Mari Wagner dives into the topic of homemaking with a focus on integrating Catholic faith into your home. Mari shares practical tips on how to create a 'domestic church' by incorporating essential Catholic staples like crucifixes, holy water, family Bibles, and images of Mary. She also emphasizes the importance of displaying items that inspire prayer and reflection, and shares personal anecdotes on how unique religious artifacts can tell a family's faith story. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to deepen your family's spiritual life, this episode offers valuable insights and actionable steps to help you 'Catholify' your home.

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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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You know, I'm biased because I personally

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

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We have a lot of these staples that

I mentioned, and we just launched

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the gorgeous wall crucifix, which is

selling quickly the holy water bottle.

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That is an essential.

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And I think by the time this episode

comes out, we might have our Marion

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statue out, and if it's not, then

you're getting a really early,

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really exclusive sneak peek here.

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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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having a gorgeous, uh, it's actually going

to be called the Madonna and child statue.

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It is a beautiful statue of Mary

and her motherhood is portrayed so

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fiercely, so gracefully, so wonderfully.

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Um, it all came to life from a sketch

that I did at a coffee shop once.

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And I was like, Oh my gosh, we

need to make this into a statue.

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So if it's out, you might

already know about it.

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If it's Not released.

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I can't remember when this podcast

episode is going to be released, but

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

know, so get ready and make sure you're

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checking back at westcoastcatholic.

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co for all these beautiful modern

Catholic home items to fill your home

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and Catholify your home and help you

build a wonderful domestic church.