The Handbook for Catholic Moms
Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul
This handy and inspirational guidebook comes from a wealth of experience from Lisa Hendey, the creator of CatholicMom.com. Her character comes through in sharing candidly so many events and decisions that developed her own well-earned proficiency in raising faith-filled children. Her abundant generosity flows from her heart onto the pages of this book just as it flows onto her website. CatholicMom.com connects moms searching for support, encouragement and practical advice from her and the network of Catholic mothers who frequent her site.
She openly shares her story of her relationship with her parents growing up, then romance, marriage, motherhood, career, volunteer work and breast cancer. All of these life experiences contribute to her unique viewpoint and mission. As insightful as her own story is, she weaves in stories from other mothers and reassuring quotes from the saints.
She leads her readers toward the ultimate goal of caring for themselves better as mothers, as women and as Catholics by helping them take baby steps in four areas: Heart, Mind, Body and Soul.
The valuable lessons she learned she teaches in a nurturing way. These lessons cover love, marriage and commitment, parent-child relationships, friendships among women, the parish family, and even sections on adoptive, foster and special needs children and single parenting, each with practical homework that digs deeps into the readers own needs and longings. The resources listed are tremendous.
I think one the most valuable chapters deals with building self-esteem, competence and a joy for life. This involves becoming lifelong learners, balancing careers and motherhood, time management, finances, the internet and creativity.
Then she tackles the emotional trap of loving and caring for our bodies, promoting an active lifestyle, good nutrition, stress reduction and sleep strategies, and vital medical care and screenings. The stories and scriptures offer so much motivation to take care of ourselves for all the right reasons.
My favorite section was on care of the soul covering prayer, Eucharist and Mary. Interesting stories about “relevant intercessors for today’s Catholic moms” presented Catholic saints and their unique place in our lives. Then she inspired us with ways to integrate Scripture study into our lives. She shows us how to give our homes a Catholic identity.
What a beautiful post. This is a fantastic book and Lisa is a gift to the Church and the world. I love Mother Guerin myself, so I loved that chapter in the book. There is so much wisdom in the saints, even when I was so far from the Church, as I was for 18 years, I loved them still. All the while, when I tried to find other spiritual homes and places of worship, nothing satisfied me. This was , of course because I missed the Eucharist, but I missed so much more, Mary our Mother and also our saints.