Say Yes to Holiness Newsletter
Inspiration for the week of October 6, 2025 (#335)
Welcome to the latest edition of the Say Yes to Holiness newsletter.
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So, let us call upon the archangels as we reflect upon this week’s Food for the Head, Heart, Hands and Feet designed to help you become the saint God created you to be…
Food for the Head
"When you know Mary, you know Jesus”—Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
October is the Month of the Rosary, and tomorrow (October 7th) is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Praying the rosary has many benefits as it helps to quiet the mind, calms anxiety, and strengthens faith when life becomes overwhelming.
It’s also a way to to enter into the experiences of Jesus and Mary, and to see their struggles, joys, and sorrows as our own.
As we do this, we come to know Mary more deeply, and by doing so, we come to know Jesus more deeply, too.
And this is exactly what Mother Teresa is talking about.
So, spend time getting to know Mary, and you will know Jesus.
This week, resolve to spend some time with Mary to get to know Jesus better.
Food for the Heart
"Jesus loves hidden souls. A hidden flower is the most fragrant. I must strive to make the interior of my soul a resting place for the Heart of Jesus.”—Saint Faustina
We celebrated Saint Faustina’s memorial yesterday (October 5th), and Saint Faustina came to know Jesus really well through her interactions with Him as He shared with her the messages contained in the Diary of Divine Mercy.
This message about Jesus loving hidden souls and how a hidden flower is the most fragrant is from that same Diary.
Additionally, Saint Faustina gives us the exact prescription we need in order to become that hidden soul—we strive to make the interior of my soul a resting place for the Heart of Jesus.
How might we do that?
Through quiet solitude.
The Apostle Paul spent three years in solitude in the Arabian desert after his conversion on the road to Damascus, and the power of this time likely served as a period of reflection and preparation for his future role as a missionary to the Gentiles.
Throughout the Gospels, we hear often about Jesus going to a solitary place to pray, especially before any major decisions like choosing His Apostles or before the beginning of His Passion.
In each instance, it is the quiet solitude of spending time with His Heavenly Father that gives Jesus the strength and graces He needs to fulfill the Father’s will in all things.
Just like Jesus, we, too, can fulfill the Father’s will for us by spending time with Him in quiet solitude.
And when we enter into quiet solitude, we will be able to create a resting place for the Heart of Jesus in our souls.
This week, resolve to spend at least ten minutes in quiet solitude with our Heavenly Father.
Food for the Hands
"The law of the gift is that one’s self increases in the measure that one gives oneself away.”—Saint Pope John Paul II
Saint Pope John Paul II gives us the secret to finding true happiness.
We need to give ourselves away.
As we do, then our self increases and we become even more of who we were created to be by our Creator.
Therefore, we need to seek to give ourselves away each and every moment of each and every day.
How can we do that?
Love.
We seek to love each person who is a part of your life—spouses, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins—even the really annoying ones.
We attempt to love anyone whom we encounter in the midst of our daily activities—the grocery clerk, the person at the fast food drive through window, our neighbors, and the person who cuts us off in traffic.
The more we love, the more we give ourselves away, and the more we become.
This is the paradox of Christian living.
Just like the Gosepl this weekend in which Jesus tells us that we are simply unprofitable servants who are doing what we are supposed to do.
For it is through death that we find life, and similarly, it is through loving that we fully become ourselves.
This week, resolve to give yourself away in love in both big and small ways.
Food for the Feet
"Our Lady has never refused me a grace through the recitation of the Rosary.”—Saint Padre Pio
Saint Padre Pio helps us understand the value of praying the Rosary.
For Padre Pio, he exerienced that Mary never refused him a grace when he would pray the Rosary.
How amazing is that?
To be able to request whatever graces we need from our Lady in the Rosary, and to receive them? That must be only something that a saint can ask for, right?
But this isn’t something only for saints.
It’s for every one of us.
Now, this doesn’t mean you can pray a Rosary and you get whatever you ask for—like a new house, job promotion, or something like that.
Rather, we can ask our Lady to send us whatever graces it is that we need to do God’s will, and she will send those graces for us to be able to be obedient.
Do you need a better reason to pray the Rosary than that?
This week, resolve to pray the Rosary and ask our Lady for the graces to do God’s will.
Exhortation
"Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”—Saint Francis of Assisi
We celebrated the feast of Saint Francis on Saturday (October 4th), and this exhortation from him is a perfect way to look at being able to cultivate the habits that we have focused upon here.
You might feel overwhelmed by the idea of trying to get to know Mary better so you can come to know Jesus better, or by spending time in quiet solitude, or by seeking to give yourself away by loving others in big and small ways, or even by trying to pray the Rosary.
The great news is that You. Can. Do. This.
It is necessary to grow in your relationship with God, so make sure to spend time with Him each day.
It’s possible to get to know Mary, to love others in big and small ways, and to pray the Rosary.
And then you will find the impossible happening in your life, too.
Just keep trying to do WHATEVER IT TAKES, so that together we can tell the Master of Death, "NOT TODAY!"
All the best,
Christina
Below are the Latest Happenings In the Say Yes to Holiness Community!
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Posts on the Women of the New Evangelization (WINE) blog in 2025:
Gaining Wisdom of Heart (Sept 9)
The Passion of the Passion (Apr 13)
Bearing Fruit in a Pruning Season (March 23)
Putting Out Into the Deep (Feb 9)
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The Catholic Leadership Puzzle is a initiative that shares and discusses content from my upcoming book (also to be named The Catholic Leadership Puzzle) that focuses upon how we each can help to create life-giving communities where we can become the holy men and women that God created us to be.