An idea that came to me while I was writing to you

Better Catholic

Hello,

There is something I have never told you. Every novena, every meditation I prepare here forces me to study. I open the Gospels, the Church Fathers, the lives of the saints, and I come out of every book knowing a little more about my own faith than when I went in. The one who has learned the most from Better Catholic is me.

Then a question came to me: what if I did this together with you, on purpose?

The first idea was a series on the lives of the saints. But I have read too many biographies of saints that ended on the last page and changed nothing in me. Knowing the story is good. What I wanted was for it to move us.

So I put together something else. A thirty-day path. Each day, a piece of the saint's life and of the devotion that grew from it, and then a guided meditation to make us reflect: what that day of his life reveals, and where it touches my life today. At the end of each day, three steps to write in the book itself: what to notice, what to decide, what to live. You end the day different from how you began it. It happened to me while I was putting the series together.

The series is called A Saint a Month. And to begin, I chose St. Jude Thaddeus.

I chose him for a reason that struck me when I was studying to prepare his novena, which is coming soon. The Bible barely speaks of him. His name appears in the middle of a list, four times, and that is all. He walked three years beside Jesus and left no famous line, wrote no memoirs, made no effort to be remembered. He spent nineteen centuries forgotten. And today he is the saint we turn to when nothing else works. I wanted to understand how a man like that became the patron of impossible causes. Thirty days of answer.

We begin this Sunday, September 20. One video a day on the channel, free, as always. Thirty days later, on October 20, his Novena begins, nine days before his feast. Whoever starts on day 1 reaches the novena with their own impossible cause already named.

The books were finished this week, and you are the first to know, before any announcement. You are the Better Catholic community: the people who pray together, who make the novenas and write back to me. It is only fair that you start first.

There are two books: the thirty days and the Novena. And for those who are part of the family, I did it this way: I put both into a single volume, the thirty days and the novena in sequence. The regular price of that volume is US$ 19.99. Until Sunday, the day we begin, it is US$ 14.99, the same price as the thirty-day book alone. In practice, whoever gets it now receives the Novena for free, inside the same book. It is a launch gift for our community, for those who will walk with me from day 1 and reach the novena with the notebook full. After Sunday, it returns to the regular price.

The volume with the 30 days and the Novena together:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJTVXJPK

If you prefer the books separately:
30 days: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJSTRJFB
Novena: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJT1Q8S2

The book is for those who want to walk the path with a notebook in hand, with the method you already know from our novenas: Today's Path, Notice, Decide, Live. Available in print and on Kindle. The daily video stays free on the channel, for everyone. That is our way: what is free is for all, and the book is for those who want to go deeper.

And a real request. This is the first season of A Saint a Month, and I want to make the next ones with you, not for you. If you have an idea, a saint you would like to see, a criticism, reply to this email. I read every one, and that is where the next saint will come from. That is how we grow in faith: a little each day, and together.

May St. Jude Thaddeus intercede for you and your family.

With love in Christ,
Better Catholic

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