Inspiring Souls
Through Shared Faith Journeys
Every faith journey has the ability to inspire. Whether it involves facing challenges, experiencing growth, or uncovering inner peace, I believe sharing my journey can motivate others to explore their own faith practices and strengthen their relationship with God. Through reflecting on my own lived experiences and asking others about theirs, I have discovered insights I hadn’t considered before. These conversations have sparked a deeper curiosity within me to go deeper.
The conversations are not always easy. Talking about God can make people uncomfortable. We worry about being judged or perhaps offending someone who does not share the same beliefs. My lived experiences have led me to certain conclusions. They have also taught me that it is not my job to convince anyone that I’m right. Instead, I approach these moments with respect, openness, and curiosity. Even when I vehemently disagree with someone, I find myself wondering, Why has God put this person in my path? What am I meant to learn from them?
Your story matters too, and it has the potential to impact lives in ways you may never fully understand. By sharing your journey, you create opportunities for connection, reflection, and growth—both for yourself and for others. I invite you to take the next step. Join our community and share your journey today.
Cleaning off my bookshelves one morning, I stumble across a book my husband purchased at a St. Vincent de Paul event entitled Affairs of the Heart, God’s Messages to the World by J.I. Willett. In the Preface the author wrote:
"When God spoke to me in the confines of my mind, He urged me to start bringing a pad on which to take notes…"
As my eyes rolled in judgement, I thought, “This nut job thinks God is talking to her!” Full of cynicism, and a dash of self-perceived intellectual superiority, I remember thinking, God doesn’t talk to us; we may talk to HIM, but he doesn’t talk back to ordinary people. He talks to saints through visions and the like, and maybe He answers our prayers in some mystical way, but he doesn’t have actual conversations with ordinary people.
Or does he?
I scoffed as I put the book aside and went about my life.
Some weeks after that, I attended a 90-minute workshop at my parish focused on prayer. As a self-described solid Sunday Catholic, I recognized I never really learned how to pray beyond reciting the ritual prayers we all learned as children, so I attended out of curiosity. A petite nun, donned in a traditional Habit stood before us to explain the practice of Lecito Divina, a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, mediation and prayer intended to promote communion with God. My curiosity outweighed my cynicism so I thought I’d play along.
First, she asked us sit in silence for a moment or two “and open our hearts to God”. Next, she told us to open the Bible to a random page and just begin reading. Slowly. The goal was not to analysis (or even understand!) the text. Instead, she advised us to notice which word or phrase jumped out at us and consider what insight those words offered into whatever issue, idea or concern was occupying our minds that day. That, she said, is God speaking to you.
I remember feeling thrilled, and a bit frightened, that the message I received was pretty much on point given what was happening in my life at the time. Filled with slightly less cynicism and a dulled sense of intellectually superior, I was intrigued enough to try Lecito Divina on my own.
I tried it several times in the weeks following the workshop and was always a bit freaked out about how the message addressed my concerns of the moment. It made me uncomfortable, so I tried to dismiss it as a series of “weird coincidences,” yet I knew something more powerful was actually happening.
I couldn’t help but think that perhaps I prematurely dismissed J.I. Willett.
Read my faith journey
