Sneak Peek at our Deal of the Month for December!

Keep an eye out for our December Deal of the Month! Don't miss our special pricing for a great bargain! Here's a hint: it will make a terrific stocking stuffer! Make sure you sign up for our emails so you'll get the coupon code for this deal, as well as all of our promos. Special pricing will be valid from December 1 - December 31th.
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Sneak Peek at our Deal of the Month for June!

Keep an eye out for our June Promo! Don't miss our special pricing for one of our best sellers... Make sure you sign up for our emails so you don't miss the coupon code! Special pricing will be valid from June 1 - June 30th.
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One of our long-time customers steps out and supports brain tumor patients and their loved ones.

Lanette Veres, one of our long-standing customers, has courageously battled several brain tumors and surgeries over the last 14 years. We recently caught up with her to see how she was doing (she's healthy and happy!), and she updated us about her non-profit organization, GrayMatters Foundation, she has started to help others who have gone through similar circumstances. She was recently featured in Arizona Health & Living Magazine for her incredible work.


Click here to visit her website, where you can read her story and  donate to her cause. Please remember to keep her and her mission in your prayers!

Happy Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker!

As you may recall, we celebrated the feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary, on March 19th.

But he is so important, the Church wanted to honor him more, and they found a way. I share with you some thoughts I read:

For decades, May Day was the occasion for Communist countries to parade their military power. On this day in 1955, Pope Pius XII inaugurated the celebration of Saint Joseph the Worker.  It seemed comical, even absurd, to raise up Joseph to challenge the Communist military machine on its May Day march, but look at what happened!  The disintegration of Communism is often attributed to the Lord working through the prayers of His people, and especially in response to the apparitions of Mother Mary at Fatima in 1917, urging all to pray and do penance for the conversion of Russia. 

That being said, it is also true that the Lord has transformed the world through Joseph and through simple, common, obscure workers like him--like us!

As Saint Paul exhorts us, "Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being. Do it for the Lord rather than for men. ... Be slaves of Christ the Lord". (Colossians 3:23-24).

Our obscure lives and routine work can change the world if we have faith as did Saint Joseph. The Lord is speaking to us today: "Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work!  For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts". (Haggai 2:4)

    "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets,Jesus, son of Joseph,  
from Nazareth."

John 1:45

Candlemas - The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Today, February 2, the Church celebrates the feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple, an event remembered in the fourth joyful mystery of the Rosary. Here is a brief review of the story:

At the end of the fourth century, a woman named Etheria made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her journal, discovered in 1887, gives an unprecedented glimpse of liturgical life there. Among the celebrations she describes is the procession in honor of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.

Under the Mosaic Law, a woman was ritually “unclean” for 40 days after childbirth, after which she was to present herself to the priests and offer sacrifice—her “purification.” In obedience to the Law of Moses, Mary and Joseph also presented Jesus to God in the temple. The long wait of Israel for the Messiah was ended. So too was the waiting of old Simeon, who blessed the child and his parents, having been promised by the Spirit that he should not die until he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. Anna, a faithful widow, had also prayed and fasted much for this day, and she rejoiced in it. Simeon and Anna embody Israel in their patient expectation; they acknowledge the infant Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Early references to the Roman feast dub it the feast of St. Simeon, the old man who burst into a song of joy which the Church still sings at the end of every day.

The observance of this feast spread throughout the Western Church in the fifth and sixth centuries. In the eighth century, Pope Sergius inaugurated a candlelight procession during the Mass, to symbolize the revelation to all people of Christ as the Light of the world. At that same Mass, the celebrant would bless candles and give them to the people, a custom which continues this day, giving the feast its popular name: Candlemas.

The first reading of the day, from the prophet Malachi, proclaims:

Thus says the Lord God:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

Malachi 3:1

In the Gospel reading, as he holds the infant Jesus in his arms,
old Simeon sings joyfully, 

"Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel."
 Luke 2:29-32