Eighth stop along my blog tour!

Introducing: "Catholic Mom's Café"

It is my pleasure to introduce to you my friend, best-selling author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, and her latest project, Catholic Mom’s Cafe: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year.

Donna is a renowned speaker, blogger, EWTN host, and author of numerous books, including Mother Teresa and Me: Ten Years of Friendship. Although we’ve never met in person, I’ve had the pleasure of calling Donna my friend as well as my colleague for many years.

Donna writes and speaks about faith and family in her numerous blogs—check here and here, for example—always with a special fervor for Catholic motherhood.

This post is part of a Blog Tour launching Donna’s new book. Drop by herCatholic Mom's Café blog and Facebook page to check out the rest of thestops on the Blog Tour—as well as Catholic ideas, book excerpts, reviews, inspiration, news, and recipes.

As a mother of five, Donna knows what it’s like to be a busy mother who has to be deliberate about carving time out of her day for the Lord—or it just won’t happen.

Catholic Mom’s Cafe: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year is a 365-day devotional book for busy Catholic moms. The daily reflections highlight the virtues of faith, hope, and love, and are brief enough to be enjoyed in just five minutes.

“The focus in this book is about living lives of faith, hope and love within the vocation of mothering our children. God as a free gift gives us these wonderful theological virtues at our baptism. These virtues are key to living a Christian life, and I think sadly sometimes we forget about them. I thought it would be helpful to write a book in this way, which offers the busy mom a chance to discover the virtues already present in her life, but unfolding more and more each day. I think the book can be a reminder to "flex" a particular "muscle" of virtue each day to "grow" the virtues! Practicing these virtues makes us more like our Creator.” 

~Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle

Donna describes the meditations as “spiritual daily vitamins” to energize youand help you find “the faith, hope, and love you’ll need to be the mom God wants you to be – today and every day.”

By the way, Donna will be hosting on EWTN an upcoming five-part television series by the same name, "Catholic Mom's Café." Check your local listings for details.

One more thing—autographed copies of Catholic Mom's Café are available for purchase at Donna-Marie's website. You can also purchase the book through the publisher, Our Sunday Visitor.

Here's a sampling. Today's meditation in Catholic Mom’s Cafe: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year:

April 23rd

Ponder
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." 
~Hebrews 11:1

Offer
I used to visit an elderly blind man at a nursing home. My first time visiting him, he reached his hands forward and ran them all over my face. That's how he "saw" me. It was the first time I had ever experienced something like that, so it was a tad startling.

In a way, his gesture demonstrates how difficult faith can be: Even when we are literally blind, we struggle to "see." And yet God calls us to have conviction about faith--these "things not seen"--even though we cannot put our hands out and "feel" it. Let's trust that He will help us grow in faith and pass it on to our children.

Pray
Lord Jesus, strengthen my faith in you so that I may share it with my family and others. Act of Faith, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

Savor
I want to reach out in faith as the blind man did.

Please visit Maria's blog here: 

http://daybydaywithmaria.blogspot.com/2013/04/introducing-catholic-moms-cafe.html
Feel free to leave a comment and/or share through social media. As well, feel free to leave a comment here.

Seventh stop along the blog tour!

Book Review: Catholic Mom's Cafe

 

Ponder. 

Offer.
Pray. 

Savor. 

Four quick steps to get the day going. 

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Five-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year offers daily entries that are meaty enough to be meaningful and short enough to be manageable. 

Ponder a quote. 

Offer a thought. 

Pray a short prayer. 

Savor a Godsend. 

I opened the book at random, and found this great quote from Dorothy Day: 

"Because I am a woman involved in practical cares, I cannot give the first half of the day to these things, but must meditate when I can, early in the morning and on the fly during the day. Not in the privacy of a study - but here, there and everywhere - at the kitchen table, on the train, on the ferry, on my way to and from appointments and even while making supper or putting [my daughter] to bed."

Dorothy Day and Donna-Marie ... these two understand. 

Catholic Mom's Cafe will be here, there, and everywhere in my house. 

(This post is a stop on Donna-Marie's blog tour. Visit Donna at her Catholic Mom's Cafe blog to follow all the stops, or go to Our Sunday Visitor's catalog for more information on the book.)

My appearance on EWTN's Live show!

You can see my very recent appearance on the EWTN Live show here: http://bcove.me/dxy3qqmc Fr. Mitch Pacwa and I speak about my new book Catholic Mom's Cafe as well as my brand new series on EWTN coming up - with the same title Catholic Mom's Cafe!

Sixth stop along my blog tour!

Book Review: Catholic Mom’s Café: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year

By Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, to be released May 9, 2013, Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Indiana, Paperback. Available from Our Sunday Visitor, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Catholic  book stores. Autographed copies are available at Donna- Marie's website HERE.

Reviewed by Jean M. Heimann, M. A. Theology, wife, mother, freelance writer, and oblate with the Community of St. John.

In her latest book, Catholic Mom’s Café: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year, Donna-Marie Cooper-O’Boyle offers busy Catholic moms a wonderful way to grow closer to God by rejuvenating their prayer lives. She provides 365 days of devotions based on the virtues of faith, hope, and love that are brief enough to be enjoyed in just five minutes.  Each meditation consists of four parts: Ponder, which is the reading of a Scripture verse or quote, Offer, which entails offering yourself to the Lord through an activity or idea, Pray, which consists of the recitation of a few short prayers related to the theme, and Savor, which is a final thought to ponder and carry with you throughout the day.

As I read through each day’s meditations, I found myself uplifted and inspired by the words of wisdom and also by the diverse and appealing range of themes presented. Each brief meditation is power-packed with spiritual nourishment and is certain to help moms grow in holiness. I especially enjoyed those meditations that focused on prayer and shared stories of the lives of the saints and quotes from the saints. While these meditations were written primarily for moms, at times, it seemed to me that many of them were almost general enough to apply to most women—even those without husbands and children.

In summary,  Catholic Mom’s Café: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year  offers busy mothers a quick and simple method of meditation and prayer to help them grow spiritually, while remaining attentive to their families.  These prudent and pithy meditations are ideal for helping busy women rejuvenate their prayer life. I am looking forward to contemplating each of these daily devotions over the course of the coming year in order to grow in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, and develop a more intimate union with God.

Please see this post here at the "Catholic Fire" blog: http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-review-catholic-moms-cafe-5-minute.html Please feel free to leave a comment on Jean's blog and share through social media.

Fifth stop along my blog tour!

Mom's Cafe

This is from Woodeene Koenig-Bricker:

  

I've long admired Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, ever since I learned of her decade-long friendship with Mother Teresa.  I never thought I'd get a chance to meet her, but God works in mysterious ways.  Not only do I get to meet her, I will be a guest on her upcoming EWTN television series called "Catholic Mom's Cafe"!

 

Donna-Marie has written a simply marvelous book with the same name (almost): Catholic Mom's Cafe" 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year (Our Sunday Visitor, 2013). When I had a chance to see a copy, I promptly turned to my birth day and chuckled with it was all about not worrying.  I think I have a PhD in worry, so the irony was not lost.

 

 

I've always loved daily devotionals and this little book is just my cup of tea (all puns intended.) Each day provides a quote from the Bible, an inspirational quote, a short but pithy meditation, a prayer and a thought to carry through the day. It's the ideal length for meaningful insight but not so long as to become another chore. It's the kind of book that would make a great gift for a new mom, a seasoned mother or even yourself!

    

Donna-Marie also has a great blog at CatholicMomsCafe.blogspot.com. (Disclosure:  I am an occasional guest there!) as well as a Facebook page at facebook.com/CatholicMomsCafe. Lots of good stuff there...and not just for moms!

 

The book will be out soon and I've got it on good authority that you can get an autographed copy at her website. They will be available at Our Sunday Visitor, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Catholic bookstores as well.

 

And in case you are interested, here's link to the upcoming TV show and one of Donna-Marie's guests. :)

See Woodeene's blog post here: http://woodeene.blogspot.com/2013/04/moms-cafe.html?spref=fb to leave a comment or share through social media.