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Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!

Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her work, the two …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a Catholic web site focusing on the Catholic faith, Catholic parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. Most recently she has authored The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also employed as webmaster for her parish web sites. …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
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Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
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Guest Bloggers

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Elizabeth Foss

Elizabeth Foss
Elizabeth Foss, an award winning columnist for the Arlington Catholic Herald, published her first book, Real Learning: Education in the Heart of My Home in 2003. The book is now in its third printing. Her popular blog, In the Heart of My Home is a source of inspiration and support for Catholic women …
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Because He's So Happy!

Seeking joy in God's love

My parents taught me that “Mommy loves you, and Daddy loves you, but Jesus loves you best of all.”  I tell Camilla the same thing.

We also talk about how it is good to love Jesus, and why: because it makes him happy.

Even basic theology is often too complex for a two-year-old, and in this case my daughter has gotten mixed up.

“I love Jesus!” she’ll chirpily declare.  “Because he’s so happy!”

But it occurred to me the other day that Camilla’s not in theological error.  In fact, she might be getting more to the crux of the matter than I am!

I often think of a pious life as something that I’m required to give to God.  As if the prayers and good works that I try to offer on a daily basis are the vital part of my relationship with him.

Setting aside the truth that I can do nothing good except by his grace, the way I often approach the task of living the Christian life is just plain wrong.

God asks me to offer him my thoughts and my actions not because they are ends in themselves, but because they are the means to an end.  Because as I allow him to take up more space in my daily life, I am transformed so that I can participate more fully in his divine life.

It is not my piety that is the point.  It is the degree to which I allow Christ to inhabit my heart and my mind that is the point.

I am called to seek God not because my worship adds anything to him, but because he has created me to be transformed in his likeness.  Not foremost so that I may give him joy - he is already perfect Joy - but so that I may receive his joy.

I love him, in other words, because he’s so happy.  My toddler got it right after all.


Comments

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This was beautiful, and so often “faith like a child” rings true (or course being a child is so close to how God is, and wants us to be - like one of the feature articles this week) so she is wiser than she knows smile

Our 5yo daughter is the same way. She’s so wordy about her love for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. These precious young years are such a great time to help them both lead us in their love and devotion and little ways, and guide them as well. It is so much fun, and inspiring, to watch. And all your words:

“God asks me to offer him my thoughts and my actions not because they are ends in themselves, but because they are the means to an end.  Because as I allow him to take up more space in my daily life, I am transformed so that I can participate more fully in his divine life.

It is not my piety that is the point.  It is the degree to which I allow Christ to inhabit my heart and my mind that is the point.

I am called to seek God not because my worship adds anything to him, but because he has created me to be transformed in his likeness.  Not foremost so that I may give him joy - he is already perfect Joy - but so that I may receive his joy”

ARE SO TRUE and beautifully written. Thank you!


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