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The Catholic Sobriety Podcast
Welcome to The Catholic Sobriety Podcast with your host Christie Walker!
This podcast is dedicated to empowering Catholics to live lives of freedom by providing tips and tools to help them be successful as they reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption. Christie Walker, a compassionate Catholic life and sobriety coach, is here to support you on your journey toward a healthier, more fulfilling life.
Are you questioning whether alcohol has taken control of your life? Do you worry about the impact it may have on your well-being? Many people find themselves in this situation, fearing the loss of pleasure and stress relief associated with alcohol. They assume that giving it up will only bring deprivation and misery. But Christie offers a different and much more positive perspective.
With Christie's expertise, you'll discover the joy and peace that come from embracing a healthier lifestyle rooted in the Catholic faith and tradition.
Ready to get curious? Start listening!
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The Catholic Sobriety Podcast
Ep 121: Finding Heavenly Help in Earthly Struggles with Alcohol w/ Guest Belinda Terro Mooney
The journey toward alcohol freedom can feel isolating, but what if you had centuries of spiritual companions who've walked similar paths? In this profound conversation, addiction specialist and author Belinda Terro Mooney returns to share how saints can become powerful allies in untangling ourselves from alcohol.
The conversation explores a transformative concept Belinda calls "detach to attach" – letting go of substances that falsely promise comfort to create space for authentic connection with God. This spiritual principle aligns perfectly with recovery work. Many fear the void created when alcohol is removed, but be assured that: "When you open your hands and let go, God will fill it with something so much better."
Ready to discover how saints can supercharge your journey toward alcohol freedom? Belinda's book "Pray With Us: A Saint for Every Day" provides daily connections to these powerful intercessors. Visit belindaterromooney.com to learn more about incorporating saintly wisdom into your recovery path.
Join me in the FIRE50 Challenge, a FREE 50-day spiritual journey focused on deepening your connection with the Holy Spirit. You'll explore daily practices, discover our unique charisms, and grow in community with others seeking God's presence in their lives.
This is your chance to awaken new possibilities, and experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
I'm here for you. I'm praying for you. You are NOT alone!
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Welcome to the Catholic Sobriety Podcast, the go-to resource for women seeking to have a deeper understanding of the role alcohol plays in their lives, women who are looking to drink less or not at all for any reason. I am your host, christi Walker. I'm a wife, mom and a joy-filled Catholic, and I am the Catholic Sobriety Coach, and I am so glad you're here. I am thrilled to welcome back Belinda Mooney to the conversation today. Belinda is author of Pray With Us, a Saint for Every Day, and she is no stranger to this community. You may remember her from way back in episode 21, where she provided invaluable insights on recognizing signs of alcohol addiction, understanding when to seek professional help and prioritizing self-care in the recovery journey. With nearly three decades of experience in addiction recovery, belinda inspired us with her deep knowledge and practical advice.
Speaker 1:This time, belinda is here to explore a spiritual dimension of healing and hope. We'll be discussing how the saints can intercede for us, especially when we're navigating the challenges of reducing or eliminating alcohol or supporting a loved one who is struggling with addiction. Her new book invites us into a daily relationship with the saints. Belinda Taro Mooney is a mom of seven grown children, whom she homeschooled, and she is a secular Carmelite dedicating to knowing God and making Him known. She is an author of eight books, a licensed therapist, a Catholic coach speaker and a professor who teaches counseling and addiction courses and develops programs. I am so happy to have you back to the program, belinda. Welcome, thank you.
Speaker 2:Christy, it's so good to be back with you.
Speaker 1:So your book, which I absolutely love and I use every day, introduces us to a saint, a new saint every day, and I love it because it has some of our beloved saints who we know and we've heard lots of stories about, but it also has a lot of saints I've never heard of before. One of the aspects I really love about the book is how you have a prayer at the end of each day that we can ask for that saint's intercession. So the reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast is because who else better someone who is an addiction specialist and knows so much about saints, could share about what, maybe what particular saints we can call upon when we need to be supernaturally supercharged in our efforts to reduce or eliminate alcohol charged in our efforts to reduce or eliminate alcohol Right.
Speaker 2:So in this book, pray With Us A Saint for Every Day. I've got probably about four saints that I would recommend to you, and the first two you probably know, because that's Saint Monica and her son, saint Augustine. They had, I think, different challenges with different things. So St Monica had a challenge with alcohol and St Augustine had a challenge with a sexual addiction. From what I can see, I can't diagnose them, but it looked a lot like it, and so they're in the book in August.
Speaker 2:And then there's another saint, venerable Matt Talbot, that lots of people in recovery would recognize and he would be a good saint to go to. And then there's a saint who didn't really suffer from an addiction. He might just be a good saint because of his purity for us to go to and ask for help. His name is Saint Casimir. He was a prince of Poland, oh. And then there's a fifth saint sorry, saint Camillus Deleus, who actually had a gambling problem. So the other four besides Saint Casimir had something going on that they were struggling with, and they would be very much concerned with us getting over whatever it is. We're trying to get over or overcome whatever. And so because they struggled in their lifetime, I think it's really helpful if we ask them to help us in our struggles, to just keep praying for us.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely I agree with that. Yes, absolutely I agree with that. And it's such a beautiful blessing that we have as Catholics that we have all of these saints that we know and again, some of them that we don't know a lot, but we can certainly learn about them and learn from them. So maybe can you explain a little bit more about how each of those saints either struggled or could help us in working toward a life of greater discipline and virtue.
Speaker 2:So all of the saints really had so many virtues that when I was writing it was hard to put like just a couple of them in there, because they just had so many virtues. So these saints that we're talking about today, that we could ask to be our patrons and our benefactors and with their prayers and their encouragement, in our relationship with them, I think they had a lot of tenacity. I guess it's a big one. They had a lot of courage to face the fact that they had something going on and they needed to deal with it. That's the first virtue. But then when they tried to do it, they kept persevering and they kept having that tenacity that would help them to then go the distant. You know, keep going, keep trying and if you fall then get back up and, like saint francis de sales said, begin again. So he might be another sixth saint that we might put in because of his begin again, because he always understood that the journey is long and stuff and the temptations are great and we do fall and we have to get back up and put our hand back in Jesus's hand and just keep going Right. So there was a thing that I read once by him. He said it was a poet and I'm paraphrasing the quote, so forgive me if it doesn't come out exactly right. Oh, my soul, you have fallen into the ditch that we have so often fallen into before. Let us take courage and begin again. And oh my gosh, I would read that over and over. I even had it marked in my book at one point. It's in a really wonderful book called Divine Intimacy, by a Carmelite, father Gabriel of St Mary Mandela, and he used to lead Carmelite retreats. He was just a very holy person and he compiled this Divine Intimacy as a way to follow through the year with the Carmelite and other huge saints, like St Francis de Sales. And so I would just kind of walk that spot and go back to it, because whenever you feel discouraged, or and whenever I felt discouraged, that's a good thing for us to go back to that. We don't have to have it all figured out right now. If we're trying and God is meeting us in our trying, then if we fail, god is picking us back up and we're beginning again. So I think these saints, with their tenacity, with their courage, with just the way that they really worked on accepting God's will for their life and submitting their will to his. You know, if you think about the first three steps in the 12-step program, I've been powerless. My life has become unmanageable. I came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity and made a decision to turn my will, our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. I'm putting it in the singular because that's how I do it, but it's really written in the plural. These saints have already been there ahead of us. That's what they had to do. They had to say God, I don't understand how I could do this. I don't understand how to stay the course, so you're going to just have to show me. You're going to have to show me.
Speaker 2:And this day that we're recording, we're recording on the feast day of two martyrs, on March, the Sabbath. These are saints Perpetua and Felicity, and actually several more, and their companions, and you know. So, the martyrs, the saints who had problems with different things. There's also Saint Benedict Labre, who had problems with different things. There's also St Benedict Labre who had some mental health issues going on. St Therese's family had mental health issues. So, inside, people who have been there before us and understand this, they know what it's like to struggle with it, that the struggle is very real, that if we don't be careful we can be overcome by discouragement, but that God doesn't want us to be discouraged, that he wants us to begin again and just keep trying and one day, hopefully, it will get easier and easier to not fall as often or as much or as deep when we do. That's the main thing Not to give up on ourselves or on God's intercession and his grace and his provision in our life, but just to keep starting again, begin again.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that Begin again, that's. You know, we're always working toward progress, not perfection. There's only one perfect person and that was Jesus. And you know, it's one of those things where I think we're so hard on ourselves or we think like, oh, if I don't do it perfectly, then I'm not going to do it at all.
Speaker 1:But really we have those supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, all of those that strengthen us, that move us forward, and really the saints are just like us. They are just like you and I, and yet they really took that time and invested in quality time with the Lord and being able to detach from things that were holding them back which I mean, we're in the season of Lent, so we talk about detachment but they were able to slowly detach from that and grow in holiness, and we can all do that and it's just progress. But to work toward our own, what that looks like for us in our time and our world and our calling that God has for us, and we can just look at the saints as these role models, these older brothers and sisters in Christ that are showing us the way, and we have so many of them that we can call upon and look to as models of faith, some very heroic and some very quiet. You look at St Faustina, right? If we would have met her in her time, we probably wouldn't have given her a second thought. We would have thought, oh, she's just like this very quiet, not very assertive, maybe just a little different than everybody else, but yet she's this amazing, great saint. And to read her diary, it's just like wow.
Speaker 1:I think we can all have that in our own way, as, however God wants us to have it, and dependent on our relationship with him. So it's hopefully for those of you who are listening, it can be freeing to know you don't have to be perfect, that these saints weren't perfect from the get go, but they like you were saying, Belinda they got back up and they began again and they just kept moving toward the Lord, and that's what we have to do every single day is just keep moving toward Him. So, Belinda, what are some practical ways that people who are looking to reduce or eliminate alcohol, how can we call upon the saints? What are some practical ways to actually not just be praying for their intercession, but just asking them to be our friend? Come alongside of us in our journey?
Speaker 2:Right, and that color side of us is a really key thing because, you know, some of us have patron saints, like we were named after saints, and then others of us, you know, my mom didn't know she had come out of a Protestant tradition and she was a new Catholic. She didn't even know to name me a saint. So I've got two names that are not of a saint, but I chose Mother Mary as my confirmation saint. So, okay, I've got one patron there. Well then, if you know people you know and you do have namesakes, or you were born on that person's feast day, you can just ask them would you be my patron? These things that we're talking about, the ones that also struggled with either a mental problem or an addiction or moving toward an addiction you can ask them to be your patrons and then what you're doing is just asking them to continuously pray with you when you're praying things. And the whole reason that I wrote the book is because then every single day, like today, on the day that we're recording, we can say Saint Perpetual, saint Felicity, pray with me. And then we can just say Father, I'm really struggling with how much I'm drinking, or Father, I'm really worried because other people are worried and I don't know what to do, and they're praying with you while you're praying. They're praying with us if we pray together to them and with them, with us, if we pray together to them and with them. Once you get to know the saints like your brothers and sisters, as you were saying, our older brothers and sisters they're still alive spiritually in heaven. We won't have our bodies back when we're in heaven until the end of time, but they're alive spiritually and they want to pray with us and they want to do everything they possibly can. And because they know so intimately what we have struggled with, then they can really go to bed. And this is the way I think about it. If you ask me to pray for you and to pray with you, I'm totally going to do it right. That's what I do. I do intercessory prayer, but I'm still not totally pure. That's part of what God is still doing with me and working with me. So, yes, my prayers can be efficacious to a certain extent, but they are totally pure in heaven. They've already been through all their purification on earth and if they needed purgatory, but they've done it and now they are before the holy faith of Jesus and they're totally perfectly pure and perfect in love. So that's something I wanted to mention earlier.
Speaker 2:When we say we're not called to be perfect, that means we're not called to be perfect like as in a perfectionistic way. We don't have to be perfect in everything we do, but we all are called to be perfect in love, because that's what's leading us to God is love, love and more love. So when you were talking about detachment, I also wanted to say that St John of the Cross talked a lot about detachment, Because in order to love and cling to God, we have to unclean to lots of other things. To unclean to lots of other things and cutting stuff that we think and that's almost leading us into an addiction, or perhaps it's already an addiction that we just needed because we couldn't survive if we didn't have that. It's not the truth, but it's something we're believing inside ourselves. So when we detach from that thing and we cling to god, then he's able to carry us, you know, in a picture of Jesus' arms, like St Therese said.
Speaker 2:She said I wanted to find a way to reach the perfection of love that I was called to, and I just couldn't think of what else I said. I just was going to get into Jesus' arms. Now I'm all totally paraphrasing what she said. I was going to get into his arms and he was going to be like an elevator lifting me up. It praising what she said. Oh, she put her hands in his arms and he was going to be like an elevator lifting me up. It just is so. It's so precious because, you know, at her time, at the end of the 1800s, elevators were just stored there, you know. So to see an elevator somewhere, or a rich person might have an elevator in their home or something, well, you know, it brings you up where, everything going up, once definite.
Speaker 2:And so she put herself in the arms of jesus. She put herself in the arms of jesus and she felt like that was where she belonged and that was where she was going to live and do whatever he had called her to do. And so you think on it, like that, we got each other, we got all these saints in heaven who are praying with us. We put ourselves in the arms of Jesus and we just say, lord, I just I can't go anymore. I've done everything I can, you know, to try to conquer this or do that or whatever, and I keep falling. Help me, lord, and get me the right people in my life who can help me to do that. So for some of us that's going to 12-step support groups. For other people that's going to therapy or to treatment, like it's all good if it helps us to overcome whatever it is we're attached to so that we can be attached to God. So detach from others and other things so that you can attach to God. That's my phrase, that's my freedom, that's how I talk about it, because, as a Carmelite, I'm constantly working at detaching from things. It's a journey. I'm a little too attached to this. I didn't come back again and you didn't even notice you were moving in that direction. And then here you are back in the ditch to which you have said you'd the ditch to ensure that you never fall.
Speaker 2:To use St Francis de Sales' words, when I was reading about the saints and trying to write this little prayer with us, the thing that I kept coming across over and over was just how real they were and how hard it was to live their life in their time. So some of us may look and we'll say, oh gosh, this is the worst time ever on the face of the earth. And I don't know, maybe from God's perspective and objectively speaking, it is. But St Augustine had a good thing to say about that he goes, and again I'm paraphrasing you think's worse now, and that's only because you didn't live then. So for all of us, life is a journey, and sometimes that journey goes fairly smoothly and sometimes, oh my gosh, it's like one thing after another.
Speaker 2:There was one Lent that I had. Oh gosh, I had all these things that I wanted to do for Lent and then I sprained my ankle so terribly badly and I had to put it in one of those bunks. And this is the end of May in Louisiana. That might be like August anywhere else. It is so hot by the end of May that you think you're going to go crazy already. And I'm from Louisiana that's the accent that you hear and now I live in texas, so I'm from hawkeye space. That was such a suffering that I was able to offer all that up.
Speaker 2:And and I'm thinking going back to our point about these saints is that whatever happened in their life that derailed us totally, you know, put aside wherever whatever they wanted to do for god. Sometimes god took that and he used that to do something even better. So I really want to encourage people that if the things that you set out to do, the missions you have for God, or the things you want to do for him, or the people you want to help or serve or whatever, if something doesn't work out and you feel like, oh my gosh, everything is just going against me and whatever, yes, you can persevere and continue to pray and begin again and keep trying. Just realize that God is working. All that stuff you're going through for the good because you can offer it up in union with Jesus' suffering on the cross, somebody's getting graces from all that suffering. You can believe that, whatever that was, that little detour that you felt like you never were supposed to have the tea, god has something even better.
Speaker 2:So, like for me in my life, I thought that at this point in my life, after I graduated all my children from homeschool, I would just be writing if I felt like writing. I didn't even have coaching on my mind. I was just going to go and speak and talk to people about what addiction was, or speak on the saints or call the piss. I would do what I know right, and I was just going to go and speak and talk to people about what addiction was, or speak on the saints or codependency. I would do what I know right, and I was just going to give it all away.
Speaker 2:And then now, as a widow, I have to earn my own living and I have a challenge in that. You know, okay, now I coach, so that way I earn a living while I'm writing. But God had a hand in all of that because he said you know what, you probably are going to help a whole lot more people this way than what you were going to do there. You know, if you hadn't have had all this happen to you and you had to earn a living again. So I'm looking at it like, okay, all these saints who had problems and challenges in their life, they turn those things over to God. They let Him guide them to the detachment, the practices, the prayers, if you're Catholic, all the sacrament, and if you needed help from other people, then the support groups and the therapist and the treatment programs and those things are all there and God's going to lead you because you've turned it over to him. He will bring the people into your life that need to speak into your life, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I loved what you were saying about like making sure that when you take what did you say? Like you detach to attach, so you detach from things that are yeah and so that you can attack god. Yes, yeah, I love that, because often I'll tell people when I'm coaching, when we're coaching about, like, reducing or eliminating alcohol, it's like we take something away.
Speaker 1:But if we just take something away, then there's like we take something away, but if we just take something away, then there's like this empty space. We can focus on how much we've given up and then it's definitely not going to stick. But then if we put in its place something better, something healthier, something that is going to help us be authentically who God created us to be, then it's just going to feel so much easier because we're putting our yoke on Jesus, because he says that our burden is heavy. So put your yoke on me. And it just sounds probably more simple than it is, because it really is uncomfortable when you're first doing it, but once you do it and you get comfortable with that, it just feels so much better and so much lighter. And then the other thing that you said was that we detach from things or we give something up and then God gives us something so much better than we could have ever imagined. Yes, yes, because I see it and I know you see it too.
Speaker 1:There's so much fear around, like, if I let go of this thing that I feel like is holding me together, or it's my best friend, or it's helping me cope, or it's helping me numb, or whatever you're using a substance for, an alcohol for, or something else, the fear of letting go is real and people are just worried, like, if I let go, what am I going to have? But when you open your hands and you let go of it, god will fill it. If you let him, like, he wants to fill that and give you something so much better. And we see that with the saints, right, they give, some of them give up everything. You know they come from very affluent families and their parents are mad at them. They don't have all the things that they're accustomed to having the lifestyle that they've had growing up, but they're a thousand times happier and the lord is able to work through them, to touch so many souls and bring so many souls to him and for their benefit as well.
Speaker 2:Right, frankly, yes yes, you think about saint francis, oh my gosh. And but then, uh, just a few days ago march the third is her feast day, saint catherine drexel like she was an heiress, and she gave it all up. It's amazing what she did. So, yeah, it's very freeing and it's the thing that jesus told the young man who had all this money and he, he said, well, you're very close, you know, to give that away Because he knew that he was attached to it. It wasn't like Jesus just wants us to give all our money away and just go following. St Francis did that because he felt called to that A very, very strict and radical, radical living of the gospel ideal. And so it's inspiring because it's like, well, if he gave up everything, I could at least give up a little bit for peace. Right, I could give up a little bit. And you're not giving up just for the sake of giving up. You're giving up to give to other people. You're giving up to, like we said, attach to God and so like giving up the life I had before I came out of the trawler was so difficult, like there's no way I would have published five books in the last four years had I not given up that love. There's no way I would have gone through six coaching courses just last year if I hadn't given up that life. There's no way I would have done it. I wouldn't be teaching addictions to students in college, like it. Just none of this would be happening. I wouldn't be here talking to you and even know you.
Speaker 2:Probably, christy, you know, like God has a plan. We're like clinging so hard to this thing and just grasping. Look, that is my word for myself. So if anybody else likes to take it on, go ahead. But for me when I'm grasping something, it's almost never the right thing. If I have to grasp at it, I'm not moving toward it in freedom. I'm grasping. So then there's no freedom. I must be enslaved in some way. Right, I'm trying to open up my mind about grasping. That's not godly for me. I just need to stop that and let God show me what, if anything, of what I was grasping at do I still need? And if I don't need any of it, let it go. Let it go, let go and let God is a slogan in the 12-step programs for a reason, because when you let it go and you let God deal with all that crap, then you get to just lie in his arms and do the next right thing that he's asking you to do.
Speaker 2:And I wanted to address the image of the yoke Because I think that if everybody had been with me, with Father Brody was doing a holiday all those years ago on this exact topic, your life would have been changed with mine all those years ago. But let me tell you that the image that he said was that when you look at oxen and when they are paired under a yoke, so they're beasts of burden, right, they're going to pull something very, very heavy. So there's this yoke that you put on their necks that keeps them coupled and keeps them moving forward. But the yoke is not equally weighted. The stronger ox gets the heavier weight. Well, if we look at our lives and whatever we're carrying, jesus is on the other side of that yoke with us and he's the stronger spider on the other side of that yoke with us and he's the stroker of spite on the tops. He's carrying most of the weight we just keep clinging to, whatever weight we think we're carrying, which adds and adds to what you know, what we believe, and it's all, then, about our mind that our mind is going crazy with how much we're dealing with and all this stuff. But when we do that from a perspective of in reality, in real life, if there are places and still use oxen, and when they did, even where we are, the heavier load goes to the stronger ox and that's the lower. He is carrying our burdens for us and if we just give all the way to him, he will keep carrying most of that load.
Speaker 2:We just keep going along with him while he carries the load and that's what I'm trying to get to myself, trying to understand his timing, his pacing and his rest in my life, so that I'm not straining and driving and pushing myself at things or to do things or to try to accomplish things for the Lord, whatever it is that he's given me to do, I'm more resting with him and going in his time frame. This is a real big deal for me right now. This is what I'm trying to work on for Lent, because I'm tired of being that racehorse out in the gate on a sprint. I want to be very measured and steady Instead of the tortoise and the hare instead of being the hare, I want to be the tortoise, because now that you can't be a little faster somewhere in between those two. I'm all good, even that.
Speaker 2:If we can find a different animal that's somewhere in between, then we can be a little faster in between those two. I'm. I'll tell you that if we can find a different animal, that's somewhere in between and we can be a little faster because I'm so fast. He went in very hard to slow down to the, to the tortoise. But if we could at least just find a better pace where we are able to then sustain what we're trying to do in our life for god and when we see that we're grasping, that we're attached that that we're attached that we're pushing and driving ourselves, if we could stop all that, because all that does is lead us more into the vicious cycle of whatever addiction or whatever coping mechanism that's unhealthy, that we're trying to grasp. It's just a vicious cycle. So I'll be so anxious that I didn't finish this out at the end of the day that I'll eat an extra dessert tonight. Well, I'm already worked up my weight, right?
Speaker 2:You hear, like all these things are things we think, and if we could just calm down with god and just live our life one day at a time, with him doing the next right thing. My mother had an expression it's gonna get there. I said, mama, that ought to be an al-anon is do the next right thing. If the man I coupled them together, I say do the next right thing, and it's gonna get there. Whatever we're doing for god, whatever we're trying to do for our family, whatever we're trying to do, if we just keep doing the next right thing, eventually it's going to get there. And it may not be the time frame that we wanted and we may have a lot of obstacles to overcome and a lot of things that we need to deal with along the way, a lot of things we need to shed and detach from, et cetera. So it's going to take us a little longer than we thought, but eventually we'll get there Eventually.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I am so glad that you just said all of that, because I am sure that there are people out there just nodding their heads. Yes, like, oh my gosh, I can relate, I can so relate. And, yeah, like Lent is us going into the desert and we're detaching and we're shutting things. And it's even more important that we slow down as well during that time, because otherwise we're just going to burn out or we're not going to be able to, you know, do what we really want to do for really good reasons. Like, we have really good reasons, we have the right intentions. But if we really want to do it, we do have to slow down and we do have to fill our cups. And that's what Lent is about.
Speaker 1:We're like shedding these things, detaching and filling our cups with Jesus filling, you know, sitting at his feet like Mary and just like being, and it's hard. It's hard when you're like us and you want to keep doing, doing, doing and all of these things. But you know, busyness can be a vice too, and so we have to be able to slow down, at least for a season, and I think that that's something that the saints model for us really really well at least most of them, like they've accomplished. They accomplished such great things, yet they took time for, I mean, even Mother Teresa, who was always doing, she had her sacred time that she just spent with the Lord, just being in front of him, and I think that that is such a beautiful example that we can look to. So, before we close, I'm just wondering do you have a favorite saint story or example from your book of a saint's intercession or an impact that a saint made on your life or on someone else's life that you know that you would like to share?
Speaker 2:Oh well, right now, because I've been researching them and really getting to know them and asking more of them to be my patron saints, like I said, I'm going to have probably a million patrons Because I'm just going to keep asking people to be my patrons. I just have so many of them. But I guess the best thing I could tell you is that in some summers ago, the first book I wrote was praying with the doctors of the church on their feast day. I started with a smaller group and then the next summer I did this other book Pray With Us A Saint for Every Day in 2023. And then it just came out in 24.
Speaker 2:And I guess what I would say is that when I was praying with the saints, I would ask them to pray with me as I sat down at my computer getting ready to write about their life, research them and write, and I meant to write on the. What I thought the Holy Spirit was saying were the most important things that the people at this time in the world would need for me to tell. There's so many more things that could have said about each person, but I couldn't get it in. I have like a little paragraph for the Bible and a little paragraph for the prayer. So it was Ernie asking them to pray with me and I can tell you that I could feel their prayers. And there were some days when there were four or more saints just for that day, because there are many more than what you see or what I've recorded in this book, and I'm doing a calendar of saints where I've got. I'm trying to pull as many as I can from wherever I can find them on each day so that you have you know. So today, whenever we are podcasting, we can talk to saints Perpetua and Felicity and their companions, but there are other saints. So now when I go to Mass, I say all you holy saints whose feast day is today, pray this wet Mass with me. And I can feel them praying. And when I was doing the book, I could feel them praying. So when I was going for those four, I would say pray with me to know which of you God is saying he wants in this book. All of these people deserved to be in this book. There was not a one of them that for any reason, I wouldn't have wanted to put in the book. There were some that because of the gruesomeness of the way that they died. I didn't feel that would be appropriate for children. I would just look up and say I cannot put you in this book because kids might not read it. But you know I love you and I need you to pray that when they read this other saying they'll get what they need.
Speaker 2:I would write like five hours a day. I do a little Pomodoro method in my writing. When I sit down to write up, I set a timer for 25 minutes and I'll research and write whatever I can, and then I get up. I set a timer for five minutes, I go put on a load of clothes or some dishes or I'll go to the bathroom get some more water, like whatever it is. I get away and then I come back and I'll do that 10 times for almost five hours of writing. That's all through the summer and then into the fall and these saints were praying with me every day and I could feel them pray. So other people were praying the members of the Catholic Writers Guild and I'm a member of, but I could also feel the saints. So whenever I got to knowing some of these people and making them new friends, then right off the bat they were saying hello with their prayers and their felt press, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, absolutely. And I love that you're, because I'm not a big reader and I don't have a lot of time in the morning, so I really do appreciate that you were able to take these huge saint stories and condense them into like the most you know important aspects maybe not even the most important, but whatever that saint wanted to tell us, I guess, in that time and then that prayer. So the format is so easy to follow and it's quick and it's not overwhelming at all to do it you know daily. So I really really appreciate that about it and it's just beautiful. So we I just thank you again so much for being here. Why don't you go ahead and just share where people can find you and find your books and all the things?
Speaker 2:So my website is my full name, belindataralunicom, and the website has a couple of free things that I've written that you can do, and you can get on my email newsletter so that you can keep in touch with me. But you also can look for me on Instagram at Belinda Taraloni, same with Facebook and LinkedIn. It's always going to be in my full name. You can look me up that way, and my email, if you need to contact me, is Belinda, at Belinda Terramoni. You can reach me there.
Speaker 2:The one thing I would say that I would really love is for children, especially children in confirmation classes, to have access to a book like this and First Communicants to where they grow to know the saints. They're praying with the saints. I really believe that children's prayer is more pure than ours as adults because they're more innocent, and so if they're pure or purer than us and they're praying with the saints, who are totally pure, wow, just imagine the earthquake. I mean the mountains we could move right. It would be amazing. So, yes, so please do look it up. My books are all on Amazon and they're also through the publishers, which I think I've put some in the notes that I'm sending to you to put with your show notes.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Yeah, I'll have all of that information in my show notes. So thank you so much again, belinda. It was such a blessing to have you back with us. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Christy, it was so, so good to be here. God bless all of you who are listening.
Speaker 1:Well, that does it for this episode of the Catholic Sobriety Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend, who might also get value from it as well, and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I am the Catholic sobriety coach, and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about the coaching that I offer, visit my website, thecatholicsobrietycoachcom. Follow me on Instagram at the Catholic sobriety coachcom. Follow me on Instagram at the Catholic sobriety coach. I look forward to speaking to you next time, and remember I am here for you. I am praying for you.
