Called and Caffeinated

Are you in a phase of life where you lost your motivation to pray? For me, pregnancy is a season where I totally fall off the wagon in my prayer life. Then when I lose the habit of prayer I lose the motivation. And it's really hard to get back into the habit.

Today I'm sharing 5 fail-safe strategies to revive my mostly-defunct prayer life:

• Make your busy life a prayer

I've begun making 100% beeswax candles with crackling wooden wicks to enhance your prayer time and for many occasions! I'm thrilled to be selling my candles on the Catholic All Year Marketplace- get yours here. (If the candle you want is sold out, never fear! It'll be back in stock within the week!)

Join the Called and Caffeinated Patreon community starting at  just $5/month to support this show and join our bi-monthly video chats with community members around the country and internationally. Your support is SO appreciated!

“Self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it.” -St. Teresa of Avila

In this episode I'm joined by famed author of many books, including The Temperament God Gave You, Laraine Bennett. If you're like me, you get a little annoyed when someone references the temperaments because it feels just a tad... simplistic. Or you never read a book about them before. Never fear! We break down each temperament into manageable explanations and after hearing them, I think you'll agree with me that they're an enormously helpful tool for increasing self-knowledge.

My favorite part of our interview was discussing something I've never heard talked about before: Pitfalls to avoid discernment for each temperament, as well as how to use your particular temperament to discern God's will well. As always on this show, we discuss discernment for every single decision in your life- not just your vocation.

Topics Discussed

• What is temperament? How it differs from personality

Resources

• Know Thyself! Board Game by Laraine Bennett

Need a community? Check out the Christian Family Movement. Find a group or start one in your area backed by their 70+ years of experience strengthening couples and families!

Your support on Patreon helps power these episodes. Thank you to our amazing patrons who make this unique content possible! Consider joining and gain access to Coffee Sips, Stacey's secondary podcast, as well as twice-monthly video chats with the community. Pledges start at just $5/mo.

My heart went out to a listener named Victoria, who wrote to me of her eating disorder. Her discomfort with her looks pushed her toward perfectionism and an extreme fear of failure. As I read her words, I knew exactly how she felt, because for years I was there as well.

You can't discern your true purpose when you're living in fear of failure and self-dislike. Even after your body heals and you begin eating normally again, long-term healing of your heart and your outlook is absolutely essential. If you're stuck in that in-between, this one's for you. In this episode, I'm sharing my experience and then reducing my entire healing journey down to just ONE simple question. Answering that one question broke me out of years of spiraling self-hatred and anxiety. How you answer this question will hopefully do exactly the same for you. 

Resources

• Watch on YouTube HERE!

Need a community? Check out the Christian Family Movement. Find a group or start one in your area backed by their 70+ years of experience strengthening couples and families!

If you're looking for more discernment advice, consider joining the True North Course. This self-paced, 5-module Course is a comprehensive guide to help you discern any decision to live with purpose, passion and peace. Stacey Sumereau has guided people from 13 countries through True North- discover your purpose today!

Your support on Patreon helps power these episodes. Thank you to our amazing patrons who make this unique content possible! Consider joining and gain access to Coffee Sips, Stacey's secondary podcast, as well as twice-monthly video chats with the community. Pledges start at just $5/mo.

My heart went out to a listener named Victoria, who wrote to me of her eating disorder. Her discomfort with her looks pushed her toward perfectionism and an extreme fear of failure. As I read her words, I knew exactly how she felt, because for years I was there as well.

You can't discern your true purpose when you're living in fear of failure and self-dislike. Even after your body heals and you begin eating normally again, long-term healing of your heart and your outlook is absolutely essential. If you're stuck in that in-between, this one's for you. In this episode, I'm sharing my experience and then reducing my entire healing journey down to just ONE simple question. Answering that one question broke me out of years of spiraling self-hatred and anxiety. How you answer this question will hopefully do exactly the same for you. 

Resources

• Watch on YouTube HERE!

Need a community? Check out the Christian Family Movement. Find a group or start one in your area backed by their 70+ years of experience strengthening couples and families!

If you're looking for more discernment advice, consider joining the True North Course. This self-paced, 5-module Course is a comprehensive guide to help you discern any decision to live with purpose, passion and peace. Stacey Sumereau has guided people from 13 countries through True North- discover your purpose today!

Your support on Patreon helps power these episodes. Thank you to our amazing patrons who make this unique content possible! Consider joining and gain access to Coffee Sips, Stacey's secondary podcast, as well as twice-monthly video chats with the community. Pledges start at just $5/mo.

“So, what then is life about? To what — to whom — will we entrust our heart? There are plenty of suitors, but only one worthy spouse. For, as we’ll find, a human life is a weighty thing, and some goals simply can’t bear the burden of our whole heart’s love.”

If there's one thing I crave in all my decision-making, it's confidence. If I knew for sure what the right thing was, I would be so happy and choose it immediately! Sadly, there's usually no burning bush or angel appearing in a dream to tell me.

Developing the virtue of prudence is the best guide. The brilliant Fr. Gregory Pine is on the pod to discuss the 8 parts of prudence, formulating a vision for who I want to be on the other side of each decision, why we call prudence the "charioteer of the virtues," and so much more.

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, the Christian Family Movement. To join or start a community in your area, click here!

Looking for in-depth discernment advice? Join the True North Discernment Course, available for a limited time!

Looking for community and want to support this channel? Join Stacey's Patreon community for twice monthly video chats with amazing people from around the Country! Your monthly pledge helps support this show.

There are a million parenting advice books, homeschooling books, how-to's on organizing, and spiritual books. Much, much more rare is a book helping us parents know when to work and when to put your feet up, how to make your marriage last with boisterous youngsters claiming your every ounce of energy, how to form a philosophy for educating your children, and how to keep one million tasks in balance... or discern when to cut down the list!

Leila Lawler, founder of the popular blog Like Mother Like Daughter and now author of the aptly (and cheekily) named Summa Domestica, has been on my 'hit list' for quite some time. She channels the collective memory every family needs to navigate those decisions, both large and small, no one else talks about. I recommend this episode for any parents but also those who feel called to marriage and want to benefit from early preparation for family life. 

Resources

• Buy the Summa Domestica here

Join the True North Discernment Course, open for a limited time! Click this link for the self-paced Course aimed at helping you make all your life choices with purpose, passion and peace.

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, the Christian Family Movement. To find or start a group in your area click this link. Keep your family Catholic and strong by forming intentional community right where you are!

Thank you to our other sponsor, Catholic Match! CM has worked for me and for countless others and it's the largest Catholic dating platform anywhere. To start your FREE profile, click this link.

Anyone else totally lose steam at this point in Lent? It's not Holy Week yet and the "smells and bells" of special liturgies haven't arrived. And TBH I'm busy and the excitement of growth at the outset of Ash Wednesday wore off weeks ago. If you're like me, you will absolutely LOVE my interview with the inimitable Dr. Scott Hahn.

There's so much more to fasting than giving up: It will increase our JOY. It unites us in brotherhood to the millions of people in our Universal Church who have fasted throughout the centuries. Give this a listen to gear you up for Holy Week; it won't disappoint!

Topics Discussed

• How to find joy in fasting

Looking for more discernment guidance? Consider signing up for the True North Discernment Course. Great for any life decisions, big or small, this Course is rooted in rich Catholic discernment tradition. 5 self-paced modules including worksheets, video teaching sessions, and personalized coaching with Stacey!

Join the Called and Caffeinated Patreon Community for twice-monthly video chats and to support this unique content!

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, the Christian Family Movement. For over 70 years CFM has been building strong communities to help keep families strong! Check it out here.

VIEW ON YOUTUBE HERE

"God does not reject the places even we reject within ourselves."

I've never thought of Lent as a time for healing, but my conversation with Sr. Miriam James Heidland changed that. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving: the purpose of these is not to do them for their own sake, but in order to enter into the desert with the Lord. To let him heal the places that most hurt us.

If that scares the living daylights out of you... it should. It will. But only in exposing our wound to the healer can he truly heal us. If you've followed Sr. Miriam's heart-centered ministry as I have and have loved her Abiding Together Podcast, this one is absolutely for you. Be sure to listen right to the end as I share a healing image from my own testimony of post-NICU recovery.

Topics Discussed

• Seeing our sins as wounds

Resources

• Buy Sr. Miriam's Book Restore here- and study along with the Abiding Together Facebook group

Looking for community? Join the Called and Caffeinated Patreon Community where we join in prayer and conversation twice a month. Pledges start at just $5/mo and support the provision of this unique content! 

Thank you to our episode sponsor Catholic Match! Join the largest Catholic online dating platform with a FREE profile by March 15, 2022 and you'll automatically entered to win a 6-month membership!

WATCH ON YOUTUBE HERE!

“If you do not know how to feast, you do not know how to feast.” -GK Chesterton

Not gonna lie… as a teen I usually weighed my Lenten resolution options against how good I’d look in a swimsuit by Easter. To be honest, I never “got” fasting. I still don’t know if I do, but this year I’ve received a few great new books that completely transformed my outlook on Lent and fasting and, dare I say, made me look forward to this penitential season!?

Today I’m going way beyond the McDonald’s fish sandwich and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I’m interviewing one of the editors of Sophia Institute Press’s The Lenten Cookbook. Kristen Van Uden is a wealth of knowledge regarding how Lent and different fasting traditions came together over the centuries. You’ll also learn about the TRUE purpose of fasting and how to do it well, and the continuity of fasting traditions throughout the centuries.

Topics Discussed

• Fasting as preparation and reparation

Resources

• Buy The Lenten Cookbook here! 

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, Catholic Match! Start your Catholic love story with a FREE profile. Use this link by March 15, 2022 and you’ll automatically be entered to win a 6-month membership! Also follow on Instagram @CatholicMatch

Do you need discernment skills for life? Join the True North Course, now open for a limited time! A self-guided course based in the discernment tradition of the Church with videos, worksheets and personal coaching from Stacey Sumereau.

My dad had aggressive cancer in 2019 that almost killed him. Watching him go through chemo was an extremely intense experience for my whole family. When I heard about Sr. Diana Marie's mission of dedicating her life to caring for terminally ill cancer patients, my first reaction was "How do you DO that?"

Not only does she spend her days loving people in their last days, but she's also young, full of joy, and hilarious (sarcasm is her love language.) We cover a whole range of topics from her conversion from Mormonism to Catholicism in grad school, her discernment process, and her falling in love with the life of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. If you need a relatable story of someone who didn't feel "holy enough" and struggled with all the big questions, this one's for you.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE HERE!

Topics Covered

• Navigating religious life discernment as a convert

Resources

• Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne website 

Do you need discernment skills for life? Join the True North Course, now open for a limited time! A self-guided course based in the discernment tradition of the Church with videos, worksheets and personal coaching from Stacey Sumereau.

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, Catholic Match! Start your Catholic love story with a FREE profile. Use this link by March 15, 2022 and you’ll automatically be entered to win a 6-month membership! Also follow on Instagram @CatholicMatch