Officially releasing in September 2022, but I am making copies available to you right now (while supplies last)!
Click above image to learn more and to purchase an autographed copy (or use button below).
“Take an Advent journey with Joseph, Anne-Marie, and Grandmother! Together, you’ll discover the story of Christmas and get ready to welcome Jesus into your own heart and home. Beautifully illustrated, this gentle, loving introduction to the true meaning of Advent and Christmas by celebrated author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle will become a beloved book for every family and revisited each holiday season.”
Praise for Christmas Joy with Grandma!
Great Children’s Book! It is not only a Christmas book, but an Advent book as well. Donna-Marie brings out the joy of family sharing, Advent-Christmas traditions, and the true meaning of Christmas. The smell of those Grandma’s homemade cookies exudes from each page. Read this book by a nice warm fireplace during Advent or Christmas!
Fr. Anthony Gramlich, MIC Assistant Rector of the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy
Everyone loves a story – and a story is a wonderful way to teach about Advent without making it feel like a lesson. Christmas Joy with Grandma! gives grandparents and parents a way to share with littles what they believe about Advent in an easily readable and beautifully illustrated way. A great way to share the joy of our Faith!
Kimberly Hahn, author of Life-Giving Love
Donna-Marie’s book, “Christmas Joy with Grandma!” is a treasure to behold; a gift to read and share. It draws you into a place of light, joy, and love. Donna-Marie makes the “real Christmas Story” come to life. Within charming text and colorful illustrations is a vital message on waiting, and preparing for the Christ Child. I look forward to reading this with my grandchildren. Highly recommended for children and adults!
Kathleen Beckman, Author, Speaker, Praying for Priests, A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare, Beautiful Holiness
In this dizzying, high stress era of sound-byte driven, speed-of-light communications, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle has written a simple, sweet and sincere story about the value of patience, the thrill of quiet anticipation, the beauty of grandparents, and the true meaning of family, love, and Christmas. Her new children’s book is an absolute delight!
Anthony DeStefano, Bestselling Catholic Author of A Travel Guide to Heaven, Our Lady’s Wardrobe, and Our Lady’s Picture Book
During the Last Supper, Jesus explained to His disciples what was about to occur and then He comforted them by saying, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).
During the darkness of Holy Saturday, I felt inspired to launch a campaign for Easter JOY. We are very well aware that Easter 2020 was celebrated in a most unusual way in many households and parishes all throughout the world. No doubt, we are living in strange and difficult times. Most have said that these are indeed unprecedented times. We could not have imagined any of this. We never expected that a worldwide pandemic would ever happen to us.
Add to that, we have never before experienced a pandemic in our lives and so much has changed. Many of our everyday comforts and routines have been disrupted and suspended. These abrupt changes, which include social isolations and the lack of sacraments available to us has left many people very upset and even afraid. Some people are all alone during this time. And, it’s very unnatural to be isolated from loved ones, especially when their presence is so needed.
Now, More Than Ever
“My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing” (James, 1: 2-4).
Now, more than ever, we need to cling to the promises of our Lord during this Easter season and beyond. We should continue to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and not allow the prevailing pandemic darkness to rob us of our joy!
Did you know that Easter is not just one day of celebration? It lasts for 50 days! Truly! Easter is a continuous season in which Easter is prolonged. The Church teaches, “The fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one “great Sunday.” These are the days above all others in which the Alleluia is sung” (Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, 22).
I love what dear St. John Paul II has said about Easter and how we are to behave. He said, “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
The Holy Spirit Helps Us
Many people are not happy with what is going on right now. The pandemic is horrible. Folks are having trouble feeling peaceful or happy. Sadly, many might give in to despair. Yet, we should remember that there is a big difference between joy and happiness. Joy is not a jolt of excitement, a fleeting thing, or a mere feeling. Joy can’t be conjured up!
Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. We read in Scripture, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23 ).
Saint John Paul II expressed how much the Holy Spirit has helped him. He said:
From the time I was little, I learned to pray to the Holy Spirit. When I was 11, I was feeling sad because I was having a lot of trouble with math. My dad showed me in a little book the hymn ‘Veni Creator Spiritus,’ and he told me, ‘Pray this and you’ll see that He’ll help you to understand.’ I’ve been praying this hymn every day for more than 40 years, and I’ve seen how much the Divine Spirit helps us.
Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit often for help:
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known;
Thou, finger of God’s hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father, Thou
Who dost the tongue with power imbue.
Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o’erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread,
and grant us Thy peace instead;
so shall we not, with Thee for guide,
turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow
the Father and the Son to know;
and Thee, through endless times confessed,
of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven.
Amen.
JOY Each Day
In almost every one of the 22 letters that dear Mother Teresa had written to me, she mentioned JOY. Today, I decided to pull one out of the notebook where I keep them, and snap a photo to include in this blog post. You will notice towards the end of the letter that Mother Teresa wrote, “Keep the joy of loving Jesus ever burning in your heart and she this joy with others.”
Mother Teresa spoke much about JOY!
That said, during this Easter season and time of pandemic when sadly many are afraid and despondent rather than joyful, I felt inspired and decided to act upon that inspiration to accentuate JOY each day of the Easter season, and hopefully beyond it too.
Since I use Instagram quite often, I will be posting an image and message of JOY each day. I plan to use hash tags with each image. I plan to use the following hashtags: #Projecteasterjoy, #Easterjoy, #Easterpeople, and #hallelujahisoursong As well, I will also post the same image and message on Facebook and Twitter. Please feel free to share and re-post, etc.
In case you are not familiar with hashtags, they are meant to help someone to find things associated with certain topics. For instance, if someone were to plug a particular hashtag into the internet, various items falling under that category would become available.
I will try my best to spread Easter JOY each day, Lord willing! You can do it too! Please use the 4 hashtags that I mentioned above. And, if you’d like, please feel free to tag me on your post. Together, we can help others!
We are the Easter People!
Remember, we are the Easter people! In the words of our dear St. John Paul II, “We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
So, we must truly BEEaster people and spread our HALLELUJAH everywhere we go! The world needs it!
Mother Teresa reminds us, “Keep the joy of loving Jesus ever burning in your heart and share this joy with others.”
The following is an excerpt from the Marian Press book 52 Weeks with St. Faustinaby Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle:
“Sow happiness about you … They should take leave of you with their hearts filled with joy.” — Diary, 55
Our spiritual exercise this week is all about joy. We will delve into how our desires for happiness must correspond to God’s desires for us, and that we can be joyful as we endure trials at the same time. Many times, St. Faustina’s joy was intertwined with tortures she felt in the spiritual life. This week, we learn authentic joy from St. Faustina and the other saints. Let’s get right to it!
God wants us to be happy. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that is possessed by angels and human beings. Joy grows in our souls out of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Saint Teresa of Calcutta used to say, “A joyful heart is a normal result of a heart burning with love.” She told her sisters that if they didn’t have joy in their hearts, they could pack up and go home. It might sound harsh, but she knew that the poor did not deserve to be served by grumpy nuns! She also often said, “Joy is a net of love by which we catch souls.” This is a bit similar to the phrase that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Speaking of which, no one wants to associate with a sour-faced person! Once when lacking the time to deal with pettiness, false piety, and grumpiness, St. Teresa of Avila said, “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!” The authentic joy that radiates from our loving souls can deeply affect those in our midst. As Christians, we are to exude joy. It actually will help to transform lives (our own, too!).
My former spiritual director Servant of God Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, agreed with St. Teresa of Avila that our joy needs to be real. He also emphasized that our desires for happiness must correspond to God’s desires for us. In a lecture about joy, he said, “Who is the happiest being in existence? Who? God. And the most fundamental reason why God made us is that we might share in His happiness. Why go into the subject?” he asked. “Because Christianity is the religion of joy. There’s a sure way of turning people off or turning them away from the true faith if we who profess the faith are obviously unhappy. That is something, by the way, you can never mask. You can pretend to be happy. You can claim to be happy, but if you’re not happy, you’re going to reveal yourself. And finally, why go into the subject? Because even people who are more or less happy ought to be more happy.”
How do we become more happy and possess joy? Father Hardon explained, “Joy is satisfaction, or the satisfaction of having one’s desires fulfilled … But … only those desires satisfied which are truly good. What then is truly good which, once we get it and possess it, we are happy? [When] your desire corresponds with what God wants.”
One time when Sr. Faustina was given spiritual counsel by Fr. Andrasz, SJ, he told her:
Act in such a way that all those who come in contact with you will go away joyful. Sow happiness about you because you have received much from God; give, then, generously to others. They should take leave of you with their hearts filled with joy, even if they have no more than touched the hem of your garment. Keep well in mind the words I am telling you right now (Diary, 55).
She strove to do just that.
Torture and Joy Intertwined
Earlier, we discussed the time at Plock when Jesus revealed the Divine Mercy Image, and Sr. Faustina felt much uncertainty because there was no one who could tell her that she was on the right road. Then one day, one of the sisters heaped her anger upon Sr. Faustina. “You queer, hysterical visionary, get out of this room; go on with you, Sister!” She continued to lash out at her. Sister Faustina held her upsetness inside and rushed to her cell, where she fell down on her face before the Crucifix. She looked at Jesus, but she was speechless. “I could no longer say a single word,” she recalled (Diary, 128). Suddenly, Satan took advantage of her pain and planted doubts and discouragement in her mind. Sister Faustina thought, “How can one be sincere when one is so misunderstood? Jesus, Jesus, I cannot go on any longer.” She again fell to the floor under the weight of her anguish. “I broke out in a sweat, and fear began to overcome me.” She felt so alone. “Suddenly, I heard a voice within my soul. ‘Do not fear; I am with you.’ And an unusual light illuminated my mind, and I understood that I should not give in to such sorrows. I was filled with a certain strength and left my cell with new courage to suffer” (Diary, 129).
Even though Sr. Faustina felt a renewed strength after that trying incident, for some reason, she grew a bit negligent. In part, she was afraid of being deceived. She wrote, “I did not pay attention to these interior inspirations and tried to distract myself. But despite the noise and distraction, I could see what was going on in my soul.” God doesn’t leave us alone. He seeks us out. Sister Faustina wrote, “The word of God is clear, and nothing can stifle it. I began to avoid encounters with the Lord in my soul because I did not want to fall prey to illusions.” She continued, “However, in a sense,” she said, “the Lord kept pursuing me with His gifts; and truly I experienced, alternately, torture and joy” (Diary, 130). Sufferings were mounting and would soon come to a peak. Sister Faustina would make up her mind what to do about the doubts she was experiencing.
Something to Ponder
We know God wants us to be happy — truly happy. Yet, in the spiritual life, we will endure many trials. As St. Faustina shared in her Diary, she humbled herself in prayer before God when she was at her wits’ end with sufferings. God gave her peace and an abiding joy in her heart. We can be joyful and endure trials at the same time. The deep and abiding joy in our hearts is in knowing that in the end it will all work out. We know that there is eternal life, where we will indeed be happy forever with God in Heaven. When our hearts are heavy in anguish and trial, let’s be sure to always look up to God and ask for His help. Let’s ask for the gift of joy in our hearts, especially so that we can share that joy with others who might be struggling. Saint Teresa of Calcutta told me often, “Keep the joy of loving Jesus ever burning in your heart and share this joy with others by your thoughtful love and humble service.” That particular quote was taken from a personal letter that Mother Teresa wrote to me on October 5, 1988 (the 50th anniversary of St. Faustina’s death and now her feast day)!
A Merciful Action
All those around you in your family and beyond deserve to see your joyful demeanor and actions, and to hear your joyful words. It can be difficult when we are tired or suffering in some way. We need to pray for the graces and put forth the efforts. Carry out beautiful deeds of mercy this week with a joyful, loving heart!
A PRAYER OF MERCY FOR THIS WEEK
(To be prayed each day this week.)
Dear Merciful Jesus, help me to radiate Your love and joy to all I meet. Mother Mary, show me how. Saint Faustina, please pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You! Amen.
