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10 Reasons to become a doula! #1 reason to be a doula: Helping families. Helping mothers with baby is always important. A birth doula helps prepare the parents and mother for motherhood! The postpartum doula helps with after care.
#2 reason to be a doula: I get to work with babies! If you really love babies you probably should consider the postpartum doula work over the birth. You will get to care for babies more and help mamas as well with postpartum care. Birth doulas do get to see babies as kind of the "reward" for helping mamas prepare for birth. #3 Spiritual and Emotional support: Mamas need more spiritual and emotional support in this world then ever before. The "c-ovid" scare is one reason and just more mothers suffering from depression. We need to stop this from happening. Birth doulas and postpartum doulas can offer mothers the support they need for anxiety and depression! #4 Dad support too! Dads are sometimes forgotten, but doulas know how to support the father and help them prepare for the "trip of a lifetime" - fatherhood! Dads are kept in the birth room with doulas. Dads are considered a great asset. #5 Help reduce mamas pain! Doulas are great at relieving pain and this is a great way to help by becoming a doula. There are various pain prevention techniques esp. for birth doulas to help their clients! #6 Reason to doula is to build lasting friendships! Every mother I work with becomes a friend! A lifetime friend is great and then you can also watch your "doula baby" grow up! It is so much fun! #7 Meet other professionals in your field of work! As a doula you can meet other doulas, midwives, chiropractors, nurses, etc. You really get to know more people in the health field industry. And if you are thinking about becoming a midwife, many women start out as a doula first! #8 Gain more medical knowledge! Yes, you will be quoting to your spouse (if married) or friends all kinds of medical terms once you start working as a doula! There's a lot of things you get to learn about and you can transfer those skills to other projects in the future (like midwifery or nursing if you choose to go further). #9 Self-knowledge - I love to study and learning about doulas, midwifery and such is always interesting and there's always more books out about doulas and pregnancy and childbirth. It is fun to keep up with continuing education and some doula classes require this too! #10 For the JOY of being a doula! I believe doula work is fun - there's not really a part I don't particularly like (well maybe paperwork!) Doula work you get to know mothers and babies and enjoy your work! So, if you are "ready to committ" to a class check out the Memorial Week Sale link. Teen Doula Explore link -if you are a young adult or teen who wants to take a smaller class first. Birth Doula Page, Postpartum Page - Fast-track postpartum is starting June 6th - our zoom classes! Thanks for reading this blog! Our Marian post will post on the 31st about Queenship of Mary!  Prayer to Infant Prague:
INFANT OF PRAGUE NOVENA PRAYER O Jesus, Who has said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened," through the intercession of Mary, Your Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted. (Make your request) O Jesus, Who has said, "All that you ask of the Father in My Name, He will grant you," through the intercession of Mary Your Most Holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask your Father in your name that my prayer will be granted. (Make your request) O Jesus, Who has said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass away," through the intercession of Mary Your Most Holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (Make your request) PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Divine Infant Jesus, I know You love me and would never leave me. I thank You for Your close Presence in my life. Miraculous Infant, I believe in Your promise of peace, blessings, and freedom from want. I place every need and care in Your hands. Lord Jesus, may I always trust in Your generous mercy and love. I want to honor and praise You, now and forever. Amen  Welcome to our Memorial Week Sale. Go here to see that page!
Sorry that last post was too confusing - so, for summertime enrollments through August - you can pay $425 for a class for fast-track as part of our MEMORIAL week sale! You can pay down payment AHEAD OF TIME and then take the class later. Your down payment holds your spot in the class as we are filling classes fast! So, for example you can pay $115 down for birth doula fast-track - even though the next one doesn't start till July - we will hold your spot for you! After summer, our prices will go up for some of our classes. Take advantage of our special sale! 20% off self-paced and more off fast-track classes! Postpartum fast-track starts June 6th - we meet on Tuesdays! If you are interested in the Magnificat courses, please contact us and we will send you the price list for the 20% off on those classes and special link to enroll. (Magnificat classes include Childbirth Educator, Holistic Woman's Health -which is not ready, and Fertility doula) Anyway, just wanted to correct that one thing. The classes will be higher soon. Next post will be about Crowning of Mary and May - thank you. God Bless.  Welcome to Memorial Week! And our sale! We have decided to put our classes on sale for 20% off this week only. Here's our special deal - this is a great savings on any of our classes, but especially fast-track - so we are going to raise pricing on that class soon - but you can get in for lower amount by putting a down payment on the course - even if you want to enroll for July/August or September (Fall) sessions! You pay a money down to hold your spot (no refunds) and then your payment plan will start in either July/August or September (for rest of class payments). Or you can start your payment plan now and be finished with payments by class start date! We will be charging $500-$600 for our next doula sessions. This deal gets you into the class for $425 (correction) with one book included for either birth or postpartum class (and a book required to read for the class). This also includes one mentoring session with instructor! (Take me to memorial week sale...) (So, pre-order your fast-track course for late summer or fall!) If you prefer a self-paced course, we are discounting those to $360 for this special sale as well (for birth or postpartum doula). Other classes on sale: Fertility doula (see below), Childbirth Educator is $400, Mommy Latch is $400. So, let us know which course you want for our sale pricing! Go to our Memorial Week Sale page to register for any of our classes - only place on our site for the special deal. Fast-track postpartum doula is starting in June - now this session is lower priced at $425 - for new students - this is the last time we will be hosting the class at a lower rate! If you want to join our June Session and get in at the lower rate please go here to get that information. Enrollment postpartum page. Now, what does cars and doulas have to do with each other? You have to get around! Right?! Well, maintaining your car is important - found that out this week! Make sure you get those oil changes every 3,000 miles! Maintaining your doula business is like oil changing a car... are you "oiling" or "doing self-care"? Are you taking time for yourself if you are busy and have clients? Practice one self-care technique today - self-massage or reflexology or smelling the roses! If you are a new doula and don't have clients, perhaps it is time for you to join our doula circle! We are meeting 2nd Saturday of June. Catholic doula students are free - we ask others for $25 donation (if you can) towards our scholarship funds. Thank you so much! Or you can buy our 10 Tips for Doula Bag Mini-Class and we will count that as your donation for coming to the doula circle - plus you get a mini-class too for only $25 - click here to purchase the mini doula bag class! What a win-win for you! Next newsletter I would like to do something in honor of Mary for month of May - so stay tuned! Thank you.
 Perhaps you are just curious about doula work and want to know more about what doulas have to offer or perhaps you are a doula already... either way this class is going to rock your world! We will offer 10 tips for your doula bag (and by the way includes some postpartum stuff too) and it is a type of introductory mini-class for anyone who's curious about birth doula or postpartum doula work and this might just help you decide about our bigger courses! So, grab a chair, some coffee, and you will be able to listen to this pre-recorded class! We will also send you some samples of our courses with the pre-recorded class too! This class is coming soon - I hope to have it up in about a week! Get on wait list by using our contact form! Thank you!
Guest writer: Margaret Wolfe... Have you spent hours middling and re-wording your Google search to put together your doula business plan? Maybe you have a grand vision and just need a little jump-start to get you going.
Here are some tips for jump-starting your business with a stellar doula business plan. 1.Do the hard work! Make sure you put in the time to develop a mission for your business. This should be an overview of how you want to make an impact on your clients before and during their births. 2.Develop your brand and logo- This is crucial if you intend to set up a business with some kind of store virtually/brick-n-mortar. Make sure your brand and logo represent exactly who you are and what you believe in. Make sure to have a consistent brand. Make sure to add points of interest in your description that make your business unique to your brand. 3. Come up with a description of how your business will be run. Will you run it yourself (sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership or corporation). With this, unfortunately, comes taxes, so you’ll want to make sure you have this ironed out. 4.Come up with long-term goals for your business this might include extra services you offer with your doula business (cooking for the new couple, knitting a baby hat, cleaning service, nannying, breastfeeding class etc. Make sure when you’re coming up with this to really zero in your market You could charge extra for this. 5. Finally, to the fun part, start your business whether it have a physical location or a site online. It’s important to create a clear description of your business and find ways to attract your specific niche. Developing your business might include finding a location or investing in a site. Fun fact: you can write off several things that pertain to your business as deductions on your taxes! These are proven five steps for jumpstarting your successful doula business. I hope you find them helpful! - Margaret Wolfe... Julie speaking here - If you need a template for this - you can find free stuff inside my book Doing business the Doula Way which has recently been updated. Go to this amazon link (not affiliate marketing): https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Business-Doula-Way-3rd/dp/B0B1HXV8JC/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1683310701&sr=8-1 Many titles of Mary... Welcome to May! May is Mary's Month - so I plan to hopefully post once a week here or in the newsletter about Mary and some of her feast days. See below for our first "Marian story" for this month...also keep reading for giveaway information. We also have a May Specials page! We are hosting a mini-May mester for Teen Doula Explore starting next week around May 8/9th and going for 2 weeks. We will also have a June and July class - learn more about our explore course. Enrollment link is at bottom of page or use this link. We are hosting our 7-week fast-track birth doula course starting in mid-May to become a birth doula, so we start around May 18th for that class. We are extending the early bird to May 8th to save $200 after that we might do a savings of $100 off up to the start date. Enrollment link is at bottom of page or use this link. We are also considering a weekend combo doula course - or you may pick one or the other as well (birth or postpartum) - this Memorial Day weekend course is tentative for Memorial Day weekend - but if it doesn't make - we will consider doing a different weekend in June or July for this idea. Click here to get more information! Mother's Day Giveaway - so technically this giveaway you can enter till end of the month- we will give away a book or two from my author collection (Choose A Catholic Postpartum, Little Way of Motherhood, or Rebozo Revealed) - if we receive more than 50 entries there will be 2 books. For now we will give away one book and the M.O.M. Advocate Breastfeeding course as our prizes. I may find other things to include - so surprises maybe included if you win! Go to our contact page to enter. Marian Titles - Mary has a lot of titles - probably over 100! So, I thought I would feature at least one or two of her beautiful titles each week in this blog and our online newsletter as well. We will also feature a picture or two of Mary under the titles we talk about. Our Lady of Banneux January 15 Little Mariette Beco, waiting for her brother to come home, pressed her face against the window while darkness fell; it was seven o’clock in Banneux. Mrs. Beco was working in a back room; the rest of the family had retired – none of them had attended Mass that Sunday morning – the father was a lapsed Catholic. Suddenly Mariette called out, “Mother, there is a lady in the garden. It is the Holy Virgin.” Mrs. Beco scoffed at this. Taking a rosary Marietta had found on the road, she began to pray it. When Julien came home and heard what had happened, he said there was nothing in the garden; perhaps the icicles reflected weirdly and confused Marietta. The pastor was informed, but he did not put much stock in the story, thinking the vision of Beauraing and Lourdes was resulting in an epidemic of visions. He sent word to Mariette to forget about it and not spread stories. The next morning, Wednesday, the priest was surprised to see Mariette at Holy Mass – she had quit school because she failed in her First Holy Communion examination three times, and after that had not gone to church anymore. That day Marietta went to school and for the first time in her life knew her lessons well. The next evening she went into the garden, knelt and said the rosary; her father followed her with a coat which he threw around her shoulders. He tried to get the pastor who was out, then called a neighbor, a practicing Catholic, and together they followed. The child was being beckoned on to the highway by the lady, now known as Our Lady of Banneux, till they reached a spring, into which Marietta plunged her hands at the command of the lady, who said, “This spring is set aside for me. Good night!” Then she vanished. When they reached home, the Abbe was waiting for them. Marietta described the lady: “Her robe was long and white; she wore a blue belt and rays of light shone from her head. She was a little more than five feet tall; her right foot was bare and under it a golden rose. Her hands were raised to her breast on which was a golden heart. A rosary hung from her right arm: - all similar to the Lourdes apparition. There were six or seven more apparitions of Our Lady of Banneux; at one of these Marietta, at the advice of the pastor asked the lady her name, to which Our Lady of Banneux replied, “I am the Virgin of the poor,” and leading the girl to a spring, said, “This spring is for all nations…for the sick…I would like a chapel built. I come to relieve suffering. Have faith in me and pray much. My dear child, pray hard…” At the end of each visit Mary would say “Au revoir,” which means, “until we meet,” but at the last visit she said, “Adieu,” which means, “good-bye.” She blessed Marietta then, at which the girl fainted. Marietta did not see the lady depart. The Beco family and many others became model Catholics. The chapel was built, and the spring became the site of numberless cures. During the German occupation of Belgium in 1942, the bishop encouraged the cult of Our Lady of Banneux, Our Lady of the Poor. In 1947, the bishop approved the devotion. In 1948 the cornerstone of a new basilica was laid; this was to supplant the small chapel. During the war, Marietta married a Dutch salesman. During the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, an American chaplain found them and their fifteen month old baby living in a cellar of a small home occupied by American troops. Belgium is one more reminder in these days when communism seems to be sweeping everything before it, that our great hope – our only hope – lies in our carrying out the requests Our Lady made at Fatima and other places. Mary prays for us without ceasing, but we, too, must pray, must sacrifice. We must do our part, if we expect Mary to help us. *from The Woman in Orbit @@@@@@@@@@@ Our Lady of Bethlehem January 22 "Bethlehem, the city of David, is located about 5 miles south of the city of Jerusalem. According to tradition, Bethlehem is the place where David was born, and also where he was anointed king by the prophet Samuel." "The place which the supreme King of kings and the Lord of lords had chosen for entertaining his eternal and incarnate Son in this world was a most poor and insignificant hut or cave, to which most holy Mary and Joseph betook themselves after they had been denied all hospitality and the most ordinary kindness by their fellow-men. This place was held in such contempt that though the town of Bethlehem was full of strangers in want of night-shelter, none would demean or degrade himself so far as to make use of it for a lodging; for there was none who deemed it suitable or desirable for such a purpose, except the Teachers of humility and poverty, Christ our Savior and his purest Mother. On this account the wisdom of the eternal Father had reserved it for Them, consecrating it in all its bareness, loneliness and poverty as the first temple of light and as the house of the true Sun of justice, which was to arise for the upright of heart from the resplendent Aurora Mary, turning the night of sin into the daylight of grace. Most Holy Mary and saint Joseph entered the lodging thus provided for them and by the effulgence of the ten thousand angels of their guard they could easily ascertain its poverty ad loneliness, which they esteemed as favors and welcomed with tears of consolation and joy. Our Lady of Bethlehem When later the Magi approached, the heavenly mother awaited the pious and devout kings, standing with the Child in her arms. Amid the humble and poor surroundings of the cave, in incomparable modesty and beauty, she exhibited at the same time a majesty more than human, the light of heaven shining in her countenance. Still more visible was this light in the Child, shedding through the cavern effulgent splendor, which made it like a heaven. The three kings of the East entered and at the first sight of the Son and Mother they were for a considerable space of time overwhelmed with wonder. They prostrated themselves upon the earth, and in this position they worshiped and adored the Infant, acknowledging Him as the true God and man, and as the Savior of the human race. By the divine power, which the sight of Him and his presence exerted in their souls, they were filled with new enlightenment. They perceived the multitude of angelic spirits, who as servants and ministers of the King of kings and Lord of lords attended upon Him in reverential fear. Most Holy Mary, with saint Joseph and the sacred Child, took leave of the cave although with tenderest regret. When the Child and his mother took leave of the cave, God appointed an angel as its keeper and watcher, as He had done with the garden of Paradise. This guard had remained to this day, sword in hand at the opening of the cave; and never since then has an animal entered there. from City of God by the Venerable Mary of Agreda
Moving some classes off of here to another site - read more below! Breastfeeding course updates!1/18/2023
Our focus is pregnancy, postpartum, etc.. We have decided to move the herbal courses to another site and those classes are kind of a collaborative effort. When the full site is ready - we will share how to find that information. We don't want that to get in the way of our mission of helping mothers in pregnancy and postpartum! Talking about that - our next live zoom course information is below!!
We are updating our B.O.O.B. Counselor-Educator course to include more information. However, we found out we are not going to qualify at least for right now to be an ALPP provider (which gives the CLC exam) because they want us to be a provider of 45 CERP's for IBCLC which is a lot and hard to obtain. Instead we are looking at getting you some CERP credits for IBCLC! So if you are a lactation consultant taking our class, and you need CERP's you will gain some. WE cannot announce how many till we are approved. And we also can get approved for the March live class even AFTER the class is finished. So, if you are interested in CERP's please let us know. So, another announcement is this B.O.O.B. Counselor-Educator class will be a live zoom class in March - you can also take it self-paced if so desire. However, the class will be re-launching as fresh and new in March with EARLY bird special deals to signup in February. Early access to materials will be included. The first early bird deal is if you signup by Valentine's Day - or up to the 18th - we will send you 2 free books included. The regular early bird is up to February 24-th. After that we go to regular pricing. Class starts March 3rd(tentative date)- we usually work with the students to set date/time that works best for the group. We will meet around 7 times to cover as many modules as possible. Since we are adding in new things - we will not have time for all module coverage - but the educator portion will be in full! The counseling part and extra things will be self-paced. So, we can guarantee Breastfeeding Educator certificate when finished and you can get the other certificate when you finish the work for self-paced. To learn more go to this link and register. Note: If we only get one or two people we have right to make the class a self-paced only - no refunds - but we will do instead is meet one-on-one with the students a little more instead and set up those times. We need 3 people to "make" a live class. Thanks for understanding. Black Friday specials... We should support small businesses this week. This is Thanksgiving week and Black Friday weekend. I know a lot of you might already be "Black Fridayed" out . However, small businesses are people we should be supporting this season - not the big box stores.
If you are looking for a specialty item or small business to shop at - then consider supporting Catholic Doula as well. We have a small birth shop. Go here to see what we have in our birth shop! Another thing I do is make chapel veils. I finally got my Etsy shop back; so if you are looking for a homemade chapel veil - this is my shop below: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stellamarisveils Another thing to consider is donating to our scholarship fund. I have given out several partial scholarships to students this year in order for students to be able to afford our classes; so they basically got in at almost half off. So, if you have an extra cash in your pocket to donate to our scholarships - we will have a Mass offered for all of our benefactors: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/catholicdoulaprogram (Sorry, that's the only link I have for donations right now). We are attempting to get away from PayPal but I can only do donations through that processor. We have decided to make most of our shop items Square payments in order to support more pro-life things. It takes a bit longer to fill out the forms - so please be patient with that and we don't store your addresses or anything like that - so your privacy is protected when purchasing items from our store. If you prefer to send a check, we can let you know where to send checks too. Thank you so much. Please remember to shop small businesses this season! God Bless! Doulaing for the Holidays... Hi, I haven't had a chance to write a blog post lately - so the holidays are right around the corner and in fact it snowed here! What fun! Gets you in the mood for holiday cheer!
So, what is it like to do doula work around the holidays? What are things that might come up? Inductions! That is a big thing that may come up more often. The doctors are not having the mother's best interest in mind. They want to sell the idea of getting the baby out before Christmas instead of waiting for baby to come on his/her own timing. So, if you have a client due in December, make sure she knows her "informed consent" when it comes to inductions. Be more prepared to fight this (esp. if that is what your client wants to have a natural birth) then this is one thing you both can fight together. Gather all the evidence based research (in fact go to Evidence Based Birth(c) if you want more info about inductions). Make sure your client's doctor knows she does not want an induction. Make sure he/she is agreeable. Then let nature takes its course and yes it is OK to have a baby on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day - Jesus was born on that day - why not share that day with Jesus' birth?! (Hey, I am Christian so please excuse if you are not into this). After the baby arrives (on his/her own timing), celebrate your client's birth with an extra special gift for her birthing around the holidays. If your client is Christian, you may want to gift them a special Christmas onesie for the baby for instance! Get creative for your gift giving for clients! If your baby is Jewish, I am sure the mom may enjoy something along that theme as well. Anyway, just remember to stand your ground when it comes to holidays and doulaing! Inductions should only be done for real true reasons, not because of the holidays! And mothers need to learn to stand their ground or they will end up with a birth that they do not desire. So, be the information source for your doula clients and help them have the best holiday birth possible! By Julie Larsen - Picture is from unsplash.com - Thank you. Make some herbal gifts for Christmas... Announcing our new and improved Mama Herb and Aroma course - note you do not have to be a "mother" to join the class - anyone who would like to learn more about herbs and aromatherapy can join.
The class is 6 modules for herbs - going from fertility herbs-postpartum herbal ideas. The last 3 modules are about aromatherapy or combo (gift idea) module. Go to this page to get more information and signup. We finally decided on Hart Song Herbal school as the official name of the Herbal things we plan to offer. So, you may ask if I have credentials to teach herbs? Yes! I took Grandma's Hands Herbal Course awhile back and I have a Master Herbalist Certificate from International Open Academy. I also have taken some classes via Udemy as well. So, I thought it was time to open up something a little more in depth. We hope you will come on over and learn with us. If you are considering becoming a doula, please let us know as well, we are extending our 15% off doula sale for this month of November and offering low down payments as one option to get started quicker - message us via contact page for information! Also, we are doing a book giveaway- you can enter on the front page form. We already did the rebozo drawing and gave away the rebozo. Thank you. We do still offer a rebozo course - it has moved to Rebozo Thinkific website. Go here to connect and get a free preview! Octoberfest! Doula circle coming soon and more...
So, this month we are offering a Doula Circle and our guest speaker will be talking about "Why Pro-Life Doulas?"---Date 10-21-22 so a week from Friday we will be doing our Doula circle - time to be announced. If you are in our newsletters, you will get info - or message us at [email protected] - thanks! October is one of my favorite months of the year as it is finally feeling cooler where we live at and the 90 and 100 degree weather of summer is gone till next year (really wish it wasn't that hot in the summer here). At least we have all four seasons here - we get a real winter, spring, summer and fall here!! The leaves are starting to turn colors and I feel like going outside to exercise. So, what do you like about October? Write a comment if you like below. Also, October is the Month of the Holy Rosary - so this is a good time to break out your Rosary and pray together as a family or pray when you are driving around, etc. This also might be good time for a Rosary Novena. Now, there's a 54 day Rosary Novena - but I have not been good at that kind - so I think I am just going to do a 9 day one and 9 day of Thanksgiving - make it shorter and maybe it might actually be easier to keep up with for me! Also, this month is one of birthday(s) for family members and our wedding anniversary! I guess fall is just a good time to get married in and less being in the "summer wedding season". We also wanted to announce that we are leaving PayPal at the end of the month for payment processor - they seem to want to be a watchdog - well not for me - I'll just take Square or some other payment processor. For now, I think I am going to be doing Square and they have some other options to pay if using their linking system. I just need to figure out how to set up stuff on the website. You can also choose just to be invoiced via Square. Thank you for your patience as we move towards not supporting PayPal. What titles of Mary do we celebrate this month? Our Lady of Zell I thought I would talk about a few feast days of Mary that are in the month of September. Mary's Feast of Divine Shepherdess - this one sounds quite interesting.... "September 3: Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd, France Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd, or Notre Dame de Brebieres, is located in the small town of Albert in the diocese of Amiens, France. Brebieres refers to brebis, which is French for sheep, and berger, which is French for shepherd. At one time, probably sometime in the 12th century, and according to local tradition, a shepherd was grazing his sheep at Brebieres when he observed that many of the animals were staying in the same area to eat, ripping the grass out by the roots. It must have seemed very odd to the shepherd, who decided that the sheep were trying to uncover something, so he started to dig in the very spot himself. In a short time he uncovered a statue of the Blessed Virgin sculpted from a single piece of solid stone. The statue was fairly large, nearly four feet tall, and represented the Blessed Mother holding the Divine Child in her arm. There was a sheep depicted quietly reclining at Mary’s feet. As has happened so often throughout history, the finding of the statue increased the enthusiasm and affection of the local populace toward the Mother of God. A small chapel was built at the site to honor the statue and receive the pilgrims who had already begun coming to Albert to visit the statue. Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd- more info: Saint Colette can be credited for helping to spread of the fame of Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd at Brebieres. At age fourteen she was somewhat short and had a delicate constitution. Seeking a remedy through the favor of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Colette prayed to Our Lady of Brebieres. She not only obtained vigor and good health, she also found that several inches were miraculously added to her height. In 1637 the sanctuary was partially burned, and the miraculous image was moved to the parish church of Albert in 1727. During the French Revolution the church was made into a pagan temple to the goddess of Reason while the image of the Mother of God was hidden until 1802 when the horrors of the Terror during this supposed time of reason subsided. This feast is celebrated in a number of places and by certain religious communities and congregations: Capuchins, Marists and others, on widely different dates. It is a special festival of the shrine of Our Lady of Brebieres, a very old sanctuary near Albert in France, formerly much resorted to by the shepherds. The pilgrimage here was revived after 1870, and a beautiful basilica was completed in 1887. The statue was crowned in 1901, and devastated in both world wars. The basilica has again been rebuilt." From: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-the-divine-shepherd.html Our Next feast day is: September 8: Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15BC) The Nativity of Our Lady, which happened, according to Baronius, in the year of the creation of the world 4007, on a Saturday, at daybreak, fifteen years before the birth of our Savior. This feast was instituted on the 8th of September, in the Greek Church and in the Latin, in the year 436, according to the same Baronius; and, in France, by Saint Maurillus, Bishop of Angers. In the “Apocryphal” writings we read that the Virgin Mary was sprung from the royal family of David and educated at Jerusalem in the Temple of the Lord. Her father’s name was Joachim and her mother’s Anna. Her father’s family was of Galilee and her mother’s of Bethlehem. By some, Joachim is described as exceedingly rich. Tradition is unanimous that Mary was an only child, an heiress, and, therefore, so many of the eligible men were eager to obtain her hand in marriage. Feast of the birth of the Blessed VirginJoachim and Anna lived chastely without any children for about twenty years, in the favor of God and the esteem of men. They vowed that if God should favor them with any issue, they would devote it to the service of the lord, for which reason they went every season of the year to the Temple. Again, the “Aprocryphal” tells us that both Joachim and Anna suffered much because of their childlessness, for to be this was considered a punishment from God. However, their prayers and sacrifices were rewarded and being informed by an angel that they would have a child, they offered ten she-lambs and twelve tender calves to the Lord in the Temple. And Anna brought forth, and inquiring of the midwife, she was told it was a girl, and she said: “My soul has been magnified this day,”and she laid her child down. The days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child and called her name Mary. In Mary’s soul from the very beginning was the bliss of heaven; in the first instant of her conception, Mary, by a singular grace and privilege granted by God, was preserved exempt from all original sin. “Thou art all fair, O my Love, and there is not a spot in thee.” And “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as any army set in array.” Holy Mother Church has selected September 8, as the day to celebrate the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary’s Nativity, Theotokos Deipara, Mother of God. God never created a being more perfect, more admirable, than she is; He imbued her with a richer grace, power, and blessedness; but in one simple respect she surpasses all creatures, namely, that she is the Mother of her Creator – giving her sanctity and greatness that cannot be surpassed. Men sometimes wonder that we call her Mother of Life, of Mercy, of Salvation; what are all these titles compared to that one name, Mother of God? Joachim and Anna bestowed the name of Mary on their little daughter, and she has become “Our Lady,” the greatest lady of all. What a happy choice of name! Mary is of all names the most common and the least vulgar, the name which is never really given, but lent, to those who have the honor to bear it, for it belongs by particular right to her who was the first to make it glorious. “Oh Mary! How great is thy name!” Source: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/feast-of-the-birth-of-the-blessed-virgin.html Next feast day is September 12: The Most Holy Name of Mary "And the name of the virgin was Mary." (St. Luke, I, 27) In this simple phrase, St. Luke sums up the greatness of Mary, as epitomized in her holy name. That the Church recognizes this is quite apparent when we realize the numerous times the name of Mary occurs in her various prayer, invocations, and seasonal liturgy. The name of Mary was chosen by the Most High for the fairest of the daughters of Eve, the mother of His Divine Son, and was revealed to Anne and Joachim by the angel Gabriel who was later to announce to their child the great privilege accorded her by God. Mary! A name so lofty, in the regal majesty of its sound and meaning – Mary, Maria, Miriam! It is a name as familiar to us as the name of our Mother, as the bells of the church, as the peaks of the mountains which send their friendly greetings to the valleys below. Mary! A thousand times we have prayed, sung, wept this name, in good and evil days. Millions of women are called by that name and it weaves a golden thread around even the plainest woman. Mary! Holding on to this name, grope the way through the darkness of life and death. It is the rosy dawn heralding the rising sun, Jesus, in the Gospels as well as in the hearts of men. A beautiful wreath of interpretation has grown around this holy name of Mary; the name Mary is supposed to stem from the word, “yam” – sea; “mar,” “mir,” “mor” – bitter sea, mistress of the sea, or the best known, “star of the sea.” Others find profound meaning by tracing Mary to “moras,” – hope; “mar” the bitter one; “maron” the exalted one, “moren,” the rising one, “marsh,” the enlightener, “mor,” myrrh. All these are ingenious but are not etymologically tenable. In all probability, the name Mary goes back to the Egyptian language. The sister of Moses and Aaron, born in Egypt like her brothers, is the only woman mentioned in the Old Testament with this name. It can be derived from the Egyptian root, “mir,” love, and “jam,” “jahu,” Yahu, Yahwe, God; so that Miriam means “God-loving,” or “beloved of God.” In Mary’s time it was more common to derive the name from Maron, the Exalted One, corresponding to our Madonna, Notre Dame, Our Blessed Mother or Our Blessed Lady. Source: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/holy-name-of-mary.html I love the name of this apparition: September 13: Our Lady of Zell (Mariazell), Austria The places dedicated to Mary are the best proof that Mary gives help today to souls and bodies. The glorious pilgrim church at Zell is nestled in the midst of the Styrian Mountains 50 miles southwest of Vienna. It is mantled in snow most of the winter and is the haven for skiers., is the Lourdes of central Europe. Since its founding, it has become the most popular Marian shrine in Austria, and there is a miraculous wooden statue of the Virgin Mary that is much venerated at the church. According to tradition, there was once a Benedictine monk known as Magnus, who, in the year 1157, left his abbey at Lambrecht seeking a more contemplative life. As he was passing through a forest looking for a suitable place for his hermitage, he encountered a massive, black boulder that blocked his way. Magnus was stymied, as he could not continue in that direction, and so he took out a small statue of the Blessed Virgin that he kept with him. Placing the statue on a log, he knelt down to pray for guidance. The heavenly assistance he requested was not long in coming, for the ground began to tremble, and with a loud crack, the boulder broke in two. A strange light emanated from the broken edges of the stone, revealing the miraculous cause of the break. Magnus realized at once that he had found the location of the hermitage he had been seeking, and placed his cherished statue on a stump and built a small shrine to display the miraculous statue. Pilgrims came to the place almost immediately as news of the miracle spread through the region. Our Lady of Zell Magnus’ statue, known as the "Magna Mater Austriae," can still be viewed. It is just over 18 inches tall, and is kept in what is called the Chapel of Miracles, which is located above the very place where Magnus had made his monastic cell. The statue depicts the Mother of God holding the Divine Child in her arm. The baby Jesus holds an apple, recalling the fall of man and his later redemption. The statue is also known as the Great Mother of Austria, the Great Lady of Hungary, and the Great Mother of the Slavic People. This first small shrine was enlarged with a church in the year 1200, and was further expanded in 1335 after King Henry I had been granted a miraculous cure after being told in a dream to go to Our Lady of Zell. King Louis the Great of Hungary had the Mariazell Basilica built in the year 1363, which is also known as the Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, in gratitude for a military victory he won over a numerically superior army of Turks: 20,000 men against 80,000 Turks. The church he had built was of Gothic style, and in 1377, King Louis I added a chapel called the Gnadenkappelle, the Chapel of Grace. The church was damaged by fire in 1420 and again in 1474, but then expanded again in the 17th century, and is the same church that stands today. The various peoples of the broad Danubian area have made Our Lady of Zell the goal of their pilgrimages. Jewels, crowns, and garments were brought to the Great Mother at Zell. Untold thousands of Austrians, Hungarians, Croats, Slovenes, Czechs have knelt there before Mary’s image, each feeling that his race was under the special protection of Mary. A lamp of pure silver burns before the altar. It is the gift of the Empress Maria Theresa. She was mother of a great empire and brought her sorrow to Mariazell to the Mother of God. No castle of Our Lady was more honored and enriched by the Hapsburghs. An average of one million people annually make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Zell, which in 1907 was made a Minor Basilica by Pope Saint Pius X, who also crowned the statue that same year. There are solemn processions on the eve of the feasts of Our Lady of Mariazell, September 13th, The Feast of the Assumption, August 15th, and the Nativity of the Blessed Mother, September 8th. The great Cardinal Mindszenty was buried at Mariazell, Our Lady of Zell, in 1975. Source: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-zell.html I may do another blog post later in the month to cover more of her titles for September - but I thought this might be good start. I'll cover Our Lady of Sorrows next post. By the way, as our 20% off sale is ending for the big courses - however, I am going to put on a special sale for Our Lady of Sorrows Bereavement class this month and also a bundle sale - so watch for that and it will start close to a week from now. Thank you.
Teen doula explore class as well...My original post - I made an error - so want to correct something. If you are interested in our birth doula or postpartum doula classes or teen explore doula - we do take payment plans on the sale pricing - just put down around $100 - however, I can do special circumstances and $50 every 2 weeks or something like that also works. We want to make it easy for you to start training as a doula!
We also have a new teen doula explore class. Now, we do expect the parents to cover the fees of the class. This is a great class for homeschoolers. It will meet 6-7 times for the semester and offer mentoring up to 14 weeks to help the student finish the class. There will be an option for the teen to opt-in for full birth or postpartum doula certification for more. Go here to get info about teen doula explore! Next we are offering a business doula class again - this one is through our new Doula Money Group - so go to www.doulamoney.com to learn more about the class. We will meet up 1-2 times depending on class size and rest will be business modules sent to you. This class is low cost - but if you need a little boost - just message us about the class at [email protected] We are going to still offer our herbal class again - we are working on an immediate download idea - so if you want this class before we have it in the birth shop - just message us and we can invoice you for it. Note: Birth shop items will be slightly more because of Square charging extra fee. If you prefer to do a "friends only" payment via PayPal or check let me know. The herbal class will also go on sale soon - so look for that. I wanted it to have a small discount. Thank you. This is also a great time again - to just study to be a doula - we think 20% savings is a great deal and really good if you are choosing mentorship options! Thank you! Confession and Queen Mary... Sometimes you need a good knock on the head when going to confession. Today I was reminded of Our Lady Queen to bring all our troubles too. We are in the land of exile - so we should turn towards Mary our Queen to ask her for help. She will help us in our state of life. If you are married, the Sacrament of Matrimony graces are not just for you - they are for the whole family esp. your husband. And the husband's graces are meant for you. So, perhaps you feel that you need some of those extra graces - then pray for your husband (if married).
So, what does this have to do with doula work? Mary is here to help us spiritually as a mother to cover her Mantle over us. She is here to show us the way... as a doula or mother - or whatever we are doing. That's in a way why I called my personal doula site "Our Lady's Mantle doula" - I want to be her handmaid and also she offers the "Mantle of Love" to us. I one time had a dream of Mary covering me with her mantle and today I am reminded that from the fruits you shall know them - today's Gospel (Latin Mass). So, the fruit of our doula work is helping mamas from pregnancy to postpartum. I hope you will find the clients you need for your doulaing. So, we are offering our business class again - you get in at the lower rate if you enroll by August 10th. We will plan at least one time to meetup and maybe more - if I have more students we may meet up 2 times. This will be determined after August 10th. The modules for business will be sent to you right away (and I may upload to the birth shop or email to you). After we gather how many will be in this class, I'll set up time(s) to meetup with the group to discuss the modules a little bit more. So, here's more information at the Business Page. So, August 10th is not the day we meet - but will just be our early bird deadline on entry to our summer business program. We will decide on meetup within a week after that probably after August 15th. Thank you. *Note: We will take late entries to the business class - you will be expected to pay slightly more. Thank you. What to do for the summer? If you are like me, I am tired of the heat or hot weather. I hear it is supposed to rain some locally. I hope you get cooled off this summer too. So, what if you are a new doula starting out and want to get some business ideas this summer? Great - I am planning to do is offer another business class for early August. We are now doing it this way - you get self-pace doula modules as soon as you enroll - (will be available August 1st) and then we will have 2 meetups if I have 2-3 people signup together or in early August. We will meet up to discuss business tips and set up and things like that. We can send you a CEU certificate if so desired if needed for DONA or for Catholic Doula program students. We are working on offering this for you to just get your doula business going more! Dates to be decided - since we are flexible for the live portion. Business page will be updated to reflect information soon. Thank you. Other business - we will be putting on sale our mama herb class soon and probably a website wide sale for 'back to school'. Perhaps you are a busy mother or single person over this summer and looking forward to kids being back in school and having more time on your hands? Great - then maybe this fall would be the perfect time to set up your doula studies!! We will be putting on sale the self-pace class and have options for live class if we have enough interest. Look for that sale soon! We will probably make it available soon for those who want to pay in full the sale will be available. We are not going to be able to offer payment plan sale at this time. Thanks for understanding. However, we may offer a sale for live class and that one will will make payment plan reflect a sale price. One final event coming up - Birth Ball Rebozo - we hope to offer in middle of August or late August - look for announcements later on that event! Thank you.  Our Birth shop has.... We finally getting our Birth shop up and running. We just uploaded postpartum doula contract and birth doula contract to purchase and since we are just launching our shop - we are putting everything on sale. We have one pink rebozo up for grabs as well! Note: We can order more if more than one person wants a pink rebozo!
So, our Level A rebozo workshop is on Saturday and we would love to have you attend. If you are a mama looking for a technique or two to help you with labor time - then come on over - rebozos have a way of taking away the pain!! To register go here: https://rebozo.weebly.com/rebozo-workshop-level-a.html#/ Late register fee is waived - so you get in for our lowest price! Now, we are working on the "on-demand" rebozo class as well and hope to have that ready in early August along with a mini-aroma class too. Herbs for mamas class is open for registration - go here to get the scoop... Go to our Mama Herb Page. We are no longer using an outside link for this class right now. Thank you. We accidentally put the wrong thing in a different post - so decided to delete that post. OK, so our Mama Herbal class will be a summer available course starting now thru July 31st! The class is self-pace-like a masterclass but you can do it on your own. If we get 3 mamas to signup, I'll do a live time slot with you all sometime in late July or early August! I also have other videos available that I'll send you, etc. Get more info at Our Lady's Mantle site - click here! Next - we are having a Birth shop now - there will be freebie items you can grab plus low cost items - and we will also put our rebozo shawls that are available. Please note: Rebozo shawls will also have shipping attached to that. Some of the other shop items will be downloads you can purchase for instance doula contracts! Mamas will be able to get affirmation cards and things like that. So, our Birth shop will be stocked as we have time - check out the Birth Shop and bookmark it! Doula Circle - so we are hoping to get this started soon - please check back on Tuesday for announcement on when we will do this month's free circle. Also, we are offering a Rebozo Level A live workshop on July 16th - so please come on over to that if you are interested - live online class via zoom! Get registered here today! Our Birth shop will also feature our pay in full courses as we would like to use Square payments instead of PayPal more often. PayPal is supporting evil and I finally figured out how to get Square to work. Also, you may request hand invoicing for payment plans with Square as I have figured out how to do invoicing via Square payments! Note-extra fee will be added on Square to the full price to offset the fee we pay to them. Thank you. So, the PayPal on here is for auto payments (which they only give me option to call subscription - same thing) - so the auto payments are for anyone who prefers that method. If you find that you do not know how to go through all the steps for payment on Square - just contact us and we will be glad to invoice you to save on any steps. We want to make things simple. Thank you. God Bless.
Become a Fertility doula in the new year... I think my favorite thing to do is to create courses; however, I have never been that great at marketing - however, we are looking into finding someone to help with that part. For now, we are happy to announce that our Fertility Doula Course is getting into shape and we will also be able to offer a separate breakout Fertility Nutrition class or you can combine it all together! This Fertility Doula class is great for helping couples obtain pregnancy and more. We do have a brief overview about NFP as well. This Fertility class leaves out all that IUD, IUI, etc. talk - we are all for a more natural approach! This class will be hosted at the Magnificat Childbirth site under Magnificat Fertility Doula course! This class is priced at $300 - but we may offer a short special deal - by the way this is a pilot cost and we anticipate pricing higher after we have the first set of pilot students. https://magnificat-childbirth.thinkific.com/courses/Magnificat-fertility-final Note; please do not enroll till the class is uploaded all the way - we are still working on the uploading sections! _______________________________________________ Next on our agenda for this post: New Discover Doula Mini-Course - we are creating a mini-course that will go through a little bit of all we offer - so this mini-course is going to include: *Birth doula info *Postpartum doula info *Bereavement doula info *Fertility doula info *Magnificat Childbirth Educator *B.O.O.B. Breastfeeding info This mini-class will have a special guarantee with it - whatever we decide on the price of our mini-class - you get that amount off the full course cost of one of our other classes (sorry cannot combine with any other discounts) - so if you decide to enroll in the Postpartum course for instance - then you get $amount off from your postpartum course! Also, you may decide to take more than one course - if you decide to take 3 courses - we will offer even a special discount for that - so if you want this mini-class please let us know - email us at [email protected] - so we know of your interest in this special class. We will probably have the mini-class "on special" sometime in the early new year - so look for that! Next ; We are working on our New St. Zélie Doula School links - the school is our new updated birth and postpartum courses - they will be posted on Thinkific site under this name. Also, we hope to update the bereavement class into a new Hannah's Tears Bereavement for post-abortive support to tie into the Sorrowful doula class. We are also considering an End of Life Doula class - this one will be very simple - we are not going to do any medical stuff - so it will be more of a supportive of the dying or ill person. Lastly, we are hosting our find the roses contest - so please enter - find the red rose on the pages listed or find the gold rose somewhere else - please put in where you found the roses on our front page form! Those who entered before we had the form may still be entered in the contest. Thanks so much! This contest will end around January 6th or so - Epiphany - so feel free to enter until then. God Bless.
Celebrate Halloween in a Catholic way... As Catholics, should we celebrate the “devil’s holiday,” so to speak, by dressing up as witches, devils, demons, or even “innocent” characters from movies or books? If this day is evil, why do we celebrate Halloween? This is a controversial subject at best this time of year. Some say this day has pagan origins, but we are going to focus on the Catholic side of things. The real name of Halloween is “All Hallows Eve,” and it is the day before All Saints Day in the Catholic Church. Traditionally, an eve of a feast is a day for penance, not dressing up like werewolves! All Hallows Eve is also the pre-cursor to the “Day of the Dead,” All Souls Day – now November 2 in the Catholic Church. Catholic News Agency reported: Halloween “is not as innocent as dressing up as a witch and creating jack-o-lanterns with scary looking faces.” Father Joan Maria Canals of the Committee on the Liturgy of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference told La Razon that the problem with Halloween is its connection to “occultism and anti-Christianity.” Parents should “be conscious and channel the meaning of the day towards that which is good and beautiful instead of towards terror, fear and death itself,” he added. (Catholic News Agency) So, as parents we can allow our children to celebrate, but we can define the celebration of “All Hallows Eve” by encouraging our little ones dress up as saints. Now, if you are from a Mexican descent as I am, you may also want to celebrate the “Day of the Dead.” This is done by honoring the loved ones that have passed from our families. Here are some articles on this celebration if you wish to research further: Day of the Dead (Catholic.org) Why do Catholics celebrate Day of the Dead? (Aleteia.org) Celebrating All Hallows Eve in a Catholic way First, have your child choose a saint they like the most. Perhaps it is St. John of the Cross or St. Rose! Then they should dress up like their favorite saint. St. John would need a cross or crucifix – perhaps make a special one for him to carry. St. Rose should dress in white and wear a crown of roses and perhaps add in a black veil, as she was a Dominican tertiary. Next, think of a party theme idea! I have been to various All Saints parties – there are many ways to do this. One way is to have a March of the Saints and maybe a guess the saint game! First of all, have all the “saints” march together, down your street if you are hosting a party, or if at a church, go around the block and come back to the church hall. Then, if you have priests in attendance, they can guess the saint. If you have nuns in your chapel, maybe they could be the ones guessing. Anyway, this will take some time; the other partygoers can have snacks while the guessing game is going on. If you have a church where you have classrooms, you can decorate the doors with particular saints if so desired and then hand out candy at each door – or the candy can be handed out in the hall or at your home. Other games can be played as well, such as a ring toss. Use your imagination! If you need ideas, read the book Saints and Seasons of the Liturgical Year from Catholic Heritage. There is also another tradition called “Soul cakes” where you pray for a person that has passed soul. The name of the person is put on candy or food (like if the host makes cupcakes or donuts – you can attach a name of a departed person on a card or sticker) – then the person eating the food must also remember to pray for that soul that has passed! I really like this tradition as it ties the Catholic All Souls Day to All Hallows Eve, and you are tying a much-needed prayer for the Holy Souls that have passed from this life. End your party with singing some songs about saints and holy souls! Now, that you know how to properly host a All Hallows Eve party - yes, Catholics can definitely celebrate Halloween in this wonderful way! Will you host your own party this year or find a way to celebrate as a saint? What saint will you be? Can you guess the saints below?
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AuthorJuliana Larsen is the author of the Catholic Doula Blog. Archives
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