I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
(You should be able to click on the image to find the book at Amazon.)
My first full-length volume of poetry is published! Get A Destiny to Burn here, or through Amazon.I’ve also recorded every poem, as poems should be heard in order to be fully realized.
Download FREE Souls at Work Study Guide. Check out all the author’s answers: Charlotte’s Responses.
Yes, I actually did all the work I’m asking you to do. As I said at the very beginning of Souls at Work – this book is still being written in your responses and in my own. I got a lot out of answering those questions. I just wish we could all be discussing them in person!
I just finished a 90+ page event planning guide: How to Plan a Great Catholic Event. For you, please share.
I’ll speak at the Catholic Artists Conference being held in September, 2016 in Omaha. My talk will be The Poet as Troublemaker: Why the Church Needs Artists. Don’t worry, I”m not going to give the Church a hard time, just stir up the waters a bit in the hearts of artists and poets!
For the 2016 Chesterton Conference in PA (first weekend in August). I’ll present Joy in Three Persons, with some Chestertonian bonus materials!
We read about St. Pope John Paul’s Rhapsodic Theatre, and held a public viewing of the movie version of his play, “The Jeweller’s Shop”.
Catholic365 is airing my Catholic Bible Study series on the book of Ephesians. It has always been a favorite of mine, but the Catholic Catechism is giving it amazing new, ecclesial dimensions…and ya’ll know how I love ‘dimensionality’! Introduction Bless You Ways & Means God’s Plan for Your Life Christ to the Third Power You, to the First Power You, to the Second Power
I had a blast taping an interview with Marcus Grodi. I’m so impressed by the work the Coming Home Network is doing, and his staff could not have made me feel more warmly welcomed. Here’s the link to our show: http://chnetwork.org/2015/02/charlotte-ostermann-former-nazarene-presbyterian
Come hear about my conversion experience and pray it will be a blessing to someone who’s considering the Catholic Faith.
Angelico Press/Second Spring Books has just published Souls at Rest: An Exploration of the Eucharistic Sabbath. There’s been no change to the text since this book received the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval, but the Study Guide is a free ebook now – great for book study groups and individuals. Look for Dan Burke’s endorsement in the New Year, and watch for my columns to start appearing at Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction, too.
As of the First Birthday of 50 Million Names, we have almost 5,000 names for aborted babies! NEWS FLASH: Just before Easter, we’re heading for 8,000 names!! Please help: 50MillionNames.org
Just got invited to speak at Benedictine College’s Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization, to tape an interview with Marcus Grodi for EWTN’s Journey Home show, and to speak for the next KS Catholic Homeschooling Conference!!!
September 7: Great article about the 50 Million Names Project in the National Catholic Register.
Season Eleven: Catholic Creatives Salon: Beauty Informed by Death. I can’t wait to see where this leads us!
Cyrus Simcoe interviewed me about Souls at Work: Relevant Radio
I was interviewed on “My Catholic Blog” about Catholics Communicate Christ: How to Serve the Catholic Church as a Writer.
I’m on the radio: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could collect 50,000,000 names to honor the aborted babies from our country? I’m hoping you’ll agree. Please go to donate names for these children at 50MillionNames.org. I’m collecting names for aborted babies: The 50 Million Names memorial website is living and active and attracting participants from all over the world! Please honor the babies – give them names! Listen to my radio interviews with Day Gardner and Fr. Jay Finelli about this project.
Published! My book Souls at Work: An Invitation to Freedom came out in the summer of 2014 through Angelico Press!! It’s the sequel to Souls at Rest: An Exploration of the Idea of Sabbath. SAR received the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval! Angelico Press is publishing the Second Edition later in 2014, and renaming it slightly just to emphasize the Eucharist. No text has changed since the Seal of Approval. Watch for Souls at Rest: An Exploration of the Eucharistic Sabbath.
My initiative: Since I haven’t got the bucks for big philanthropy, I invented smaller-is-better philanthropy! Our tiny little Joy Foundation is trying to do a little local good by investing in Catholic cultural initiatives.
Now I’m certified: I’ve earned the Art, Beauty & Inspiration Certificate from Maryvale Institute!
I’m a songwriter! Here’s Angel Road singing my song Bring Me Low
Season Ten: The Catholic Creatives Salon just finished season TEN! We read Josef Pieper’s In Tune with the World – A Theory of Festivity. Here’s a glimpse into the inner life of the Salon: observations from our Feast of St. Joseph. I gave a talk at Benedictine College (Symposium for the New Evangelization), drawn from this very Salon season: Three Dimensional Transcendentals.
Did I mention Catholics Communicate Christ? I really want to encourage Catholics to serve the Church as writers.
In Progress: I’m trying to get my booklets 25 Ways to Help an Artist: The Art of Low Cost Philanthropy and Life in Motion: Why I Love Driver Education Time With My Teens out in new formats soon. Someday, I want to get my Fun With Diagramming and Holy Geometry! out of home school ‘beta’ testing and into print, too.
This is my most-requested audio – about how we can educate our children well, despite our own inadequacies. The Problem – We must get kids from where they are, to where they need to be; from ‘uneducated’ to ‘educated’. Given the poverty of our own education, we feel asked to do the impossible: build a […]
Some audiences want to cut right to the chase: “Give us practical applications of all your ideas about Sabbath-keeping.” OK – here you go: In this talk I do just that – give concrete, practical ways to dip into the kind of leisure that brings interior equanimity and leaves you more whole, more human, more […]
I prepared this talk for the Heart of a Woman group, in Kansas City, shortly after the suicide of a Catholic mother of ten. It was a shock to me, but not entirely unexpected, as I had known her during the years she struggled with depression and disintegration, despite her devotion to the Church, Christ, […]
For an Apostles of the Interior Life Women’s Retreat, where the theme was “The King Desires Your Beauty,” I prepared this truly interesting talk. Will you believe me when I say that this is another of my favorites?!?! I know, I’ve said that about a lot of these talks, but revisiting them to give a […]
I once asked a friend who calls herself a Jewish-Catholic if it had been hard for her to accept Mary’s role in Salvation History. She laughed and said, “Heck no! Every Sabbath was begun by a Jewish mama’s prayers! I’d have been suspicious if Lord Sabbaoth hadn’t come through a woman.” Jewish women welcomed Sabbath […]
Differences between the original myth of Cupid and Psyche, and C.S. Lewis’ retelling of the myth in Till We Have Faces have the effect of revealing new dimensionality in the Christian understanding of both myth and of the human person. The pre-Christian myth, like the pre-Christian person, is veiled in a darkness that constitutes a […]
In “Stour Valley and Dedham Church” Constable has painted the Vale of Dedham – a familiar and beloved area of his native England.
“The Merry Drinker,” by Frans Hals This is a portrait of an unnamed man, called in the title only ‘a merry drinker’.
Giotto’s painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, portrays the literal and spiritual senses of this story.
Berlinghieri’s St. Francis appears behind the altar of San Francesco in Pescia, Italy. It is an excellent example of art ordered to divine worship.
A mom is the caretaker of a huge, wonderful, potentially beautiful, critically important place! She, herself, this actual, unique person, is the single most important ‘environment’ in the lives of her children. Like Mary, like the Church, she is an atmosphere. She is an atmosphere of affection. This is not just warm, fuzzy feelings, but […]
Benedictine College hosted a Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization in 2014. The theme was Transcendentals as Preambles to Faith, and I got to propose my take on that as a paper. Anyone who knows me could probably have bet good money I’d do something ‘three dimensional’ with that, and they’d have won those bets. […]
I once got a chance to do an all-day retreat with one of the sister Apostles of the Interior Life. Naturally, I wanted to discuss the role of leisure in the formation of persons! As usual, I prayed about the upcoming event, and God brought together several threads of my contemplation to weave this talk. […]
Did you know YOU are a poem? Check out Ephesians 2:10, where the Greek ‘poema’ is usually translated ‘workmanship’. I like ‘poema’ better, as it implies beauty and artistry, but ‘workmanship’ is nice. I’ve discussed the importance of poetry, poetic education, poetic imagination and poetic reading in many different venues (many of the talk topics […]
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