Today we discuss the importance of spiritual reading. We share our experiences with spiritual reading as well as some tips and recommendations. We hope you enjoy this episode and are looking forward to sharing our next episode on rediscovering Sundays!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quote:

“Spiritual reading is necessary as the normal way of nourishing the Christian faith, which means getting food for the mind so that the will and affections might love and serve God accordingly.” - Fr. John Hardon

Resources mentioned in the episode:

The Catholic Strength article on spiritual reading: https://catholicstrength.com/2019/05/19/why-spiritual-reading-is-such-a-great-help-for-growth-in-holiness/

Some of our favorite spiritual reading books/authors:

Fr. Jaques Philippe

The Shadow of His Wings - Fr. Gereron Goldmann

He Leadeth Me - Fr. Walter Ciszek S.J.

Life of St. Joseph - Sr. Maraia Cecilia Baij

Introduction to the Devout Life - St. Francis de Sales

Imitation of Christ - St. Thomas a Kempis

Interior Castle - St. Teresa of Avila

Chiara Corbella Petrillo: A Witness to Joy - Cristiana Paccini & Simone Troisi

St. John Paul the Great - Jason Evert

Lives of the saints

Encyclicals & apostoic letters - all are available online

Episode Notes:

Today we discuss reading & literature & what makes a good book! We share some of our favorite books & those books that have inspired us! We hope you enjoy the episode & are looking forward to sharing our next episode on spiritual reading!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quote:

“Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls.” - St. Alphonsus Liguori

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Books that have impacted us:

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Shadow of His Wings by Gereron Goldmann

Dressing with Dignity by Colleen Hammond

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

Chiara Corbella Petrillo: A Witness to Joy by Cristiana Paccini & Simone Troisi

Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Donald Calloway

The Life of St. Joseph by Maraia Cecilia Baij

Other books:

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Little Men/Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Fr. Elijah by Michael O’Brien

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen: (I liked listening to Karen Savage’s narration on Librivox)

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: (I liked listening to Karen Savage’s narration on Librivox)

The Burrowshire Podcast:

https://burrowshirepodcast.com/library/

https://burrowshirepodcast.com/what-to-watch-and-how-to-watch-it/

Resources for audiobooks:

Librivox: https://librivox.org

Audible: https://www.audible.com

Audiobooks For Soul: https://audiobookforsoul.net

Resources for getting books secondhand:

Thriftbooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com

AbeBooks: https://www.abebooks.com

Today we share with you our thoughts on The Lord of the Rings Trilogy! We recently finished listening to an audiobook version together that we LOVED! In this episode we share our personal thoughts on the books, share our favorite characters and scenes, as well as give a book to movie comparison. We also share with you the Catholic connections we found in this series, as “The ‘Lord of the Rings’ is a ‘fundamentally religious and Catholic work.’” - J.R.R. Tolkien. Finally, Taylor shares several connections that he made between the fictional character Aragorn and St. Joseph.

Note: This episode does contain spoilers, but we do not summarize or explain the storyline. If you haven’t read the books, we recommend you do that before listening to this episode!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quote:

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - Gandalf

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Audiobooks we listened to:

audiobookforsoul.com: https://audiobookforsoul.com/audiobook-series/lord-of-the-rings-audio/the-fellowship-of-the-ring-audiobook/

The Burrowshire Podcast: https://burrowshirepodcast.com/catholicism-lord-of-the-rings/

Take It From Tolkien: ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a ‘Religious and Catholic Work’| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com)

A helpful article that lists a handful of the Catholic connections in the trilogy

Today we share with you some highlights from our very first family vacation! We were so blessed to go on a two week road trip & enjoyed it so much we wanted to share our experiences with you!

We hope you enjoy hearing about all of our adventures and hope you join us next time for an episode on The Lord of the Rings!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." ~ St. Augustine

Today we share with you the third part of our story: new beginnings. While this is the final part in this series for now, it is just the beginning of a very joyful and exciting journey! Besides sharing the “end” of our story, we also share with you some key takeaways and practical tips we learned from our friendship.

We hope you enjoy getting to know us and our story better and hope you join us next time for an episode on our two week vacation!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quote:

“But if a man and a woman marry in order to be companions on the journey through earth to heaven, then their union will bring great joy to themselves and to others." - St. John Chrysostom

Today we share with you the second part of our story: a season of suffering. We share some types of suffering as explained by Soren Kierkegaard, then we dive into the second segment of our story, a time of separation, suffering, and growth!

We hope you enjoy getting to know us and our story better and hope you join us next time for part III!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quote:

“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.” - St. Mother Teresa

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The book Taylor references by Soren Kierkegaard: https://www.amazon.com/Trembling-Penguin-Classics-Soren-Kierkegaard/dp/0140444491

Today we share with you the first part of our story: our friendship! We share some thoughts on friendship in general as well as things we learned and blessings we received. We hope you enjoy getting to know us and our story better and hope you join us next time for part II!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quote:

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." St. Thomas Aquinas

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Lord of the Rings Audiobook: https://audiobookforsoul.com/audiobook-series/lord-of-the-rings-audio/

Today we discuss habits! As we prepared for marriage, we found discussions on our current habits to be super helpful in preparing for life together! We were able to identify those habits we were really glad we had, and those we weren’t proud of. These discussions helped us be more aware of the ways we live subconsciously and helped us in our discussions concerning our mission statement.

Today we base our discussion on one of our favorite books, Atomic Habits, by James Clear. We discuss our key takeaways from the book, including practical ways to create and break habits. We also discuss the importance of our environment, how habits shape our identity, and how the systems we use can help or hinder us.

We hope you enjoy this new episode! As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

“It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.” St. Augustine

Atomic Habits by James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

Mission Statement episode: https://anchor.fm/ajoyfuljourneypodcast/episodes/What-Makes-You-Unique--Creating-a-Mission-Statement-etp595

Today we share with you our mission statement and discuss how you can create your own! What makes you unique? What are your core values? We explain rallying cries (your top priority), defining objectives, and standard objectives. We talk about Patrick Lencioni’s book The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family, a quick and easy read that has helped us discover who we are at our core! Lastly, we discuss tactical meetings.

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or reaching out to us by email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Questions-Frantic-Family-Organization/dp/0787995320

Today we discuss joy! We define joy, differentiating it from other words that are given synonymous meanings. We discuss joy as being a source of marriage, and also share some ways in which we strive to live out joy in our lives. Finally, we share some practical ways you, too, can live joyfully!

As always, feel free to join us on this journey by following us on Instagram: A Joyful Journey (@ajoyfuljourney1221), or by reaching out to us via email at [email protected]!

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families and Glory of Domestic Life, pray for us!

Quotes & resources mentioned in this episode:

Kreeft’s article on joy: https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/philosophy/joy.html

“The way to pleasure is power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.” - Peter Kreeft

The Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 2362: '“The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude.” Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure...'

The Surrender Novena: https://fullofgraceusa.com/products/the-surrender-novena-standard-size (this can also be found at local Catholic book stores)