I hope everyone had a restful and delicious Thanksgiving last week. We travelled, and stayed with family for a few days before coming home. Unfortunately we brought back a cold with us, and each kid has taken turns, except the youngest so far, in getting sick. I have a tickle in my throat and can’t help but wonder if I may be next.
On top of that, my oldest son has a surgery on the 11th at Shriners to remove some medical hardware now that his bones are fully healed. This kid continues to amaze me with how he faces hardship, with a smile and a laugh. I kindly ask your prayers for him and his surgical team, and for our family as we adjust to help our son recover well.
This also means I may not have a Weekly Wildflowers out next Sunday. Life has been throwing us some unexpected challenges this Fall so I ask your patience. The silver lining of course is that God is moving in all circumstances and has been speaking so gently to my heart — to rest. Rest in Him.
So I’m obliging and choosing to rest and trust Him in all things. This newsletter included.
AMDG
3 Quick Takes
My husband and I had the chance to hear Matt Fradd speak this past week in Greenville. You never really know how an online personality will be in person but I was pleasantly surprised to find a humble man, with self-deprecating humor gently but firmly encouraging the 600 Catholics in the room to dig in deep and turn to Christ in earnest. Not in a preachy kind of way but in a “I’ve lived this too” kind of way which was lovely and so refreshing. His new book, Jesus Our Refuge, was handed out to attendees and it’s quickly become my favorite Advent read. There was an interesting Q&A afterwards with questions ranging from do toilets really drain in reverse (they don’t!) to more serious questions on community, marriage, and politics. I love being in an area that makes these opportunities possible and I can’t recommend Matt’s new book enough so be sure to check it out!
My mind has been a bit overrun with stepping up to help with teaching and administration at my kids’ Catholic and classical hybrid school. I haven’t taught in almost 2 years so getting back into the swing of things, just as I had planned to ramp up my writing on Substack, has taken a mental toll. Still I love it. Shaping hearts and minds is easily the highest honor I’ve ever had, and to do so in a Catholic environment has been extra special. Which is why I stepped up to be honest, because we need more schools like this. We can discuss A Christmas Carol and Dicken’s message about the poor in society, and weave that into the Church’s teaching about the poor today. We can discuss poetry that mentions Christendom, and then deepen our understanding of that poem by learning about what Christendom is or was. It’s been a joy and a balance to strike, so I ask for your prayers as I continue in these new roles and strive to be present here as well.
I came across a disturbing article by the Free Press about student usage of screens during school and the correlation of lower IQ, test scores and the quality of mental health. It is an eye-opening article for sure, one that every parent and grandparent should take note of, and consider writing to their school district about. Even if you are a homeschooling family like us, this impacts our society as a whole. And this is why, more than ever I feel so strongly about schools like our hybrid school. It offers a classical and truly Catholic education and I hope to see more of them popping up in the future! You can read the full article here.
P.S. Don’t forget to participate in the community poll at the end! It’s a fun way to see how we are all way more alike than we realize. Let me know what poll question I should ask next in the comments below. Sometimes it’s hard to think of these!
Quote of the Week
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.”
-St. Francis of Assisi
Devotional Corner
Eventually I’ll write about the many thoughts that have been swirling in my head around Catholic Influencers, it will probably land squarely on the side of critique with some compassion sprinkled in.
Yet before I do that, I want to talk about the influence that we all hold.
Each of us. We know this, we experience it in real life every day. A co-worker has a cute new pair of earrings, and now you’re buying them. A friend has new running shoes they love, and you’re influenced, maybe enough to buy a pair for yourself. A brother or sister is trying out a new diet and is losing the weight (finally) so you decide to give it a try.
Every single day, every single person we interact with influences us, but rarely do we think about the inverse interaction. How our attitude lifts, or lowers, the mood in a room. How our choices of food or drink changes another’s mind. How a thousand little decisions — tone of voice, facial expressions, patience, impatience, generosity, restraint — shape the people who live closest to us.
And this becomes even more true during the holidays.
December has a way of magnifying everything we carry: our stress, our joy, our exhaustion, our reverence. People are watching us far more closely than we realize, not because we are important, but because we’re living life with each other in intimate and real ways. The people around us, our families, coworkers, the tired cashier, the friend who is quietly struggling, feel the ripple of our interior life.
This is where faith-filled influence becomes real.
Not online.
Not platformed.
Not curated.
But embodied.
How we wait during Advent, patiently or anxiously. How we speak of Christmas, rushed or reverent. How we approach gatherings with peace or performance. How we pray simply, imperfectly, but faithfully.
And how we love when we are tired, stressed, or pulled in too many directions.
None of this is loud. None of it requires a camera, a caption, or a “following.”
But it is influence.
It is the kind that actually changes people.
Because the quiet holiness of an ordinary life is strangely contagious. A sincere “I’ll pray for you.” A gentle refusal to gossip. Choosing presence over perfection. Keeping Advent simple and non-performative. Holding onto hope when someone else has lost theirs.
These are the small witnesses that make someone pause and wonder
“What anchors them? Where does that peace come from?”
Not better. Not more holy. Simply different in the way that grace makes a soul shine a little more clearly to those around them.
And that’s the kind of influence worth paying attention to during the holidays. That’s the kind of influence worth leaning into.
We all know how easily we’re influenced by the visible things—earrings, shoes, new habits, new routines. But the deeper truth is that our faith works the same way, only quieter. People notice the peace we carry. They notice when we choose patience instead of irritation. They notice when we keep the fast and longing of Advent instead of rushing ahead to the feast of Christmas.
These small, almost hidden choices plant seeds, just as subtle as seeing someone’s new earrings… yet infinitely more lasting. And maybe, without us ever knowing, it becomes the invitation someone else needed to turn toward God again.
Not because we said the right thing, but because we lived in a way that made space for Him to be seen in us and through us.
Love what you read? Sharing is one of the best (and free!) ways to support this work. Text it to a friend, post it in a group chat, or share it on Instagram or Facebook — wherever your people gather. Thank you! It helps me so much!
How long does your tree stay up?
I really enjoyed seeing what you all had to say about your trees! Our family travels during Christmas so we tend to keep it up until at least Epiphany, though sometimes longer depending on what we have going on.
I’ll be curious what you have to say about this poll.
