Change of Address

I love doing this blog. For nearly six years I've welcomed the chance to share nuggets of inspiration and encouragement, usually from the saints. What a privilege it has been; what a gift.

Does this sound like a goodbye? 

It's not that. Well, not exactly. But it could be seen as a change of address. 

Due to recent health issues, my energy is at an all time low. I now have no choice but to set limits. 

I have two blogs, and thankfully still have energy for one of them. The Cloistered Heart is the “bigger” blog, the same age as this one, and anything I'd put here on TheBreadboxLetters (at least in recent years) fits very well over there.

So I am now "consolidating" the two and plan to put graphics, etc, that I might normally post here.... there. 

I hope to keep this space atThe Breadbox Letters open for awhile, putting in (below) links to some of our archived posts. Which is not the least bit confusing, is it? I thought not.

Confusing or not, let's take a first peek into the archives to find:

Our most popular post

A “look at what God did!” story

A graphic (and another) (and this one)(and one more)

Why a Breadbox? (our first post)

And now (ta daaaa) see you over at www.thecloisteredheart.org? Y'all come....

Interior Glances

And the Swallow a Nest

Everything With Him

Retire!

Whatever Your Stage of Life

"Whether married, religious, single, consecrated, or widowed," says today's post at The Feminine Gift, "we all have a primary vocation to holiness.  Nancy Shuman, of The Cloistered Heart book and blog, writes about how we can fulfill that vocation by making our lives a cloister - a total consecration - where 'God is loved and lived for and served.'  We feel greatly blessed that Nancy will be sharing this way of living for Christ with us once a month..."

I am deeply honored to be guest writing for The Feminine Gift, a blog that speaks to women in all ages and stages of life.  And if you've ever wondered what "the cloistered heart" was all about, the post there will hopefully provide a brief initial overview.  You can click here to visit The Feminine Gift.... whatever your stage of life!   

Painting by Aaron Draper Shattuck

Portrait of a... Saint?

I've posted several quotes here about the call we have to sainthood.  Thinking of this recently, I came across something I'd written in 1990.  I could scribble these words as easily today......

Am I called to be a saint?  Of course I am.  I am called to be with God forever in heaven - that is sainthood. Am I called to be a saint on earth?  Of course I am.  I am called to give my life to Him in heroic abandon as He enables me, and I am called to love my neighbor in perfect charity, and I am called to be holy and good and dead to self on earth.  But how easy it is to say 'I want to be a saint' when I sit in perfect comfort.

What a different story when the tiniest little thing crosses the rosy self-made path I've envisioned and the flames of sacrifice nip at my will.

What a saint I then become - grumbling on the guillotine and cursing the very instruments of sainthood.
                                                           (from The Cloistered Heart, 2008 edition, p. 13)