Katheryne Mauldin

[Uche is a girl 🇻🇦 @UcheMaryOkoli]

Dear God, I want to take a minute to not ask you for anything. But to thank you for all that you have given to me.

AMEN.

[Dana Rachel 🇻🇦 @thyflameoflove]

St. Thérèse of Lisieux once admitted something many people do not expect from a saint.

There was a sister in her convent who irritated her constantly.

Not a terrible person. Not openly cruel. Just someone who got under her skin in small, daily ways. Thérèse honestly wrote that “a holy nun of our community annoyed me in all that she did.”

Most people would avoid someone like that.

Thérèse chose something harder.

She remembered that love is not just a feeling. She wrote, “I remembered that charity ought to betray itself in deeds, and not exist merely in the feelings.” So instead of becoming cold, sarcastic, or impatient, she made a decision to love this sister through actions.

She smiled at her.
Spoke gently to her.
Prayed for her often.
Looked for the good in her soul.

Even when she did not feel like it.

And when conversations started becoming tense, Thérèse chose peace over proving herself right. She followed this wisdom: “It is more profitable to leave everyone to his way of thinking than to give way to contentious discourses.” Sometimes she quietly stepped away so frustration would not turn into sin.

That part matters.

Sometimes people defend impatience and harshness as “just being honest.” But Thérèse understood that self-control and charity are also signs of spiritual maturity.

Over time, the sister noticed how kind Thérèse always was and asked why she treated her so gently. Thérèse later explained the reason. She was trying to love Jesus hidden within that sister’s soul.

That is real charity.

Not loving only when it feels easy.
Not loving only people who agree with you.
Not loving only when you get something back.

But choosing love anyway.

In a culture where people quickly cut others off, expose them publicly, and end relationships over disagreements, do you think Christians today are becoming less patient with difficult people?

💬 What is harder for you personally: forgiving someone or continuing to treat them kindly afterward?

[Cameron Riecker @riecker]

Here is the single most effective way to convert your loved ones to Catholicism.

It's not arguing.
It's not apologetics.
It's not even fasting.

St. Monica used it to convert St. Augustine.

Almost no Catholic prays this way today.

Here's what she did.

Her son was a complete mess.

Stealing. Lying. Living with a girlfriend. Mocking the faith his mother had poured into him for years.

So Monica did what any desperate Catholic mother would do.

She went to the holiest bishop she knew — St. Ambrose — fell at his feet, and begged him through her tears:
"Please. Speak to my son. Convert him. Save him."
His response shocked her.

Three words.

"Leave him alone."

What kind of bishop says that to a weeping mother?

But before Monica could protest, Ambrose said the sentence that would change her entire life:

"Go your way, and God bless you. For it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish."

She left filled with peace instead of despair.
And her son?

He became St. Augustine — one of the greatest saints, theologians, and Doctors the Church has ever known.
So what did Ambrose know that Monica didn't?

He knew the one principle that turns ordinary prayers into invincible ones.

And almost nobody prays this way.

Here's how most Catholics pray:

"God, if you just convert my brother, I'll be happy."
"God, if you just bring my husband back to Mass, everything will be okay."
"God, if you just do this one thing..."

Read those again and notice what's actually happening.

We're not surrendering our will to God.

We're trying to bend God's will to ours. Not the other way around.

We're treating the Almighty like a vending machine — the right combination of prayers, fasts, and good works, and out pops the conversion we want.

That's not prayer.

That's negotiation.

And St. James calls it out by name:

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." — James 4:3

Here's the part most Catholics never grasp:

God controls not just what happens — but how it happens.

Maybe He's already ordained your family member's conversion.

But maybe He's ordained that he'll convert only through your prayers, your suffering, your surrender.

And as long as you're white-knuckling it — trying to be the engine behind her conversion — you're getting in the way of the very thing you're begging God for.

So what's the answer?

Surrender.

Stop trying to sell your family the faith.
Stop shoving apologetics in their face.
Stop trying to prove you're happier than them.

Pray the way Abraham prayed.

Remember what God asked of him in Genesis 22?

To take Isaac — his only son, the son of the promise, the son he loved more than his own life — and lay him on the altar as a sacrifice.

And Abraham obeyed.

He raised the knife, fully surrendered.

And the moment he did, God stayed his hand and gave him back his son — and made him father of nations.

Because Abraham was willing to lose what he loved most, he received more than he ever dared ask for.

That is exactly how to pray for your loved ones.
Not: "God, you have to do this."

But: "Jesus, you want this person's conversion even more than I do. Not my will, but thine be done. On your time. In your way. And if it's only through my suffering — so be it."

When you can pray like that, your prayers become unstoppable.

One of the Eastern Church Fathers put it this way:
"He who obeys God — God obeys him."

Read that one more time.

The Monica who clenched her fists and demanded action got nothing for years.

The Monica who finally surrendered her son to God with open hands got St. Augustine.
She got the Confessions.
She got a Doctor of the Church.
She got to spend eternity with the very son she once feared she'd lost forever.

If you have someone you're praying back to the faith — a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling — hear this:

Stop fighting, start surrendering.

Open your hands.

Let God be God.

Send this to a friend who needs to hear it.

[miguelifornia @miguelifornia]

🇺🇸 As you lay your head down to sleep this evening, please pray for this man & his team as he travels to China. 🙏 May God almighty protect our President Trump, give him wisdom, strength & discernment as he navigates the international waters on behalf of the American People. We pray for divine protection.

🙏 We ask this in Jesus' Name
🕊 Amen

[Sachin Jose @Sachinettiyil]

Forbes, the world’s leading business media outlet, featured the “Bible in a Year” podcast hosted by Fr. Mike Schmitz, which has passed one billion downloads, highlighting it as a model of audience engagement and digital growth.

[LaughBreak: Dad Jokes ‘N More @MediocreJoker85]

The year is 2028, and the United States has just elected the first woman from Alabama as president.

A few days after the election, the president-elect calls her father and says, “So, Daddy, I assume you’ll be coming to my inauguration?”

“I don’t think so,” he replies. “It’s a 16-hour drive, your mother isn’t as young as she used to be, and my arthritis is acting up again.”

“Don’t worry, Daddy,” she says. “I’ll send Air Force One to pick you up. A limousine will take you from your door.”

“I don’t know,” he says. “Everyone will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?”

“Oh, Daddy,” she replies, “I’ll make sure she has a beautiful gown, custom made by the best designer in Washington.”

“Sweetheart,” he continues, “you know I can’t eat those rich foods you and your friends like.”

“Don’t worry,” she says. “The entire affair will be handled by the best caterer in Washington. I’ll make sure your meals are salt-free. I really want you to come.”

So the father reluctantly agrees.

On January 20th, 2029, the first woman from Alabama is sworn in as President of the United States. In the front row sit her mother and father.

The father leans over to the Supreme Court Justice next to him and whispers, “You see that woman up there, hand on the Bible, becoming President of the United States?”

“Yes,” the Justice replies.

The father says proudly, “Her brother played football for the University of Alabama.”

[Mary Margaret Olohan @MaryMargOlohan]

MELANIA TRUMP: “A mother is awestruck when she welcomes her child into the world. After nine months, the miracle of life creates a fascinating bond between mother and child. With each breath, day by day, this bond deepens, bringing forth emotions never felt before. Quite frankly, these are emotions understood only by women. Only a mother can carry this type of powerful connection with her child, which is also too profound for words.”

[WBRZ News @WBRZ]

A grandmother, who lost her 3-year-old grandson to gun violence, is canvassing the Baton Rouge area with yard signs as part of a campaign to address youth violence.

More: https://t.co/PlR48cjYdj

[Knights Templar International @KnightsTempOrg]

The purpose of art was once not to shock or transgress, but to elevate the soul.

[Popes, Saints and Their Sayings @PopesSaints]

“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
- St. Francis of Assisi

[𝔊𝔯á𝔦𝔫𝔫𝔢 🕊️☘️ @GrainneMcD92925]

“Your guardian angel is always with you. Do not forget this!”

St. Padre Pio 🕊️

[Catholic Frequency @CatholicFQ]

“Our world no longer hears God because it is constantly speaking, at a devastating speed and volume, in order to say nothing.”

- Cardinal Robert Sarah

[Dana Rachel 🇻🇦 @thyflameoflove]

"When parents pray for their children, God hears them, angels move, and great things happen. Pray with faith, and do not worry."
- St. Padre Pio

Padre Pio is reminding us that a parent’s prayer is powerful because it is rooted in love and trust in God. Scripture shows us that God listens to the prayers of the faithful, especially when they are offered with faith and perseverance.

Parents have a real role in bringing their children closer to God, not by control, but by interceding for them. Even when nothing seems to change, God is still working in ways we cannot see. Prayer invites grace into your child’s life, and grace is what truly transforms a heart.

💬 Do you really believe your prayers can change your child’s life, or have you started to give up without realizing it?

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Winston Churchill fought his depression with bricks. He'd lay them for hours at his country home in Kent. He joined the bricklayers' union. And in 1921 he wrote about why it worked. It took psychology another 75 years to catch up.

He called his depression the "Black Dog." It followed him for decades. His method for fighting it back was as basic as it sounds: laying brick after brick, hour after hour.

Churchill spelled out his theory in a long essay for The Strand Magazine. People who think for a living, he wrote, can't fix a tired brain just by resting it. They have to use a different part of themselves. The part that moves the eyes and the hands. Woodworking, chemistry, bookbinding, bricklaying, painting. Anything that drags the body into a problem the mind can't solve by itself.

Modern psychology now calls this behavioral activation. It's one of the most-studied depression treatments out there. Depression sets a behavior trap. You feel bad, so you stop doing things, and doing less means less to feel good about. Feeling worse makes you do even less. The loop tightens until you can't breathe inside it.

Behavioral activation breaks the loop from the action side. You schedule the activity first, even when every part of you doesn't want to. Doing it produces small rewards: a wall gets straighter, a painting fills in, a messy room gets clean. Those small rewards slowly rewire the brain. Action comes first, and the feeling follows.

Researchers at the University of Washington put this to the test in 2006. They studied 241 adults with major depression and compared three treatments: behavioral activation, regular talk therapy, and antidepressants. For the people who were most severely depressed, behavioral activation matched the drugs. It beat the talk therapy. A 2014 review of more than 1,500 patients across 26 trials backed up the result.

Physical work like bricklaying does something extra on top of this. It crowds out rumination, the looping bad thoughts that grind people down during the worst stretches of depression. Bricklaying needs both hands and gives feedback brick by brick: each one is straight or crooked. After an hour you can see exactly how much wall you built. No room left for the mental chewing.

The line George Mack used in his post, "depression hates a moving target," is good poetry. The science behind it is sharper. Depression hates a brain that has somewhere else to be.

[miguelifornia @miguelifornia]

🙏 🇺🇸 Lord we come before you & thank you for this day. We lift up America's Mayor @RudyGiuliani to you. We ask that you heal him, bless him & help him to know how much he is loved by You & American Patriots world wide.... touch him Lord ❤️

🕊 We ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen

[Traditional Catholic Education @TradCathEd]

In late 1960s Bishop Sheen predicted that the ruination of many countries in future will not be caused by wars, but by FALSE COMPASSION.
Bp. Sheen: "False compassion is a pity shown, not to the mugged but to the mugger; not to the family of the murdered, but to the murderer."

[Patricia Heaton @PatriciaHeaton]

I wasn’t happy when Clinton, Obama or Biden won, but I didn’t call them fascist/dangerous/threat to democracy. I didn’t hope someone would assassinate them. I went on with my life with gratitude. Friends on the left, please try this. Your life and our country will be better.

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

[American Woman (Michele) 🇺🇸 @1True_American_]

Sending up an extra prayer tonight for President Trump and his family.

Lord,

Hold and protect our President and his family. Give wisdom to those guarding them. Make them alert, steady and discerning. Place a hedge of protection around them, keeping them from all harm.

Fill their home with peace, their hearts with courage and their minds with clarity. Let Your presence go before them and stand watch behind them.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.🙏🏼

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

"In light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully." - President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸