How The Holy Spirit Is Working Through My New Book

Since my book, "How To Get To ‘I Do’: A Dating Guide For Catholic Women," was released last August, I’ve had some exciting media engagements and opportunities to meet readers.

Several women have come to book signings to thank me in person for the book. They ask questions and get their book autographed.

I’ve also had a woman call a bookstore during a signing because she was too ill to come but really wanted to talk to me! Those moments are so moving that I am forced to take pause from my activities and recognize that a higher power is definitely involved in my work.

As for signing autographs, I’m always happy to do it!

I don’t know how some celebrities have the heart not to give autographs since they seem so special to the people who request them. Or, if you have a copy that you’d like autographed, you can send it to me and I will sign it and mail it back to you.)

The Holy Spirit is doing amazing work by putting the book in the right hands at the right time. In one case a mother sent the book to her daughter and roommate and told me that the girls erupted in laughter when they it arrived because they had just prayed for such a guide!

Another young woman told me that the book reached her doorstep just in time for a trip that highlighted the importance of chapter two, “Discernment is empowerment.” The book’s arrival was a stirring message to her that she needed to seriously discern her vocation.

The failure of formulas

At the same time, I feel that some people aren’t immediately grasping just how critical the vocation to marriage is to our future. Or how important it is to listen to the concerns of Catholic singles, who need more than formulaic responses to their problems.

For example, I have heard single people blame a preferential and monotonous campaign for religious vocations as a distraction when they are trying to discern with an open heart.

Vocations aren’t just about religious life. If a parish is into one-track messaging, it can discourage single Catholics from pursuing a call to marriage with the right level of commitment and enthusiasm. Singles might get stuck in a continual meditation on religious life being higher than a call to marriage and only fall back on marriage after years of confusion and wasted time.

Singles should not feel as though they need an excuse to pursue married life or feel required to live a clergy-like existence as a single to get higher on the totem pole – or as an apology for not becoming a religious.

Have the courage and boldness to be who God created you to be. If God asks you to be a rose, don’t spend your life trying to be a daisy. Singles tell me that some days, it's like everyone's being asked to be a daisy. Embrace your rose-ness, because you are beautiful and blessed just as you are.