Say Yes to Holiness Newsletter #355
Inspiration for the week of February 23, 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.
Lent has begun.
We are still in the first seven days of Lent, so it is not too late to begin. Or, more likely for many of us, to begin again.
Because this is what Lent is about. It’s about new beginnings.
It’s about coming home.
Coming home to the One who loves us more than we can imagine. The One who loves us so much that He sent His Son to walk with us. The One who loves us so much that He died for us so we can be with Him for all eternity.
But we have to do our part.
Jesus showed us this in the Gospel yesterday as He resisted temptation and fought against Satan in the desert. He showed us what we need to do during this Lenten journey.
So, this week’s Food for the Head, Heart, Hands and Feet will seek to inspire, encourage and accompany you to be able to resist temptation in the desert of Lent and come home to the One who loves us for all eternity…
Food for the Head
“The Holy Bible is like a mirror before our mind’s eye. In it we see our inner face. From the Scriptures we can learn our spiritual deformities and beauties. And there too we discover the progress we are making and how far we are from perfection.”— Pope St. Gregory the Great
Saint Pope Gregory the Great reminds us how we can come to know our true selves—read the Scriptures.
We can learn SO much about ourselves by meditating upon Scripture, especially the Gospels where Jesus teaches and models for us how we should live our lives.
Case in point is Jesus being tempted in the desert. How does He respond? He responds by quoting Scripture back to His tempter!
Jesus was SO rooted in Scripture that He was able to reject the temptation being offered because He knew who God was and who He was in relation to God, and how He was called to live out His life.
Can we do that?
Are you able to say definitively who God is and who you are in relation to God?
Do you know how God desires for you to live out your life?
It’s not a secret. God has given us all that we need through His Sacred Scriptures. But we must avail ourselves of what has been given. We must become rooted in the Scriptures like Jesus was. Like Mary was. Like Saint Joseph was. Like Noah, Moses Jacob, Joseph and David, and all the great prophers were and all the saints since. We must work to make the words of God become engraved so deeply in our minds and hearts that God’s words become our words, particularly whenever we face temptation.
Lent is exactly the time to go about doing this. Let’s get started.
This week, resolve to immerse yourself in the Word of God so that His words become yours.
Food for the Heart
"Even if you do not confess, God is not ignorant of the deed, since he knew it before it was committed. Why then do you not speak of it? Does the transgression become heavier by the confession? No, it becomes lighter and less troublesome. And this is why he wants you to confess: not that you should be punished, but that you should be forgiven; not that he may learn your sin—how could that be, since he has seen it?—but that you may learn what favor he bestows. He wishes you to learn the greatness of his grace, so that you may praise him perfectly, that you may be slower to sin, that you may be quicker to virtue. And if you do not confess the greatness of the need, you will not understand the enormous magnitude of his grace.”—St. John Chrysostom, A Year with the Church Fathers, p. 255
One of the best ways for us to be able to resist temptation is to rid ourselves of all the baggage that comes from our prior failures in the face of temptation.
All those times when we were not able to reject Satan and his promises, leaves a stain on our souls and in our minds and hearts. Confession is the way that we can be made clean again.
Saint John Chrysostom tells us that confession is not about punishment, but is so that you may learn from the mistake and to receive the graces you need to combat that sin in the future. God wants this good for us. He wants us to be freed from our sins and to learn of the magnitude of His mercy and grace.
We must stop presuming that we are as good as God, and realize that sin is keeping us from true goodness. With that realization, we have been given the key to our freedom. Once we confess those sins and receive God’s mercy, we then are released from the power of Satan, and stand in the doorway of all that is good, true and beautiful.
Then it is up to us to step through.
But the hard work of confession comes first.
This week, resolve to get to confession this Lenten season.
Food for the Hands
"Virtues allow us to become excellent – more fully and perfectly human – by disposing us to perform good acts, to perfect ourselves, and to give the best of ourselves. When we possess the virtues, it becomes easier and more natural and enjoyable for us to do the right things. We’re able to maximize our human powers. Virtues make us and our actions good.”—Kevin Vost, PSY.D., The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, p.112-113T
Psychologist and Catholic author Kevin Vost reminds us why we need to strive to grow in virtue each and every day.
Virtues allow us to become more fully and perfectly human. Virtue helps us become our best selves as all virtue helps us to more easily, naturally and promptly do the right things. When we are doing this, then not only do our actions become good, but we become good as well.
Lent is an optimal time to grow in virtue. We are united spiritually with our brothers and sisters in Christ as we make resolutions concerning our prayer, fasting and almosgiving, and we have the entire worldwide Church supporting us in the struggle to become better disciples of Christ.
In other words, we are not alone in the struggle. So, whatever virtue you have been struggling to acquire—love, kindness, patience, goodness, self-control, generosity, etc.—resolve to do the hard work and know that you are being supported in your Lenten resolutions.
This week, resolve to grow in virtue each day of this Lenten season.
Food for the Feet
"Yes, my heart’s dear one, Jesus, is here with His cross. Since you are one of His favorites, he wants to make you into His likeness; why be afraid that you will not have the strength to carry this cross without a struggle? On the way to Calvary, Jesus did indeed fall three times and you, poor little child, would like to be different from your spouse, would rather not fall a hundred times if necessary to prove your love to Him by getting back up with even more strength than before your fall!” —St. Therese of Lisieux, St Therese of Lisieux, Meditations with the Little Flower, p.87
Saint Therese tells us to not be afraid of the struggle to carry the cross.
Why? Because Jesus Himself fell three times on the Way of the Cross, so we should not expect ourselves to be any better than Him!
Instead, we should seek to meditate not upon the struggle, but upon how Jesus persevered. He persevered, and so can we.
A beautiful way to meditate upon carrying the cross for ourselves during Lent is by participating and praying the Stations of the Cross.
The Stations allow us to journey with Christ, to see the struggles He endured, and to meditate upon how much He loved us.
And from His witness, we gain strength to endure and bear our own crosses as well.
This week, resolve to participate in the Stations of the Cross at least once this Lenten season.
Exhortation
”If only I could put into everybody’s heart the fire I have in my breast, which makes me burn with such love for the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary!”-St. Jacinta Marto
Saint Jacinto Marto was one of the three shepherd children of Fatima. During the Marian apparitions that followed, he could see the Blessed Mother, but not able to hear what she said in her messages. Yet he was set aflame with such love for the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary that he spent the rest of his short life offering reparation for his sins and the sins of others by praying the rosary—just as Mary asks of all of us.
This Lent is our opportunity to make a choice like Jacinta. Will we or not answer the call to move from sin to grace? Will we remain self-centered or other-centered? Are we willing to lay down our life for others as Jesus did for us?
These are the questions for us to confront and answer just as Jesus did when rejecting the three temptations posed by Satan.
He is with us, and will remain with us throughout these Lenten days as we seek to reorient ourselves on the One who is inviting us home.
If you have not begun yet, begin. If you have gotten misoriented, look up and put your eyes on Christ, and let Him lead you home.
May you do WHATEVER IT TAKES to resist temptation in the Lenten desert, so 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!
The Lenten Online Retreat is underway!!
This retreat has us reading from the spiritual classic, Rooting Out Hidden Faults: How the Particular Examen Conquers Sin by Father James McElhone, CSC.
This online retreat will include a brief reflection and daily resolution that is designed to help you incorporate the use of a particular examen in your daily life to help you take the next step on our pilgrimage towards holiness. If you are interested, send me a message by clicking below.
The link above will take you to my Substack page where you can find all the laterst podcast posts for the Lenten Online Retreat. If you are not subscribed yet, I invite you to do for free—or you can make a donation in support of the work associated with this endeavor.
Guest appearances on the Religion to Reality podcast:
Catholic Podcasting with Paul Fahey, Christina Semmens, and Jose Manuel de Urquidi
Living the Works of Mercy: Bridging Faith and Action
(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)
Article on Catholic365.com Platform:
We Are All Eucharistic Missionaires!
Latest episode of the Say Yes to Holiness podcast...
Episode #260—”Helping Your Marriage Flourish—1:1 with Katie Zulanas, Executive Director, Couple to Couple League”
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The Say Yes to Holiness YouTube Channel
Watch the Lenten Book Online Retreat—”Rooting Out Hidden Faults” by Father James McElhone on YouTube—Click here to be taken to the playlist
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.