Growing in Faith

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Mrs.E.C

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Hello!
I will be joining the Catholic Church, Lord willing, at Easter this year. I am looking for recommendations of devotions, practices, books or specific prayers to help grow in faith during this time! Thank you for your help!
 
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Welcome home! ❤️

There is such a treasury of prayers, devotions and practices and you will move through different seasons in which some may suit you better than others. When you approach a new practice, set a duration of time for adhering to that practice. Maybe just during Lent or just during Advent or starting today and for the next four weeks. This way you still have to exercise the discipline of making it happen, but have an end date at which time you can assess if it is fruitful to continue or try something else.

What does your daily life look like right now? Do you have much time to yourself and time for lengthy reading? Do you have care of small children? Morning Person? Night owl? That might help steer our suggestions.
 
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Thank you! I have one little girl who is just shy of one and am a stay at home mom. I love reading, but mostly use audiobooks nowadays. I do usually have a few hours in the evening after my daughter goes to bed, though!
 
I agree with @disorientingsneeze that there are a lot of different prayers and devotions. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or to try and take on too many things, then get discouraged when you can’t keep up with it all.

Are there any forms of prayer that you’ve heard about and might like to try? I’m sure people here would be happy to describe their experiences with things you might be interested in.
 
Mrs.E.C said:
Thank you! I have one little girl who is just shy of one and am a stay at home mom. I love reading, but mostly use audiobooks nowadays. I do usually have a few hours in the evening after my daughter goes to bed, though!
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Yes! ❤️ This will be important information. As a mother of a young child, very structured practices can be quite frustrating because we have less freedom to arrange our day than we did before kids. And I feel you on the reading, my reading life took a hit and I was like…who am I if not a reader?!

It can be tempting to grow frustrated and view your children as an obstacle to holiness when they’re actually your path to it. At least it has been for me at times when I want to work on my prayer life and it stays a mess. But I think God takes those little moments of prayer from overwhelmed moms and truly multiplies graces.

Here are some ideas. I’ll be back with more as I think of them:

Learn to pray the morning offering
Read and reflect on the Gospel reading for daily Mass.
Keep looking for and listening to audiobooks and talks on prayer when time permits. Formed has some really good ones.
There have recently on here been threads on Lenten ideas and one on what does your morning prayer look like. Browse those for ideas.
 
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The months of the year have particular devotions attached to them. You could look them up and learn a prayer that corresponds to the month. As my kids get older that has been something I’ve been doing with them that helps us both as I didn’t grow up knowing many prayers. I love monthly devotions too because I feel like if you missed a few days or even just did a few days, it was still a success.
 
It’s good to coordinate some of your devotions with another person whether it be spouse, friend, or group of friends.
The other person helps us stay accountable to the discipline.

I think whatever you choose to do, that intentional discipline, or routine, is important.
 
I highly recommend reading ‘The Imitation of Christ’ by Tomas Kempis. It changed my life.
 
There is A LOT of material out there geared towards Catholic moms. Some of it is quality, some of it is…trying but misses the mark.

With the way your present life limits reading time, I’d give you the same advice I give me, which is the same advice I once gave students as a reading teacher. You don’t have to finish every book. If you gave it an honest go and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better - the next book you pick up might be the one you were meant to read.
 
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Hello and welcome!!! What a job it is to finally embrace the true religion!!! ♥️ Since you’re looking for specific prayers, I highly recommend the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and a Novena to your favorite Saint. I also suggest reading about the lives of the saints. They are very holy and they can help us if we ask them to. Reading about them is such an inspiration!!! I hope this helps!!! God bless!!! ♥️ ♥️ ♥️
 
Welcome home! I highly recommend going to Eucharistic Adoration, it changed my life. I also recommend saying the Rosary. Scott Hahn is an amazing author if you are looking for books.
 
As a child of ~1 yr. old, I’m sure the Lord is giving you insights and guidance in pointing her toward some actions, and away from other actions, because you know the road of life that lies ahead of her. I say this, because in your seeking of guidance for yourself, in the spiritual path of spiritual life ahead of you, you are very wisely seeking advice and recommendations from those in some way “older”, who have knowledge and/or experience that can help you. Excellent!

The Church has many saints who have left a heritage for us, of the path of God’s intention for us all. I can recommend a book to you - I’ve recommended it to others on this forum as well - a book that draws from important saints - some doctors of the Church - especially on the path of spiritual growth toward our vocation - which is holiness. The book is described on the Amazon site below:
The Ordinary Path to Holiness.

It has helped others; it might help you as well.
 
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