Happy Advent!

It’s been awhile. I know. I have been so busy with my book writing and writing work, major traveling for speaking, and I have been sick too. Plus, of course, we just celebrated Thanksgiving.

It really is true. There are only so many hours in a day! 🙂 Where do I begin to catch up with you? You might be following me on social media too, so you know I haven’t fallen off the edge of the Earth!

Here I am with my precious helpers in the kitchen for Thanksgiving. My grandson in the first photo exclaimed, “I am wearing an apron–just like GRANDMA!” There’s nothing like the love of a grandchild. They are blessings to be sure!

We also celebrated four birthdays at Thanksgiving time. Three of my children’s birthdays as well as mine! Lots of festivity! After that, I got sick! I was run down and illness finally got to me. I’m getting better as we speak!

I’ll give you a few updates. My Advent with Our Lady of Fatima book has released. I have copies available here. 

Lived well, the season of Advent can help us meditate upon our eternal life as well as the need to help others get to heaven. Our Lady emphasizes that heaven is real and that we need to live holy lives to get there one day, but it’s important to recognize that hell is very real, too, and is a sure consequence for unrepented sin…” [From my book]

Catholic Exchange recently posted an excerpt from my book. You can see that here.

Here is a link to listen to a radio conversation I had with Jon Leonetti chatting about my Advent book. Just click on the link and then click on the Novemeber 21st date. You can scroll to the 18:53 time marker and listen there. It goes to about the 30:10 mark. Or, just listen to his whole show if you’d like. 

As well, I made a couple of very short videos for yesterday’s and today’s reflections. You can see them on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. I tried to upload them here but the files are too large. I’ll try to do these types of teaching videos as open as I can. I pray that they stir your heart during this marvelous season of Advent and beyond!

In case you’d like additional information on my book:

From the Inside Flap:

Spend this Advent with Our Lady of Fatima
and with six saintly souls who were particularly devoted to her:
St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. John Paul II, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, and the Three Shepherd Children to whom Mary appeared in 1917!

In these spiritually-rich pages, award-winning Catholic author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle brings you powerful prayers and readings guaranteed to shield you from the annual holiday sales frenzy that, during the holy season of Advent, distracts even sincere believers from preparation for the coming of the Christ Child.

These wise pages are sure to draw you closer to Our Lady of Fatima and her gracious messages of peace and hope. For these Advent prayers and readings are all rooted in Mary’s 1917 messages to Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia (the three young Fatima visionaries); and in the personal Fatima devotions of three of our holy contemporaries, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. John Paul II, and the late Fr. Andrew Apostoli.

Reflecting on Advent through their lives and words, you will also learn:

  • The prayers of adoration the Angel taught Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia
  • What Fr. Andrew considered the most important of Our LadyFatima requests
  • How St. John Paul II fulfilled the Third Secret of Fatima — and why he credits Our Lady with saving his life!
  • How, in his final months, Fr. Andrew radically fulfilled Our Lady’s Fatima requests
  • The role Mother Teresa secretly played in the consecration of Russia
  • Why, particularly in Advent, you must pray for Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart to triumph
  • And much more to help you grow closer to Our Lady and keep your Advent frenzy-free.

There’s still time to get an autographed copy. Just click here or on the book cover image above. I hope that if you get a chance to read it that it will deeply inspire you. I hope and pray that Our Lady of Fatima will guide you through each day, along with some special Saintly friends I have woven through the chapters.

Please pray for a dear friend!

Please pray for my dear friend Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R. who could use our prayers. I was so blessed to spend time with him recently and he sends his very best, by the way. He thanks you very much for your prayers and he prays for you. Thank you dear Friends for keeping him in your prayers. EWTN announced on television yesterday that dear Father is in his last days. The CFR Friars put it this way: “Please pray for him as he is preparing to journey to the house of Our Father.”

Won’t you join me in praying for him? If you’d like you can start the Christmas novena that starts Novemeber 30th, the feast of St. Andrew (Fr. Andrew’s name day–St. Andrew!). Thank you in advance for praying. Here is the prayer:

Beginning on St. Andrew the Apostle’s feast day, November 30, the following beautiful prayer is traditionally recited fifteen times a day until Christmas. This is a very meditative prayer that helps us increase our awareness of the real focus of Christmas and helps us prepare ourselves spiritually for His coming (from the EWTN website).

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, 
[here mention your request]

through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

It is piously believed that whoever recites the St. Andrew Christmas novena prayer FIFTEEN times each day from the feast of St. Andrew (November 30th) until Christmas Eve will obtain the favor requested.

God bless you!

Donna-Marie talking about Lent, “Part Two” on Sunday Night Prime

The second part of the Lenten discussions that I had with Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R. is here below on EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime. The second part offers prayers and tips for families and all those journeying through Lent. It is focused on the teachings of St. John Paul II and Pope Francis. I hope that you enjoy it.

 

Donna-Marie talking about Lent “Part One” on Sunday Night Prime

I was recently visiting with Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R on EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime. In our show, “Bringing Lent Home, Part One” we talked about the family, Lent, Mother Teresa, and St. Therese.  In case you didn’t catch it, you can see it here at your leisure.

Enjoy!