16: How To Catholify Your Home

Speaker: 00:00:06

Hey, I'm your host, Mari Wagner, and you're listening to the ever be

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podcast where faith meets lifestyle.

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I'm so excited you're here, whether you're

a new listener or a longtime follower,

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I know there's something here for you.

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Pull up a chair and listen in for

insightful real life conversations

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and actionable steps on how to claim

the full life God created you for.

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If you're a woman desiring to live

a Christ centered life in today's

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modern world, then this is for you.

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Welcome to Ever Be.

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mari-wagner_3_06-27-2024_142213:

Hi friends.

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Another Wednesday, another week

of us sitting and chatting about

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amazing topics here at ever be.

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If this is your first episode, welcome in.

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I'm so glad that you're here.

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And if you are returning once

again, thanks for coming back.

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It is so good to be with you again.

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Today, we're going to be talking about

homemaking, and this is a topic that I

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really love and have grown to love even

more, especially as I became a wife, um,

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and just have really spent time making

our house into a home the past few years

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of marriage and today we're specifically

going to tie it into our family.

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Faith.

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Uh, the topic is how

to Catholify your home.

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And I did a series of reels on Instagram

over the past, like two years or so, and

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they always do really well and people

love, love, love the content in them.

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So I thought, why not chat

about it on the podcast?

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I think this is a topic that a lot of

us are interested in, how to bring the

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faith into our home, how to maybe tell

our family story in our home, or really

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show our personal family devotions of

the faith and the beauty of the church.

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into our home.

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Um, and I think that this is really

important for Catholics to hear

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because the home is the primary place

usually where your faith blossoms.

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So I don't know if you've heard of

the term at domestic church, but

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if you haven't, basically it means

that Our direct family, right?

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Like the family that you grew up

in or your family, you know, if you

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are married, your family that you

live with right now, your spouse and

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children, that's your primary family.

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That's also called your domestic church.

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And it basically means it's

like the nuclear family.

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That's part of like the

wider family of the church.

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But in that small nuclear

family, that's where the faith

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is born and nurtured primarily.

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And Continuously throughout your life

as well as being formed and nurtured

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by the wider church and our priests.

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And so as Catholics, we're

really encouraged to build

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our domestic church at home.

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And that's both spiritually, and I would

even dare to say physically as well.

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Like how can we bring like physical

aspects of the church into our home to

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inspire our faith lives and to inspire

the spiritual growth of our families.

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So this is kind of what I

mean by Catholify your home.

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It's just bringing these aspects of the

church alive into your home so that if

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somebody were to be able to walk into your

home, they know that you're a Catholic

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and I wouldn't just do it for that.

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Like I'm not, I'm not just saying,

you know, decorate your home.

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With Catholic items so that

people know you're Catholic.

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It's both, like I said, for your

primary family as well as the people

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that you invite into your home.

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So one, so that you can cultivate this

nourishment, this spiritual nourishment

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in your family within your home, as well

as take the opportunity to evangelize

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through beauty, uh, as you welcome people

into your home when you're hosting.

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And there's just a few like basic,

simple things to start with that I

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think every Catholic home should have.

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And then from there you can build

upon that and bring out, like I

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said earlier, like your specific

devotions that you really love.

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Maybe that maybe you're really

devoted to the sacred heart of Jesus.

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And so you want to have a painting

of the sacred heart of Jesus or an

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emblem of the sacred heart of Jesus.

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Or maybe you went on a trip to the

Holy land and it really interested you.

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impacted your faith life or the

way that you approach scripture

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and you have a painting.

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I'm talking about myself here.

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I have a painting of, uh, the hemorrhaging

woman, but it's from the perspective

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of her feet and like all the feet

that were in the crowd in that moment.

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And you can see a woman's hand

reaching to touch the cloak of Jesus.

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And when she touches the cloak

of Jesus's finger, there's like

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a light that emanates emanates.

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Radiates, I don't know what word I'm

trying to use, radiates from her finger

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to show like that power that left Jesus.

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And that Bible verse has always really

spoken to me and spoken to me about

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deep radical faith and trust in God.

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And I saw in the Holy Land, it was a

place called Magdala, the actual like

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original painting, which is like, Oh my,

I don't even like more than 20 feet wide.

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Like it's a huge, um, and

I bought a, a print of it.

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It's not a small print.

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It's like four feet long or

something or five feet long.

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And I have it up in my house.

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And for example, that's just like one

example of something that's really

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specific to my faith life and my family

story that I wanted to bring into our home

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and a beautiful story when people ask,

like, where did you get that painting?

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And I'm able to just share

a little bit about my life.

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But before you get into those more

intricate, more personal devotions, I

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think that there's a few basic things

that every Catholic home should have.

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It's those classic Catholic staples,

um, that we're going to go into today.

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So the first is to have

a crucifix in your home.

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And I would say at least have one

in your bedroom or in every bedroom.

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And then I would also recommend having

one kind of in like a public area of

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your home, maybe your living room or

your kitchen, somewhere, where you're

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going to be hosting people and welcoming

people or gathering as a family.

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Um, it doesn't hurt to have one

in multiple rooms, but I would

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definitely have one in your bedroom.

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And if you can have one in like

one of those big gathering places

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or social places in your home.

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This is for multiple reasons.

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One of them being that having

a crucifix marks our homes,

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that we belong to Christ, right?

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That we are Christians.

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And second of all, it's

an image of sacrifice.

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It's a reminder of Jesus's sacrificial

love for us and the sacrifice he

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made to lay his life down for us.

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And I love looking at the crucifix

inside my home because my vocation,

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your vocation, our vocations are our

path to heaven as beautiful as they are.

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They are our own cross to heaven.

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Because vocations aren't just easy.

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There's so much beauty to them.

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Yes, but they're sanctifying,

which means that there's struggle,

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which means that there's sacrifice

and stretching and pruning.

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And so having a crucifix, maybe in

the kitchen to look at while you're

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doing dishes or in your bedroom to

see every morning when you wake up is

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just a reminder to lay your life down

for your spouse or for your family.

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Or if you aren't married yet.

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For, you know, the roommates that you

have in your home to lay your life down

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and love people in a sacrificial

way and just learn to serve

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and to give of yourself.

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And thirdly, a crucifix is

such a helpful tool for prayer.

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Just gazing at a crucifix

can be a moment of prayer.

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It doesn't have to be anything

elaborate, but there's something

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so powerful of just spending a few

moments in silence, gazing at Jesus

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on the cross and giving him whatever

is weighing on you or thanking him for

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the sacrifice that he made to save you.

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There's really special moments that can

be had when you just have time alone with

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Jesus and meditate on his crucifixion.

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So, like I said, having one or

two of those in your home is a

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beautiful, beautiful way to do that.

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Number two is having

holy water in your home.

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Again, I would have one in each bedroom.

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And maybe by the front door

or just somewhere that it

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can be easily accessible.

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And just having a beautiful holy water

bottle will actually draw you to it more

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and remind you to actually use holy water.

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I don't know about you, but I

feel like ourselves included.

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And a lot of people that I know, like,

we know holy water is good, but we're not

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actually using it as much as we could.

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It's just kind of there for decoration

sometimes, but I think if you place the

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holy water bottle in strategic places to

where you're going to see it often, or you

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know, by the door or on your nightstand

before you go to bed, so you can bless

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your husband or bless yourself before

you go to bed will actually make it so

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you use it more often and receive the

graces from it because holy water is a

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sacramental given to us by the church.

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And it's for two reasons.

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It allows us to bless ourselves as well

as remind ourselves of our baptism.

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And in our baptism, we are called

to repent and believe in the gospel.

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That is our baptismal call

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as well as to take on our truest

identity of a son or daughter of God.

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And so every time that you bless yourself

with holy water, you can now meditate on

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that a little bit if you didn't know that

already, but really make that moment a

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moment of prayer, a quick one, a moment

of prayer where you remember your baptism.

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Remember you are a son or daughter of God,

or take a moment to just Repent for your

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sins and say, Jesus, I believe in you.

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I trust in you.

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Thank you for saving me.

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And just receive his fatherly

blessing and protection.

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My third piece of advice would

be to have a family Bible.

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So this can be just like a larger Bible.

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I have a few Bibles.

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I have like a little travel size

one that I keep in my purse.

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Or we also have like a big one

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that has room to journal in the margins.

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Um, we also have another one.

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I think it's the word on fire.

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One has like a nice, like leather

binding and beautiful photos in it.

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Um, not real photos, but

paintings and little like

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reflections throughout scripture.

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And so I just encourage you to, to

pick a Bible, uh, preferably one.

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I think that is big because

it's just beautiful.

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And have it somewhere in your home

where everybody can access it.

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I would even just say, display it, like

create a little home altar where you

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can display the word of God and create

a space of prayer for your family.

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I think the beauty of doing this as

well is that it makes the faith a public

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thing that is shared within families.

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There are a lot of aspects of.

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Your faith that are personal, but

at least for us, we don't want

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our faith to just stop there.

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We don't want our faith to just

be a private and personal thing.

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We want our faith to be something that

we can share with our whole family.

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And when we have children, be an

example for our children and invite

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them into prayer and model for them

how to have a relationship with Christ.

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And so a great way to set that culture

is to have a family Bible and some ideas

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of how to use it is, you know, you could

read the gospel on Sundays before you

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go to mass and just kind of review it

before you all go to church so that

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everybody knows, you know, what the

gospel is going to be, and you have some

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more time to reflect and meditate on it.

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Or maybe you pick every night, uh,

during an evening where you just read

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one of the readings of the day or

the gospel of the day, or you pick

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a book that you read as a family.

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And if it's not every day, that's

feasible to, to pray together.

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You pick maybe once a week where

you do like family Bible study

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and it can just be 30 minutes.

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You pick a Psalm or a gospel or a

passage and just read it and take a

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few moments of silence for everybody

to pray quietly and see what the Lord

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is speaking to them and then share as a

family, you know, what people felt like

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the Lord was bringing up in their hearts.

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I think this is an example of how your

domestic church can really be lived

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out and can really be vibrant, right?

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Because if you are gathering as a family

or with your roommates or with your spouse

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around the word and studying the word

and getting to know the word more deeply.

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You are being fed in your faith

primarily in your home and

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have this solid foundation for

when you go out into the world.

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The solid foundation of,

yeah, who, whose am I?

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I'm the Lord's, I'm a

son or daughter of God.

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This is the truth that I

have heard in the word.

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This is how God calls us to live.

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You just have that foundation that builds

your character and yourself so that when

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you can go out into the world, you can

be a reflection of Christ and you can

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be the light of Christ in the world.

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Next would be to have an

image of Mary in your home.

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And this can be either a painting

or a like plaque on the wall.

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A statue is a very common way that

Catholics bring Mary into their home.

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And just a reminder, this doesn't

mean that we're worshiping her, right?

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This is just a form of

veneration and honor.

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Jesus loved his mother so much.

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He gave her to us at the crucifixion

and said, John, behold, your

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mother, mother, behold, your son.

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And he commanded John to

welcome her into her home.

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And in the same way,

we're called to do that.

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We're called to welcome Mary into our

home and into our lives and allow her

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to be our mother and guide us to Jesus.

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, and another way to bring Mary into

your home would be to have rosaries.

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You could even display a rosary

and I know that there's maybe

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some controversy about this.

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Some people don't like to display

rosaries as decorations and people do.

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And I would, you know, kind of beg

to differ here and say that you're

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not putting it out for it to be

a decoration and just sit there.

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But I like having rosaries in different

parts of my home to inspire prayer

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and to remind me, Oh yeah, I'm just

going to grab it right now and pray.

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Or.

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It's just a visual reminder of like, okay,

I'm going to do the dishes and throw on

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a rosary on Spotify, or I'm going to,

you know, take a lunch break really quick

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and then walk around my backyard and pray

a rosary really quick, but just having

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rosaries in different parts of my home

inspires prayer and inspires thoughts of

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prayer throughout my day and can serve as

an invitation for you guys also to come

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together as a family to pray the rosary.

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And don't worry, you can

never love Mary too much.

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Uh, that was something that St.

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Maximilian Kolbe would say and it's true.

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Bringing Mary into your home in these

different ways doesn't mean that you

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are loving her more than Jesus or

putting her above Jesus, but really

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just showing your devotion to her.

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And your love for the blessed mother.

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And this is a beautiful

way to Catholic fire home.

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Okay.

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Lastly is place items of prayer

around your home to inspire prayer.

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And I kind of just started talking

about that with the Rosaries, but you

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can do this with Holy cards or like

I said, Catholic art, like a image of

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immaculate heart or sacred heart, these

specific images that really inspire a

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moment of devotion or a moment of prayer.

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And this doesn't mean that you have

to stop throughout your day and just

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like, Pray for like three hours every

time you see something, but having

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faith filled items in our home allows

us to have thoughts of our faith and

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thoughts of Christ, like continuously

on our hearts, on our minds.

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And we're more intertwined with Christ.

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And we almost like open ourselves up

more to the Holy spirit and how he

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wants to work in our life because we're

directing our attention more and more

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to Christ when we are being reminded of

him in the church throughout our day.

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So I feel like that really sums

up what I feel like are the basic

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things to catholify your home if

you don't already have those things.

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And then if you do already have

those things, I would really

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encourage you to go on a pilgrimage.

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I feel like this is a way to also really

personalize your home and personalize

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your family faith story and strengthen.

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The faith of your family is to go on

a pilgrimage together, and there's

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many pilgrimage sites, even in the U.

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S.

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You don't have to go to the Holy

Land, but if you have a chance to

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go to the Holy Land or to go to Rome

or, uh, maybe Fatima or Guadalupe, I

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have been to several of these places.

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And every time my faith is so

strengthened and I try to buy some

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sort of, uh, image or souvenir or item.

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from these places to bring back into

my home and again, like tell the family

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story, tell my faith story through

the things that are in my home and

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being able to show people my love for

the faith and the story of our church

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through all these, you know, years of

history of so many different things that

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have happened within the church, within

Marian apparitions, the legacy that Jesus

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and the apostles left for us and the

traditions that are passed down through.

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Thousands of years that have led to us.

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There's so much rich beauty and

history and art in our church that is

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very unique to the Catholic church.

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It's not something that non

denominational churches really have.

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And so this is a beautiful and unique

thing that we have as Catholics.

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So I encourage you to

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really catholify your home this year.

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And like I said, really make it your

own, really bring out those special

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devotions that you have and, build

up your beautiful domestic church.

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If you feel like you're starting

from scratch or you're not really

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sure where to shop and where to find

items like this, westcoastcatholic.

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co would be my number one recommendation.

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: 00:16:27

You know, I'm biased because I personally

design all of those items, but it's true.

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: 00:16:33

We have a lot of these staples that

I mentioned, and we just launched

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: 00:16:36

the gorgeous wall crucifix, which is

selling quickly the holy water bottle.

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: 00:16:41

That is an essential.

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: 00:16:43

And I think by the time this episode

comes out, we might have our Marion

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: 00:16:47

statue out, and if it's not, then

you're getting a really early,

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: 00:16:51

really exclusive sneak peek here.

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: 00:16:52

But, um, if it's not out, you know, Keep

it on the down low, but we are going to be

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: 00:16:57

having a gorgeous, uh, it's actually going

to be called the Madonna and child statue.

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: 00:17:02

It is a beautiful statue of Mary

and her motherhood is portrayed so

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: 00:17:07

fiercely, so gracefully, so wonderfully.

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: 00:17:11

Um, it all came to life from a sketch

that I did at a coffee shop once.

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: 00:17:15

And I was like, Oh my gosh, we

need to make this into a statue.

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: 00:17:18

So if it's out, you might

already know about it.

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: 00:17:20

If it's Not released.

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: 00:17:21

I can't remember when this podcast

episode is going to be released, but

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: 00:17:23

if it's not released by then, now, you

know, so get ready and make sure you're

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: 00:17:28

checking back at westcoastcatholic.

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: 00:17:30

co for all these beautiful modern

Catholic home items to fill your home

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: 00:17:35

and Catholify your home and help you

build a wonderful domestic church.