A Good Friday Birthday and Sunday's Gift 🎁

Born on a Friday

Emily’s parents wanted to share this beautiful “cross in the sky” they saw as they went to visit her grave last year on Emily’s birthday.  The following is an excerpt from Living Memento Mori (Prelude), in which she conveys a bit about her feelings of being born on Good Friday.

Excerpt from Living Memento Mori (Prelude)

The passage doesn’t end happily ever after, but looking through Emily’s life and hardships, she was drawn closer to the Lord in spite of them. She saw everything Christ endured and she knew that if He was willing to withstand all He did for her sake (and ours), that she could trust Him with her life and health. It became her testimony just like the things He brings you to and through are yours give you your testimony to be able to share His gospel and goodness with others.

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A Friday of Suffering, A Friday of Hope

We started Holy Week off earlier this week with a post explaining Holy Week and the Stations of the Cross and their meaning, but now as the week comes to its final and most significant days, we want to leave you with important points to ponder.

Emily’s reading of Isaiah during Easter 2023.

Now it’s Good Friday, considered the darkest moment in human history by Christ followers, but 2000+ years later, we know the history before this day and we know what followed 3 days later.

Listen to Emily’s reading from Isaiah (starting at the 6:10 mark), a major prophetic telling of what horror our precious Lord Jesus bare. That day that would come to be known as “Good Friday” all because of His obedience to God the Father and His love to endure for our sakes.

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A Sunday Like No Other

Below is another excerpt from Living Memento Mori (pages 79-80), which Emily wrote as a retelling with additional though observations from the women who went to care for Jesus’s body at the tomb on what’s now known as Easter morning.

Excerpt from Living Memento Mori (pages 79-80)

And finally, we would be remiss not to mention once more that Emily’s book, Living Memento Mori, is especially pertinent for Holy Week as each chapter is intertwined with a Station of the Cross. She does a beautiful job relating each station to her and encourages everyone in their own challenges. 

Preparing for Lent 2026 🙏 📚

2026 Preparing for Lent header banner.

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” - Ephesians 2: 8-9

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Thoughtful considerations for Lent

Happy New Year everyone! You might be thinking, “How can we already be talking about Lent??? It’s only the end of January!”, but in reality, Lent begins on February 18th this year. That’s less than 3 weeks away now!

So we wanted to take time to provide some wise past words from Emily and additional resources that will hopefully help you in thoughtfully making your plans this year.

Emily’s scriptural reading for Good Friday in 2023.

Lent Resources from Emily

Emily’s book, Catholics 101 does an excellent job explaining the Three Pillars of Lent. It’s available for purchase on Gumroad and she also has a blog series for free as well.

We also want to share a collection of the 6 Lenten Practices posts Emily wrote 10 years ago back in 2016 that are still relevant today:

Lenten Practice 1 : Fasting and Abstinence

Lenten Practice 2: Confession

Lenten Practice 3: Prayer

Lenten Practice 4: Stations of the Cross

Lenten Practice 5: Almsgiving

Lenten Practice 6: The Liturgy of the Hours

A wooden cross hanging over a church stage with a spotlight on it.

Other Great Lenten Preparation Resources

Maybe it’s your first time participating in Lent or it’s been a long time and you feel overwhelmed about where to start. There are excellent resources from Hallow about the rules for Lent and different want to commit to the Three Pillars of Lent through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Hopefully, this brings clarity on the purposes and helps you with deciding on how to move forward in your expression of Lent.

Past readings Emily mentioned she recommended for Lent were “A Time for Renewal”, by Mother Mary Francis, PCC; “Death on a Friday Afternoon”, by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, and “On the Passion of the Christ” by Thomas a Kempis. She also mentioned her watch list included “Jesus of Nazareth” and “The Passion of the Christ”. 

Make a New Lenten Tradition

And finally, we just want to give a reminder that Emily’s book, Living Memento Mori, makes a great companion to this Lenten season and we hope you’ll pick up your copy to gain a new perspective as you walk through the Lent in 2026. Emily’s book also includes the Stations of the Cross and a study guide. If you already have a copy, thank you for your support, and we hope you will revisit Living Memento Mori this year!