As you are probably well aware, the three pillars of Lent are prayer, alms-giving, and fasting. Here are a few of my favorite resources right now in those three categories to make it a fruitful, meaningful Lent:

PRAYER

~ Daily Rosary. My daughter, Ceci, and I lead a LIVE rosary every weekday morning at 6 a.m. CT on Instagram and YouTube, with new meditations every day. We’d love to have you join us live, or just join us as it works best with your schedule. Either way, we’re here for you, God willing!

~ Daily Gospel Reading. I love the Magnificat app and booklet, but I also love the free resource available in The Catholic Company Morning Offering (so rich and lovely!).

~ Daily Mass. If you still have Mass being offered where you live, I want to encourage you to go during the week, at least one day more than you usually go. If you’re afraid of COVID-19, all I can say is that the moment and the manner of your death are in the hands of God. I don’t mean to minimize the risks, but I would personally rather die because I went to Mass than live without the Eucharist. If fear has a grip on you, I’d like to share this beautiful video by Sr. Emmanuel, Consecrate Your Death and Heal from Fear, which will lead you through the consecration of your death–both the date and the manner–as well as that of your loved ones. It really set me free from fear, especially fear for my husband’s possible death from COVID-19 (he did get it and is fine).

~St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Stations of the Cross. Click here for beautiful, heart-level meditations on the suffering and death of Jesus.

~Apostoli Viae. This is a rich website and ministry started by Dan and Stephanie Burke. If you are interested in Carmelite spirituality (St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity), you will love it. I just downloaded the 40 Days to Peace: a Lenten Journey that Dan put together with Fr. John Bartunek. It’s a beautiful free guide to entering into heart-to-heart prayer with the Lord that I received as a member of the Sojourners group. Click here to be taken to the website.

ALMSGIVING

~ Feed the Hungry, Clothe the Naked, Shelter the Homeless: The need for food, clothing, and shelter during the pandemic has increased exponentially. Please consider a donation to your local food bank and other related charities, like those sponsored by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In my area, it’s the North Shore Food Bank.

~ Sounds of Peace: I’m so happy to announce that my project to give all of my music away to the needy has received official non-profit status. Hooray! If you would like to make a 100% tax-deductible donation to bring the Sounds of Peace players to those in need of comfort and consolation (especially those who are separated from family due to COVID-19), you can find out all about it–the Miracle Story behind it, How to Donate (and get one for yourself), and incredible Testimonies— by clicking here.

FASTING

~ Taking Care of the Temple, with Kitty Cleveland: If you’ve been praying the online rosary with me these last six months, then you know that fasting is something to which I feel called…and something which is really hard for me! So I started a Facebook group to share articles and resources to help us make fasting a regular part of my spiritual life in the hopes that it might help you, too. If you are a woman, I welcome you to join us. Just search for us on Facebook under the title at the head of this paragraph.

My greatest hope and prayer, friends, is that we make more room in our heart this Lent for LOVE–of God, each other, and even of ourselves. Let’s do this together!

Your sister in Christ,

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes! Do you know the story? Have you watched the Oscar-winning movie? It was nominated in 12 categories, and it won four!

Hello, friends! I was compelled in prayer this morning to start our new LIVE book study on Interior Freedom (by Fr. Jacques Philippe) this Wednesday, January 20th, from 7-7:30 am CT on Instagram. I will post the videos to IGTV and upload them later to YouTube for those who would like to watch at another time. You won’t be disappointed! You can find the book at www.scepterpublishers.org or at your local Catholic bookstore. Looking forward to you joining us!

St. Francis de Sales by Francisco Bayeu y Subías, public domain

Hello, friends! We began today’s LIVE online rosary with the first day prayers for the novena to St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of Catholic writers. I really need his heavenly intercession right now so I can finish the book I’ve been working on in fits and starts over the last year! He is such a good friend to have, and his book Introduction to the Devout Life is a classic. If you’d like to have the daily prayers we’ll be using, check out www.praymorenovenas.com. We’d love to have you join us on Monday (weekends are on your own), LIVE on Instagram or YouTube, at 6 am CT.

Yours,

Hello, dear friends,

Happy New Year! What a joy it has been for Cecilia and me to have prayed the rosary with you LIVE every day for the last 138 days. The graces and fruits have changed our lives profoundly, and I know for so many of you, as well. After prayerful discernment, Ceci and I have decided to start taking the weekends off from live-streaming the rosary beginning this Saturday, January 2, 2021. We still plan to be on Instagram and YouTube every weekday at 6 am CT, but we hope that this change to our schedule will do two things:

1. Allow us to catch our breath and get some rest (especially my teenager) as we pray later as a family; and
2. More importantly, encourage you to take this new habit of praying the daily rosary and share it with your family and friends.

“But Kitty,” you might say, “I don’t even know how to pray the rosary on my own, much less make up my own meditations!”

FEAR NOT, my friends. I have compiled this printable rosary guide for you to use, which will guide you through the whole thing. As to the spontaneous meditations, they just come from taking a leap of faith and trusting in the Holy Spirit.  You do know that the alternate spelling of faith is R-I-S-K, right? But seriously, you don’t have to have spontaneous meditations. I had no intention of doing them–they just bubbled up from somewhere down deep. So, follow your heart, and let the Holy Spirit take you on a new adventure! God wants to speak to you without a translator–just give Him a chance.

In the meantime, we plan to see you tomorrow morning on New Year’s Day at 7 am CT (an hour later than our usual time to account for midnight fireworks) on Instagram and YouTube. GOD IS GOOD!

All our love and prayers for a grace-filled 2021,

So many of you have written to ask me about the book I occasionally read from before our morning rosary about the saint of the day, that I thought I’d just post this information here on my blog. The book is entitled Saints: A Year in Faith and Art by Rosa Giorgi. You can find it here at Ignatius Press. It’s a lovely little book!

And if you don’t know about the daily LIVE rosary I pray each weekday morning with my daughter, Cecilia, we’d love to have you join us on Instagram or YouTube! M-F at 6 am CT.

How strange life is: Twenty-three years ago today, my father reported to federal prison for a 10-year sentence after being unjustly convicted of crimes he didn’t commit. What a dreadful day that was. And 850 years ago today, St. Thomas Becket was unjustly and brutally martyred—at the hands of my father’s 23rd great grandfather (among others)!

This recent revelation has given me pause. Not only do I have great saints and great sinners in my family tree, I know that I have the capacity for both in my own soul.

It also reminds me that what man intends for evil, God can work for the good. What a profound mystery and great consolation this is: Through the cross to life!

With all humility, may we each continue to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” (St. Paul) treating all with the same mercy and kindness with which we hope to be treated by God upon our death.

My father was ultimately exonerated and now enjoys, I hope and pray, the glory of Heaven with St. Thomas Becket. May all the saints—our big brothers and sisters in the Faith—pray for us until we join their company!

(For my dad’s story in brief: https://youtu.be/j5Nkztwl-fM)

“Sagrada Familia del pajarito” or “The Holy Family with a Bird,” depicting St. Joseph holding Jesus with the Blessed Mother to the side, was painted in circa 1650 by Spanish baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682). Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

As we celebrate this Year of St. Joseph (Dec. 8, 2020 – Dec. 8, 2021), let us add this beautiful prayer to our daily rosary. Cecilia and I pray the rosary LIVE every weekday at 6 am CT, 7 am CT on the weekends, and the meditations are different every day. You can find us on YouTube (www.youtube.com/c/kittycleveland) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/kittycleveland/channel). We’d love to have you join us!

POPE LEO XIII’s PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH AFTER THE ROSARY

To you, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction. And having implored the help of your thrice-holy Spouse, we now, with hearts filled with confidence, earnestly beg you to take us also under your protection.

By that charity with which you were united to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which you cherished the Child Jesus, we beseech you and we humbly pray that you will look down graciously upon that inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His Blood, and will help us in our need by your power and strength.

Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen off-spring of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving Father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness. As you once rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield us ever under your patronage, that, following your example and strengthened by your help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting bliss in Heaven. Amen.

History: This prayer to Saint Joseph—spouse of the Virgin Mary, foster father of Jesus, and patron saint of the universal Church—was composed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1889 encyclical, Quamquam Pluries. This is the pope who also composed the St. Michael prayer. He asked that this prayer to St. Joseph be added to the end of the Rosary, especially during the month of October, which is dedicated to the Rosary. The prayer is enriched with a partial indulgence (Handbook of Indulgences, conc. 19), and may be said after the customary Salve Regina and concluding prayer. It may also be used to conclude other Marian devotions.