C.Ruegg

A Study on the Martin Family: The Home Life that Paved Way for Saints By Cara E. Ruegg Painting done by St. Therese's sister, Celine Martin The home of Zélie and Louis Martin was the soil which first benefited the saint we refer to so warmly as “the little flower”. It was there her roots grew strong enough to ensure a safe uprooting and replanting in the dessert soil of Carmel. It was there a religious vocation was first fostered, a deep and utterly sacrificial love of God that prompted her to respond with generosity and heroic virtue to her Beloved’s loving call even when it entailed the cross. It was from such loving and saintly unions between husband and wife, like that of Zélie and Louis Martin, that such soil was laid down and a God-centered family unit was born.   Both Zélie and Louis Martin gave God the first say and aspired after religious life; it was not to be God’s will, but nevertheless, they both laid their entire selves at His wounded feet an...

By Cara E. Ruegg Painting Sold Here Maybe if I hid my insecurities better, he wouldn’t have left… Maybe if I didn’t say, “I love you”, he wouldn’t have said, “Goodbye”. Maybe if I played hard to get… Maybe if I didn’t call so much… Maybe this and maybe that, but, honestly what good does speculating and blaming ourselves do when a relationship ends? I can’t tell you how many times in relationships I did the same thing, but it was a waste of time and more than once it wasn’t my fault anyway and the guy was just manipulating me to think it was, or didn’t know what he wanted, or wasn’t right for me. I was over here trying to change myself because I never imagined a man would love me for me, but then I found my husband, Brian. Don’t make yourself crazy with the “what if’s”; God doesn’t disturb the soul like that.   It’s true, we can learn lessons from failed relationships. It’s also true that sometimes it is our fault, for instance, if we were dis...

By Cara E. Ruegg Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817–1900) Storm “The most beautiful act of faith is the one made in darkness, in sacrifice, and with extreme effort.” - Padre Pio We all experience it: the storm that shakes us as it did the apostles. The wood of the frail boat creaks; it shudders beneath the thrash of waves. We look up into the sky and we do not see any light, not the slightest flicker of even the tiniest of stars. Our Lord, He was here, awake. His eyes were the bright sun and his words had kept the waves still. Now He’s asleep. We know He’s here. His promises assure us of that fact. It would be silly to jump ship with Him still in it. It would be silly, in fact, to think it would sink with Him still in it. Whether it be the paralysis of scruples or the temptation to doubt our Faith, we will undoubtedly experience a storm in this life of peril, a cross that weighs us down to such an extent that it causes blood and sweat to drip into our eyes so tha...

By Cara E. Ruegg Norah Neilson Gray: Mother and Child Every woman is meant be a mother; this call to motherhood still stands even if she leaves for the cloister or remains single her whole life. If she ignores this call, it will be to her detriment and to the detriment of society. Unfortunately, we have many women trying to escape this role of mother through abortion, neglect of their children, an obsession over professional success, to name a few. Society no longer upholds motherhood. Not only is it becoming increasingly difficult to live off of one income to allow her to stay at home with the children even if she wants to, but, with the push of the feminist movement, the title is now grossly downtrodden, or at the very least devalued. Society says it is a woman’s right to choose whether or not she wants to become a mother. Thing is, she was born to be a mother. That is every woman’s calling. If she ignores this calling, depression, restlessness, and that terrible fe...

By Cara E. Ruegg   Photo by Kimber Lee Photography from VA "Both man and wife have need of a spiritual life to succeed in their own individual part and to sustain the effects on them of failure by their partner. Both men and women tend to live their life before a “ gallery”—a small group of acquaintances—before whom they play their part, whose applause and whose approval they seek, by whom they are swayed and influenced...This is especially true with regard to the wife. There is no greater enemy of married happiness than the wife’s women friends. Unless she is a woman of character and of spirituality, she dresses for them, she lives for their applause, she learns from them, and takes her thoughts and her ideals from them. It would be hard to exaggerate the possibility of harm that can come from such a source." - Fr. Eugene Boylan. Father Eugene Boylan speaks truth above. I've seen many relationships fall apart because of pressure from ou...