My Book is Coming!

Women of Adventure in my Book

My book (cover shown above) will be available for pre-order three weeks from today - on December 18th - from TAN Books (←Click here and use the code ROSEMARY30 for a 30% discount on your Christmas shopping!).

Through biographical anecdotes from the lives of the Saints, I illustrate examples of the various temperaments and personalities, proving that any personality can become holy and Christlike. God would not have created a personality type that couldn’t get to Heaven! I use these real-life examples to show how the saints worked on their weaknesses and shored up their strengths, until they reflected the image of the Divine Master, who is the pinnacle of all the temperaments.

Here on Substack, we have been discussing the theme of “Women of Adventure”, as we read together Travels of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, or the shorter e-book, Letters from the Travels of Mother Cabrini this season. Today, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at some of the women that are described in my book!

Not all the saints in my book are shown on the cover, but you can see St. Therese of Lisieux (lower right) and St. Teresa of Avila (top tier), about whom we talked briefly in this Substack post: "Tale of Two Teresas". St. Teresa of Avila has a whole chapter to herself in my book, and St. Therese of Lisieux shares a chapter with St. Philomena, the Virgin Martyr.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the dear Little Flower who lived such a beautiful a life, and who has brought so much inspiration to the Church since her death, was a textbook Melancholic. Her sensitivity to all the little pinpricks of life and interactions with human beings became the foundation of her Little Way to Heaven. For example, she turned her fear of spiders, and her disinclination to be splashed by dirty water while doing laundry, into precious gifts she could offer the Savior whom she loved so dearly.

“At the age of fourteen, her greatest wish was to become a Carmelite like her namesake St. Teresa of Ávila. She gently and tactfully broke the news to her dear widowed ‘Papa’ and begged for his approval. With her temperament, she would never risk breaking Papa’s heart by running away like her namesake did at age eighteen, 300 years earlier. This is not to say that St. Teresa of Ávila was wrong for doing what she did. God knew Teresa and Thérèse had different temper aments; He made them that way and led them by different paths to sanctity.”

Later in the chapter: “Find a saint whose personality resonates with your own and ask them to intercede for you before the Throne of God.”

Also on the cover, you can see St. Mary Magdalen (lower left), whom we touched upon in this Substack post: "Sibling Missionaries". This saint shares a chapter in the book with her sister Saint Martha, as I compare their two temperaments.

We also take a quick glance at the Blessed Mother of God in this chapter. Here is an excerpt:

“Our Lady is such a beaming example of control of her emotions. She felt everything a mother’s heart can feel—joy at His birth, fear at the prophecy of Simeon, terror from losing Her Son in the temple for three days, deep grief during His passion, triumph at His resurrection. But she never threw herself down in a wild fit of weeping, or fainted, or in any way showed uncontrollable emotion. “Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother, and his Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene,” (Jn. 19:25) writes St. John, who was an eyewitness. He did not write “there swooned” or “there, lying on the ground gasping with sobs while everyone felt sorry for her.” He wrote, there stood the Mother of Jesus, an incomparable example of how to feel, love, and mourn deeply, with dignity and control.

“Our emotions and feelings can so easily rule us, especially if we are Melancholic or Sanguine. Let us learn from Our Lady’s perfection, and Mary Magdalene’s repentance and vast improvement in control, to master our own passions as they did.

“On the other hand, if we are Choleric or Phlegmatic, we may not feel like weeping tears of remorse, love, and sorrow. Maybe we even feel disdain for those who weep. It is called the ‘gift of tears;’ not everyone has it. The most important thing is to will our repentance, will our contrition, try to make reparation, and will our firm purpose of amendment as the Magdalene did. All her tears would have been mere emotion and pure show if she had not made a radical change of life and avoided sin and the near occasions of sin.

“At His crucifixion, Mary Magdalene showed that she had learned to combine contemplation with action. She followed Him to Calvary, stayed beside His Mother at the foot of the Cross, and then followed Him to the sepulcher. She obeyed the Jewish law by going home for the Saturday Sabbath, probably with Our Blessed Mother to John’s house, but then was the first one to hurry back to the tomb on Sunday morning.”

It’s so hard not to keep pulling out excerpts…I’m so excited to share this book with you all! It’s been a long time in the making. I started it ten or twelve years ago and then set it aside because of family and other responsibilities. Then in 2022, I finished it and edited it. In 2023, I gave it to a few select readers for feedback, edited it again, and started sending it to publishers. Last November, on the day before Thanksgiving, I signed a publishing contract with TAN Books. Now, in just three more weeks, it will be available for pre-order!

Okay, just one more excerpt…from the chapter on St. Teresa of Avila:

“Cholerics, as we saw in the life of St. Paul, love to ‘go forth’ and conquer new lands, whether by starting a groundbreaking computer company or by going to the New World to spread the Gospel. The Choleric St. Ignatius courageously founded the Jesuit Order to be a special army that answered only to the pope. St. Teresa herself discovered a new frontier. ‘In her search for adventure,’ writes Auclair, ‘She had discovered a limitless world, vaster and richer than any land beyond the seas and one more difficult to conquer: her interior self.’

“People with a Choleric temperament do not fear hard work if they feel it is important. They despise laziness and can become workaholics. They are also eminently practical. They see what must be done and move forward to accomplish it. St. Teresa turned her efforts inward and explored the relationship between God and the human soul. In 1577, at the age of sixty-two, she completed her spiritual classic: The Interior Castle, or The Seven Mansions of the Soul.”

Please pray that this book will “go forth” into the world and help its readers to learn more about the Saints, and themselves, and thereby grow closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus!