Say Yes to Holiness Newsletter #358
Inspiration for the week of March 16, 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.
The Gospel on Laetare Sunday this year was the healing of the man born blind.
In the story, we see how blindness wasn’t just something that the man who Jesus healed of blindness suffered from, but rather, was a problem that many others suffered from as well.
Therefore, this week’s Food for the Head, Heart, Hands and Feet will inspire, encourage and accompany you in identifying the blindness in our lives so that we can “see” the path we must trod on the journey towards holiness…
Food for the Head
“Lord, that I may see.” – St. Augustine
Saint Augustine’s straightforward plea to the Lord needs to become our own if we truly want to learn to “see” as God does. Because although we may have physical sight, each of us is “blind” in some way or another.
This is because God sees far differently than we do, and the first reading from the book of Kings in yesterday’s Mass highlights this reality as Samuel continues to see each of Jesse’s sons as worthy of being anointed, but God continues to tell Samuel that he is not seeing as God does. It is only when David finally arrives that God directs Samuel to anoint him as this is the one whom the Lord sees is a man “after His own heart.”
There are many other ways that God sees that we do not as God tends to select people that the world would completely disregard or reject. The twelve Apostles, and many saints throughout the centuries have been the most unlikely of people to be given the tasks to which they are entrusted, but God tends to work through those whom we are blind to seeing.
Therefore, if we desire to become aware of our blindness and begin to understand why we are blind in this area of our life, we must implore God for His wisdom and knowledge so that our prayer, “Lord, that I may see”, is answered.
This week, resolve to implore the Lord for the wisdom and knowledge to “see” as He sees.
Food for the Heart
“The greatest blindness is not to see God.” – Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa of Avila makes a statement of fact that you might think does not have to be made, especially if we call ourselves Jesus’ disciples. However, if you reflect upon the Gospel from yesterday, you may realize that we do not see God as well as we think we do.
This is because all of us can be just like the Pharisees.
The Pharisees refused to see that God had done a miracle in their midst. They came up with all sorts of reasons for why the man born blind could not have actually been healed by God. The fact that the miracle happened on a Sabbath is one reason. Another is that they then denied that the man had been born blind. Then they presumed that because Jesus had not kept the Sabbath, then he must be a sinner, and a sinner is not capable of performing miracles. Finally, they denied that they were blind to God being in their midst.
Throughout the Gospel, the Pharisees do not see God before them because Jesus does not look, speak, or act like the Pharisees think God should look, speak or act. In other words, they are blind to the reality that God is standing right there before them, but because it doesn’t look like what they expect, they deny the miracle and are blind to God.
Now, you may be thinking that you would have accepted the miracle and not been like the Pharisees. But how often do we deny that God is working in our lives because God isn’t answering our prayers the way that we think He should? Or how many times have you missed calling a miracle a miracle? What about a grandparent or parent or sibling’s unexpected conversion, or a friend who calls out of the blue with information about something you needed, or when money or an opportunity occurred just when you needed it? Did you not see the miracle because they didn’t happen in a way that you expected?
One of my favorite saying is “Coincidence is when God works a miracle and decides to remain anonymous.” In light of that, how many coincidences have we just accepted as “luck” rather than naming them the miracles of God that they are? And if we have done that, can see now how we have been blind to God and failed to rejoice in His goodness and kindness and merciful care?
Time for us to stop doing that, don’t you think?
This week, resolve to see God in your midst and rejoice in the miracles your Lord has done for you.
Food for the Hands
“Open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of your law.” – Saint John Paul II
In our society today, God’s law is definitley not seen as wonderful, is it?
Most of the time people are trying to ignore God’s law or pretend to be ignorant of it so they can be free to do what they want, when they want.
But that is not true freedom. That is actually called license.
Because true freedom is only possible within the law. We can only make truly free choices if we are aware of the boundaries within which those choices must be made.
Boundaries that are life-giving, not life-limiting.
When we truly see the wonders of God’s law, we see that God, in His infinte wisdom has given us what we need to ensure that we can find purpose, peace and abundance in our lives and to fully become the unique and unrepeatable men and women that He created us to be.
We know this is true in our hearts, but we tend to like our sins, therefore, we want to do away with God’s law found in the Ten Commandments, the two Great Commandments and the Beatitudes.
When we seek to be virtuous, then we can see the wonders of God’s law, for we realize that it when we are striving to live within the boundaries of God’s law (living a life of virtue) that we will find our true happiness.
Therefore, let us seek to grow in virtue each day so we may come to see the wonders of God’s law and find the happiness for which we seek.
This week, resolve to practice virtue each day this week to experience and see the wonders of God’s law.
Food for the Feet
“In our blindness, we must trust in God’s guiding hand.” – Saint Francis of Assisi
Once we recognize our blindness, we have a choice.
Continue to walk blindly and potentially fall into a pit (Jesus’ example!), or to abandon ourselves to His care and trust in His guiding hand.
The choice is that simple. Do I continue to pridefully rely upon myself? Or will I become humble and accept God’s guiding hand?
If you are struggling to trust, may I suggest that you pray the Rosary? Mary is the preeminent example of trusting the Lord throughout her entire life on earth.
Or, in light of his feast day this week, perhaps you turn to Saint Joseph? Joseph was not immaculately conceived like Mary, but he trusted the messages given to him by God through angels in his dreams and took Mary as his wife, fled to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to keep them safe from Herod’s intent to kill the baby Jesus, and remained in Egypt until he was told it was safe to return to Nazareth. Talk about trust!
Or turn to any of the saints and ask for their intercession to help you grow in trusting God’s guiding hand.
Whomever you ask for help, know that the help will be given, and they will joyfully assist you in learning to trust God’s guiding hand just like they did.
This week, resolve to ask Mary, Joseph or any of the saints to intercede for you to grow in trust of God’s guiding hand in your daily life.
Exhortation
”Satan is afraid of resolute souls.”—Father Donald Haggerty
Withe the celebration of Laetare Sunday yesterday, we are now more than halfway through Lent, and are less than three weeks away from Easter.
During these final weeks, it is vital that we remain resolute in our Lenten promises and our desire to draw closer to the Lord, especially in His Passion so that we may rejoice fully come Easter Sunday.
One of the ways we can be resolute is by identifying any blindness in our lives and then seek to be healed by Jesus. We do this by imploring God for His wisdom and knowledge; acknowledging God’s miracles in our midst; strive to live a life of virtue; and seek the help of Mary, Joseph and the saints to help us grow in trust of God.
I pray that you may do WHATEVER IT TAKES to be healed of blindness in your life, 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!
The Lenten Online Retreat continues!!
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.
Latest Post on the Women of the New Evangelization (WINE) blog:
Harden Not Our Hearts (Mar 9)
Do Not Be Terrified (Nov 16)
Gaining Wisdom of Heart (Sept 9)
Guest appearance on the Equipcast Podcast:
"When God Asks, How Do You Answer?: The Power of 'Yes' with Christina Semmens
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 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.