MSI Press Blog

  The MSI Press study guide series is a set of documents/posts prepared by authors to help readers take a deeper dive into and personal look at various MSI books.  Today's study guide is meant to accompany A Woman's Guide to Self-Nurturing by Joanna Romer. Book Description: A Woman's Guide to Self-Nurturing offers a new perspective on how to comfort yourself while bolstering self-esteem. Using Bible stories as well as creative techniques for self-nurturing, the book will help you determine exactly what pleases you and nourishes your self-esteem, expand your repertoire of self-nurturing techniques by adding love and gratitude, and show you how self-nurturing can work toward building a new identity. Combining specific guidelines with inspiring examples of self-nurturing, this book will help you recover lost self-esteem and embrace a new mission for a more fulfilling life. Keywords: self-nurturing for women, Christian self-care, faith-based self-esteem, Bible study for heali...

Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -6-   Although the spiritual dimension is always present, people are not aware of it. If we think of this in terms of images, we can say we have a vintage wine cellar, but we rarely drink from it. We have an interior castle, and we seldom visit it. There is a treasure buried in our field, and we do not know how to unearth it… The distinction between the presence of the spiritual and the awareness of the spiritual is foundational in spiritual teaching and sets in motion the spiritual project. We are asleep, and we need to awake; we are blind, and we need to see; we are deaf, and we need to hear; we are lost, and we need to be found; we are dead and we need to come back to life. All these images point to the spiritual venture of becoming aware of what is there.   Jack Shea   You are alive as you are aware of what is there. ...

  In the early Church, mystagogy was not a footnote to initiation—it was its flowering. The newly baptized, called  neophytes  or “new plants,” entered a season of deep reflection after receiving the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation. This wasn’t a time for more instruction, but for transformation. Mystagogy, from the Greek  mystagogia , means “to lead through the mysteries.” It is the art of living what has been received. Today, mystagogy remains a vital, often overlooked phase in the spiritual journey. It invites all of us—not just the newly initiated—to meditate on the Gospel, participate in the Eucharist, and practice charity as a way of deepening our understanding of the Paschal Mystery. It’s not about mastering doctrine, but about allowing the mystery of Christ to master us. ✨ Why Mystagogy Matters It shifts us from knowing to being.  The sacraments are not just rituals; they are encounters with divine life. Mystagogy helps us internalize ...