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 Slave who became a Queen...and then a Saint!
The Chemise of St. Bathildis by Kristen West McGuire At a museum near Paris, a linen funeral garment dating to the 7th century is on display. The owner was Saint Bathildis, a slave girl who became Queen of the Franks, and then retired to a monastery. How did this happen? Historians believe she was born around 630AD, a member of the Saxon tribe. Danish pirates captured her and sold her to a prominent official in Neustria (northern France), Erchinoald. The myth relates that she was cheerful,...
Book Review: Loving your Neighbor, Loving Yourself
Works of Mercy, by Sally Thomas Reviewed by Margaret McGuire Works of Mercy, by Sally Thomas (Monee, IL: Wiseblood Books, 2022) 261 pp. How do I interact with, let alone love, my neighbor? This is one of the questions that haunts the protagonist in Sally Thomas’ Works of Mercy. We meet Kirsty Sain engaged in cleaning the rectory and meeting the new parish priest. Kirsty’s life is well-ordered, undisturbed, and barren. Gradually, we learn she is widowed, childless, and all alone in a Southern...
Pray for Women Survivors of Sexual Assault
Pray for Women Survivors of Sexual Assault by Michelle Tykal Every 68 seconds, there is a sexual assault in the United States. The vast majority of these are perpetrated against women. One in every 6 women, as opposed to 1 in every 33 men, has been the victim of completed or attempted rape. Sexual violence by someone known to the victim, which accounts for roughly 80% of assaults, deeply impacts a person’s emotional, physical, and relational well-being. Our culture’s understanding of trauma,...
The Magnificat: He Has Done Great Things!
THE MAGNIFICAT by Kristen West McGuire Luke 1:46-55 46 And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. 47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48 Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49 Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. 51 He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud...
Meet Janet Long: Divine Disclosure
MEET JANET LONG - DIVINE DISCLOSURE by Genevieve Kineke Janet Long is a writer and researcher on issues concerning family, faith, and health. She has worked as a facilitator in elementary schools in New Jersey for the Child Assault Prevention program (NJCAP) and in local hospitals as a member of SART, the Sexual Assault Response Team. She is presently on the Advisory Board at Restoration 199, a non-profit organization serving survivors of complex trauma in the DC Metro area. Genevieve: You...
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to be a Millionaire? by Kristen West McGuire Part Two of a nine part series on Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women) by St. John Paul the Great. Well, shoot, who doesn’t? Occasionally, thanks to the lottery or some game show, one of “us” hits it big. Millionaire! It’s a really compelling story! It resonates with our hearts – we’re happy for the schmuck who won, and maybe a little envious. The larger context makes the ‘millionaire mirage’ look a little shallow. I...
NEW! Quirky Pilgrimage Column: ANDALUSIA
ANDALUSIA by Kristen West McGuire Stephen Matthew Milligan via Wikimedia Commons. Why visit Milledgeville, Georgia? If you have to ask this question, you need not bother – fans of Southern gothic writer Flannery O’Connor will know why. The antebellum capitol of Georgia, Milledgeville reinvented itself after the state government moved to Atlanta in 1868. The economic engines keeping the town from dying included a military school, a college for women, and the largest “lunatic asylum” in the...
History of the Rosary
HISTORY OF THE ROSARY by Kristen West McGuire Photo by Anuja Tilj on Unsplash St. Dominic did not “create” the Rosary. He died in 1221, and the earliest recorded rosary similar to what we know today was dated in the 1300s. It is possible that he taught people to recite the first half of the Hail Mary. St. Peter Damian (1007 – 1072) told the story of a priest with only one virtue – saying that Angelic Salutation daily. (Luke 1:42a) Soon, it was called the Psalter of Our Lady, with peasants...
Book Review: A Crazed Prophet in the Woods
THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR reviewed by Kristen West McGuire It’s my favorite first line in all the novels I’ve ever read: "Francis Marion Tarwater’s uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the...
Pray for Women Living in Chronic Poverty
Pray for Women Living in Chronic Poverty by Kristen West McGuire Photo by mark chaves on Unsplash Although the consumer price index spiked after the pandemic, inflation has slowed. Middle class households may be pinched, but families below the poverty line are squeezed. Yet compare the plight of the poor in our country to the desperate situation of victims of chronic poverty resulting from war, famine, natural disasters and dictatorships. The order to help the poor in Matthew 25 is not to be...
“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.