Catholics can be weird about death. Case in point: first class relics and chapels of bone. But there’s something glorious about seeing death and life as a semi-permeable barrier. For example, every saint in the canon.

This podcast is several days late because my flight on Friday had a 4 hour delay and I ended up very tired. Here are my thoughts about the hurry up and wait of air travel, including my memory of the great delay I had going to Spain for the first time.

This bonus episode is a prayer practicum for my episode all about Lectio Divina. Join me in lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio as we pray with Mark 5:35-41 (A Calming of a Storm at Sea). If you’d like to do Visio Divina with this podcast as well (praying with scripture through images) I love this painting by Rembrandt as an accompaniment to this passage: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calming_the_storm#

Want to go deeper in Scripture? Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) is a great way to push yourself from the noise of daily living to that deeper conversation with God. Come with me as we learn about the stages of this prayer (meditatio, oratio, contemplatio). And don’t forget VISIO Divina! *** If you’d like to learn more I recommend the Oriens Advent reflection book by Fr. Joel Sember (https://pilgrimpriest.us) or invite you to check back Sunday for a bonus prayer practicum podcast (try saying that five times fast!)

As you know, I am not ACTUALLY known as Belén. Tonight, I tell you all about my true, given name, which is…

Back in my twenties, I asked God for advice in getting my life together, and the answer was “Prayer”. My response to THAT was “Yeah, okay, but SERIOUSLY, what should I be doing?” but I came around…eventually. My prayer journey has now arrived at this point where I am recording the first episode in a series all about prayer. This episode tells you why I care, and hopefully why you should too. Future episodes will explore prayer forms like Lectio Divina, Litanies, the Rosary, and the Mass (just to name a few).

In November 2022, I attended the 20Booksto50k conference in Las Vegas. Even though the conference was the beginning of health troubles that make the end of the year pretty rough, it was still a fantastic experience I would recommend for any author interested in independent publishing (who has good lungs). You can find some great free writing and publishing resources or find out more about the event here: https://youtube.com/@20Booksto50kRLiveEvents

Today is the Feast of Epiphany and the end of the Christmas season, and I have successfully acquired the post-Christmas poinsettia. This bonus episode is full of opinions on proper pronunciation, the story of Poin and Stella (my previous poinsettias), and random facts about poinsettias I learned JUST FOR YOU.

Regular posting schedule (2nd and 4th Fridays of the month), longer episodes, and a long-running series about prayer are my plans for 2023. Is there anything else you’d like to see? Let me know with the Anchor Q&A or at https://baileyrhansen.com/contact/ .

Are you going home for Christmas? Physically or in your dreams? In a lot of ways, for me, Christmas is about the act of traveling from one place to another, to see family or just because.