Say Yes to Holiness Newsletter #350
Inspiration for the week of January 19, 2026
Welcome to the latest edition of the weekly Say Yes to Holiness newsletter—designed to help inspire, encourage and accompany you on the path towards holiness.
Last week, the Church liturgical year had us meditate upon the baptism of Jesus as a means to help us reflect upon our own baptism.
This week, the Gospel gives us John the Baptist’s testimony as to what he saw at the moment of Jesus’ baptism—how he saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.
It was not until THAT moment that John KNEW who the Lamb of God was, and he gave his testimony to this fact that Jesus was the Son of God. And from that moment on, John knew for certain that he was not the bridegroom, and needed to decrease while Jesus increased.
We would call a moment like that a metanoia moment.
A moment from which everything changes going forward.
Now, some of us may remember metanoia moments from our lives—maybe it was a cancer diagnosis, or the death of a loved one, or a near accident, or perhaps it was an encounter with God on a retreat. Some of us might not remember one.
But the fact is that ALL of us have had one.
The moment of our baptism.
Our baptism is a metanoia moment—or at least it should be.
So, this week’s Food for the Head, Heart, Hands and Feet is going to inspire, encourage, and empower you to live out metanoia in your daily life as we journey on the road towards holiness…
Food for the Head
“No one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord. The great joy announced by the angels on Christmas night is truly for all people, both for the people of Israel then anxiously awaiting a Savior, and for the numberless people made up of all those who, in time to come, would receive its message and strive to live by it.” – Saint Paul VI
Saint Pope Paul VI shares how no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord at Christmas. The angels’ announcement is for all people, not just the people of Israel, but also for all those numberless people who would receive the Christmas message and strive to live by it.
We are those people.
We are those people who because of the Lord’s coming, and through our baptism are striving to live by that same message of joy, hope, peace, and love.
But is it possible to live the Christmas message in our daily life?
Yes.
Is it easy?
No.
And that reality is the real sticking point for living out our metanoia.
The reality that every day we have to try our best, and when we fail (which we all do!), then to get back up again and be willing to share the message that Jesus came for everyone.
On a practical level, that means we must try to live joyfully in the midst of challenging circumstances, be hopeful when things seem chaotic and grim, be a person of peace in a society filled with anger and violence, and love others with goodness, kindness and gentleness that doesn’t seem possible.
But it is possible.
We simply need to remember our promise to follow Jesus and then keep showing up and trying to follow Him.
This week, resolve to continue following Jesus’s example as His disciple.
Food for the Heart
"There are two births of Christ, one unto the world in Bethlehem; the other in the soul, when it is spiritually reborn. Men think of the former much more than the later, and celebrate it every year; but the spiritual Bethlehem is equally momentous. . . . It was the second birth that Saint Paul insisted on when he wrote from prison to his beloved people, the Ephesians, asking that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith and that they be rooted and grounded in love. This is the second Bethlehem, or the personal relationship of the individual heart to the Lord Christ.” – Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen tells us the key to a metanoia moment—the soul being spiritually reborn.
Our soul is reborn each time that we ask Christ to dwell in our hearts.
The first is at our baptism. The rest happen every day.
Our souls are reborn every day we ask Jesus to dwell in our hearts and to help us remain rooted and grounded in love.
It is this personal relationship that is the second Bethlehem to which Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen is referring.
To continue our metanoia journey, we must focus upon how we can have Jesus dwell within our hearts.
The easiest way is to ensure Jesus is dwelling in our hearts is by spending time in prayer and meditation. Whenever we spend this time, we are opening our hearts and minds and souls to Jesus’ presence, and this gives birth to Jesus’ presence in our daily life.
There is a correlation between how much time we spend with Jesus and how well we live metanoia. The more time we spend, the easier it is.
However, spending time with Jesus doesn’t mean we neglect the responsibilities the Lord has placed before us.
Rather, we learn how to bring Jesus into everything we think, say and do so that we can be “praying always.”
This takes practice, so we probably should get after it, eh?
This week, resolve to get better at spending time with Jesus every day in prayer and meditation.
Food for the Hands
"One should not say that it is impossible to reach a virtuous life; but one should say that it is not easy. Nor do those who have reached it find it easy to maintain.”—St. Anthony Of The Desert
Saint Anthony of the Desert is known as the “Father of Monasticism.”
He was the first saint to really get serious about “selling all you have” and living a simple life.
Another saint who did this was Saint Francis of Assisi. (In memory of the 800th anniversary of his death in 1226, that Pope Leo XIV has announced an extraordinary Franciscan jubilee year for the next year—You can read more about it here).
Both of them had metanoia moments and strove to live differently afterwards.
But it was Saint Anthony who got it all started as it was his example of giving up all he had and going out into the desert that led others to do the same, and eventually monastic communities evolved from this one man’s response to the Gospel to live a simple life of prayer.
Saint Francis re-emphasized this when he began to live his simple life focused upon the essentials, open to peace, fraternity, and respect for creation.
We are now being called to live similarly during this Franciscan Jubilee year.
Saint Anthony and Saint Francis both became more virtuous through their efforts, and living out their model of life is not easy or to maintain, but it is possible.
Both Saint Anthony and Saint Francis can attest to that.
This week, resolve to live more simply.
Food for the Feet
"We have difficulty understanding this, just as a blind man has difficulty understanding color, but our difficulty doesn’t alter this fact: God’s omnipotence and omniscience respects our freedom. In the core of our being we remain free to accept or reject God’s action in our lives—and to accept or reject it more or less intensely. God wants us to accept him with all our ‘heart, soul, mind, and strength’—in other words, as intensely as possible. But he also knows that we are burdened with selfishness and beset by the devil, so it will take a great effort on our part to correspond to his grace. … Every time our conscience nudges us to refrain from sharing or tolerating that little bit of gossip, every time we feel a tug in our hearts to say a prayer or give a little more effort, every time we detect an opportunity to do a hidden act of kindness to someone in need, we are faced with an opportunity to please the Lord by putting our faith in his will.” —Fr. John Bartunek, The Better Part, p. 591
Father Bartunek gives us help in how the Lord works in our lives to help us keep living out our metanoia.
The Lord will nudge our conscience and tug at our hearts.
Each time we respond and refrain from sharing or tolerating gossip, or say a prayer and give a little more effort, or do a hidden act of kindness for someone in need, we are are living metanoia in our lives.
But we have to accept God’s action in our lives.
We have to be willing to accept or reject God acting more or less intensely in the midst of our day.
We have to be willing to persevere in the midst of all those things that we don’t like, can’t change, didn’t choose or don’t understand, especially when we feel the nudge of our conscience or tug at our hearts.
God will never force us or violate our free will because He loves us too much.
Therefore, SAY YES to God’s promptings and allow Him to help you live out metanoia each and every day.
This week, resolve to SAY YES to God’s nudges and tugs in our hearts, minds and souls.
Exhortation
”He took what is mine in order that He might impart to me what is His. He took it not to overturn it but to fill it.”—St Ambrose
Saint Ambrose gives us the final insight we need to sustain our metanoia—remembering that the Lord only takes from us what is His in order to give it back in such a way that we are more fulfilled.
Becoming more fulfilled, or more accurately, becoming more who God created us to be, is metanoia living.
The Lord is calling us to greatness.
We just need to SAY YES.
May each of you do WHATEVER IT TAKES this week to SAY YES, 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!
Guest appearances on the Religion to Reality podcast:
Catholic Podcasting with Paul Fahey, Christina Semmens, and Jose Manuel de Urquidi
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(My comments can be found around the 24 minute mark.)
Guest appearance on the Equipcast Podcast:
"When God Asks, How Do You Answer?: The Power of 'Yes' with Christina Semmens
Posts on the Women of the New Evangelization (WINE) blog in 2025:
Do Not Be Terrified (Nov 16)
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)
Article on Catholic365.com Platform:
We Are All Eucharistic Missionaires!
Latest episode of the Say Yes to Holiness podcast...
Episode #257—”Embracing New Beginnings: Setting Priorities for the New Year”
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The Say Yes to Holiness YouTube Channel
Episode #257—”Embracing New Beginnings: Setting Priorities for the New Year”
The Catholic Leadership Puzzle content continues! Here is the latest...
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.