My Secret is Mine
“Secretum meum mihi,” (“my secret is mine.”) was St. Edith's Stein's cryptic response when her best friend asked why she converted. We serve up interviews, historical sketches, Bible studies, book reviews and essays for Catholic women. MY SECRET IS MINE is for women with an audacious hope: that the Messiah makes all things new.
Read: Lamb in His Bosom
LAMB IN HIS BOSOM by Margaret McGuire Ah… the antebellum South. Celebrated for its stylish women and genteel manners. Reviled for its legacy of slavery and violence. Well, you won’t find any of that down in the backwoods of Georgia, not in the lives of Cean (pronounced ‘see-ann’), Lonzo, and their children and extended family. This is a story of the Southerners that popular culture has all but forgotten. These dirt-poor farmers never saw, let alone owned, a slave. The women made their own...
Hints from Heloise (@ Abelard)
Hints from Heloise @ Abelard by Kristen West McGuire Heloise and Peter Abelard were star-crossed lovers in the 12th century in France. Abelard was a noted theologian, hired to tutor the 20-ish Heloise in her uncle’s home. They fell in love, and she ended up pregnant. Heloise gave birth to a son (Astrolabe) at the home of Abelard’s sister. They secretly marry, seeking to preserve his career as a canon-cleric. Nonetheless, her outraged family chased Abelard down and castrated him. In a...
Pray for Women who are Divorced
Pray for Women who are Divorced by Michelle Tykal and Kristen West McGuire Source: Siora Photography, Unsplash Pope Leo XIV recently noted that he was concerned about the rate of annulments in our country. After all, Americans comprise about 6% of world Catholics, but account for 60% of the annulments worldwide each year. What gives? Well, there are more tribunal offices to assist Catholics than in other countries. Also, our country has “no-fault” divorce baked into local laws about marriage,...
Marriage: A Mirror of Christ and His Church
Marriage: A Mirror of the Church by Kristen West McGuire Ephesians 5:21-33 21 Be subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. 22 Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: 23 Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of his body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up...
Meet Laura Ercolino: Fall in Love with the Bridegroom
Fall In Love with the Bridegroom! by Genevieve Kineke Laura Ercolino, Founder of Hope's Garden. Laura Ercolino is an artist, writer, and Christian Expressive Arts Coach in Ohio. She is the mother of nine children and homeschooled them for many decades. After surviving domestic abuse, she divorced her husband and experienced a miraculous healing for depression, PTSD, and chronic pelvic floor pain. Her experiences led to her founding Hope's Garden, a healing ministry for women who have suffered...
Bridezilla or Beloved?
TITLE by Kristen West McGuire Perhaps you have met a “Bridezilla?” The term refers to a bride who lets wedding logistics become a frenzy of self-absorbed excess. Bridezilla isn’t preparing for a covenant; she wants the party to be about her. Family members, friends, and even the groom don’t know how to stop her. They feel betrayed. Worst of all, it makes a mockery of the meaning of a wedding. Bridezilla is disfigured by her sins. Dear sisters in faith, do we not know the pain of the...
Read: Song at the Scaffold by Gertrud von le Fort
SONG AT THE SCAFFOLD by Gertrud von le Fort by Margaret McGuire The Song at the Scaffoldby Gertrud von le Fort, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011, 104 pp.) Run. Hide. Fight. The decision no one wants to discuss, let alone make. And yet the long history of Christianity shows countless saints and martyrs who grappled with that very decision on both a physical and a spiritual level. They were faced with the horrible question: when those in authority move to active violence against people of...
Learn: St. Catherine's Sister Dies
LEARN: St. Catherine's Sister Dies by Jenny duBay “Caterina. I need you here. Let go of your sister’s hand.” I’m unable to move. I don’t want to obey. Let go? How can I? How can I desert Bonaventura...I stroke her forehead, begging for time. Maybe if I wait, just one second or a few, the baby will come out. “Bonaventura?” My voice is barely more than a whisper, but she must have heard because she turns her head slowly. Her lips are white, cheeks wheat-colored, forehead soggy with thick, murky...
Pray for More Vocations to Religious Life
PRAY FOR MORE VOCATIONS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE by Kristen West McGuire Amanda Schrauth is consecrated virgin living in Montana. This photo is from her consecration by Bishop Michael Warfel in 2018. Vocations of all kinds have seen a drastic decrease in the Catholic Church. In addition to the number of seminarians decreasing over time, vocations to religious life AND sacramental marriages AND infant baptisms are in a freefall. This is particularly confusing because the number of registered...
Bible Study: The Virgin will give birth to a son
THE VIRGIN WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON by Kristen West McGuire Matthew 1:18-25 18 Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. 19 Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of...
“Secretum meum mihi,” (“my secret is mine.”) was St. Edith's Stein's cryptic response when her best friend asked why she converted. We serve up interviews, historical sketches, Bible studies, book reviews and essays for Catholic women. MY SECRET IS MINE is for women with an audacious hope: that the Messiah makes all things new.