Finding God Every Day Discover the countless ways God is present in your life with A Catholic Woman’s Book of Days . Amid the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s easy to overlook God’s active presence. This inspiring book offers daily meditations designed to carve out a spiritual space, allowing you to set your heart on God. Each meditation is brief, direct, and personal, helping you connect deeply with God’s Word and the Catholic faith. This updated edition—featuring a new foreword by Julianne Stanz, author of Braving the Thin Places , and a new preface by the author—will help you find God in all things, each and every day. Finding God Every Day Discover the countless ways God is present in your life with A Catholic Woman’s Book of Days . Amid the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s easy to overlook God’s active presence. This inspiring book offers daily meditations designed to carve out a spiritual space, allowing you to set your heart on God. Each meditation is brief, direct, and personal, helping you connect deeply with God’s Word and the Catholic faith. This updated edition—featuring a new foreword by Julianne Stanz, author of Braving the Thin Places , and a new preface by the author—will help you find God in all things, each and every day. Amy Welborn is the author of several books in the Loyola Kids series, including Loyola Kids Book of Catholic Signs & Symbols , and Loyola Kids Book of Seasons, Feasts, and Celebrations . A former catechetical leader, she is passionate about helping readers understand and live their faith with confidence and joy. Julianne Stanz is a nationally known speaker, retreat leader, storyteller, and the Director of Parish Life and Evangelization for the Diocese of Green Bay and a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Catechesis and Evangelization. Introduction In the course of a day, a week, or a year, each of us is touched by God in ways too numerous to count and often too profound to explain. If we’re honest we might also admit that, as hopeful as we might be about God’s active presence in our lives, we’re often far too busy to notice it. In A Catholic Woman’s Book of Days, I’ve tried to offer daily meditations that clear a spiritual space in which to recognize that Presence, no matter how busy the rest of life is. T?hese thoughts are rooted in my own experiences, but I hope that the moments on which I reflect and the questions that I ask are broad enough to include yours, too. As we journey through this year together, may our hearts be enlivened by God’s constant grace, our spirits be freed in his mercy and love, and our whole beings grow more finely tuned to the Lord’s presence—within every sentence and page of the “book of days” called life.January January 1 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. —Luke 2:19The previous months had given Mary much to contemplate: her mysterious, God-given pregnancy; her aged cousin’s maternity; and the birth of her Son attended—marvelously—by angels. The beginning of a new year is the natural time to reflect on the past. But let’s be careful to sift through these memories of joy and regret in the right way. Reflecting on the past helps us discern God’s will and how we’ve responded to it. It can hurt, though, if our reflections become occasions for paralyzing regret or wishful nostalgia, both of which blind us to God’s presence in the here and now, in the limitless possibility of the brand-new year.Lord, thank you for the past year of my life. Help me to grow in my awareness of your love in the present moment and not be discouraged by the past.January 2Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. —1 John 2:24 What is it you have heard from the beginning? For many of us, childhood memories of religious formation are suffused with a sense of simple trust. Our parents, grandparents, and teachers told us that God created us, loves us, and takes care of us. It’s good to remember that those who taught us to trust knew, as we do now, of suffering, pain, and shadows. These experiences may have raised questions, but they also, in the end, brought the answers of trust and faith they shared with us.Lord, in this new year, give me the grace to live in response to the simple truth of your love and care for me. January 3O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. —Psalm 98:1The baby sits in the middle of his super-duper play saucer, propped upright by a towel around his middle, his feet dangling in the air. His eyes are wide open, and his head just can’t stop moving as his gaze darts from toy to toy. Within seconds, he starts wailing. It’s all just too much. The wealth of amusing and developmentally helpful plastic objects has overwhelmed him with choices. As the new year begins and we contemplate what we want to make of it, our reaction may be similar to the baby’s. Evidence of our faults surrounds us, and opportunities for growth and change overwhelm us. Which way sh