Sisters, this is your weekly "Art for the Heart". 

Each Sunday we will share a screen saver for your smart phone or tablet (or both) featuring a thought for the week. Save it as your phone lock screen & see this every time you access your phone! We access our smart devices constantly - so that means this is a great way to constantly see God's inspiration & love. 

At the end of every study, Heart of Mary Women's Fellowship will recommend additional resources. There may have been a particular topic or idea that we want to learn more about & we'll list the links, books, or resources that our HOMWF team have personally read & recommend!

Is your life simple? Do you feel peaceful? Are you stress-free? Can you do the things you want or need to do in the time you have?

Do you feel that as a culture, we are a little too busy? 

Do you miss the days of hand written notes? Do you still write your grocery list & To-Do lists out?  Keeping a paper version of a Scripture journal might be up your alley. 

The beauty of a written journal is that:

"Today ... to a considerable extent, human experience itself is an experience of the media." 

- Aetatis Novae (1)

As long as you haven't been living under a rock, you probably know that technology is a big deal nowadays.

Sisters! We give you permission to HIGHLIGHT IN YOUR BIBLE! 

Sisters - we give you permission to WRITE IN YOUR BIBLE. It's ok!! 

After all the reading, meditation, and prayer, it is time to simply rest in God's presence.

Now that you have spent time reciting and meditating on Scripture, pondering it in your heart, pray with two things in mind:

After finding a word or passage in Scripture that speaks to you in a personal way, begin meditating and ruminating on it. 

Lectio divina means "divine reading" or "sacred reading." It is an ancient, Christian art that consists of a slow, contemplative reading of Scripture, enabling the Word of God to become a means of uniting ourselves with God. Before diving into this form of prayer, it's important to understand the basic foundation upon which it was built.

The dishes need to be done. The laundry is over flowing – or better yet – still folded on the chair from the last round. The floors haven’t seen the vacuum in weeks. The project at work is due tomorrow and it’s only half-way complete. whistle chirp whistle …The Twitter world beckons…

Surprisingly, one of the most underutilized resources for Catholics is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It does make some sense though -- it has a pretty dry name and can be difficult to read. However, most people don't realize that it is incredibly rich with information, more resources and references, and beautiful explanations of even the most common Catholic beliefs.

Sisters, this is your weekly "Art for the Heart". 

Did you know that the Feast of Booths is also called the Feast of Tabernacles? And yet, the celebratory days had nothing to do with Jesus being present in the Eucharist, in a Tabernacle, as we know a tabernacle to be today, for they did not have Jesus’ gift of His Body.

What if you wanted to know every verse that contained the word “love” in it? There’s a book for that.

What if you wanted to know every verse that had the phrase “peace be with you” or “Holy, holy, holy”? There’s a book for that.

What if you wanted to know every verse that had to do with the topic of charity? What if we said there is a book for that?

I am big on finding the full meaning of stuff and completely understanding what I read. How many times have we when reading anything got through a chunk of the reading, looked up and did the cartoon shake of your head because...

I grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, California with parents born and raised in Michigan, I have a brother that lives in California and one in Minnesota and I am married to a man from Pennsylvania. I’m sure you can only imagine the plethora of ways to say words.

My favorite part of the New Testament is the ‘gotcha’ factor that comes with reading it after reading the Old Testament. You know what I am talking about. That moment in time when something finally clicks and it all makes sense. It is almost like a lightbulb went on in your head. Or its that moment where you think no one  is in the room and you say, “ohhhhhhhh I got it.” Yes that is the New Testament.

I will never forget this one specific January day in Austria. I was studying abroad with 150 other students from my school and I was in my first class of my third theology class for the semester. In walks in a tall, skinny man with the biggest smile on his face. As he started class every word out of his mouth...

Sisters, this is your weekly "Art for the Heart". 

Each Sunday we will share a screen saver for your smart phone or tablet (or both) featuring a thought for the week.

The Bible has everything a reader could want: romance, murder, mystery, historical accounts, biographical stories, tales with a moral, happy endings, drama, suspense, and stories of the future.  

Yesterday, we talked about the number of books in a Catholic bible. Why is it so important to have the full text? Well, I have a story to share.

It’s 393 A.D.,...

The bible comes in many languages in the modern world. But the languages that the original texts of the books which comprise the Bible are Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Around the year 400 A.D., St. Jerome, notably famous for his quote “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”, translated the Bible into Latin. From Latin, it was

When we read the Bible to build up our spiritual lives and knowledge of the faith, we will inevitably come across concepts or themes that challenge us. Oftentimes they will do so by calling us on to greater holiness, but sometimes we will simply struggle with the truth of what's being said. A lot of good fruit can come from these times when we're wrestling with the Word of God, but it can also just be confusing and uncomfortable.

What we put into our minds, what we consume, forms our hearts. What is internalized in our hearts comes out of our mouths and our actions. Do we fill our minds with praying and meditating on Scripture or with other things? What do we choose to nourish us? Because all of it will affect...

It can be tempting to think of the Bible as a an ancient text that some old guys wrote, a text that is outdated and written for people who didn't have to deal with all the worries of today. Perhaps you feel that Catholics don't really know the Bible that well because...

Sisters, this is your weekly "Art for the Heart". 

Each Sunday we will share a screen saver for your smart phone or tablet (or both) featuring a thought for the week.

Sisters! We launch today!! 

Are you as excited as we are? We are jumping out of our flip-flops!! There isn't enough punctuation to help display just how excited we are. This process has been long and quick all at the same time. Mother Mary and her Son have...