How a Women’s Book Club Enhanced My Spiritual Life

For years, I had heard great things about Well-Read Mom, a national women’s book club, but I had never had a chance to join. Then, last year, a friend invited me to the chapter that meets once a month in her home. I was more than ready to dive into a discussion of great books with like-minded ladies. As a serious bibliophile, I get a little lonely reading in isolation. I hoped for deep literary discussion with fellow women of faith.

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A Monk Helps a Mom

A Monk Helps a Mom Written by Marcie Stokman, Well-Read Mom Founder and President The following blog is adapted from Well-Read Mom Founder Marcie Stokman’s book, The Well-Read Life Copyright © 2024 by Marcie Stokman and Colleen Hutt, used with permission. “Mom, I can’t study in our house,” my teenage daughter informed me. “It’s too messy. I…

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The Poverty of the Moment

Francis came face to face with poverty and realized that “it was not a loathsome thing to be shunned but something holy”(20). Francis believed that you could not truly love Christ without loving Lady Poverty. It is the natural result of love because “Love must give or it is not love” (21).

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Our Father’s Tale

actually did not want to read A Father’s Tale, not because of its length but because I am not a father and I have no sons. I thought it would be unrelatable. Yet, I find that despite these very significant differences between myself and Alexandre, we have everything in common that we need to: we are both children of the same Father.

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A New Look at St. Francis

Elizabeth Goudge’s work, My God and My All: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi, has been a blessing! Her deep academic study of St. Francis’s life, told as a narrative, has given me a new lens through which to perceive the man.

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A Reflection on Pinocchio

Pinocchio: With Reflections on a Father’s Love has been a great surprise for me. Many people in America are familiar with the Disney version of this story, which pales in comparison to the depth of Collodi’s original. However, the commentary in this special edition has helped me as much, if not more, than the story itself. This edition has enabled me to live with greater awareness, teaching me how to approach my work at home with deeper gratitude and appreciation.

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The Role of Literature in Formation

The Role of Literature in Formation Written by Colleen Hutt I was delighted to see Pope Francis’s recent “Letter on the Role of Literature in Formation” and I wholeheartedly agree that we need “a radical change of course” in education. As we become more dependent upon technology and artificial intelligence, I am grateful Pope Francis…

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Seeking Beyond the Suffering

Seeking. I am always seeking. Seeking a bargain, a better way to do a chore, or getting two errands done simultaneously. But this year has been different. Life events have pushed me deeper toward inner strength, perseverance, and, ultimately, toward God more fully present in me.  

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Seeking the Hidden Holiness of Motherhood

In my time as a mother, I have sought long and hard for holiness. I want to feel holy. I want life to look holy. I have this false impression that my life before marriage was all those things, simply because I had the time and freedom to pray in peace, to attend mass daily, and to have a job that involved active ministry. Maybe it was holy, but holier than life as a wife and mother? More holy than a life of routine self-sacrifice, self-denial, and discomfort? 

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