
OK
About Laura Kelly Fanucci
Laura is the author of many books including Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting (Liturgical Press, 2014) and Grieving Together: A Couple's Journey through Miscarriage (Our Sunday Visitor, 2018).
Customers Also Bought Items By
Are you an author?
Author Updates
-
-
Blog postMyrrhbearers is a mouthful of a word. It makes you pause in wonder. What could it hold? How could it hold you?
I discovered the Myrrhbearers from the Magi. As I worked on my Epiphany retreat, I delighted in digging down theological rabbit holes.
Researching the meaning of myrrh was one I couldn’t resist. What was the symbolism of the gifts the magi brought? Where did myrrh come from? What was it used for?
Suddenly a strange word appeared on my screen: Myrrhbearers.2 months ago Read more -
Blog postI’ve been sharing these prayer poems on social media recently. Readers asked if I’d save them so they could send to others. Here they are, for you.
Do we ever stop to consider
that they might be longing for us, too—
the ones we love and miss?
On this side our longing is called grief
and soaked in sorrow,
but their love is called joy—
which wants everyone to join.
They may not count down the chronos we number,
for they know the kairos that is2 months ago Read more -
Blog postHappy New Year!
We’re on the cusp of change, one of my favorite places to be.
While turning the calendar to 2021 won’t miraculously bring peace or healing, I do love fresh starts and new beginnings. So I pray this new year will bring true goodness and lasting joy in the days and weeks to come.
Because I’m a lover of New Year’s, I always want to spend this time in prayer and reflection. Like many of you, I’m craving connection and conversation in the midst of life at ho3 months ago Read more -
Blog postDear readers,
It’s been a long time since I’ve written in this space. 2020 has changed nearly everything.
To update you on where I’ve been: in between homeschooling and hybrid schooling and distance learning (Lord, have mercy), I’ve launched a few new side projects that I hope you’ll join.
A new newsletter: The Holy Labor I love to lift up the creative, life-giving work of friends and strangers. So in each edition I share a short essay (much like I used to blog here),5 months ago Read more -
Blog post“Who could we pray for today?” I ask the question with a newborn squirming in my lap and a toddler climbing up my knees. I’m sweating and exhausted and leading this morning prayer only out of sheer stubbornness to the scrawled schedule on the white board in our dining-room-turned-classroom. Briefly, I consider a short list […]
The post what our kids can teach us now appeared first on Mothering Spirit.
11 months ago Read more -
Blog postOne month ago, I was in the hospital. The same hospital where my baby girls were born four years earlier.
The same hospital where they each died in my arms, days later.
One month ago, I was holding our newborn son. The same baby I pleaded to God to keep safe as I spent day after day, week after week, in the hospital with preeclampsia.
The same baby who wasn’t due to be born until this week.
By the time I left the hospital for good, my world had been turned upsi1 year ago Read more -
Blog postExactly ten years ago this month, I started a blog.
I told exactly no one. Not even my husband.
My first baby was six months old. I was working part-time, overwhelmed and tired. I craved connection and community. I wanted breadth of thought and depth of prayer.
I couldn’t find anything like what I wanted to read. So I decided to write it.
I started writing quietly, typing one-handed in the dark, plodding out post after post that no one read. I didn’t care; I lo1 year ago Read more -
Blog postI remember where I was sitting when I got the idea.
In the middle of a writing workshop on time and place in memoir. How to deal with challenges of chronology and context.
As often happens, my mind leapt from the question at hand to a brand-new idea.
What about a book on the times and places that God meets us?
I mentally wandered away the class for fifteen minutes, scribbling in the back of my notebook. Metaphors and memories, stories from Scripture and stories1 year ago Read more -
Blog postIf you have young children in your life, odds are good you have recently sat in a movie theatre strewn with popcorn, listening to a snowman sing:
See, that will all make sense when I am older,
So there’s no need to be terrified or tense.
I’ll just dream about a time
When I’m in my aged prime
‘Cause when you’re older
Absolutely everything makes sense!
I roared with laughter, spilling the popcorn bucket, and nearly every adult in the theatre did the same1 year ago Read more -
Blog postI have no shame in confessing: I love New Year’s.
It’s a holiday that many love to hate, artificial or over-hyped. But I adore looking back and looking forward, pondering what was and planning for what might be.
(I also love champagne, resolutions, countdowns, goofy party hats, and cheesy crowd songs at midnight. So this time of year is my JAM.)
As part of my New Year’s affection, I will read any top-10 round-up. Movies I didn’t see, books I didn’t read, sports I didn1 year ago Read more
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed.” (Ps 34:19)
You might feel, in the days and weeks after a miscarriage, like the Lord is anything but close.
Laura and Franco Fanucci understand. After struggling with infertility, they miscarried their third child in the first trimester. Later, their twin daughters were born prematurely and lived only a few days. Laura and Franco are here to tell you that, while your miscarriage is a deeply personal loss, you are not alone.
Grieving Together is written by a couple specifically for couples, understanding that both spouses have experienced a loss and grieve differently. Drawing from Catholic tradition and teaching, Laura and Franco gently guide you through:
- The physical and emotional experiences of miscarriage — including help in making the hardest decisions
- How couples respond to grief — and how to support each other
- Turning to family, friends, and the Church — finding help and support from loved ones and your Church community
- The future after miscarriage — where to go from here as a couple
Grieving Together is the book the Fanuccis had wished for after their miscarriage. Practical resources include Scripture, prayers, and official Catholic rites. It also speaks to the unique concerns of fathers, and includes many real-life stories from couples in many different circumstances.
“We are fellow travelers on the road: parents who have suffered significant losses yet have grown in our marriage because of the gifts of our children’s lives.” — Laura and Franco Fanucci
Click here to register for the related webcast
-Part I (Ages and Stages) gathers prayers for children, teens, young adults, and adults in mid-life, later, and older adulthood.
-Part II (Work and Profession) offers blessings for traditional professions and overlooked occupations--from nurses to truck drivers, janitors to lawyers, salespeople to stay-at-home parents.
-Part III (A Year of Blessing) highlights times to preach and pray about vocation throughout the church year and cultural calendar.
Drawing from research with hundreds of Christians in congregations across the country about their sense of God's call in their lives, the book fills the gap between Christianity's rich theologies of vocation and people's pastoral needs in living out their callings.
To Bless Our Callings is a perfect resource for catechists, musicians, worship leaders, spiritual directors, retreat leaders, campus ministers, and chaplains.
"Laura Fanucci's book is a theological, spiritual, and liturgical gem. Filled with insight into how callings relate to the stages of life, paid and unpaid work and the professions, and the liturgical year, it provides a comprehensive and eminently usable resource for pastors, religious leaders, and anyone who wants to relate their faith to every aspect of human life. Fanucci draws ecumenically from numerous traditions, and creates many of her own prayers and blessings to provide a wealth of wise and evocative sources for Christian worship and discernment. This book fills a large gap in the literature on worship and callings."
--Douglas Schuurman, Professor of Religion, St. Olaf College
Laura Kelly Fanucci directs an ecumenical project on vocation in congregations at the Collegeville Institute in Collegeville, Minnesota. She is the author of Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting (2014), Mercy: God's Nature, Our Challenge (2016), Dashed Hopes: When Our Best-Laid Plans Fall Apart (2017), and the co-author of Living Your Discipleship: 7 Ways to Express Your Deepest Calling (2015).
A spiritual memoir of parenting’s early years and a sacramental theology rooted in family life, Everyday Sacrament offers an honest, humorous, and hopeful look at ordinary moments as full of grace.
Whether you read this wonderful book on your own or with others in a group—RCIA, prayer circle, ministry team, faith sharing—it will help you grow in understanding and faithfulness as you discern and discover your unique place in God’s loving kingdom.