, “Election and choice which the Soul makes of Devout Life” is the one that always makes me almost laugh out loud. In the meditation, St. Francis de Sales has the readers imagine themselves in a field, with people on one side who are in hell, and the other people who are in heaven. And among the people in heaven there is this line:

See the ranks of many married people, who live so lovingly together with mutual respect, which cannot be without great charity. Consider how these devout souls join the exterior care of their households with the interior care of their souls, the love the earthly with that of the celestial spouse.

Let’s double click on that:

Who live together with mutual respect, which cannot be (had) without great charity.

Ya think, St. Francis? I just always find that funny because of course being married demands charity. And while Dad & I love each other, living together “lovingly” like St. Francis de Sales writes, is quite the feat! Sometimes it doesn’t actually happen, so you do the best you can.

But that line is not only for married people. Just living among people with mutual respect demands enormous charity. In our world today, we have so, so many people who have nothing but contempt for certain other people, and don’t even try to hide that contempt or hatred.

When people don’t show a basic amount of respect for others, it can be easy to dehumanize them as well, but that’s not the way to go. We have to work really hard at showing respect for others, and even charity, even for people who appear to us to be odious or wrong in every way.

It reminded me of another quote by Mother Angelica. When she died back in 2016, I came across this quote:

“If it wasn’t for people, we could all be holy.” 

Isn’t that the truth? It’s so easy in our minds to be always kind, always truthful, and always patient, always with the right thing to say. At least it is for me! It is so much harder in actual life, in actual interactions with people, to be patient, loving, and having the right thing to say.

(Digression: I remember years ago sometimes watching Mother Angelica have a Q&A with her audience about various topics, and honestly, she was very funny, with catchy quotes like, “If it wasn’t for people, we could all be holy.” I remember thinking watching her that she might be holier than thou, or harsh with people talking about their faults or unhappy families, but my memory is that she was quite realistic about life this century.

It turns out that she had a pretty chaotic childhood and early adulthood, and I think that made her sensitive to what others go through, and giving solid advice that was not shaming in any way. Maybe I need to rewatch some to see if my memory is correct!)

Interesting/Notable: 

Godsplaining Reacts to “Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” — Youtube

A good portion of us watched “Wake Up Dead Man” last week after hearing so many great things about it. It is extremely well-done and moving, despite some strong content at various times, and it’s a little too murder-y for me (I hope that’s not a spoiler). 

But the Catholic content, while sometimes isn’t quite accurate (Does it bother anyone else that often non-Catholics will write lines like “take Communion” or “take my Confession” when a Catholic would not say it that way—It would be “receive Communion” or “hear my Confession.”), the Catholic content is also literally true and word for word when it needs to be. I won’t say any more if you haven’t watched it.

This “reaction” video from a Catholic Dominican priest gave me a lot more insight into some of the Scriptural references in the movie that had escaped me. This YouTube channel is by Dominicans, so of course it is going to be great! 🙂