Embodied Spring 2022

Volume 1 • Number 2 • Spring 2022

Introducing

CONNOR FLANAGAN

THE CREATIVITY ISSUE A Message for Single Catholics The Rock-Climbing Seminarian Hope from Professional Organizers

Theology of the Body Institute

SUPPORT OUR MISSION TO SPREAD THEOLOGY OF THE BODY AROUND THE WORLD

Join the TOB Patron Community • Vast Library of Videos • Study Programs • TOB for Teens • Audio Library • TOB Virtual Conference • Live Virtual Retreats

1 Week Free!

Learn More at TOBPatron.com or Take a Photo of the QR Code for a Free Week!

SPRING 2022

5

6

THE VIEW FROM HERE

THE WHOLE STORY

COLUMN

COLUMN

7

THE CALL TO LOVE COLUMN

8

13

THE QUEST FOR AN ORDERLY CLOSET

TOB PARENT CORNER COLUMN

BY CHRISTINA RIES

18

Spring cleaning! Physical clutter affects the body, mind and spirit. Pick up insights from a Catholic professional organizer who gets it.

14

A STRAIGHT AND WINDING ROAD

BY KATE BASI

Reform Wellness is a holistic wellness practice run by Catholics with growing popularity. Its core tenet is that all facets of a person—body, mind, soul—should be integrated, nourished and guarded for optimum health. A look at how this approach to wellness follows TOB principles.

WALKING A TIGHTROPE

BY LAURA M. DEVICK

The theology of the body can provide a wake-up call for Catholic singles, redirecting their focus and reviving their attitudes. TOB tells you not to waste your time; you’re not just a person looking for a spouse 24/7. It calls you to ask: How am I using my gifts and talents to serve others now?

24

23

THE BUBBLE BURSTS

THE TIMELESS WISDOM OF ALICE VON HILDEBRAND

BY MIKE MANGIONE

This professional singer has been sharing the gift of his music at the Theology of the Body Institute events for 15 years. But when he found himself teetering between life and death with Covid-19, he experienced God’s presence in a profoundly personal experience that brought unexpected healing.

BY EMMA GREVE

A tribute from a young bride of today for a bride of yesteryear whose treasured advice has helped shape her vision of marriage.

3

27

ORIGINAL BEAUTY COLUMN

44

SAVOR THE DAY PHOTO ESSAY

28

32

A STUDENT OF HUMANITY

THE CALL OF CREATIVITY

BY CHRISTINA RIES

BY CHRISTINA RIES

Meet 25-year-old seminarian Nick Vance, who is learning how to rely on both theology of the body principles and his journalism training to develop a posture of curiosity and openness to the ‘gift of the other’ when meeting new people.

“Theology is meant to have an impact on our lives,” he says, and is convinced that suspending judgement would go a long way in our divisive era.

Meet Connor Flanagan, a Catholic dad and rising hip-hop star, along with other inspiring Catholic creatives as we explore the link between spirituality and creativity.

THEOLOGY OF THE BODY: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN

When Karol Wojtyla, the cardinal archbishop of Krakow, Poland, came to Rome in August 1978 to help elect a new pope, he brought along the lengthy handwritten manuscript of a book that he had been prayerfully crafting for nearly four years. It was almost complete, and he wished to work on it, when he could, during the conclave. Page one bore the unusual title (in Polish): “teologia ciala”—“theology of the body.” The hundreds of pages that followed held perhaps the most profound and compelling Biblical reflection on the meaning of our creation and redemption as male and female ever articulated—in-depth mystical insights of a modern saint that had the power to change the world...if those insights had an opportunity to reach the world, that is.

After the election of Pope John Paul I, Wojtyla returned to Krakow and completed his manuscript. Soon after that, to the astonishment of the whole world, he emerged from the second conclave of 1978 as Pope John Paul II. And his “theology of the body”—delivered as a series of Wednesday talks between September 1979 and November 1984 rather than being published as a book— became the first major teaching project of his pontificate, establishing the core of John Paul II’s great vision of what it means to be human.

Still, it took some time for people to grasp the significance of what John Paul II had given us. It wasn’t until 1999, for example, that papal biographer George Weigel described the TOB to a wide readership as “one of the boldest reconfigurations of Catholic theology in centuries” and “a kind of theological time bomb set to go off, with dramatic consequences....perhaps in the 21st century.” While the pope’s vision of the body and of sexual love had “barely begun to shape the Church’s theology, preaching, and religious education,” Weigel predicted that when it did it would “compel a dramatic development of thinking about virtually every major theme in the Creed.”

From “Theology of the Body for Beginners” by Christopher West 4

Spring 2022 PUBLISHED BY Embodied Publishing info@embodiedmag.org EDITOR Ann Gundlach • ann@embodiedmag.org SENIOR EDITOR Christina Ries • christina@embodiedmag.org THEOLOGICAL ADVISOR Katrina Zeno, MTS DESIGN and PRODUCTION b graphic design • www.b-graphicdesign.com Embodied Magazine will be published four times per year. The print edition is available for $49/year and includes a digital edition. The digital subscription alone is $25/year. Single copies are available for $12.00 each plus shipping. To subscribe or order, go to www.embodiedmag.org and click Subscribe.

Quantity discounts and bulk subscriptions are available. For information email contact@embodiedmag.org.

Submitted materials become the property of Embodied Publishing and will not be returned.

Embodied is granted the right to use the materials for any purpose and in any manner. www.embodiedmag.org • 2615 Fairhill Drive Cincinnati, OH 45239

SPRING 2022

T H E

V I E W

F R O M

H E R E

Tickling the ivories

by Ann Gundlach

I didn’t really expect to be personally inspired by the same magazine I am producing. Yet here we are just two issues in and I am grateful to have been reminded through our cover package on Catholic creatives of the things in my own life that have brought me joy.

For instance, I was always fascinated by the piano as a child. We didn’t have one. That was a luxury far beyond my parents’ means as they worked to provide for the six littles ones they had welcomed in nine years. None of my relatives had one either. But when I was about 6 or 7, I discovered that our next-door neighbor did.

You must understand that this neighbor had no children of her own and had one of those pristine living rooms featuring, unbelievably to me, a white sofa and chairs with....no plastic slipcovers. This was completely foreign territory compared with the chaos and clamor that ran unabated at our house. It was a complete shock to both my mom and me when she said I could come in whenever I wanted to play around on those ivory keys. I loved tinkering around without even knowing what I was doing.

Fast forward to the eighth grade and I had to decide where to attend high school. The obvious choice was the local parochial high school for girls until I spent a day there shadowing and came away unnerved by the size of both the place and the student body. Then my parents suggested I check out a Franciscan boarding school about 45 minutes away. While it was a day school for the locals, about half the students lived there Monday through Friday. That didn’t thrill me at first...until I discovered I could take piano lessons there.

Sold.

In four years Sister Gloria took me from being a complete novice to a senior year that included earning

medals at state competition, performing a duet on the shiny grands at the Christmas recital and accompanying the senior chorus at the spring show. I still remember the happy feeling each day when it was time for my music bell and I closed myself off in a little practice room for 40 minutes of escape. It made my heart soar. Only as an adult did I realize how helpful that was during my teen years, and now through the lens of the theology of the body I understand I was connecting with my Creator.

When high school ended I was again without access to a piano. About 15 years into marriage, my husband and I did acquire one, but by then I had lost everything I had learned and I was consumed with marriage, parenting and working. The most I have managed to do is learn a few carols to enjoy playing just for myself at Christmas time, and more recently, try to teach an interested grandchild a little tune.

I laugh to myself at the thought of finding a piano teacher who will teach a grandma, but that’s OK. I can’t wait to make a joyful sound again just for myself and the Lord.

But I know it sits here waiting for me, and I long to get back to it when my time opens up. I laugh to myself at the thought of finding a piano teacher who will teach a grandma, but that’s OK. I can’t wait to make a joyful sound again just for myself and the Lord. (And I know He’s a pretty forgiving guy.)

What creative activity or outlet brings joy to you? I hope this issue helps you see the reflection of God that exists in your work!

Ann Gundlach is the founder and editor of Embodied Magazine and invites your comments at ann@embodiedmag.org.

5

T H E

W H O L E

S T O R Y

The difference between love and war

by Katrina Zeno

Throughout my 20-plus years of speaking and teaching on the theology of the body, I’ve created thousands of PowerPoint slides. Accuracy and spelling are obviously important since the slides are projected onto large screens. Imagine, then, my horror as I was cheerily giving a talk on marital love, and I suddenly noticed my PowerPoint slide said, “martial love”!

Now you might think, “That’s not a big deal, Katrina.

Your audience probably didn’t even notice.” But the truth is, it is a really big deal because martial is the opposite of marital. “Martial” relates to something warlike, combative or even deadly. In contrast, marital relates to something that expresses love and union, a “union in communion,” to use St. John Paul II’s language.

No wonder the accuracy of language is important— switching two little letters in this word makes all the difference between love and war!

But there’s another fascinating reality about language: the spelling of a word can quickly create a connection with another similarly spelled word. For instance, if we add an “o” to “God” what do we get? Good. God is good.

A good God. Why is God God? Because He’s good. Why is something good? Because it reflects God. The similar spelling of the two words helps connect them to each other and form an inter-relationship in our minds.

We see this connection between God and goodness in the very first pages of the Bible. In the beginning, God creates everything out of nothing but his love. During this initial burst of creativity, God pauses not once but three times, and Scriptures informs us, “And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:18, 21, 25).

We don’t want to miss the significance of this repetition. Scripture is displaying an intrinsic connection between God, goodness and creation. When God creates, what He creates is good. It is full of life, dynamism and order. Everything He creates has a carefully designed meaning and purpose.

God’s creative goodness arrives at its high point when He pauses again and makes the decision, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). After this contemplative moment, God creates the human race

in his image and likeness as male and female. Genesis 1 then ends with a great crashing of cymbals: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31).

When God created you, He saw you—and behold, you were very good! Why? Because God, good and creation (you!) go together.

Sometimes this sense of the goodness of creation and our own existence is obscured by atheistic evolution, which replaces the goodness of God with random chance and survival of the fittest. You exist solely because a primordial, chemical soup arbitrarily mutated into a simple organism that continued to mutate into more and more complex organisms and after millions of years—presto— here you are! You are a random, meaningless collision of genes, with the strong ones prevailing over the weak ones.

Can you hear the “martial” language in this cultural narrative where the toughest beat out the weakest? This viewpoint scams us to live by only half the story—to delete God and his goodness from the world and reduce the universe to blind, material meaninglessness.

In the beginning, God creates every­ thing out of nothing but his love.

During this initial burst of creativity, God pauses not once but three times, and Scriptures informs us, “And God saw that it was good.”

Fortunately, St. John Paul II vehemently disagreed. He invites us to a “marital” view of the world, to a spousal meaning of the human body where union and communion are the dominant force. He urges us to have a Trinitarian understanding of life and love because they reflect a Good God who is a Communion of Persons. And that makes all the difference between love and war.

Katrina J. Zeno, MTS, received her master of theological studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington, D. C., and is currently pursuing a second master’s in theology from the Franciscan University in Steubenville.

6

SPRING 2022

T H E

C A L L

T O

L O V E

A marriage guided by God

by Father Walter Schu

When Michael Waldstein left his native Austria as a young man to study at Thomas Aquinas College in California, some friends of his family told him that a young woman named Susan Bernam would be going there, and he should look her up.

Upon arriving at TAC, Waldstein began to encounter some of the young women students, each time wondering, “Is she the one?” It turned out that Susan wouldn’t begin her studies there until a year later. Their first encounter after Susan’s arrival is still today etched vividly in Dr. Waldstein’s mind.

Dr. Waldstein recalls the moment: “Walking across the room was a young woman, and I knew from the way she looked at me that she knew who I was, and that made me realize, ‘She’s the one.’ That moment is very present before my eyes. I haven’t forgotten it in the least.”

Susie continues, “We immediately began to talk, and soon we became a threesome at meals and the Friday night lectures with another friend of Michael’s from Salzburg. That continued until Advent, when our large group of friends all drew names out of a hat to discover who we would be the Kris Kringle to.”

Susie remembers one small present from her mysterious Kris Kringle. It was a music box, along with a succinct, typed note: “Here are a few bits of mangled Mozart, because music is perhaps even more bread for the soul than philosophy.” She remembers thinking, “Hmm, could anyone except Michael have written this?”

That Christmas she discovered that Michael was indeed her Kris Kringle. But not until 30 years later did she come to learn he had actually switched names with someone else in order to get hers. Up until then she had always believed Michael drawing her name was part of

God’s plan for their lives. Michael responds, laughing, “But God uses secondary causes as well in his plan!”

At the Christmas party, Michael taught Susie how to waltz. She recalls, “After waltzing, Michael and I became a twosome. I thought to myself, I love him and he loves me. He goes to daily Mass, comes from a good Catholic family, already knows what he wants—to become a professor and have a big family. He is everything that I could want.”

During that time imbued with love, Susie recalls one suffering: wondering when Michael would propose. It wasn’t until after she had graduated that he invited her to Austria to make a retreat and pray about their future. During that retreat, he asked her to marry him.

Despite their love for each other, not everything was easy in their marriage. After Michael obtained a doctorate at the University of Dallas, they moved to Rome so he could study Sacred Scripture for three years. Susie said, “I experienced the indissolubility [of our marriage bond] as a gift when we had difficulties. I found myself at home alone with one, then two, then three little children in tiny, awful apartments with no friends or family. I wasn’t very happy. I prayed the Rosary every day for faithfulness, and I knew that with the indissolubility of our marriage, God would give us the grace to make it through these difficult times.”

God did so, and in superabundance. Today the Waldsteins are parents of eight adult children, with several grandchildren and more on the way, and Michael is one of the eminent scholars on the theology of the body in the English-speaking world.

For more on the marriage story of Michael and Susan Waldstein, watch their interview with Father Schu at our blog, www.embodiedmag.org/blog.

7

The quest for an orderly closet

by Christina Ries

8

SPRING 2022

(and a happy heart) Looking back, Sarah Cronin can clearly see how God was preparing her to become a professional organizer. The only problem was she didn’t know what a professional organizer was!

Instead, the Catholic from Minnesota was drawn to engineering and education. She studied mechanical engineering in college because she enjoyed problem solving and trouble shooting. Then she switched gears and earned a degree in Early Childhood Education, gaining

preschool experiences that would transform her thinking about how best to use space.

Today, the 40-year-old mother of four relies on both skill sets as a professional organizer. “That juxtaposition of using child development and the engineering process to create solutions that are appropriate has been so helpful,” said Sarah, who lives in Savage, Minn. “Clearly God was leading me down that path!”

9

outgrown. They filled an entire truck bed with donations. That night, she received a text from their mother saying she hadn’t felt better in years.

“When you’re living in a space, you become blind to what is actually around you,” Carly said. “Those clients didn’t even realize they had an entire storage room full of stuff they had outgrown.

Now they’re able to move new stuff down there and to take back space in the rooms they actually live in!”

Likewise, Sarah helps clients adjust their homes to their current needs. She recalls a walk-through with a woman living in the farmhouse her husband had grown up in. In the basement was a cupboard that her mother-in-law had used to store canning jars. They wanted to add a coat hook there, and the cupboard was in the way.

“I do not can,” she told Cronin. “But this is just where the jars always go.”

Sarah helped her recognize the absurdity of the arrangement. “I’ve walked by this cupboard every day for

Sarah is the owner of Simply Inspired Home Organizing, a thriving business that draws on her Catholic values and reflects the tenets of the theology of the body.

As U.S. homes get bigger and fuller, the professional organizing industry has steadily surged. Americans rent so much self-storage, the Self Storage Association once pointed out, that it is theoretically possible that every American could physically stand under the canopy of self-storage roofing.

1.9 billion Square feet of total rentable self-storage space, according to Self-Storage Almanac, 2021

STUCK AT HOME

Covid-19 heightened demand for extra space, as Americans spent an unprecedented amount of time at home, unable to ignore areas in disarray accumulating in their homes.

Carly Booze came to their rescue. She’s a young Catholic mom and the owner of Pop Organizing based in Northern Virginia and serving D.C. and Maryland. “I’ve been helping families who have spent the better part of two years at home,” she said. “Even the most organized of clients are finding themselves drowning in stuff that has accumulated from working and schooling from home and trying to keep children entertained.”

If the body is connected to the mind and soul, as TOB instructs, it makes sense that physical clutter has mental and spiritual ramifications, Carly said. “When we purge a lot, clients always report that they feel so much lighter.”

She recently helped an 8-year-old and 10-yearold clear out an entire storage room of toys they had

1 in 10

U.S. households that rent a storage space. The average monthly cost for a unit, as of 2020, was $89.12.

five years and yet never once asked myself: How could I better use this cupboard or space?” her client said.

Like Carly, Sarah sees TOB undercurrents in her work. “The visible and invisible are definitely connected,” she said.

10

SPRING 2022

WHERE MOM YELLS

The work of a professional organizer isn’t frivolous, the purview only of HGTV. It’s a path to peace.

“When people are frustrated, it’s because there’s a disconnect between their current reality and what they’re hoping for,” Sarah said. “Organization is a tool to help bridge that gap. It’s often a mindset shift, too— tweaking expectations and using an organizational process to meet in the middle between reality and hopes.”

Sarah helps her clients think practically about each part of their house. “Our things either help us do what we want to do—getting out the door, cooking a meal—or get in the way. Having some basis where things live helps reduce that friction in our everyday tasks. If the drawer of your kitchen utensils keeps jamming because the potato masher doesn’t fit, and every time you’re trying to cook, you’re cursing that drawer, that’s not peaceful meal prep.”

Being vulnerable WHEN SARAH CRONIN WAS PREPARING TO LAUNCH HER BUSINESS, she offered her services to a few friends in order to gain feedback and reviews.

“The only reason I’m letting you into my home is because I’ve been to your house and I know it’s not perfect,” one friend told her. “I know you’re not going to judge me.”

The statement would provide Sarah with a crucial insight: People fear the judgment of a professional organizer. Being compassionate and understanding—and gaining their trust by sharing her own shortcomings with household management—makes a huge difference, Sarah realized.

She’ll readily acknowledge the fact that she hasn’t mastered the laundry situation in her home. She’s still figuring out how to equip her teenaged and preteen daughters to become more autonomous.

“THE PURPOSE OF ORGANIZATION IS SIMPLY TO GIVE US ENOUGH SPACE, TIME AND ENERGY TO DO THE THINGS WE LOVE.” She begins the bio on her website, simplyinspiredhome.org, on a humble note: “Hi, I’m Sarah. Upon learning my profession, many people assume that my home is perfectly organized. I promise, it’s not! As a recovering perfectionist, I know just how paralyzing the goal of perfection can be. I routinely strive for ‘enough’ because I believe that the purpose of organization is simply to give us enough space, time and energy to do the things we love.”

On another page establishing her credentials, Sarah makes herself vulnerable with a third-person reference to past struggles: “Sarah’s passion for organizing stems from her own experience of trying to dig her way out of perfectionism, clutter, depression and isolation.”

It’s a single statement that says a lot, humanizing her and helping prospective clients understand what motivates her.

Sarah doesn’t hide the fact that she’s had therapy. She’s grateful for it and, in fact, now sees how the experience equipped her with useful conversational tools as an organizer, because the work of tackling clutter is always personal, fraught with complex psychological layers.

“I’m not a therapist, but there are some tools I can use to regulate myself and to help others be a little more aware of how they’re feeling in their surroundings,” she said. “If they’re in this totally anxious and freaked-out stage, you’ve got to sit and talk for 10 minutes. With one client, we sat and talked about how issues from her childhood were impacting her lens.

It was 20 minutes before we started organizing, but later she said, ‘It meant a lot that you listened to me. My spouse doesn’t really like to listen to that stuff.’”

11

5 tips for organizing your home

That friction often strains a marriage. “I’ve never met a couple who’s like, ‘Oh yes, we totally agree on all these things.’ Everyone has their own comfort level with the amount of stuff around them.”

Ultimately, Sarah said, professional organizers help clients love better. “It’s important for me to love my husband and to not get annoyed with him for socks on the floor. It’s a process of letting some things go and communicating what’s important to each other so our relationship isn’t mucked down by a mess. Same with my kids: If I’m constantly nagging them, that’s not the mom I want to be. It’s about protecting and fostering relationships, because our stuff has so much potential for arguments or resentment. We often get sucked into it.”

Tackling a messy house is less daunting with some guidelines in hand. Here are five that Sarah Cronin shares.

1

Begin with a specific goal for a space. If the board games aren’t being played near the front door but take up precious space in that closet, move them and organize the closet to better serve your comings and goings.

“One of the best gifts of self we can offer is our time and attention, being truly present.”

A mom once confessed to Sarah: “I think I do 90 percent of the yelling at our kids in the entryway.”

It was time to change that.

“We spent time tweaking the entryway and removing the decorative thing and putting in a functional piece.

She later told me, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t yelled at my kids in two weeks!’”

It’s harder to make a self-gift of yourself in a disorderly home, Sarah said. “One of the best gifts of self we can offer is our time and attention, being truly present. It’s so difficult to do that with visible reminders of unfinished tasks surrounding us. So taking the time to set up an environment that fosters connection, as well as intentionally stewarding our time to match our priorities, creates more possibilities for giving of ourselves.”

Sarah’s client Stephanie Krimmes experienced these benefits.

“Our home was stressing me out when I really wanted it to be a peaceful and comfortable space for our family,” said Stephanie, 41, a Catholic mother of two and music therapist from Edina, Minn.

Sarah energized Stephanie, teaching organizing principles that continue to guide her, she said. “I was most excited when Sarah helped me organize all the kid toys in our living room. Now all the toys have a place, pick-up goes much quicker and my girls, who are 5 and 2, can easily help clean up.”

The spiritual impact of Sarah’s work is undeniable, Stephanie observed. “There’s peace, calm and a sense that I can thrive and not just survive. After organizing,

2

Sort your stuff into three piles: best friends, acquaintances, not friends. These categories are easier to work with than the stark “give-keep” division. Ultimately, you only need the “best friend” stuff, but you might have a reason to keep some acquaintances for a while.

3

Buy the bins last, once you know exactly how many you need and how big. Use cardboard boxes in the meantime.

4 5

Cut down on kitchen gadgets. Can one multi-purpose tool replace five specialty tools?

Ask yourself: Can I easily replace this if I need it again? Chances are you can!

I often feel like I can more fully be the person God created me to be because I’m not overwhelmed and bogged down by clutter.”

Getting to that state doesn’t have to be a sprint, Sarah reminds clients. “A lot of times people want to make huge changes: ‘My goal is to get rid of 80 percent of this stuff.’

Holy smokes, that’s emotionally exhausting! I would rather load up just two grocery bags a month.”

Afterall, she said, the objective isn’t to make your home resemble Pinterest. “Perfection is not the goal. It’s to love our people better.”

12

SPRING 2022

T O B

P A R E N T

C O R N E R

Helping children bring meaning to suffering

by Lindsay Caron

Practical steps

Theology of the body is pertinent at all times, but teaching it with added purpose during key liturgical seasons can greatly enhance the way children grasp the concepts.

In our family we use the table runner as a centerpiece of faith. I like this space for a couple of reasons: First, the rest of the table remains usable, and second, we gather there as a family regularly. But you can place a display anywhere (i.e., fireplace mantle, a tray on the counter, an end table).

During Lent we place a statue of Jesus carrying a cross at one end of the table and a crown of thorns at the other, all on a purple table runner. Jesus progresses down the path for 47 days, the cross always on his back, and we discuss his ultimate gift of self (TOB theme: authentic love consists in a reciprocal self-gift in love through the body). He will eventually approach the crown of thorns (you can make your own with a foam

1. Start small! Building the habit first is most important. The magnitude of sacrifice will come later.

2. Help your child identify a suffering (their own or that of another).

3. Identify a tangible act that will accompany that suffering.

4. Teach them to offer this act in prayer.

Examples Suffering: I hate doing homework.

Offering: I will do my homework without complaint because Jesus didn’t complain on the cross.

Prayer: Jesus, I offer you my desire to complain; I remain silent in my suffering because I love you.

Suffering: My grandpa has cancer.

Offering: I will make my bed every day because Grandpa taught me to take care of my things.

Prayer: Jesus, I offer you my chore, to comfort you and my grandpa because I love you both.

There is something poignant about suffering that children connect with. ring and toothpicks) at the other end of the table. If you’re using a smaller space you can have Jesus progress labyrinth-style.

Similar to adding a piece of straw to the manger bed during Advent, during Lent our kids remove a thorn from the crown every time they offer a sacrifice. Each thorn removed is a comfort to Jesus. We will never take away his pain, but in this small way we are choosing to be present to his suffering. In helping to soften the crown, we help to show love for his Divine Person by our tender care of his human body.

There is something poignant about suffering that children connect with. They are naturally curious and empathetic. They want to lean into Jesus’ suffering, so utilize this season to discuss the meaning of suffering with your own children. Every one of us is called to take up our cross and follow Christ, and even our children have crosses. How do we help them “take it up”? Through sacrifice: repeated, meaningful, and ever-maturing sacrifices made through our own embodied gift of self.

Suffering: Some children are starving.

Offering: I will not waste my food because others go hungry.

Prayer: Jesus, I offer you my effort, in solidarity with others, because I love you and all your children.

To bring comfort to someone’s body is to comfort their soul (TOB theme: we are a personal unity of soul and body). To offer a prayer, a chore, a hug or a nourishing meal—these are all ways to comfort the soul via the body.

In sacrifice and prayer, we can unite with the suffering of Christ and of others. Remember that Jesus saw it all from the cross—past, present and future. Your children can learn that their current sacrifice can actually comfort his suffering on the cross because He is not limited by time or space. Amazing!

Lindsay Caron lives in Portland, Ore., with her husband and three small boys. She is the founder of the TOB Parent School, which empowers parents to introduce TOB principles to their children. Learn more at www.tobparentschool.org.

13

‘Walking a tightrope’ The challenge of single Catholic life

by Laura M. Devick

We are made in God’s image and likeness, yet from the very beginning, Adam longed for something more.

“Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion,” St. John Paul II wrote in his theology of the body. The longing to give ourselves away—to be a gift, given to and for others—is part of God’s beautiful and wise design.

“Even though Adam had unity with God, it was still not good that man be alone,” says Tim Mosser, 60, of Fargo, North Dakota, an evangelist who has shared TOB for many years.

This truth led Anastasia Northrop, 45, of Dallas, Texas, to echo the question of many singles: “Are singles, then, somehow not as good? I’ve realized, no, absolutely not. Because we’re all called to this vocation of holiness.”

When she became the director of the National Conference for Single

Catholics, Anastasia wouldn’t have predicted that she would delve into TOB teachings so deeply, being a member of a demographic that covers 50 percent of U.S. households— single adults.

And for 26 years of his life, this demographic also included Tim. He had to wrestle with living and understanding a truth that has become a foundational touchstone for Anastasia as well: “Man…cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself (Gaudium et Spes, 24).”

Single and in her 20s in 2004, Anastasia’s ministry work had been 14

connecting her with TOB speakers around the country. It also uniquely prepared her for her new challenge: a Catholic singles conference. This was sparked by a conversation with a friend who said, “You know, after about age 35, the Church really doesn’t have anything for singles.”

Anastasia knew that TOB’s hopeful message needed to reach single Catholics who hungered for support and community—and, like her friend, felt forgotten. In an era before widespread social media to get the word out, the conference filled to max capacity—with a waiting list!

Now entering its 18th year, the event is inspirational, prayerful and energizing for Catholic singles, inviting them to come closer to Christ. All are welcome: those who have never been married, of any age; those who are divorced or who have received an annulment; and those who are widows. Rather than

SPRING 2022

2022 National Conference for Catholic Singles • September 16–18, 2022 • Washington, DC Metro Area (Northern Virginia) • nationalcatholicsingles.com/ Follow them on social media and sign up for email updates.

15

a matchmaking event, the speakers, small groups, Mass, prayer, Eucharistic adoration and social time fill the hunger for community and formation.

“We all still need to live a fruitful life, and find fulfillment in Christ,” she said.

A dating dare Singles who feel called to marriage have challenges to overcome from a dating culture fraught with

and nearly 300 joined the nightly online meetings, with others watching the replays.

Those who joined were asked to step out of their comfort zone and either “ask someone on a date, accept a date, or if someone isn’t in the right place to be dating, such as waiting on an annulment, you could try to set someone up,” Anastasia said.

While acknowledging that dating “should always be intentional,” Anastasia also advises single Catholics

New programming The National Conference for Single Catholics recently unveiled an innovative program: a marriage preparation course built upon the theology of the body, but tailored for singles.

It’s called “Relationship Ready: The Single Catholic’s Roadmap to Marriage.”

“We’re basically taking the main components of marriageprep programs and putting them together in a very rich series so people can have access to this wealth of knowledge and experience before they get to engagement,” Director Anastasia Northrop said. The program hopes to help with marriage discernment and make dating healthy—and holy.

Relationship Ready already ran live this year; watch for updates on when it will be offered again. The group’s GS24 Online Community (with various video resources) is always available. Visit nationalcatholicsingles.com to learn more.

fear. Catholics are not exempt from this. Marriage begins with dating, and the health of dating currently has a weak pulse. “Dating feels more risky these days,” Anastasia said.

“There is so much fear of rejection.

We don’t have any norms in our culture, anymore, for how to navigate it.”

To meet these obstacles, the National Conference for Single Catholics invited participants to complete a dating challenge in January of this year. Close to 900 people signed up

to, well, lighten up. “You don’t have to know that you’re going to marry the person when you accept the first date,” she said.

“In the Catholic culture, we can get carried away and think, ‘This date is like interviewing for the job of spouse,’ so on our first date we can feel like we need to cover all these huge topics. It’s not even natural, and it’s not in the spirit of St. John Paul II. In a certain sense, it’s objectifying the person,” said Anastasia. “Instead 16

of encountering them as a unique individual, you are saying, ‘Do you fit my checklist?’”

Marriage also provokes fear in a world marred by divorce’s deep scars. “If people haven’t had examples in their own life of what a good marriage looks like—to be able to navigate through difficult times and still stay together—that’s a huge fear,” Anastasia said.

While true fulfillment comes from Christ, Anastasia said, you also can’t “just sit around and think, ‘God is going to drop my spouse into my living room—like, tomorrow—and I’m going to just sit here.’ It’s not just a passive thing. You have to put yourself out there, take risks.”

Living in the present While it’s tempting for a single person to focus on the future—discerning the vocation of marriage or religious life—living in the moment gives peace.

Tim remembers the challenges he faced in the single state. “I didn’t have a super well-defined idea of what was ‘my calling’ as a single person. It was nice that, in one sense, I had more freedom. Not freedom focused on myself, but freedom for service,” he said.

Desiring to live that freedom well, Tim found many avenues to serve.

“I’d play music at various places. I’d go visit elderly in nursing homes. I’d volunteer. I’d try to be a good uncle to my nieces and nephews.”

When the uncertainty of the future threatened to get the better of him, Tim worked it out in prayerful musical moments he called “Play and Pray.”

“I’d go to a church, and I’d play the piano, and I’d sing…and I’d play, and I’d pray…and I’d play, and sometimes I’d cry. I would bask in the joy of the presence of the Lord.

SPRING 2022

I would say, ‘Lord, OK, you’ve put these passions into my heart—how do you want me to serve you? Please reveal that to me.’”

God’s answer, for many years, was that Tim was still called to be single.

Anastasia relates. “A particular cross of the single life is not knowing where to focus, because one is not currently in a lifelong commitment,” she said. “It’s a cross of uncertainty.

Even in the midst of ongoing uncertainty, Anastasia has continued to be led closer to Christ. “I’ve experienced that when I’m in the darkness, that’s when Jesus can lead me. That means I have to trust and surrender and embrace Christ being my ultimate Bridegroom. I realized I need to look to Christ for my fulfillment.”

TOB principles anchor her. “When you bottom line it, I am created to be a gift,” she said. “The challenge is, how do I live that in the present moment while at the same time pursuing the vocation I feel called to? It’s like walking a tightrope.”

Being close with her parents, siblings, nieces and nephews gives Anastasia myriad ways to share the gift of herself. She has flexibility to help her family when she’s needed.

Her ministry makes her grateful, too. “For me it’s not just a job, but something I’m able to pour myself into because I love it and really care about the people and the mission,” she said.

Tim sees that while the boundaries of his freedom have changed, a key aspect remains. Now married to

Veronica and father to a young son, “I am still called to be a gift,” he said.

He works for the Diocese of Fargo as director of the Respect Life office while also continuing his speaking ministry. The years of his single life were fruitful and meaningful, as he endeavored to live out St. John Paul II’s vision of gift.

The annual National Conference for Single Catholics helps Anastasia share with other single Catholics that they are not forgotten by Christ or the Church. She values St. John Paul II’s sentiment in Familiaris Consortio: “The great number of single persons who, because of the particular circumstances in which they have to live—often not of their choosing—are especially close to Jesus’ heart.”

Well, that was awkward…

Tim Mosser’s singleness sometimes garnered questions from well-meaning friends and family.

“Wasn’t he called to marriage? Maybe the priesthood?”

Usually patient and able to gracefully accept these questions, Tim sometimes felt a sting of being misunderstood, to question himself or God’s plan.

He advises singles that most people speak out of love and care. Singles can, for their part, try to “hear in love, speak in love, pray through the words they are hearing and pray later about what was said,” Tim said.

Anastasia Northrop gets questions too and agrees it can be difficult to know how to respond. “‘Why aren’t you married?’ people will ask. And… it’s a mystery. I don’t know,” she said.

While it’s tempting for non-singles to offer alternatives to their single friends, these can often be very awkward. Anastasia has heard quite a few. “So, you’re not a biological mother. But it’s

OK, you can be a spiritual mother!” “Hey, Abraham and Sarah were like 90-years-old! There’s still hope!”

“It’s very natural for a woman to long for motherhood,” Anastasia said. She has experienced spiritual motherhood to be very valuable, profound and fulfilling. Yet offering these concepts as if they can be substituted for one another doesn’t speak to the pain or grieving that is being felt by the single person.

For married family and friends to simply be present to Catholic singles witnesses Christ’s love to them. Anastasia recalls how a good friend, a married mother of three, said simply and lovingly to her as she struggled with grieving the absence of motherhood, “That must be very painful, Anastasia.” That validated and recognized her pain, which also helped her realize that her suffering could be redemptive when united with Christ’s suffering.

17

18

A

SPRING 2022

straight and winding road Jackie Mulligan’s story of founding Reform Wellness

by Kate Basi

On New Year’s Eve 2016, Jackie Mulligan was praying before the Tabernacle near her home in California. She had a decision to make, and she didn’t like it. She had a successful health-and-wellness practice in California, in the center of the wellness industry. She loved her home.

She loved her life.

Yet she felt called to move back to New York, where she’d grown up.

Finally, Jackie surrendered. From that moment forward, she resolved, Jesus would be her business coach.

That decision changed everything.

But to understand how Reform Wellness came to be, we have to go further back.

Jackie Mulligan, 35, is the sixth of seven children in a large, lively Irish Catholic family on Long Island. A single woman and aunt to 14, Jackie always knew she was a people person. She was good at helping and connecting with many different personality types.

Her journey to founding Reform was, in her words, “a straight and winding road.”

19

Then her high-power lifestyle caught up with her. “I was sick, fatigued, working nonstop, taking on the worries of the world,” she said. “I always had this type-A perfectionist attitude.” She thought that if she succeeded, it was because she’d worked hard enough, and if she didn’t, it was because she hadn’t.

Jackie found herself battling Lyme disease, a thyroid condition and gut issues. She had totally burned out.

But hitting rock bottom opened the path forward. As she spent time in adoration and prayer, she realized there was a simpler way to approach her health and overall well-being.

“Thanks be to God, I finally surrendered. I found my identity, my healing and my wholeness in Christ.”

And so, on that fateful New Year’s night, Jackie started down a new road. She moved back to Long Island, where she connected with Father Innocent Montgomery, CFR. “I was very healthy physically, even on the mend from Lyme disease,” she said, “but I wasn’t good at nurturing my soul. Father Innocent was the opposite.” Working with him, she realized that what she’d learned about placing Christ at the center of wellness was a truth everyone needed. “This was confirmation that the Lord was calling me. I wasn’t crazy!” she said. “We need our body and our soul to be healthy in order to really live well and to live a life of abundance (John 10:10).”

In no time at all, she had more work than she knew what to do with. Father Innocent invited her to work with the postulants at his friary. “Month after month, I watched these men re-form from the inside out, fully at the service of Christ, and literally leaving formation with a new name.”

And thus, Reform Wellness was born.

In college, she studied international business and Spanish. She earned a master’s in education and business and taught Spanish on Long Island until her interest in CrossFit sent her down a new path. “I started paying more attention to health in general,” said Jackie.

“I was craving a larger audience, but I wasn’t really sure in what way. I just knew that I was being called away from teaching.”

She moved to California to work for Puori, a Scandinavian start-up that provided dietary supplements; Jackie ran the national sales while also studying holistic health.

She wanted to become a naturopathic doctor.

Things were going well, but she realized that God was active in certain “buckets” of her life, but not in others, and in order to be truly well, she had to let him into all of them equally.

BODY + SOUL Reform Wellness is a Catholic wellness practice based in Islip, N.Y., that defines itself as “a functional medicine and holistic wellness practice rooted in Christ. We redefine health as the state of body and soul, together.”

In other words, Reform is the theology of the body in action. Most wellness programs focus on the body.

But no matter much weight people lose, how much they can lift or how much sleep they get, their spirits can remain restless.

20

SPRING 2022

Reform envisions wellness in the shape of a monstrance: Christ in the center, with pillars branching outward from that source: faith, nutrition, functional movement, rest, community, personal growth, environment, play and stress management.

Christ is the why that ties them together. We need to sleep well so we can serve him well; or, in TOB language, so we can make our gift of self well. We must manage our stress, the root of most diseases, so we can be a bit more like Mary and a bit less like Martha. Functional movement supports the lifting, carrying and other movements necessary for daily life; personal growth allows us to feed our hunger for meaning and purpose by identifying our God-given charisms.

searching for answers elsewhere, outside ourselves, instead of in prayer.”

Likewise, play is not a luxury. We’re called to be childlike (not childish). That can be hard, but we can infuse our work with play—sing while emptying the dishwasher or make it a game with the kids.

MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE THROUGH SELF-CARE

“We’re either formed or deformed by something. We’d rather help people to be formed

by Christ rather than deformed by the world.”

These foundational pillars offer a roadmap for formation. “We’re either formed or deformed by something,” Jackie said. “We’d rather help people to be formed by Christ rather than deformed by the world.”

Of all the pillars, Jackie says the ones most often overlooked by Catholics are prayer and play. “We’re very good at knowing we should pray,” she said. “We’re good at calling on the Lord in moments of need. But disciplined prayer time is something we end up neglecting,

‘Purposeless fun’

One key tenet of the theology of the body is the body makes visible what is invisible—it reveals the spiritual and the divine. For Jackie, this is what Reform Wellness is all about. “The invisible is made visible when we allow Christ to live within us,” she said. “When our ‘why’ is centered in him, He becomes visible in the actions we take. Nurturing our bodies with good, whole, real food gives us clear skin, confidence and a strong body—those are visible to the outside. When we manage our stress, Christ is visible through our work, through our patience and the virtue that is visible in our work.”

A strong devotion to St. John Paul II formed her in the theology of the body and fueled her vision for Reform.

Since our bodies allow us to become a gift to others in love, then we must invest in nurturing our bodies. “This is important!” Jackie said. “Sometimes, in reaction to a self-gratifying world, we take the concept of self-emptying too far. We think, ’Oh, you don’t want to take too much care of yourself!’”

While Western culture is preoccupied by function and purpose, total wellness includes time for what Jackie Mulligan calls “purposeless fun.”

Reform Wellness encourages people to play—to cultivate non-productive time through fun that is not task-oriented. Why? Because in those moments, we are truly present.

A life lived with a sense of purpose is a great thing, but without a good balance of purpose and play time, we struggle to exist in the moment.

When we’re focused on tasks, our attention is on 21

planning for the future or understanding the past, not sinking into the moment at hand.

“When you knit or play tennis, when you’re jumping on a trampoline or drawing, you’re all there,” Jackie said. “And in that full presence, you’re free. You’re having fun. You’re able to experience the moment for what it is. You come outside of yourself in play.”

Reformers are creative. Some write. Others take up photography or other artistic hobbies.

For others, it’s as simple as playing with their kids. “Like actually playing with kids,” Jackie emphasized. “We’ve found that one of the best ways to get to know people is to play with them.”

Get more sleep!

So when Jackie hears people argue that they don’t have time to take care of themselves, she pushes back.

“You have to take care of yourself,” she said. “We don’t have time not to take care of ourselves.”

Self-care can look like honoring the Sabbath. It can look like praying before meals. It can look like going on a walk without your phone. Physical activity doesn’t always have to mean we’re profusely sweating. We need a new lens by which we view these questions, and Reform Wellness seeks to give people that lens.

“Insufficient sleep is a public-health epidemic,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asserted. Research backs them up, finding that one-third of American adults don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis. Adequate sleep is considered seven hours or more.

Here are four reasons why prioritizing sleep is in the best interest of your body, soul and spirit.

LETTING CHRIST LEAD

1 _ Physical health Chronic lack of sleep makes it hard to fight minor illnesses. It’s also linked to increased risk of more serious conditions such as heart and kidney disease, diabetes and strokes.

Now over five years in, Reform Wellness has helped thousands of people. They offer a popular 12-week online course as well as consulting and seminars. Ask Jackie about her hopes for the future, and she points back to Christ, her business coach. It’s about what He wants, not what she wants.

She will say this, though: People are hungry for Christ at the center of their lives. Many who go through Reform’s program say that everyone needs the class.

“This is beautiful and humbling to hear,” Jackie said. “If we can provide tools and community and education to help people live healthier and more holy lives, then I hope Reform will help as many people as possible!”

2 _ Safety Lack of sleep leads to brain fogginess, which reduces reaction times. Being tired is one of the leading causes of fatal car crashes.

3 _ Emotional fall-out Exhaustion from lack of sleep makes it hard to manage emotions and behavior.

4 _ Weight control Sleep deprivation can cause problems with hormones that control appetite, which can lead to weight gain.

22

SPRING 2022

that reveals the need of my heart for communion. Up to this point, I saw my femininity as cool. It made me, me.

It definitely made me better than those boys. But after reading her book, I began to see myself through a lens of complementarity instead of isolation or comparison.

It was healing to realize that my femininity reveals my relationality, that my growing attraction to boys had an existential meaning.

A few years later while discerning my vocation as a Dominican postulant, I found myself with another book

by Alice on my night stand: “By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride.” Yes, the irony is definitely worth a smile.

The book is structured as letters between the newly married Julie and her wise friend Lilly. Julie shares the joys and struggles of her early married life and Lilly responds with practical advice and enduring affection. As I tested a vocation that would turn out to not be my own, I found consolation in Alice’s practical words about human love.

She radically believed that communion between man and woman is possible. Alice was a smart lady. In fact, she stole the heart of the incredible philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, yet her capacity to write for even the simplest person proves herself the truest of philosophers.

I poured over the letters. As I did, my desire for a marriage as sought by Julie and Lilly grew stronger.

A few more visits to the convent library for quotes from “The Nature of Love” by Dietrich von Hildebrand led me to realize the Holy Spirit had set my heart towards a different form of spousal love than in the religious life. Alice and Dietrich helped me embrace my femininity as the source of what St. John Paul II calls “a communion of persons.”

Even now, as I make my way through my first year of marriage, I return to “Letters to a Young Bride” for guidance. Lilly is respectful of my freedom, but her words challenge me to not be afraid of my reactions to new events of marriage and family life and to make positive changes. As I ponder big questions like whether I should work or stay home once my little girl arrives, Lilly’s wise principles for action help me discern the goals and values I want to live by.

Alice von Hildebrand was a beautiful incarnation of the faith for our time. I treasure giving her books as wedding presents to friends on the outskirts of Christianity as well as to the most devout. While she was born nearly 70 years before me, her words have resounded in my heart because they bring ageless truths.

The timeless wisdom of Alice von Hildebrand

by Emma Greve

Becoming pregnant with my first child brought my heart clearly into focus. The ordinary event of carrying a child within me revealed the most essential meaning of my life: I’m created for communion. Through my femininity united to my husband’s masculinity, our little girl came into existence as the fruit of our communion of love. Helping me grow in this understanding of femininity was a woman I never met and who died this January at age 98.

I was in high school when my cousin gave me a book called “The Privilege of Being a Woman” by Alice von Hildebrand. The depth with which she could think about ordinary things was immediately attractive to me. She began to teach me that my femininity has a rich meaning

Emma Greve is married to Jacob Greve and lives in Cincinnati. She graduated with her Masters from Franciscan University and formerly worked for The Hildebrand Project.

23

The bubble bursts Mike is a professional musician who has toured the world both as a solo artist and with his bands Mike Mangione & the Union and Mike Mangione & the Kin. He’s been sharing the gift of his music at the Theology of the Body Institute courses and events since 2008. He is the director of events and international partnerships for the Institute and a contributor to the recently released “God Is Beauty: A Retreat on the Gospel and Art” (TOBI Press). Mike and his wife, Stacy, live in Wisconsin with their three children.

by Mike Mangione

supplemental oxygen. One unforgettable machine sounded an alarm every time my oxygen saturation dipped below 90 percent. It beeped day and night, an incessant reminder that I was not well. Every breath I exhaled felt like it could go on for miles, and it sounded like Rice Krispies were crackling in my lungs.

I was getting worse rapidly, and I knew it. When the staff asked about my power of attorney and wishes regarding resuscitation, it was the end to any wishful thinking. I was not in a good place.

On Oct. 10 a bed opened up at another hospital 30 minutes away. An ICU bed was far better equipped for my situation than an ER bed, so I agreed to the transfer.

On Oct. 4 of last year I tested positive for Covid-19. The nurse’s exact words were, “You are overwhelmingly positive,” and I was instructed to head home, isolate myself from my family and rest.

On the night of Oct. 6, I awoke with a fever, increased heart rate and shortness of breath. My pulse oximeter display was hovering between 88–90 percent, so I headed to the emergency room. I received IV fluids and was given a chest x-ray, which revealed I had developed pneumonia. Later that morning the doctor prescribed some meds and sent me on my way.

My oxygen dipped again early in the morning two days later, this time into the mid 80s, and I returned to the hospital. For three days I was confined to an emergency room bed, hooked up to multiple machines and given

UNCHARTED TERRITORY My new doctor informed me of the severity of my situation straightaway: I was receiving the maximum amount of oxygen possible before needing to be intubated. One tiny slip backwards and I would be placed in a medically induced coma with a breathing tube inserted down my throat. He also added that just the day before he had lost a 29-year-old male patient to Covid.

The plan was to treat my disease with an antiviral for five days, a steroid and some vitamins in an effort to stop my decline and increase lung functionality. The 24

SPRING 2022

staff was upfront about the moderate success they had seen with this approach and gave absolutely no guarantees. I asked every medical authority in my presence as many questions as I could in an effort to understand my situation. Every single one offered their reasoned opinion, but all qualified it the same way: “But with Covid, we just don’t know.”

It’s hard to express the anxiety I felt. Besides the difficulties of the illness itself, I couldn’t get clear answers to what indeed were life-and-death decisions. I was lost in a fog of uncertainty, and worse, I was alone. With visitors banned, I had to resort to video calls to communicate with my wife and kids. I felt helpless.

concerned look directed right into my eyes. Though he appeared serious, I could sense absolute love in his presence. I also felt a hand pinning me against a wooden chair despite being in a hospital bed. Like the pope’s eyes, the hand on my chest emitted both authority and love. Because of this, I felt at ease observing the face staring me in the eyes. Then I became aware that this face radiated the presence of St. John Paul II and Christ combined.

No voice spoke, but I was being asked, “Do you need me?” To which I responded, “Yes!” “Then sit there and do nothing.”

And there I sat, allowing myself to be still to the presence in the room. I didn’t receive any resolution, revelation or insight as to how this crisis would end. I only felt God’s closeness and, and with it, peace. I realized the bubble between us had burst, and from that point forward I felt like I was chest-to-chest with Jesus and was able to slip into prayer with very little effort.

SPIRITUAL CONSOLATION A dear friend of mine had dropped off a bag with multiple items, one of which was a cross containing the relics of St. Teresa of Avila. I decided to get serious about calling upon the saints for help. My starting line-up: St. Teresa Of Avila, St. Francis, St. Cecelia (patron of musicians), St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. John Paul II, my grandfather who had been a physician and my father who had just passed away five months prior.

Prayer has always been a part of my adult life, but to be honest, I’d never felt like I was good at it. I would struggle with the proper disposition necessary for successful prayer and felt that when I didn’t feel a personal connection to God it was the result of something I was doing wrong. God had always seemed distant and “out there,” and I felt if ever I wanted to close the gap between us then it required action from my end. Despite all of my efforts, it felt as if a bubble remained between us that I couldn’t break. But now was the time for serious commitment. I forged ahead, knowing that at the very least it would calm my nerves and help maintain some level of peace.

Right away I felt at ease and knew I needed to somehow stay in this spiritual place. Eventually, I was able to envision my intercessory team in the room with me. I could see the room filled with these holy people praying over me. I saw my grandfather off in the corner anxiously pacing back and forth and my father next to me quietly observing like I had done months ago in his time of passing. It was comforting to feel this presence, and I chose to remain in this place of peace and solitude.

SURRENDER Despite these graces my condition remained critical.

Each day I would receive my meds and hope the staff would walk into the room proclaiming, “You’re better!

You can go home now.” But my numbers weren’t budging.

With no major improvements, I knew at any moment my condition could take a turn for the worse.

Despite these fears and uncertainties, the feeling remained that God was present and in control. At first I

Prayer has always been a part of my adult life, but I never felt like I was good at it. Despite all of my efforts a bubble remained between God and me that I couldn’t break. struggled with his command to “do nothing.” How could I sit here and do nothing when my life was on the line?! My whole life I had been a fighter, clawing for the next step forward to success.

But here there were no illuminated steps toward success. I had only one option: to surrender everything over to him out of obedience. Better than at any other time in my life, I turned all of my desire for control and action towards a prayerful disposition of active receptivity … and stayed there. I maintained interior peace by leaving one foot in the pools of prayer at all times. I felt buoyant in those waters and needed to remain.

On Oct. 14, with very little respiratory progress so far, I received my last dose of antiviral medication. I

AN INCREDIBLE VISIT In one particular moment in prayer I became aware of St. John Paul II staring at me. He had a look that I have never seen in any video or photo of him. This was a stern, 25

feared it would have no effect and my condition would slip backwards. The next day, with no more doses remaining, I turned again to God. Since it was Oct. 15, the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, I prayed with her relics in hand. I picked up the crucifix, placed it under my medical gown directly on my chest and asked for healing. I wept as I faithfully asked God to help the medicine take effect.

The next day my doctor walked in holding his hand out flat in front of him with a slight bend in the tips of his fingers. I asked, “What is that?” He replied, “I think

that?” She looked at me with the wisdom of a 30-year nursing veteran and said, “You are very lucky. You almost died, honey!”

My wife arrived and at 3:30 p.m. I was wheeled out of Room 3307 on Oct. 22. It was the feast day of St. John Paul II.

REVELATION A few months later I was in a study group and a reflection question asked me to describe my relationship with God the Father. I started thinking, “Well, you know… God the Father is distant so we need to actively try to engage him if we want communion.” Immediately I felt God interject and say, “Is that true? Am I distant? Or are you projecting your relationship with your earthly father on me?”

With that tiny twist of focus, the picture became crystal clear for me and I understood so much at once. Let me start by saying I love my father deeply and he loved me. Like many father-son relationships, we often struggled for common ground and our communication suffered because of it.

He was comfortable with silence and any desire to close the gap required an effort on my part. As a result I developed an ingrained belief that connection with the father was obtained only through my action.

This misconception wreaked havoc in my prayer life.

God is constantly engaging us at every moment of the day! He just desires that we turn our eyes and hearts to see his presence and influence in all things. I had been projecting a distance when in fact He had been there the whole time, waiting for my reception.

If theology of the body has taught me anything it is that God wants to be united with us. Despite being part of a mission proclaiming this truth for the past 15 years, I struggled to bring this truth to myself. There is a major difference between understanding this in our heads and knowing this in our hearts. God’s desire to be united with us made sense to me, but up until this experience, I had never needed it to. I was one who needed to be deafened by the noise of fear and tragedy before I could hear my Father’s voice asking: “Do you need me?” My prayer is that when that day comes for you, you close the gap with a resounding “Yes!”

maybe, just maybe, you might be coming close to a corner … maybe. Just keep doing what you are doing and I will see you tomorrow.” Without getting too hopeful, I said a prayer of thanksgiving and continued to ask for graces and healing. The next day he walked in again, this time with a definite curve in his fingers. I asked, “Have I done it? Have I turned a corner?” He said, “Yes, I believe so.

Again, keep doing what you are doing, but it is looking good.” This time, with tears in my eyes, I prayed a dense prayer of thanksgiving. Not long after, my nurse came in and said I was leaving the ICU and moving upstairs to another room.

I was in the hospital for five more days, praying and completing my lung exercises with a fervor I had never experienced. On the last morning I was sitting in my bed deep in morning prayer when my nurse walked in and told me I would be going home that day. I couldn’t believe it and remained skeptical until she came in with discharge papers for me to sign.

She read through them with me… “You suffered from bi-lateral Covid pneumonia resulting in acute respiratory failure.” I replied, “Acute respiratory failure? What’s

Connect with Mike at mikemangione.com; Instagram/mangionemusic; Spotify: spoti.fi/3gZO0wX. Learn more about the “God Is Beauty” book at www.godisbeautybook.com.

26

SPRING 2022

O R I G I N A L

B E A U T Y

The Beauty of Complementarity

by Katie Lovett

For the inquisitive child, first grade can be full of wonders. The workings of a calendar. The intricacies of mathematics. And while the calendar lost its wonder for me and math evolved into my own private torture, some of my first-grade discoveries held an allure that the decades failed to erase.

My fascination with color theory began the day my class learned about complementary colors and Georges Seurat. My teacher had no idea what life-changing knowledge she had unleashed into my small world.

In some ways, you might compare it to the life-changing knowledge St. John Paul II unleashed into the modern world with his theology of the body.

Seurat had some concept of the ground he was breaking with his color wheel experiments. He was more than an artist—he was a scientist. It was Seurat who discovered that colors opposite each other on the color wheel look more vibrant and better image light when placed side-by-side. Thanks to Seurat, we understand why clouds painted on a blue sky look more luminous with a hint of orange, why yellow flowers pop when shaded with purple, and why Christmas red and green are so festive. Contemporary art, good and bad, would not be the same without Seurat.

Or would it?

Artists today can intentionally manipulate the color wheel for maximum effect. But even before Seurat, plum was paired with gold and scarlet paired with emerald.

We always knew these combinations were lovely, yes.

Understanding why, though, exploded the possibilities for bringing vibrance and light into the art world.

Thanks to St. John Paul II, mankind has another opportunity to explode possibilities for vibrance and light into the world. Only this time, the explosion isn’t confined to the world of art. It’s as broad as creation and as close as our humanity. It’s as central yet controversial as our genders themselves.

Seurat may have discovered that red and green complement each other, but St. John Paul II discovered

something even more amazing. He discovered that because God created man in His own image as male and female then precisely in our masculinity and femininity we make visible the divine image. Because male and female are complementary, man and woman are more vibrant when placed side-by-side.

This is when they can best image the Light.

The ramifications are astounding. Haven’t we always known that man and woman belong together? Of course—and far more instinctively than we know the complementarity of red and green! But until St. John Paul II, most of us had no idea what this signified. Our rational souls embodied as male or female make us images of the Trinitarian God? Amazing! So how do we image this divine reality?

We image God through a total gift of self in love.

You and I are not Seurat, but we are like the artists who came after him, wielding the beauty of our masculinity or femininity to bring vibrance and light to the world.

That light comes from the unparalleled splendor of total self-gift, and we give it through our vocations. When we’re faithful to this call, we bring divine light into a broken and unsuspecting world.

The world needs to see faithful husbands and wives standing out against a culture that has forsaken the true meaning of marriage and fidelity. We need to see priests revealing Christ by pouring themselves out in love for their Bride, the Church. And we need to see religious and consecrated singles joyfully giving themselves completely to their Divine Spouse.

This is how we live the theology of the body in a world that is a colorless wash of gray. We bring it color; we image the Light. In our masculinity and femininity, we complement each other and this, indeed, helps reveal God. And that’s more astounding than the calendar, math and even color theory could ever hope to be.

Katie Lovett works for the Angelico Project, a Catholic arts organization that seeks to evangelize through beauty. She lives in southwest Ohio with her husband and four children.

27

A STUDENT OF HUMANITY How TOB anchors one bright young seminarian

by Christina Ries

The path to priesthood wouldn’t be complete without a study of St. John Paul II’s theology of the body, says Nick Vance, a 25-year-old seminarian from West St. Paul, Minn.

This spring he’s pouring over the texts as part of his Sexual Morality class at The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul, and he’s “super excited.”

Nick was first introduced to TOB when his high-school youth group traveled to hear a talk by Jason Evert. “It was one of the first times I heard the Church’s teachings on sexuality in an engaging and hope-filled way,” he recalled. “It gave me courage to follow the Church’s teaching at a young age.”

A decade later, he’s diving deeper so he’ll be equipped to serve his flock one day as a priest, God willing—and to spur his own personal development. He sees the teachings as an enduring gift from St. John Paul II. “It starts, like all good theology does, immersed in Scripture, taking its cues from God’s Word,” he said.

“Rather than just a list of prohibitions or attempts to regular behavior, TOB aims at understanding the heart of God.” It brings comfort to the seminarian. “I’m grateful for TOB in that it continues the Church’s longstanding tradition of firmly defending that human beings are body and soul, joined together, and what God has joined together, let no man put asunder. With our immortal souls, God breathes his spirit into us, and the union that we experience between the soul and the body is right where we’re meant to live—in a way, with a foot in both the material world and the other in the spiritual world.”

Every bit of comfort helps, as the journey to priesthood can be daunting.

“Initially, I was kind of scared when I put in my application for seminary,” Nick said. “I knew I was supposed to be here, but I didn’t know yet if I wanted to be here. But as I learned to grow closer to the Lord, I learned to relax my grip on everything. ‘Alright, Lord, I’m here. I’m going 28

SPRING 2022

29

to be obedient to everything you say.’ The crazy reality is when I started to listen to God, He led me in the right direction. It’s allowed my heart to fall more and more in love with the Lord, when I relax my grip and say, ‘Lord, I just want to be with you.’”

The resounding emotion: “Peace. And a real sense of belonging.”

People who define priesthood by the sacrifices involved don’t understand his peace. “I want to say, ‘I wish you knew the joy in my heart. I wish you understood what God has done!’”

Paul II had a strong insistence on “welcoming the gift” of the other, receiving that person for his/her own sake, as someone who has inherent value and worth.

Yet too often, that mindset is missing from interactions. Suspending judgment would go a long way in this divisive era, when we’ve witnessed a public-health crisis turn political, fracturing families and sparking Facebook feuds and defriending.

“When you see division, you just have to pause,” Nick said. “Before I engage in that debate, rather than jumping on this person and giving them my 30-second pitch of why I think they’re wrong, I’ve learned to ask: ‘Lord, how do you see this person? How can I love this person?’”

One of Nick’s mentors at seminary shared a powerful notion: a priest is a student of humanity. “The priest is given this gift from the Lord, to have the heart of a shepherd. The priest who is conforming his heart to Christ is inexorably drawn to people. All these relationships, all these people who show up at the parish or pass him on the street— they are all loved by Christ, and he’s called to love them with the same heart.”

JOURNALISM TRAINING

Telling his story is a powerful response to those who don’t understand his calling. So is asking to hear other people’s stories. It’s an interest that was sharpened when Nick studied journalism as an undergrad.

KEEPING IT REAL

If a priest can take his observations on human nature and bring them to the pulpit, he can make a real impact, Nick said. “I spend all day immersed in theology, hearing these words and phrases that get thrown around, and it comes to the point where it’s almost esoteric. But for the average parishioner coming to church, a lot of this stuff might get lost on them—not because they’re not smart, but because the preacher should translate this into human experience. Theology is meant to have an impact upon our lives.”

That’s exactly what St. John Paul II did in his theology of the body, drawing insights from both Scripture and human experience.

They resonate deeply because they reflect what it means to be human.

It’s a goal Nick has set for himself. “I’ve been so convicted about the need to use human experiences to help illustrate the mysteries of God, to use them an invitation into the mysteries of God.” That circles back to Nick’s journalism training. “The great example here should be Christ, who led with storytelling, parables and vivid images like the Sermon on the Mount. ‘You are the light of the world, you are the salt

“The greatest posture I learned in journalism was curiosity,” he said. “I have been encouraged to ‘be curious, not judgmental.’ Before we make assumptions, just have a curiosity about the world and the people around you. I learned how to be a good journalist when I realized the importance of being more open to other views. Having an attitude of curiosity—that we can suspend our inner voice for a little bit and say, ‘I might be wrong about this person or situation’—that’s a game changer.”

Suspending judgment and cultivating curiosity actually has a direct tie to the theology of the body. St. John 30

SPRING 2022

of the earth, blessed are the poor in spirit.’ Those images can convey truths that a big, long theological dissertation might not be able to.”

Nick’s study of humanity has expanded to many people he has met in his ministry, including one particular married couple who welcomed him into their lives once he began seminary. “Their witness is inspiring—how much they love their kids and how much they’re willing to spend of themselves to do what the Lord is calling. It’s been a real gutcheck for me. I see these parents who are living their vocation so much better than I often do, and their self-gift inspires me to live similarly.”

“My self-gift must always flow out of self-acceptance and self-knowledge,” he said. “Not only must I first know who I am, I must know whose I am. Our lives are first defined by relationship—who the Lord is and how He relates to us—which informs our identity and overflows into our mission.”

FRESH AIR

It’s easier to keep all these things in perspective when Nick is getting regular exercise, prodded by theology of the body.

“Whether I like it or not, this is the body that the Lord has given to me, with all of its wonderful quirks and even its strange groupings of freckles. It’s a gift from the Lord,

to manage the different fears I might have going into this.

When I’m climbing, I have to learn how to take calculated risks and trust my fingers to grip onto this hold while I shift my footing. I have to know when I’m out of my depth, if I’m going to attempt something that’ll make me fall off the wall and end up on the mat. I keep coming up against the edge of my comfort zone. But it enables me to discover a depth to myself, a strength I didn’t know before.”

Getting fresh air always rejuvenates the seminarian.

His favorite place to hike is Superior Hiking Trail in northern Minnesota.

“When I’m working or going about life indoors, I’m surrounded by things that are fast-paced. There are many demands being made and things crying for my attention. Being in nature reminds me how slow everything is. A priest here at seminary says, ‘Good growth is slow growth.’”

Singing and playing guitar on a praise-and-worship team is another sure-fire way to be rejuvenated, Nick said. “There’s something so joyful about that, collaborating, playing music with those you love.”

It’s a social connection with deep spiritual underpinnings. “As I’ve been falling more and more in love with the Lord, there are these truths about him, and I don’t know how to express in words how much I love him, so it just kind of comes out in song.”

Nick smiles and quotes another seminary professor: “If you want to do good theology, fall in love and take careful notes.” He’s happy to keep learning.

“I want to make sure that I am consistently attentive to my physical and mental health, because my life is not my own.” and like all things that the Lord gives, my job is to reasonably protect and nourish them and put them at the service of the kingdom. As a future priest, this means I need to take good care of my health so I can serve long and well for the people of God. Health and fitness can never be ultimate ends in and of themselves, but they certainly shouldn’t be dismissed outright either. Unfortunately, priests don’t always do this very well, and I want to make sure that I am consistently attentive to my physical and mental health, because my life is not my own.”

Nick is a huge sports fan. He loves soccer and plays ultimate frisbee with fellow seminarians. He also enjoys rock climbing, which offers plenty of life lessons.

“It takes engagement with every single part of you,” he said. “You have to be strong and have good endurance, but there’s also a mental game. Not only do I have to study the climb and figure out how to navigate, but I also have 31

The

call of creativity

By Christina Ries • Photos by Rebecca Slater/By Rebecca Studios

32

SPRING 2022

33

Philadelphia, Pa. He was struck by the wide range of people there, all thirsting to learn St. John Paul II’s anthropology. “Theology of the body is so rich and so powerful that people who aren’t even Catholic, who aren’t even religious, are drawn to it. It makes sense!”

There’s something

DIAPERS & DREAMS Meanwhile, Connor doggedly pursued his musical dreams—specifically, as a hip-hop artist. He and his wife, Katie, settled in St. Paul, Minn., and had three girls in rapid succession: Hadley, 4; Braelyn, 3; and Kinsley, 1.

Fatherhood lent him a newfound motivation.

“There are stereotypes that you get married, have kids and then your dreams die,” Connor said. “But the more committed I am to my vocation, the more God has breathed life into my dream—and the more convicted I am to do this music thing, because I want my girls to see their dad fighting for this.”

about lined paper that makes songwriter Connor Flanagan feel trapped. But give the Minnesota musician some graphic paper, and the boxes become bubbles, expanding to hold lyrics and bouncing around freely when they need to be rearranged.

“I don’t work left to right,” he says, grinning widely. “I start on the right page and then move to the left.”

Understanding his creative process in all its quirks is the life work of this 33-year-old Catholic dad, a rising star in hip-hop. Anchored by theology of the body, he’s pouring his all into his music career—and inspiring everyone in his path.

Connor was raised on a small farm in Ohio, where he’d roam in the woods for hours on end. “Growing up on that farm gave me an imagination and a work ethic,” he said. “I recognize that being a big differentiator in me.”

He wrote prolifically, penning short stories and entering writing competitions. His parents fostered a love of music. They took him to live performances that lit a fire in his heart. The Christian rap group DC Talk captivated him as a teen.

As Connor’s passion for music deepened, so did his faith. In college, a friend introduced him to the theology of the body. “It was almost like, ‘Woah! This is how it all works!’” he recalled. “I couldn’t get enough of it. For being a well-formed Catholic, I felt like the theology of the body was the missing piece, in terms of integrating everything. It was fascinating to me.”

After graduating, Connor attended a week-long program at the Theology of the Body Institute outside

Fight, he did. Once, he made 100 cold calls—and booked seven summer festivals.

That doesn’t mean he was able to pursue music full-time. He works as the marketing director for St. Paul’s Outreach, a Catholic organization that trains and supports missionaries on college campuses. “Your dream can be a side project. It doesn’t have to make money. I 34

SPRING 2022

“That was surprising and awesome,” Connor said. “It was an affirmation that this is working. And it was just fun! It’s like, ‘God, you are for us, in the big and in the little things.’”

Making time to help young musicians is a priority for Connor, who co-founded a record label called Dayton Avenue last year.

“If we’re not using our gifts to encourage others, then what are we doing? There’s no competition in the kingdom of God. There’s so much room for our gifts, and for me to think that somebody else succeeding will somehow inhibit my ability to succeed is a lie. Once a week I’m on the phone with someone who found me on Instagram and asks about my career,” he said.

He’s determined to share his insights—even if the payoff isn’t instant or obvious. “Generosity always wins. One of my favorite prayers is the Ignatian prayer of generosity. It’s such a freeing thing to pray.”

“If we’re not using our gifts to encourage others, then what are we doing? There’s no competition in the kingdom of God.” still have a 9-to-5 that helps the family as I’m building my music business. At the end of the day, this is for my kids.

If I don’t get accolades or the record sales, I basically want to create a public diary for my kids, so when they’re 30 or 40, they can look back and say, ‘Wow, look what he tried to do!’ If it gives them permission to dream, then I’m a success!”

But the accolades have come. Connor has opened for some of his heroes in Christian music—David Crowder, Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes. He performed at some of his favorite festivals that he attended as a kid. Two of his records debuted on the top 10 on iTunes.

BOOTCAMP Advancing his career means acting on a core TOB tenet: the interconnection of body, mind and soul. Connor tirelessly sharpens all three. He jumps rope to get in 35

shape for his high-energy performances. He prioritizes his faith life, frequenting the sacraments. And he does daily writing exercises, borrowing from Pat Pattison’s book “Writing Better Lyrics.”

“After a year of regular practice, I’m starting to see the fruits of that. Ideas are coming quicker. Songs are coming together faster.”

Like a pro athlete reviewing a game video, Connor films every show and studies the footage. “I watch it, ‘OK, that didn’t feel off. How did the crowd relate to this?’”

He uses every tool available, including his rhyming dictionary during songwriting. And his leather-bound Bible is never far.

Scripture is “100 percent” conducive to rap, Connor said. “Many of my songs are Scripturally based. I just wrote a song called ‘Be Not Afraid’ that culls all these Bible verses about battling fear. One of my favorite ways

to pray is to pray a psalm a day. That whole book is literally a songbook!

The way they’re laid out, I pull from them for hiphop songs.”

His drive comes from a sense of duty. “I want to honor the gifts God gave me. I want to be a good steward.”

That desire ought to spark creativity in all Christians, he said. “We should be the most creative people on the face of the earth because we are trying to walk in line with the Creator and tap into his genius.”

It’s the catalyst that keeps him jumping—literally.

“After a performance, I’m fried. I’m sweating and sore and hungry. And I just want to keep going.”

Photo by Kelsey Green

36

SPRING 2022

Church. “Catholics have always recognized the importance of art—not as an end to itself, but as a means of expressing and approaching the mystery of our faith, the mystery of God’s love, our growing toward Him in our imperfect ways,” he said.

Jeff always wanted to be a writer but wound up in law school, pursuing a prestigious career. He now works as a criminal prosecutor.

Faith & art The Catholic Church has always elevated art, building ornate cathedrals and commissioning paintings by the likes of Michelangelo and Raphael. It found a special advocate in St. John Paul II, a poet and playwright. His appreciation of art shaped his papacy. In 1999, he penned a letter to artists, affirming the spiritual underpinnings of creative work.

“None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands,” Pope John Paul II wrote in the introduction. “A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often in your eyes when—like the artists of every age—captivated by the hidden power of sounds and words, colors and shapes, you have admired the work of your inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God, the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you.”

St. John Paul II’s connection between creativity and Catholicism validated musician Connor Flanagan. “If you were to take my spirituality out of my art, it would be non-existent.”

Many creative Catholics share his sentiment.

“It’s hard for me to separate out my Catholicism from my writing,” said Haley Stewart, 36, a writer and mother of four from Waco, Texas.

Theology of the body sparked her interest in Catholicism and paved the way for her conversion to the Catholic Church. She finds her new faith home particularly inspiring from a creativity perspective.

“Our Catholic liturgy acknowledges our human need for sensory inspiration,” she said. “We’re created to smell the incense and see the light coming from the stained glass and hear the bells. But then there’s also the incredible tradition of sacred art, and we see it displayed throughout hundreds and hundreds of years of the Church’s history.”

Jeff Wald, 35, a father of five from West St. Paul, Minn., also finds a wellspring of inspiration in the Catholic

BEDTIME STORIES Fatherhood drew him back to storytelling, and he started writing down the tales he spun for his children.

Five years ago, on a whim, Jeff submitted one to a small children’s magazine, which published it.

He vowed to write more.

“I think it was remembering who I am and what makes me feel alive,” Jeff said.

“Catholics have always recognized the importance of art—not as an end to itself, but as a means of expressing and approaching the mystery of our faith.”

The busy dad now makes time to write daily, rising at 4 am to make Cuban coffee and take advantage of the time before his children rise.

“I would love more time to do it,” he said. “But I’m so fortunate that I really love the job I have right now. This was a breakthrough for me. I realized I don’t have to live by myself in the woods, like a hermit, to do this. I can be a normal guy with a normal job, and I don’t have to write eight hours a day. I can write 10 minutes. And if I get an hour, fantastic! It’s rare to make a living off your writing, and I have no illusions that that’ll happen, and I don’t even know if that would be the best for me—my holiness, my life, my faith.”

With his day job outside music, Connor has a similar perspective. “A lot of people think their creative dreams have to be full-time careers and generate money to make sense. There are so many people whose talents are amazing but will never see the light of day. Your kids need to see you come alive and use your gifts to serve others!

They don’t have to make money. The dream can be a side project. The dream can be something you use just to pour into your family.”

But even as a side project, he said, creativity requires discipline to bear fruit. “Inspiration rarely strikes. It’s a muscle you have to work out. I write every day.”

37

Then, when it’s least expected, the clouds will suddenly part.

Jeff experienced this recently. “This morning, right after my prayer, this story I’ve been thinking about for 18 months just kind of came together,” he said. “I like to think it was grace and a bit of the Holy Spirit—maybe combined with a particularly good cup of coffee.”

And then there are those rare times when lightning strikes.

Haley never believed this could actually happen—until one winter morning she dreamt of a story. “I woke up, and I was like, ‘I have to write this story! It was just given to me!’”

Sure enough, when she sat down at her laptop, the words poured out. “It wrote itself,” she said. “It felt very much like this collaboration with God. I was given this opportunity to give something birth. My fingers just typed out the story that was already there.”

This fall Pauline Books will publish it, a 10,000-word illustrated storybook titled “The Pursuit of the Pilfered Cheese”—a departure from Haley’s standard prose. The publisher invited Stewart to turn it into a three-book children’s series called the Sister Seraphina Mysteries.

In the meantime, she’ll continue to nurture her faith and pay attention—the formula for any creative Catholic.

said. “I’ll hear a melody on the radio or a car-door beeping sound and then I’ll run to the basement and I’ll put something down on the guitar or piano or hum it into my phone.”

Jeff’s advice for guarding the imagination is steeped in TOB principles. It sounds like a manual for living well: “Cultivate a habit of wonder, of curiosity, of seeing the world as the building of the Kingdom of God, not as something to be feared. Read a lot. Get outside. Have a garden, get in the dirt. Butcher a chicken. Take up backyard farming. We can be so removed from creation. We’re imitators of God, and nothing compares to God’s creation, of getting out and looking at a tree, getting your hands muddy, going on a hike.”

Haley offers parallel advice. “There are so many things in our world that cause brain fog that keep us from being able to be attentive to the Holy Spirit and to really collaborate creatively,” she said. “When we’re completely overwhelmed by life, it can be really difficult to tap into that creative spark. Sometimes there just isn’t the bandwidth.”

Her best remedies: going on a walk, chatting with a friend or praying at Adoration, where she always brings a notebook.

“It comes down to wonder,” she said. “When we’re connected to God, we’re awake to the reality that the world is enchanted by the footsteps of God. When we’re awake to that truth, we’re more open to creativity.”

THE SPARK “The most random things will spark an idea,” Connor

‘Wonder is the only appropriate attitude’ An excerpt from St. John Paul II’s 1999 Letter to Artists With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power. …The artist has a special relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent”. …

Every genuine art form in its own way is a path to the inmost reality of

man and of the world. It is therefore a wholly valid approach to the realm of faith, which gives human experience its ultimate meaning. That is why the Gospel fullness of truth was bound from the beginning to stir the interest of artists, who by their very nature are alert to every “epiphany” of the inner beauty of things. …

May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder!

38

Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude. …

Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!”

Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy.

SPRING 2022

Kelly V. Miller, 38 embroiderer Raleigh, N.C. kellyvmiller.com etsy.com/shop/threadroses

‘I love what I do’

Where do you work?

I create Catholic, hand-embroidered devotional art and embroidery patterns. In the quiet hours of the evening, after all four children have gone to bed, I curl up with my current embroidery on our big leather couch, with either British gardening shows on the television or Catholic podcasts on the tablet.

What do you enjoy about the creative process?

Creating something for the glory of God draws me closer to Him. I learned to embroider at the same time I was discerning becoming a Catholic. I chose to dedicate my work to God because it gave me a specific avenue of faith to focus on during that process. I became enamored with altar linens and vestments, anything Catholic and embroidered, and now use it both as a means of devotion and as a way to preserve the liturgical art.

How has TOB influenced you?

I continue to contemplate the multi-faceted concept of the gift of self— as a wife, mother and artist. The call to surrender oneself to gain a more intimate union with Christ is irresistible. Remembering that my gifts and talent come from God inspires me to constantly strive to be better and to do it all for his glory.

St. John Paul II said that artists are close to God because when we create something, we mirror God. As a mother and an artist, I’m aware that to create something requires sacrifice. To create something with and through and for God makes that sacrifice beautiful and sanctifying. When we allow God to work through us in the process of creating, we’re allowed a little glimpse of the beauty that is God. 39

Emily Abe, 26

Joe Duca, 30

graphic designer

filmmaker

Minnetonka, Minn. emilyabe.com

Los Angeles josephduca.com

Where do you work?

What do you enjoy about the creative process?

My office is in my bedroom. I invested in a reclining gaming chair and stand-up desk. I work my magic on a large, color-calibrated monitor. While I work, I jam out to tunes and podcasts—NeedtoBreathe, Hillsong, Pints with Aquinas and The Daily Wire. I love the idea-generation phase. I challenge myself to sketch out 50 concepts.

From there, I choose three to five concepts I think the client would like.

I live for that moment of discovery—somewhere between “aha” and “eureka”—where time stops and it feels like, to quote the great French filmmaker Robert Bresson, that you’ve brought “together things that have not yet been brought together and did not seem predisposed to be so.”

How does your creative work relate to your Catholic faith?

I experience my art as one way of working out my salvation, my way of witnessing to the beauty I have seen, my account of the joy that is in me.

How does your creative work relate to your Catholic faith?

My clients are all Catholic organizations—medical organizations, marketing agencies, dioceses, youngadult groups, nursing homes. If you had asked me when I graduated college if I could work my dream job of doing Catholic graphic design, I’d call you crazy and tell you there’s no money in that. But I am totally in love with what I do.

How has TOB influenced you?

TOB has meant a great deal to me, particularly by helping to heal certain wounds—certainly those brought on by my own mistakes—but also the ones I carried by internalizing certain less-positive formulations of sexuality I had encountered even within the Church. My film Evergreen, in fact, was to some degree an examination of the language our bodies speak and the way the love we have given can haunt us, if we love incompletely.

If you had asked me when I graduated college if I could work my dream job of doing Catholic graphic design, I’d call you crazy and tell you there’s no money in that. But I am totally in love with what I do.

Which TOB principle inspires you?

From St. John Paul II’s Love and Responsibility: “Love is never something ready-made, something merely ‘given’ to man and woman, it is always at the same time a ‘task’ which they are set. Love should be seen as something which in a sense never ‘is’ but is always only ‘becoming,’ and what it becomes depends upon the contribution of both persons and the depth of their commitment.”

My wife has taught me so much in the short time we’ve been married, but above all, she lives this quote, understands that we can always love better, deeper, fuller. Our love is the masterpiece of a lifetime, and despite my brokenness, she guides my hand every stroke of the way.

How has TOB influenced you?

I was very much a tomboy and never had dreams of raising a family, making a home and cooking. After converting to the Catholic faith and encountering TOB principles, I am so excited to be a married woman embracing the traditional role! There is so much beauty in the complementarity of man and woman.

St. John Paul II said that artists are close to God because when we create something, we mirror God. Absolutely. The first thing God did was create, right?

So as human persons made in the image and likeness of God, we share that gift and longing to create.

40

SPRING 2022

Wayman Scott, 43

Joshua Hren, 40

sculptor

writer

Baltimore, Md. baltimoreclayworks.org

Milwaukee, Wis. joshuahren.com

Where do you work?

When do you write?

I work in the studio that’s an old former library. I often find myself blasting Julius Hemphill or John Coltrane in my headphones as a wedge-coarse high-grit clay slabs out for big builds.

I write in fits, when they come, sometimes with a child straddling my shoulders, often behind a blare of jazz—John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme” or Brubeck or Bill Evans’ “You Must Believe in Spring.”

What do you enjoy about the creative process?

Entering into knotted, pressure-cooker situations and trying to find grace among the gutters is a challenge I’m deeply attracted to. I love watching a revelatory metaphor appear from out of nowhere to cast a new light on a whole scene or a whole novel. I love the intensity of two characters in dialogue, striving for understanding or some semblance of love and sometimes scrounging it from a hard conversation.

How does your creative work relate to your Catholic faith?

Sometimes only the inspiration of the Holy Spirit can give us just the right insight, epiphany, sentence, brushstroke. Only he can give sufficient gifts at the artist’s dire hour of room-pacing, red-eyed, headscratching need.

How does your creative work relate to your Catholic faith?

At the core of TOB, St. John Paul II lays a foundation that we are all made in the image and likeness of God. This informs my empathy as a counselor at a hospice.

It is similar with my art. When you can sculpt someone with clay you can capture part of their essence and their soul. I run a grief group with kids and we use clay to give them another venue to express their feelings.

I can use the political and religious ideals to share a modern perspective, such as creating a Pieta with a black Jesus and Mary to highlight the impact of unarmed black people being killed. Sculpting Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos is timely. During a time when yellow fever was killing people, he ministered to the sick and died of yellow fever himself.

How has TOB influenced you?

Especially as we live under a dominant culture that has made an idol out of plasticity and limitless freedom, St. John Paul II’s ability to make self-denial attractive—to capture the romance of self-denial—is beautiful. “Love consists of a commitment which limits one’s freedom,” he says in Love and Responsibility. “Limitation of one’s freedom might seem to be something negative and unpleasant, but love makes it a positive, joyful and creative thing. Freedom exists for the sake of love.”

As I’ve learned—sometimes the hard way, over 13 years of marriage—the spiritual yields of such a chosen limitation are immense. Eventually it is possible, by the intercession of many saints and the constant aid of the sacraments, to even take joy in such sacrifices, such chosen limitations—an incredible truth and a great gift.

St. John Paul II said that artists are close to God because when we create something, we mirror God. This is validating to the art. The shapes and images are already in the clay, they just need to be pulled from the clay, forged in fire, and turned to living stone.

41

Kristina Fahey, 32 painter Fowler, Mich. etsy.com/shop/paintedsanctuary instagram.com/paintedsanctuary

Where do you work?

As a young mom of four little kids, my workspace is at my kitchen table, right in the middle of the chaos of family life. It’s important that they see me pursuing my passions. I have to wipe off cheerios or toast crumbs first, and then I take over the entire table with my supplies. On good days I light a pine-scented candle and turn on Maverick City Music or George Ezra radio.

How does your creative work relate to your Catholic faith?

What do you enjoy about the creative process?

Everything! I spent a lot of years battling postpartum anxiety and depression, which left little room for any creativity. Now I am alive with ideas, and I have the energy and drive to make them come to life.

I believe art is a charism that God gave to me. It brings me life, makes me feel more myself and blesses other people. I love that just the act of creating is itself a way to participate in God’s creative life.

AGAPÈ CATHOLIC MINISTRIES

How has TOB influenced you?

Building Christ-centered families, one family at a time™

It’s so simple, yet very profound—this truth that St. John Paul II expressed so beautifully, that the body is good and that it is holy. As I get older, the Lord is leading me to a place of love and compassion toward my own body. It’s so easy to hate those parts of ourselves that aren’t the way we’d like them to be. If the body is good, that means that my own body is good. My body is how Christ is present to the world. And this truth helps me to be kinder to myself.

ONLINE CATHOLIC ONE-ON-ONE MENTORING

Can you share a TOB principle that inspires you?

As a wife and mother, and even as an artist, I see my vocations as primarily a call to love. And the concrete expression of this love is through my body. The idea that one can fully discover himself through a sincere gift of himself (Gaudium et Spes, 24) is something I desire to embody, and I pray that the Lord continues to transform my heart to be able to love like this.

CatholicMarriagePrep.com CatholicBaptismPrep.com - CatholicQuincePrep.com Available in English, Spanish, and French. www.agapecatholicministries.com Toll free: 1-800-208-1364

42

SPRING 2022

Scott Hahn, 64

Grace Brown, 22

author and cook

singer

Steubenville, Ohio scotthahn.com • stpaulcenter.com New book: “The Lenten Cookbook”

Pensacola, Fla. GracefulCatholic.com

Where do you cook?

What do you create?

At home with my lovely wife Kimberly.

I work on my passion projects: the Graceful Catholic blog, at my kitchen desk until about 1 p.m.; and then some days I head to our home recording studio to record a hymn associated with an upcoming feast day.

What do you enjoy about cooking?

I’m known as a writer, but I do love to cook. For me it is a creative outlet; it’s relaxing and a good time to talk.

How does your creative work relate to your Catholic faith?

How does creative work of any kind relate to Catholicism?

As a singer, recording and sharing music is deeply personal. When I add hymns in celebration of a saint or the Lord into the mix, it becomes a form of prayer and devotion for me.

God is the Master Creator, and He encourages us (in Genesis) to imitate him. Human work is meant to fulfill God’s creative intent. It brings people into relationship with other people and helps us glorify Him.

How has TOB influenced you?

How has TOB influenced you?

St. John Paul II’s theology of the body dives deep into the essence of humanity. What makes us tick, how we relate. TOB influences my recording process by reminding me that the Body of Christ can be united in mysterious ways. Hymns or particularly Gregorian chant have a way of getting to the heart of humans.

I owe my Catholic conversion to it! Early in my marriage my wife gave me a book called “Birth Control and the Marriage Covenant” by John Kippley. He shows how in a marital covenant, God has designed the marital act to show the life-giving power of love through a complete self-gift. By the time I finished the book, I was convinced.

This began my journey across the Tiber.

Which TOB principle inspires you?

“The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God and thus to be a sign of it” (TOB 19:4).

Which TOB principle inspires you?

We live in a world that primarily sees the body as one of two things: a burden or a barrier. But St. John Paul II proposed another way of seeing the body—as a bridge.

It’s the bridge that allows others to know us. By our words and gestures, facial expressions and actions, our bodies communicate the invisible truths about who we are to the world. They allow us to serve others (through even simple things like cooking!) and be served by them.

God reached us by entering time and taking on a body.

Grace reaches our souls by traveling through our body.

And grace reaches out into the world by traveling back through our bodies to others—through our hands, feet, eyes and mouths.

We owe a great debt to St. John Paul II for revealing the true beauty of the body.

JPII said that artists are close to God because when we create something, we mirror God. All creatives should ponder the connection between their art and worship. For me, as a musician, I transfer my desire for Christ into lyrics and melodies. The longing in my heart feeds the creative process because that passion and gift are directly outflowing from the Holy Spirit.

Editor’s note: Visit our blog (embodiedmag.org/blog) to read more from these creatives and see more of their work. If you want to answer these questions for our blog, email us at: contact@embodiedmag.org.

43

Savor

It doesn’t take much for kids to feel

the

day

By Christina Ries Photos by Jen Marshall, Instagram @wayfarerfamily

festive. Slap the word “party” onto whatever you’re

The theology of the body is built

on the truth that we are made in the

doing and offer a smile, and they’ll believe you. A pizza

image of God, who adorns the earth

party. A puzzle party. A coloring party.

each spring with beauty. We reflect him when we cele-

(Pssst: This just means you’re coloring together. And

brate colleagues and relatives and neighbors, affirming

togetherness is cause alone for celebration.)

their God-given dignity. We mail a card, we light a candle,

As Christians, we are called to celebrate. A priest does

we cheer them on, we mark a milestone.

not say Mass; he celebrates it. Scripture tells us: “This is

To celebrate is to savor. So grab a Tuesday zipping

the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

right by and admire it, holding it in your hands a little

This does not require an intricate balloon arch. It’s

while. We celebrate when we swing, when we soak

about your attitude, not your accessories. It’s a posture

up the sun, when we sing. We celebrate when we are

of the heart, a quiet celebration of God’s gifts. Becoming

together. Savor it!

like children.

44

SPRING 2022

45

46

SPRING 2022

47

Embodied Publishing 2615 Fairhill Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45239 www.embodiedmag.org

We all need more goodness, truth and beauty in our lives…and mailboxes.

SU BSC R I BE and GI V E A GI F T •

Subscribe to receive 4 issues per year for yourself or your friends and family.

•

Visit embodiedmag.org and click SUBSCRIBE

PA RT N E R

We are looking for advertisers, partners and distribution channels. Contact us at info@embodiedmag.org to discuss how Embodied Magazine can help you.

SU PPORT

It is not easy to launch a print magazine, and Embodied needs a few angel donors who believe in the potential of the theology of the body to change the culture to help sustain us as we build a subscriber base. Contact founder Ann Gundlach at ann@embodiedmag.org to learn more.