Tag: St. Therese

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You’re invited to my book launch party!

Join me for a live book launch on Google Hangouts next Tuesday!
Join me for a live book launch on Google+ Hangouts next Tuesday!

Wednesday, August 6, marks the official launch of Trusting God with St. Therese. So far, I have mostly marketed it to my friends and followers on social media, giving you the first look at this important project. Everyone who has bought the book in either format by noon on August 5, or who has helped me with an endorsement or review, is invited to my exclusive launch party. Family members who received a free copy are also welcome.

I’d love to celebrate with you in person, but since we are scattered all over the country, I’ve chosen to host a virtual party. I will be hosting a Google Hangout from 8-9 PM Central Time. What’s a Google+ Hangout, you ask? It’s Google’s video chat service. I will be talking with you live via my computer. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be on camera! You can even attend in your pj’s.

You can submit questions to me ahead of time or during the Hangout itself. I will answer as many as I can. Do you have questions about any part of my book? Do you need advice for trusting God more fully? Are you curious about something in my memoirs? Do you just want to get to know me better? For one hour I will chat with you on the subjects that interest you most.

Can’t make it at that time? That’s okay. The Hangout will be recorded and you can watch it later. You can also re-watch it if you attend live.

If you have bought my book and wish to join us, please email me your purchase order number to crossini4774 at comcast dot net by Tuesday, August 5 at noon Central Time. Use the subject line “Hangout.” I will send you an invitation with a link and more details.

This is going to be lots of fun! I hope you can join us!

Connie Rossini

P.S. I have also started a new giveaway on Goodreads. Use the widget on my sidebar or click here to enter.

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Win a signed print copy of Trusting God with St. Therese!

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Important Update: Due to shipping costs, you must live in the continental U.S. in order to win a print copy. Sorry about that! If you live outside the U.S. and would like a digital copy for a review email me at crossini4774 at comcast dot net.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the day! Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Trusting God with St. Therese is now available on Amazon for the Kindle and in print.  For the time being (at least the next 90 days) the ebook will be exclusive to Amazon. However, the paperback should be available soon at Barnes and Noble and other online retailers. I hope to see it in some Catholic bookstores as well. And those of you who are local or who know me personally are always welcome to purchase the paperback directly from me as well.

The last 14 months writing and publishing this book have been busy but rewarding. I pray you will find them rewarding for you too. I really believe it will help almost everyone but those very advanced in the spiritual life to come closer to Christ.

Now for the fun stuff!

1. Be sure to enter the contest below and share this post with your friends and followers. I will be giving away 2 signed print copies of Trusting God with St. Therese. You have one week to enter. I will announce the winners here on Friday, June 25. Everyone is welcome to enter. One chance per person please.

2. Everyone who purchases either edition by the official launch date, August 6 at 12 A.M., is invited to a virtual launch party. I will be holding a Google Hangout. You can ask me questions about my life, my writing process, St. Therese, the book, trust, or anything else (within reason!). I will announce the date and time soon. Anyone who has received a review copy is also welcome to join us. Please email me the order number from your Amazon receipt to crossini4774 at comcast dot net, with the subject line “Hangout.”

3. The reader with the best true testimonial submitted by September 5 will get a half-hour personal Skype at a date and time we agree on. Tell others how the book helped you to trust God more. Email your entry to crossini4774 at comcast dot net with the subject line “Testimonial.”

4. Best video or slideshow based on the book will win a $10 gift card to Mystic Monk Coffee. Please email me a link to your creation (or the project, if you don’t have a blog or YouTube channel, etc.) with the subject line “Video” or “Slideshow.” If there are enough entries, I will award the best submission in each category. Entries need to be in by August 6 at 12 A.M.

5. 1 person who gives an honest review on Amazon will receive a signed print copy. I will do a random drawing including everyone who gives an honest review (even if it’s negative). Reviews must be submitted to Amazon by September 1 at 12 A.M.

6. Best  Pin, blog post, and share on other social media (combined) will each win a free copy of my next project, A Spiritual Growth Plan for Children of Each Temperament. Email me a link to your entry by September 1 at 12 A.M., subject line “Social Media Share.”

7. A Goodreads giveaway will follow this week’s contest. Check back for details.

8. Follow my book blog tour, August 6-13. The person who posts the best comment on any stop along the tour will have a Mass said for his or her intentions by my brother Fr. Michael Mary, M. Carm. There will also be at least one more print copy given away during the tour.

9. Buy 5 print copies for your book club, faith sharing group, etc. and receive an extra signed copy for yourself. This promotion is ongoing and requires you to purchase directly from me. Please email me if you are interested.

10. Are you kidding me? I think 9 is enough, don’t you?

Again, happy feast day, and thank you so much for your prayers, support, purchases, and promotion. i would never have written this book if I didn’t have this blog.

Connie Rossini

Update: Thanks to reader Cathy for letting me know my links to the book on Amazon were broken. I have fixed them. Sorry for the inconvenience.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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My original posts on trust

I am crazy busy right now making the final edits and proofs of my book. Thanks for your continued prayers. Here is one answer to a prayer I never had the audacity to ask: last week Dan Burke invited me to write for his website SpiritualDirection.com. This is a great honor, and I credit your prayers for it. I will link to my posts there as soon as one appears.

For those of you who missed them, or who would like a refresher, here are the original posts on trusting God that led to Trusting God with St. Therese.

St. Therese’s astonishing trust in God

Fine-tune your spiritual focus for Lent (How I began trusting God in the present moment)

You can’t lose, unless you give up

God, Mr. Darcy, and St. Therese  (Could be called Finding God in Classic Literature)

Trusting God with your future

Three conversions of the purgative way

Three ways to increase your trust in God (This was a guest post at a blog called Being Catholic.)

That ought to give you enough to read to keep you busy while I finish my book. And when you’re done, I’ve got a pile of laundry you can do. Oh, wait–

🙂

Connie Rossini

 

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You’re more like St. Therese than you think

Think Again Pin copy

 

Do you think you have little in common with St. Therese? Think again.

If I’ve learned anything in writing Trusting God with St. Therese, it’s how much Therese’s struggles were like mine. Consider these points:

  • Therese was born weakened by Original Sin.
  • It took her years of grace and hard work to overcome family tragedy.
  • She had difficulties relating to other children at school.
  • She suffered from scruples.
  •  God repeatedly made her wait for things she believed were His will.
  • Her family members misunderstood her spirituality.
  • She felt natural aversion to people with difficult personalities.
  • She feared losing her remaining loved ones.
  • Spiritual darkness and dryness in prayer were her norm.
  • Great deeds for God were beyond her capability.
  • She suffered terrible pain.
  • She was tempted to despair.

Now tell me that none of those sound like you.

Think you can’t become a saint? Think again.

Therese believed in the same God you do. He was her strength and her righteousness. He can be yours as well.

Connie Rossini

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A sad anniversary and a free chapter of Trusting God with St. Therese

This is my family (plus two friends) on June 10, 1974. I'm the one with the braids in the front. Terri is behind me next to my mom.
This is my family (plus two friends) on June 10, 1974. I’m the one with the braids in the front. Terri is behind me next to our mom.
Here is how our car looked thirty minutes later.
Here is how our car looked thirty minutes later.

 

Today is the fortieth anniversary of one of the saddest events in my life so far. On June 10, 1974, our family was driving to the annual Catholic Charismatic Conference at the University of Notre Dame. We began our journey in Spokane, Washington, where we had spent a weekend on retreat. Just outside Missoula, Montana, the car rolled over three times, landing in the median of the freeway. I was in the back with the seat down and no seat belt. So were two of my siblings and two friends.

I ended up with stitches in my leg and a bump on my head. My sister Terri, who had been sitting next to me, was thrown from the car and died. She was ten years old.

Why did God let this happen? Didn’t He know where we had come from and where we were going? Hadn’t He heard Terri’s voice, when she had volunteered that morning to pray for a safe trip?

Trust in the midst of tragedy

How can we trust God when tragedy hits us? How can we live without fear of something like this happening again?

I have spent the past eighteen months delving into these and other questions. For years I had read that I needed to trust God in order to draw closer to Him, but nobody showed me how to go about it. I wanted to trust God. I wanted to live a life of joy and peace. Instead, I was angry, frustrated, fearful, and distraught. I was beginning to doubt God’s promises.

Then something I read about St. Therese woke me up. Instead of trying to live her high level of spirituality all at once, I began asking how she arrived there. How did she move from a sad little girl, devastated at losing her mother, to total confidence in God? As I dug deeper into her life and teaching, I reflected on specific actions I could take to follow her way of trust. Those reflections started as blog posts. They eventually became the basis of my book, Trusting God with St. Therese.

A free chapter, exclusively for subscribers

Trusting God with St. Therese tells the story of St. Therese’s life in dramatic form. At each stage of the story, I delve into the challenges to trust the saint faced. How did she overcome them? I place my story of struggling with trust alongside St. Therese’s, and show that it is possible for average, sinful people to follow St. Therese in trusting God completely.

Today, I am giving away chapter 3 to my current subscribers and anyone new who signs up to receive my posts by email. “Dealing with Childhood Tragedies” tells how St. Therese fared after her mother died. It also tells the story of our family’s car accident in detail.

Drawing on St. Paul, Victor Frankl, and my experience, I help you move beyond the question why?  I give you practical suggestions to begin forming habits of trust.

You can move beyond your fears and frustrations through the grace of Christ. I am doing it. And I am not much different from you.

Subscribe today by clicking here and receive your free chapter at the end of the sign-up process.

If you are already signed up, you will receive a separate email with a link to download the chapter within a few minutes, if it hasn’t arrived already.

Please share this post with your friends, family, and social media connections. God reward you!

Connie Rossini

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Frodo, Abraham, and You

File:Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins.png
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins (photo credit: Wikipedia).

 

Today’s post is a throwback to last year’s series Finding God in Children’s Literature. J. R. R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is not children’s literature, per se, but is suitable for reading aloud with the entire family. I’ve been thinking about a passage from The Fellowship of the Ring lately, and Sunday’s reading on Abraham fits perfectly with it.

If your mind wanders to books during Mass, let it be to great literature that can teach you lessons about the spiritual life! (Yes, I admit I was thinking about Frodo at Church.)

Traveling to an unknown land

“The LORD said to Abram: ‘Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you'” (Genesis 12:1).  To fully understand the import of this verse, we must look to the New Testament.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go (Hebrews 11:8).

Abraham followed God down a dark path. He did not know what his destination was, but he trusted God to lead him to a good place.

The journey to Mordor

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the great elf lord Elrond holds a council of hobbits, dwarfs, elves, and men. Their goal is to decide what to do with the one Ring the hobbits have brought to Rivendell. They agree to destroy it in the volcano Mt. Doom in Mordor. But who shall take it there? Who can be trusted with it? Who dares to volunteer?

Frodo Baggins, lowly hobbit of the Shire, has carried the Ring to Rivendell. He knows the dangers that beset ring bearers. He watches and listens at the council, hoping a solution that excludes him will reveal itself. At last he realizes his fate.

“I will take the Ring [to Mordor],” he says, “though I do not know the way.”

Our journey down the narrow way

We too are on a journey. God points us down the road we must travel, then seems, like Gandalf, to abandon us. We travel in darkness. We do not know what lies ahead.

Can we trust God to keep us safe on an unknown road? Can we trust Him to bring us to our heavenly destination?

Snares and sorrows lie in our path. Have we the courage to meet them? Dare we take the first steps?

No one promised Frodo success. But God did make a promise to Abraham: “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chalde′ans, to give you this land to possess” (Genesis 15:7). God promised us an inheritance. The Promised Land is Heaven.

God journeys with us

But God did not stop there. He promised Abraham something greater than possession of the Promised Land.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you (Genesis 17:7).

In St. Therese: Her Family, Her God, Her Message, Fr. Bernard Bro sees a connection between Abraham and St. Therese. They both learned, through trials of faith, to value God’s presence above His promises. The key to our relationship with God is not focusing on a future reward. Rather, we focus on God’s companionship wherever we find ourselves today.

God Himself is a member of the Fellowship of the Ring.

“And that,” to quote Gandalf, “is a comforting thought.”

Connie Rossini

Share with us: Are you struggling to believe that God is with you today? How do you remind yourself of His presence?