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It's Back! The Great Advent Block Giveaway
Happy Advent, everyone! Hope you had wonderful Thanksgivings with family and friends. I like to spend Thanksgiving alone; I was the chief cook and bottlewasher for large dinners for more than a decade, but these days, a quiet observance speaks to me. I especially appreciate some silence before the noisy, crowded, joyful hubbub of Advent arrives.

And speaking of... I'm teaming up with my friends at Soli Deo Gloria Sacred Art again this year to offer a giveaway of two sets of their wonderful Advent woodblocks.Each set, with one green block and one red block, is valued at $36.

The entry window is short--ending at 11:59 p.m. ET this Thursday, December 5--since I want to make sure the winners get their prizes in time to really enjoy them this season.
You can enter by engaging with Soli Deo Gloria or me on social media, and multiple entries are welcome! You'll find the entry information here. And regardless of whether you enter or win, I encourage you to visit Soli Deo Gloria's site or Etsy shop.
On the Nightstand: North American Martyrs Kids Activity Book
Eight Jesuit missionaries who worked among the indigenous people of Ontario and upstate New York were martyred in the mid-17th century, and canonized in 1930. I was planning to do some research into them in January. But a couple weeks ago, Bonnie Way, a sister lover of Catholic saints, wrote to tell me about her new North American Martyrs Kids Activity Book . It's primarily intended as a homeschool study unit or other children's group study. While my childhood ended long ago, it seems like a good way for me to get acquainted with this group. I know Bonnie through her blog posts as a joyful, engaged mom and writer, and I'm looking forward to relaxing and learning with this title.

I'm often asked for spiritual book recommendations, so my website now has a section of titles that resonate with me. See what you think in the Shop section.
The Big Cover Reveal! Radical Saints: 21 Women for the 21st Century
It's here! The cover and final title for my next book, due out in the spring. I think the folks at Franciscan Media really outdid themselves with this one. That's Jacinta Marto, one of the children of Fatima, who died in 1920 just shy of her 10th birthday. How can a child be radical, you ask? Well, having seen a vision of hell during one apparition, Jacinta focused on interceding on the behalf of sinners. She went from a chatty child to a witness for Christ. Jacinta's life was radical in that it was different from the usual child's. It was also radical in the sense that her faith went to the roots of Christianity, the suffering of Jesus and of his Blessed Mother.

I'm finishing up work on the stories of Jacinta and 20 other radical women who walked the earth in the 20th century and were canonized in the 21st. Interspersed are the stories of some radical women I know today. I hope you will learn as much in reading about them as I have in writing about them.
Tis the Season
Writing. That's what I'll be doing most of Advent. Writing about those radical women saints. Writing my late summer/early fall Living Faith devotions. Writing some Brotherhood of Saints reflections. Oh, and there's another project coming next year that I'll tell you about when the paperwork's all signed. I think you'll like the topic a lot.

I'll also be speaking at a couple organizations with which I'm involved, one on Woman of Worth and the other on prayer and some of the women saints.

But I'm also going to revel in some seasonal activities: I'll attempt to do the nine 5 a.m. pre-Christmas Masses (you can learn about one of my favorite days here). I'll go see the National Christmas Tree and take a National Gallery of Art religious art tour with my sister. I'll pop over after work to visit a Christmas light maze and market at Nationals Park. And, I just might try to sneak in a sing-along Messiah. All good, all fun, all joy; just... a lot. But I suspect you feel the same way about December. And somehow, all that hustle and bustle just melts away when we go to church on Christmas Day to celebrate the birth that changed the world.

Happy Advent! Merry Christmas!


In Christ, Melanie