A longtime reader reminds me we’re overdue for another How’s It Going / Where to Find Me update. I hesitate, because every time I think I know what my life is like, it changes. Meanwhile, pressing news:
I received word from OSV that The How-to Book of Evangelization is going out of print at the beginning of November (exact date TBD). At last check, clearance copies at the publisher’s website were running $5 a piece, which is the best deal you will ever get.
So hop on it.
If you are looking for me, at this very moment I am:
Have broadened the range of topics at the stack. You can subscribe to just the bits that interest you. (All content is free to read.)
Have been hanging around Substack’s Notes for anti-social media purposes. Also sometimes at Twitter @AltJenFitz. Yes, that’s an alt of my alt. It’s a long story.
Technically I’m finishing up edits on a novel. In fact I am feeling uncommonly healthy at this very moment and my calendar is clear, so I am cleaning out my house. But the novel is the next publishing priority.
=> So that means if you want a copy (or many copies!) of the evangelization book, get it ASAP, because whatever edition I get around to producing after rights revert to me is a ways down the road on the work schedule. When they sell out, that’s it.
As always, thanks for reading here. It’s been good.
Well, a few things have changed in three years, for those of you who only read me here and nowhere else.
Since last installment: Kids are all grown up and mostly out of the house. #4 talked me into learning to play hockey her junior and senior years of high school, and I did manage a bit of that (no one is impressed by my skill or athleticism). #2 Got married!
Then late summer 2024 we started a fresh round of Being Sick All The Time, nothing dramatic, just catching everything under the sun and taking a long time to get over it. Hence I’ve gotten aggressive about avoiding sick people and sporting the N95 when that’s not possible, and though it’s annoying, it seems to work.
I may run some product reviews, because the other health change over the past month is SuperHusband and I have been trialing OTC continuous glucose monitors, and it turns out hypoglycemia doesn’t make you feel good. Fixing it feels awesome.
How awesome?
So awesome #3 talked me into joining her on a work trip to an epic destination having unexpectedly low airfares, and honestly I’m flabbergasted this is happening to me.
Meanwhile, work-wise, I’ve been working on getting a novel ready to publish. Previously I had avoided publishing fiction, because I had learned how stressful publishing is with the two major non-fiction projects, and I wanted to preserve a kind of writing that wasn’t work.
I finally discerned to try to publish some of my various novels through the very spiritual process of Every Time I Go to Start A Regular Job, I Immediately Get Sick Again. So I figured if God was not going to accommodate normal career aspirations, I should take the hint.
Don’t know that this first book it will find a traditional publisher, which is fine.
It’s a ton of fun, great story, but the market of “Adult Catholics who believe and practice the Catholic faith, but they are realistic about the contorted lives of the people in the pews, and don’t get the vapors over the existence of certain common but weirdly controversial sins, but also they like something fun and not depressing nor only for English majors, and also it’s a Catholic setting with deeply Catholic characters but not at all a morality tale, at least no more than any other story that involves figuring out a maybe-murder” is a pretty large audience, but not one the industry has tapped yet.
Pretty much those readers are being entirely served by self-published authors, as far as I can tell. So be it.
That’s in edits now (well, waiting for a fresh round of edits); and I’m also working on being more consistent with the writing at the blorg and the stack. Not on social media (much) right now, because my sister tricked me into doing Magnify 90 again. Good program, and our local Bible study ladies are absolutely loving it.
Full disclosure: We are all too old to scruple about it, we adapt generously to fit our various states in life. This is the way.
–> One of my goals for this period of self-examination is to figure out a middle way with social media, neither getting overly sucked into it nor avoiding it entirely. One of these years surely I’ll get the hang of that, right?
So. Summary: All the sudden the holidays are over, the kids have gone back to their various worlds, and I am sitting here a month into the new year a lot astonished at not being sick, and am simultaneously putting back together the bricks of life as best I can, and also sneaking out for some epic adventures.
It’s always nerve-wracking writing a personal update, because invariably the moment I publish the report everything promptly changes. Still, we live dangerously.
Where me to find me this spring:
I’m speaking this weekend (Sunday 2/26/23) on evangelization to the Catholic Writers Guild at their online conference (so you can attend from anywhere). The topic is “Evangelization for Authors” but the presentation will be of interest to critical readers as well — especially those of you who like to make book recommendations. Details are here, conference registration is still open.
Annual free e-book sale of Lord, You Know I Love You! A Discernment Retreat Using the Great Commandmentruns from Wednesday, February 22, 2023, 12:00 AM PST to Sunday, February 26, 2023, 11:59 PM PST. So check the Amazon link and when you see the price go to zero, that’s your opening. More info about the book and how to read it is here. Edits and a paperback edition were slated for last fall, see below for why that didn’t happen, but even in the present version it’s a lot of value for your $0.
At the Evangelization SubstackOne Soul at a Time, we’re taking a deep dive into the topics of hospitality, welcoming, and forming friendships in parish life. There’s a lot to cover. The series started here and three weeks in we’re still just warming up.
Reminders:
All content at One Soul at a Time is free to all readers.
Financial sponsors get combox privileges, but all subscribers (including free subscribers) can reply to any e-mailed newsletter to share comments, ask questions, or make topic requests.
I keep it free of politics and other crazy stuff.
So if you are looking for Just the Jesus, the substack is your place. If you’re staying off social media for Lent (or forever, because you are smart like that) you can subscribe (for free!) to receive posts via e-mail.
I specifically created the Substack for people who don’t want the noise of social media debates and all that stuff. (That’s a reason I have a sharply restricted combox as well — what you’ll see there are only comments from people who seriously care about the topic. No trolls.)
My only social media presence is on Twitter, @JenFitz_Reads. (Proceed with caution, it’s yet a level spicier there.) Anyplace else you might find an account from me is a ghost presence only, I’m not there. But I do check my JenFitz_Reads notifications, so you can ping me there if you need me.
And that’s about it. One more low-key media thing in the pipeline, I’ll let you know when (if) that goes lives, but mostly my attention is elsewhere, because . . .
Things Are Good
2022 was a rough year, physically. COVID in January, which went fine, but then I kept getting sick constantly all the remainder of the year (nothing serious, just *constant*), until I finally got absurdly aggressive about germ-avoidance.
September ’22 started in with what I thought was a little cold one of the kids brought home, and ended up spending two months laid out flat with insane levels of sleepiness. 10 hours a day, laying around the rest of the time, aggressively planning to accomplish the least little thing — took about 48 hours of strategizing and carefully-targeted caffeine mega-dosing to be able to *sit* through Sunday Mass. For example.
It was not my favorite thing.
And then that little episode went away, in the space of a week in mid-Novemeber my maximum sustainable daily step count increased by 50% and overall energy level went back to completely normal-person levels. It was crazy.
Also crazy: I came out of it with a weird, annoying, disruptive, but not-that-bad movement disorder. Basically, if I completely relax (physically — mental state has nothing to do with it), my muscles will start jerking, but I can totally make it stop just by un-relaxing. So that’s fine except if I ever, at all, want to relax (physically — again, completely unrelated to what I am or am not thinking or feeling). Not the easiest for falling asleep.
So that’s been fun.
But other than never relaxing, everything is fine?
So the past couple months have been devoted to maximum fitness, since I need to gain as much as I can before the next round (blood work indicates: there is likely to be a next round, and one after that . . . etc.), doctors, time with the kids (since I can!), and catching up on a year’s worth of neglected chores.
Also attempting to have a little bit of a social life? Which is funny since I’m writing that series on parish hospitality, but you know, I am now an expert on things that prevent you from having from friends, and how many other evangelization writers can claim that?
Highlight, by the way, has been taking ice skating lessons with the youngest, who wants to learn to play hockey. So yes, things are good.
Last summer I was able to record an hour-long telling of my conversion story for The Journey Home on EWTN. I learned today that it will be airing tonight!
If you don’t have cable (I don’t) you can watch it for free via EWTN’s online streaming. It will eventually also get posted at The Coming Home Network’s YouTube channel.
Checking in because I’ve had several people ask how to stay in touch.
Subscribe (it’s free) to One Soul at a Time for essays and info related to Catholic evangelization and discipleship. It’s politics-free, no ranting and raving.
My only active social media presence is on Twitter, @JenFitz_Reads. You can also reach me by replying to any of the e-mails from jenniferfitz.substack.com, if you subscribe there.
And something fun: Between now and Sunday 2/27 at midnight PST, Lord, You Know I Love You! is free on Kindle. You can read more about it here. Enjoy!
Last week I ran into a local reader and subscriber at this blog, who naturally wondered where the heck I’ve been. Sick leave is the answer, I’m still on it, hitting about a 25% attendance rate at everything that counts as normal-life.
(No, it’s not COVID. Thanks for asking.)
What I didn’t know he didn’t know (and therefore other subscribers here may have the same question) is that I’ve also blogged at Patheos, and I resumed writing there this summer. My presence there is erratic, heavy on controversial topics, and exists because never-blogging does not work for me. (I have a second disorder called Can’t Shut Up.)
So if you have a disorder called Can’t Get Enough of Ornery Bloggers, you can subscribe at patheos.com/blogs/jenniferfitz and I can take the edge off.
Otherwise I’m largely offline. My Facebook presence is zero; I do tweet headlines and hit the the “like” button on things, but even when it seems like I’m itching for a fight, I’m really not. You’re certainly welcome to follow me there, @JenFitz_Reads is the active account.
How to Find a Great Speaker for Your Evangelization Event
I am doing zero speaking gigs at this time — no phone interviews, no zoom meetings, no radio shows, I’m pretty happy if I hold a conversation at all, with anyone, definitely not booking your parish or diocesan event. But of course you’ve read my book, or at least looked at the cover, and now you just have to have me, right? Nah. Here’s what you need to do:
Work through the book with a small group of picked volunteers from your parish or ministry. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter, so you don’t need to prep anything.
Highlight the parts you really, really, really want your larger audience to know.
Pick the top three most important parts, and make slides about them.
Now, presto, you have a speaker able to address what is most needed in your situation.
You can always do a second talk on three more points another time. Visiting guest speakers make people feel good? But they don’t cause change. Change happens when individuals who are connected with each other in an enduring manner decide to take action on a single, mutually important goal.
You and your small group of locals who read the book together will know, in a way that neither I nor any other stranger can know, what the top three most pressing concerns for you are today. Bring those three concerns to your audience. Use the book to help you find the words and the explanations to communicate the things you already know but maybe struggled to articulate.
Then: Equip your audience. Maybe that’s just giving the encouragement people need to do what they already wanted to do, but were unsure about. Maybe it means removing obstacles. Maybe it means offering resources at your disposal. I can’t do that for you either. But you can do this.
The How-to Book of Evangelizationis not a memoir of my amazing ministry, and it’s not a fool-proof recipe that you can replicate mindlessly. It’s the testimony of thousands of ordinary Catholics just like you who have each identified one area where God was specifically calling, and they made the decision to answer that call.
Like them, the only way for you to learn how to evangelize is to try it. You don’t need a speaker for that. You need an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ in the Catholic faith; you need prayer, fasting, and integrity; and you need to say yes.
That’s it.
The book has lots of information on ways that other Catholics just like you have managed to change lives and bring people closer to God. Evangelization is a skill, just like making friends is a skill: Some people are naturally good at it, most of us benefit from receiving a little mentoring. I profile or quote a number of major players in evangelization today, so if you want some tips on where to find a speaker or resources, dig in.
But even though I love to travel and I love to teach, I’m kinda glad that God’s seen fit to toss me in the closet for a while at just the wrong time. It’s not the wrong time. Me writing the book was about the fact that I care about this topic, I had spent years studying this topic, and I have the ability to write things down. Now that it is written down, you have what you need from me.
Quick note to the readership: I’m on indefinite hiatus from blogging, and yes I know that happened very abruptly. I apologize for that. Thank you to everyone for your many prayers and your concern.
I’m not making any predictions about future writing plans. Readers, I miss you, love you, think the world of you. Thank you for making my blogging experience fantastic.
(This archives contains all of my posts from my years writing the Riparians at the Gate blog. You can find additional archives at Patheos and at the National Catholic Register.)
The conference is, so far, blowing me away with the awesome group of people participating and the need we seem to have tapped. Perfect talk after perfect talk, and all of them completely different. (I don’t know whether other people needed my talk, but I did, so it was perfect for me, anyhow.) Life is good.
Also, I’m past peak intensity with the conference project now, and my mind is moving to Monday, when Marie Kondo arrives at my house. In preparation, a thing happened to me that caused a moment of aching clarity.
The thing that happened is that SuperHusband ran out of coffee, and we needed my daughter to pick up a resupply while she was running errands in the same direction.
Because we forget to use grocery lists (I know! How hard is that? Hard for us. I’m sorry.), our method for remembering we need infrequently-purchased staple items is to save the package as a reminder. Thus the other day I set in the garage-library this bag:
Not my coffee. Y’all know that. But sometimes, okay maybe.
What with my daughter being the one sent out, I naturally retrieved the bag to hand off to her, to make sure she knows exactly what coffee to buy.
She did not need the bag. For one thing, her father texted her the info. For another, she usually ends up being the one to buy the coffee, so she already knows.
“You sure you don’t need the bag?”
“I don’t need the bag.”
I relented. Maybe it is possible to buy the correct coffee without physically bringing in the bag and double-checking the label very, very carefully. Some people have superpowers that way. Fair enough.
And thus I was left holding the bag.
I looked down at this bag. It is in excellent condition. It is a very convenient size for . . . something. Such a quality bag, eminently reusable. If you had rice you wanted to scent vaguely of coffee? Perfect for that.
Maybe yarn, if I ever attempted knitting again, and this time I wanted the baby booties to taste and smell just like home. Perfect.
So, so, many undreamt possibilities for how to use this bag.
It felt wrong to toss the bag. Irresponsible. Wasteful.
But, alas, I can’t keep all the bags, and I already have bags (though not one quite like this), and there is no public whatsoever who would like my old coffee bag. (Would you like my old coffee bag? I could set it out for you to pick up sometime.)
Which is why, come Monday, begins the firestorm of sparking joy.
Not, with a brain like mine, something that can be done in tiny spurts. Whole brain and will and spirit will need to show up and give it their all, because the world is brimming over with coffee bags, and not buying coffee is the wrong answer.
So that’s my situation.
Will post notes from my conference talk, about that different problem I have, when I get them cleaned up at some indeterminate date in the future.
Meanwhile, here is Simcha Fisher with a must-read post for those of us who have coffee-bag problems. Even if she isn’t usually your cuppa ‘spresso, this one is Simcha at the very top of her game and saying the thing that people who own extraneous stuff need to here.
Since this time last MLK day, our nation’s been through an awful lot of civil strife, too much of it violent.
I want to offer some hope.
Here is something I keep finding myself telling my teenagers: You need to understand, this is not normal for our country.
They don’t know. Maybe this is how contentious problems have always been handled. They have, after all, evidence in their history books that the United States has not always been an oasis of non-violence.
But we who are a few years older are recoiling in disbelief at the rage and hostility that has erupted in so many places, and from people we did not expect. Friends. Family members. Colleagues. How did we get to this place?
Today, in memory of one of our nation’s greatest leaders of civil discourse, let me suggest something hopeful: We aren’t too far gone.
Here we are, post-911, post-MLK, post-Floyd . . . a nation that knows threats. We know terrorism, we know corruption, we know lynching, we know rioting, and yet, even with threats detected and reported, even with a massive protest pouring into the nation’s capital on the day the electoral votes were being counted in a highly-contested election for one of the most powerful political posts on the planet, there was clearly no expectation that anyone would break into Congress.
It was so darn easy for the mob to break glass and push their way in because . . . no one ever does that. We are accustomed to massive protests gathering just feet from where Congress meets, and we are used to those protests being just fine.
I can remember my first national March for Life being astonished at just how uncontroversial our reception was. Need to use the restroom? Just dash up the steps into one of the Smithsonian Museums, file through some cursory security, and help yourself. Grab lunch in the cafeteria and take in a little art while you’re at it.
My kids joke about the roving street vendors of DC who tout their stash of MAGA hats one day, March for Women the next. It doesn’t matter what your cause is, here’s a button for it, just two dollars. No one bats an eye at dodgy entrepreneurs shifting political loyalties by the minute, because partisanship is normal, expected, and largely a non-issue.
This peacefulness is evident in the Post‘s assembled video coverage of the capitol insurrection. The police could have begun forcefully pushing away the crowds before they got close to the doors. They didn’t.
You see officers standing at an entry, and the mob is breaking the glass on the door and helping themselves into the building, and the police do not fire. It is not until members of Congress are directly threatened that a single shot is fired.
Despite the deadly violence that did occur, despite the death threats being called out from some in the invading mob, there is a remarkable level of courtesy and restraint between law enforcement officers and invaders. It is as if they recognize the primacy of peace even in a mob insurrection.
Is that practical? Tactical? Sure. We don’t need to deceive ourselves about the nature of deadly mobs and outnumbered police. We don’t need to brush from memory the genuine, inexcusable violence of this riot or any other. We don’t need to forget that police brutality and corruption remain unsolved problems in our nation.
But also: The only reason the invasion of the capitol unrolled with such odd calm — and likely the reason that the House continued with business as long as it did while the mob poured into the building — is that peaceful partisanship is our norm.
It is not too late to again give that norm pride of place in our national discourse.
***
Martin Luther King, Jr., the man, was in some ways deeply flawed. Those human faults did not change the truth of his message. When the people you know, flawed, sometimes wrong, hold firm to something that is true and good? That truth and goodness rests on its own merits. You don’t have to reject the message because of the messenger.
In contemplating what good discourse might be, MLK’s example could not be more on point today. Do yourself a favor and get hold of a copy of the Letter from Birmingham Jail. (It’s still under copyright, so I can’t hand it out like Mardi Gras beads. You’ll have to find it yourself, maybe even pay for it.) Read it.
What it is about? It is about not being nice anymore. Not quietly going along with the status quo. It is about speaking up in the face of grave evil. It is about protesting unequivocally in a manner that will upset the people who wish you wouldn’t be such a trouble-maker.
But also: Non-violently.
MLK is our national hero of both protesting injustice fearlessly and doing so peacefully.
His legacy is the reason the capitol was invadable. It is the reason no one anticipated the breaking of that fragile glass line separating Congress from its critics. It is the reason we did not see as much bloodshed as might have been.
It is easy, when people are being nasty and violent, to reject MLK’s legacy. It is easy to say, Well, those vile brutes are destroying all we hold dear, you expect me to just stand there and take it? And when you do that, you make a mockery of the intense suffering and injustice against which MLK fought. Do you think he didn’t know violence? Do you think he didn’t know viciousness and unfettered ignorance?
Like all Christians, Martin Luther King was a sinful man in need of a Savior. And yet: He also gave his life to our nation living out the Christian model of love. He followed the more excellent way.
Refuse to waste that legacy.
Refuse to toss in the garbage our national heritage of peaceful partisanship.
It is possible to speak boldly, protest courageously, persevere resolutely, and in so doing join with all persons of good will in making our nation a land of peace and freedom.
Spreading the word because we experienced a nasty system failure sometime on the 14th: If you registered for the Good Discourse conference-retreat, you should have received an e-mail from me (Jen Fitz) this morning, Saturday the 16th.
If for any reason you don’t have the e-mail in the account you gave us (check your spam, check your other e-mail account you forgot was the one you used to sign up, etc. etc.) please contact agooddiscourse@gmail.com ASAP.
We do still have spaces available if you know someone who meant to register and forgot all about it.
Kindly check on your friends and make sure they have gotten signed up if they are the sort who would thrive on just such a weekend.
Also, regardless of anything at all, please keep our speakers, hosts, and participants in prayer over the week ahead. The spiritual warfare on this event has been a sight to see.
![Lord, You Know I Love You!: A Discernment Retreat Using the Great Commandment by [Jennifer Fitz]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51meeq9X16L.jpg)
