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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.

A brown-haired woman with glasses smiles near a Catholic tabernacle

Meet Susan Windley - Daoust

Meet Susan Windley - Daoust, Parish Advocate by Genevieve Kineke Susan Windley- Daoust Dr. Susan Windley-Daoust taught theology for 20 years at St. Mary’s University in Minnesota before becoming Director of Missionary Discipleship for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. She founded the Mark 5:19 Project to equip pastors and lay leaders to foster thriving, evangelizing parishes in 2024. Her book, The Four Ways Forward, was published in 2022. She and her husband Jerry have five children and work...
Mary Star of the New Evangelization

If you knew the gift of God...

IF YOU KNEW THE GIFT OF GOD by Kristen West McGuire The Samaritan woman at the well was simply in the midst of her daily work. Who knows how far she had to walk to get water for her household? We don’t even know how many people she was cooking for. She shows up at the well with a pitcher to carry the water and likely a leather dipper to drop into the well. She was ready for her task. And Jesus interrupts her daily routine. He says, “If thou didst know the gift of God, and who he is that saith...
Green verdant hills and fog with book title Green Dolphin Street

Read: Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge

Read Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge by Margaret McGuire What does it mean to be loved, and what kind of sacrifice does love entail? These are the central questions around which Elizabeth Goudge’s Green Dolphin Street revolves. Within this saga of two sisters and the man they both love, Goudge explores the love of families, the growth of love from childhood to maturity, married love, and the love of God for humanity. Marguerite and Marianne LePatournel are sisters in this...
An older man with a mustache next to an older woman, both happy

Married for the Kingdom

How Catherine and Eddie Doherty Sacrificed Their Conjugal Intimacy for the Kingdom of God by Dawn Eden Goldstein Source: used with permission ©Madonna House Publications. An excerpt from the book, The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times, by Dawn Eden Goldstein The decisive moment...came in late October 1951, in a café in Paris. Catherine and Eddie had gone to Rome together—he to research a book, she to attend a conference of leaders of lay apostolates. Since she needed to stay longer in the...
Nuns and a young girl attend to a child

Pray for Women Seeking to Change the World

PRAY FOR WOMEN SEEKING TO CHANGE THE WORLD by Kristen West McGuire Women care about community—and invest their time, talents, and treasure to invest in positive changes. More women than men volunteer overall. And, more women than men choose professions such as social work, teaching, and nursing. Further, over two-thirds of non-profit employees are women. Women simply care more about making community work. While Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day are notable examples, unsung and unknown laywomen...
Stained Glass of Last Supper picture

Abiding with Jesus...Thoughts on Becoming a Good Vintage

ABIDE WITH JESUS by Kristen West McGuire John 15:4-17 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. 6 If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. 7 If...
A woman in a blue beret is kneeling and smiling at the camera

Meet Dr. Dawn Eden Goldstein

MEET DAWN EDEN GOLDSTEIN by Genevieve Kineke Dawn Eden Goldstein, JCL, SThD, is the author of several other books, including Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor (winner of the Christopher Award) and (under the pen name Dawn Eden) The Thrill of the Chaste, My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints, and Remembering God's Mercy. Together her books have been translated into ten languages. She is director of the tribunal at the Diocese of Bridgeport....
a lovely woman in blue with a gold halo and many angels with halos around her

Woman as Prophet of Love

WOMAN AS PROPHET OF LOVE by Kristen West McGuire Pope Saint John Paul II said in 1995, “The cold war is over, science and technology have achieved unheard-of progress: from flights in space to landing on the moon, from heart transplants to genetic engineering, from telecommunications to the most advanced …technologies.” Thirty years later, artificial intelligence has many people unsettled. Is technology more real than human endeavors? In Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope St. John Paul II reminds us...
Book cover of Lamb in His Bosom

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...
A medieval painting of a nun and a scholar talking

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...

“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.