Tag: Books

Book Review: Talking To God: Prayers for Catholic Women

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I have two purses, one that functions as my diaper bag/emergency first aid kit/small grocery store of snacks/receipts from the past 3 years in crumpled balls purse. The other is my date night/girls night/bible study/holy cow I get to go shopping by myself purse. When switching between the two, I usually just transfer my “essentials” – wallet and keys. After praying my way through Julie Cragon’s Talking to God I think I’m going to have to add this small book to my purse essentials that stay with me always.

Book Review: Talking To God kktaliaferro.wordpress.comTalking To God is a small handbook of prayers for nearly any situation a woman might find herself in. Discerning how to handle a disagreement at work? Julie has a prayer for that. Struggling with patience or controlling anger? There’s a prayer for that. Rejoicing in your son or daughter’s First Communion or Confirmation? Yep, prayers for those and more. Praying for your spouse (or future spouse) and your marriage? I think you get it by now.

Not only has Julie written unique prayers for a myriad of life situations (even prayers about prudence and temperance with eating habits and alcohol, prayers for the beginning and end of the day, throughout the day, and loss of loved ones), she also includes a scripture verse or quotes from saints which directly tie into the situation she is highlighting.

We browse through the table of contents and spot a chapter for our particular need, and we know we are not alone. We realize not only that other women encounter the same situation, but also that the Lord himself wants to accompany us in this moment (Foreword written by Grace Mazza Urbanski from Apostleship of Prayer and Catholicmom.com).

Julie’s prayers are written in a simple, conversational yet elegant style. As I prayed them, I felt the words easily becoming my own, even when I was praying a prayer that did not necessarily apply to my present circumstances or stage in life.

This lovely little book is being released on May 6, just in time for Mother’s Day. It has already been such a blessing in my life and it’s only been in my house a few short days!

Book Review: My Sisters The Saints: A Spiritual Memoir

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Book Review: My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir. kktaliaferro.wordpress.com #DailyGracesI have struggled to write this book review. Colleen Carroll Campbell’s My Sisters The Saints: A Spiritual Memoir is thoughtfully written, compelling and and personal. She opens more than just a window into her life’s journey as she explores her spiritual transformation with the reader. Truthfully, I loved this story and connected with Campbell on many points.

My struggle with writing this review comes into play as soon as I start talking about the trials of Colleen’s life and how she chose to face them. Colleen’s father, a strong spiritual figure in her life and one of the guiding forces which lead her to encounter spiritual mentors such as St. Maria Faustina and St. Teresa of Avila, suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease. These sections were difficult for me to read because my own great-grandmother suffered from this disease. I hope that anyone who reads this book and has a personal connection to Alzheimer’s will find Campbell’s writing inspirational, even if it does highlight wounds and loss, fresh or otherwise.

One of Colleen’s and her husband’s greatest crosses which she humbly shares was their struggle with infertility. The Campbell’s road to parenthood was long, complicated, full of feelings of defeat and hopelessness, and required all of their faith and trust in God. Through this process, Colleen discovered through the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother Theresa what spiritual motherhood truly means. She also beautifully expressed what it means to carry one’s cross:

I wanted to analyze and dissect my cross, to know how long I would have to carry it and how my carrying it would glorify God. Like a groggy patient fighting to sit upright amid her operation so she can monitor her surgeon’s progress, I wanted to stand outside my suffering and scrutinize God’s work in my soul as he accomplished it.

Jesus, I realized, wanted none of this. He did not need my supervision, and he was not asking me to understand my cross. He was asking me to carry it. He wanted me to wake up each morning, bend a knee on the cold wooden floor beside my bed, and offer that day’s sufferings and joys for whatever purpose he wished to use them. He wanted me to joyfully embrace my daily duties and leave the big picture to him.

Page 166

I’m not going to spoil what happens in the book. But I do feel obligated to offer a word of caution for anyone who has struggled with infertility. Campbell’s struggle was real, constant and long. In today’s world of fertility treatments and options, more and more Catholics are choosing to use alternative means to try and conceive their children. These children are beautiful gifts of God and are cherished joys for their parents, no matter how they came into being. Hopefully, the Campbell’s story will encourage and inspire those families who share the same struggle and choices that they faced.

Maybe I’m overthinking the issues, but I want to make sure that anyone thinking about reading this book is ready for the journey ahead of them. It was a beautiful book and for me at least, very life giving.

Book Review: My Badass Book of Saints: Courageous Women Who Showed Me How To Live

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My Badass Book of Saints #dailygraces #bookreview kktaliaferro.wordpress.comWith such a title, who wouldn’t want to pick up this book?! I have to say, it certainly grabbed my attention. Even the cover is great. Maria Morera Johnson, author of My Badass Book of Saints: Courageous Women Who Showed Me How to Live, is a college professor, blogger and radio host who has selected a beautiful and badass group of women that are sure to inspire you. Not only has she chosen named saints (that is, saints with a capital St.) but she has also chosen bold, courageous and devoted women from a variety of backgrounds. For Johnson, to be truly badass you are, in her native Spanish, tremenda. Tremenda means “tremendous, sometimes. It also means terrific, and terrible. It translates to bold. Daring. Fearless. Stalwars. Smart. Courageous…But mostly, it means badass” (xvi).

Johnson weaves the lives of these badass women with her own story, a first generation Cuban-American, military wife and mother. The women, 24 in total, each represent characteristics that Johnson considers “badass.” They are audacious, courageous, missionaries, advocates, selfless, passionate, compassionate, and virtuous, to name just a few. At the end of each chapter, Johnson offers reflection questions on the highlighted quality and how we as people of faith can integrate the lessons from these women into our life.

Some of the saints and women I knew about already. Consider how St. Joan of Arc would be a model of courage, St. Catherine of Siena a model of advocacy or St. Gianna Beretta Molla a model of human dignity. I also knew about Audrey Hepburn and her work with the UN and Immaculee Ilibagiza and how she not only survived but found forgiveness in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

I was blown away by the women I had never heard of. Did you know that Sr. Blandina Segale stood up to Billy the Kid not once but 3 times!? Or how about Nancy Wake, an Australian socialite turned super secret spy for the French Resistance and was so good at it the Nazi’s never figured out who she was?! Or Phyllis Bowman who founded the Right to Life movement in 1998, but started her work on behalf of the unborn in the mid-1960s by forming the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in the United Kingdom?

The women in this book are incredible. They are more than beautiful, they are more than strong, they are more than awesome. They really are badass.