Rejoice and Be Glad! News from Melanie Rigney

Words of 2020: What's Yours?

Happy, happy new year, all! This month's newsletter will be short and sweet (more on that in a bit).But if it's January, it's time for the word of the year, right?

Last summer, I was feeling pretty stressed about a lengthy trip, and decided to de-stress by checking my Instagram feed. My longtime friend Meredith Gould had posted some of her mosaics, and this one spoke to me. It seemed it had already been sold, but when I contacted Meredith, it was still available.

When it arrived, I posted it in my feeds and my even-longer-time friend Patricia Lorenz noted that she'd decorated a little jar with the same word, and I could have it. That made me decide right then that TRUST would be my 2020 word. I hope that remembering to trust the Lord will mean less anxiety and worry this year.

How about you? Email me at melanie@rejoicebeglad.com with WORD as your subject line, and a couple of sentences about your word for 2020 and why you chose it. A winner selected at random will get a $20.20 e-gift card from Amazon. I'll also do a post with first names only with a selection of the entries. I look forward to hearing about your word!

And speaking of prizes... congrats to Mary L. of Chicago and Erin B. of Vienna, VA, the winners of last month's Advent woodblock giveaway!

January Jazz

Friends in Faith and On the Nightstand will return in February. I'm wrapping up work on Radical Saints, which goes to the publisher next Monday. It's been great formation spending time with these women, including Teresa of Calcutta, Katharine Drexel, Faustina, and other women I can't wait to introduce you to. The book is slated for a spring launch.

After that, it's back to work on Brotherhood of Saints, a daily devotional that will be published this fall.

Who knew there were retreats on giving retreats? I'll be going to one later this month at the Sevenoaks Retreat Center in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. While I've given retreats before and am planning the Woman of Worth Retreat for June, I'm looking forward to hearing what the experts have to say about best practices.

Again, Happy 2020, and see you in February!

In His love,

Melanie