Note from the Author, 3-24-2026

Dear Readers, let’s get caught up! What with one thing and another, I’ve been woefully negligent about updating my poor official author website for quite a long while now. I sincerely apologize, and I do intend to keep more on top of things in the future! ;o)

First things first, today’s feast of St. Gabriel the Archangel marks the 1-year anniversary of when I created an account on Instagram. Since my intended Book Trailer site is still causing me difficulties (namely, I lost access to it and would have to set up a site again starting from scratch), I’ve found IG to be a lovely, easy-to-use, alternate source for posting abridged versions of my book trailers and other videos and neat promo materials that I am unable to post here on my website. I will provide links to specific videos listed below; please do take a look at them; I’m so happy to share these creative, colorful projects with everyone!

Speaking of colorful, this is going to be a very colorful (and lengthy) webpage, as I intend to provide a recap of my Instagram posts by copying over most of the beautiful cards and picture-materials that I’ve shared there, for visitors to my dear official site to see.

In an Author’s Note dated 6-17-2025, I previously gave a brief summary of my Instagram posts from March 24, 2025, to July 16, 2025, which I will repeat now, but in greater detail, followed by an updated summary of posts from July 31, 2025, to today’s date.

NOTE: If you are already up-to-date on all of my Instagram posts, then please look forward to Easter, when I will post lots of exciting news, both on IG and here, concerning my Lenten projects and my plans for April. ;o)

Here we go!

March 24, 2025:
PINNED POST

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“𝑨𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍𝒔”:

❀ I am a self-published author. Beginning in 2013 with the help and encouragement of my dear mother and sisters, I have been actively writing, editing, formatting, and publishing my stories.

❀ Since then, I have penned 50 novels; 13 of which are officially available for sale on Amazon (in either paperback or e-book format); 6 are currently in the editing process; 4 are in the early stages of the brainstorming process; and a planned miniseries has been temporarily shelved for future development.

❀ Having been greatly inspired by authors such as Fr. Francis J. Finn, Meriol Trevor, and Constance Savery, I like best to write wholesome and enjoyable Catholic fiction about “kingdoms of old and fairytales retold.”

❀ A few years ago, I was happily able to set up my own website and now I would like also to share more about my stories through Instagram.

❀ May you have a most blessed feast of the “Messenger of God,” patron saint of telegraphers, postal workers, communications, etcetera! :o)

April 5, 2025:

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★ 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡: 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐩𝐬𝐞 ★

God willing, I was hoping to choose one of my novels (or some other book that I enjoy, either religious or otherwise) to focus on during each month of the year, writing a little about it, and for the month of April I have chosen 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐩𝐬𝐞, mainly because the majority of the story takes place during the season of Lent, with the climax occurring during Holy Week.

A few little facts:

★ So this novel was actually written during that very strange year of COVID from April 21, 2020 – June 17, 2020.
★ I couldn’t really say how it came about; partly, I had a bunch of scattered thoughts after reading some of Gwendoline Courtney’s books, thinking about some personal experiences, and a really big inspiration for the plot came from one small part of the Lenten Mission that really stood out to me as a writer, with the vivid imagery that it evoked.
★ This story rather has Civil War vibes.
★ The simpleminded little boy in this novel is largely based off of a sweet person that I knew.

Hm—that’s all that I can think of for now. (I might try to do an “Out of Context Quote” post sometime, if I can decide on which quotes to use without spoiling anything!)

I hope that you all are having a most wonderful Feast of St. Vincent Ferrer, the Angel of the Apocalypse! ;o)

“. . .𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘭, 𝘐 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨: 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦.”
“. . .𝘉𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮, 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮…” “𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩. . . .”

(The pretty golden star background is by rawpixel.com on Freepik.)

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Postscript: And I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to my dear collaborator Christine W.🌹❤️ for designing these images and for helping me to get this last-minute post together when I was bogged down with formatting issues, but we both really wanted to give Operation: Apocalypse a spotlight on this significant date.—Looking forward to our featured “Book(s) of the Month” for May! ;o)

April 12, 2025:

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★★★
Swipe to read a snippet taken from the first chapter of 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐩𝐬𝐞.

The rest of Chapter 1, & Chapter 2, can be read at my website… :o)

(Was anyone able to guess what the answer to the puzzle is?) ;o)

Keywords for this novel include:
★Angels
★War
★Cute Children
★Widows
★Authors
★Invalid
★Crossword/Riddles
★Friendship

𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐩𝐬𝐞 can be purchased at amazon.com.

(The pretty golden star background is by rawpixel.com on Freepik.)

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Postscript: Thanks again to my very dear & most creative collaborator Christine W.✨ for putting together this neat presentation of images!

April 20, 2025:

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I find the following verses to be very uplifting and always like to re-read and share them every year at Eastertide.

“𝕹𝖔𝖜 𝖎𝖘 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖊𝖓 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖉.” (I Cor.15:20)

“Christian! I am with thee still,
Always loving, always near;
Whether good betide or ill,
I am with thee—never fear.

Didst thou dream that I forsook thee
In My Passion’s bitter smart?
Christian, no! ’Twas then I took thee
Closest to My tender Heart.

When Mine Agony oppress’d Me,
When the Bloody Sweat ran down,
Were the woes that most distress’d Me,
Christian, thinkest thou, Mine Own?

When My Soul was sorely troubled,
Then ’twas most I thought of thee;
All My sharpest griefs were doubled
By the load thou laidst on Me.

Every where thine image met Me,
E’en as though were none beside;
Could I leave thee or forget thee,
When ’twas thou for whom I died?

Now My grief and shame are ended;
Death is vanquish’d, Glory won,
Satan baffl’d, Man befriended,
God propitious in His Son.

Did thy craven spirit fail thee
When it lost Me out of sight?
Did the pangs of doubt assail thee,
Doubt of Mine inherent Might?

Did not legions without number
Burn to stay My Passion’s course?
Did My Godhead seem to slumber
When ’twas I that stemm’d Its force?

Death itself could not restrain Me—
Weak its hold though sharp its strife;
Nor the narrow Tomb contain Me—
How could cerements bind The Life?

Lo! I stand before thee glorious;
I am Risen, and am here,
Over sin and hell victorious;
I am with thee—never fear.”

(Taken from 𝘓𝘺𝘳𝘢 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢, “Christ’s Abiding Presence with His Elect,” based on the 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘢𝘺: 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘹𝘪, 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘩𝘶𝘤 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘮.)

~Happy Easter!~

May 13, 2025:

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❀ 𝐀𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚! 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐲, 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞.

❀ 𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 was published May 8th, 2025, by Serena R. M. Jardon. This book is so special to me, that I added a whole new page to my author website in order to feature it as the first and foremost novel that I would like to recommend to Readers. The page can be viewed at this link:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/recommended-reading/.

While I actually enjoyed plunging into the story without knowing any details beforehand, I did have the benefit of being closely familiar with Miss Jardon’s other unpublished works. Amazon’s free sample of the e-book provides almost the entire first chapter, which gives the Reader a clearer idea about the characters, plot, and style of the story if anyone should require a little more than the intriguing title and gripping prologue to capture their interest. Also, be sure and check out Serena R. M. Jardon’s IG account to see some really neat promotional material! ;o)

❀ 𝓜𝓪𝓻𝓲𝓪 𝓢𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓶𝓪 is “an inspiring book filled with 150 short stories of spiritual and temporal favors granted by Our Lady that serve to increase one’s love for, devotion to, and confidence in the Blessed Virgin Mary.” This is a reprint of the 1899 edition. Fr. Keller wrote a handful of these books featuring different topics, such as St. Joseph, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and stories for First Communicants. Each one’s content provides a great read that is both interesting and inspiring. The stories are all true and I like Fr. Keller’s writing style. Additionally, the short story format makes it easy to read a little at a time. This would make for excellent spiritual reading any time of the year, but especially during this month dedicated to Our Lady!

❀ 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬! ~𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!~

serenajardon commented: Love this, Angie old pal! Best recommendation post ever, no bias.😃👍

June 8, 2025:

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I thought that it would be most fitting to post this little story of how 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖈 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 came to be today, since it is the lovely Marian Feast of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Graces!

I hope that everyone is having a most blessed Feast Day!

(The lovely image of the blooming red rose gold frame is by rawpixel.com on Freepik and the other image of the rose border frame is also by rawpixel.com on Freepik.)

(Also, this month’s book presentation was prepared by the incomparable Christine W., to whom I wish to extend a heartfelt thank you.❤️🌹 I’m truly grateful for all of your hard work over these several years, dear Christine W., the current results of which are so creative and beautiful!😊)

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🌹𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕸𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖍: 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘🌹

🌹🌹🌹

…Told in a way as never before, 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 is the retelling of two beloved classic fairy tales–𝕭𝖊𝖆𝖚𝖙𝖞 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖙 and 𝕮𝖎𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖆.

In persecuted Roselyn: three sisters and their merchant father have recently come upon hard times and have moved to the country to seek other lodging. They are directed to an uninhabited manor or so they think…Just who is the mysterious “beast” that lives there and his silent companion? Will the “curse” of the Masonic revolution ever be lifted from the land?

✨🥿✨🥿✨

Meanwhile, in neighboring Graceland: many scheming mothers are hoping that their daughter will be chosen to wed the Prince. Rumor has it that he is in disguise searching for a bride. Will he find her? And will he be able to save his kingdom from being taken over by the Masonic Revolutionaries who wish to conquer Graceland as well?

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Written from a Catholic perspective, the two plots are woven together until a happy ever after ending is reached–complete with glass slipper and a beast transformed!

(The first volume of the 𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖈 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘.)

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What better month to feature 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 than June, when the roses are out in full bloom! This two-part novel, which begins in June, makes for a great summer read! ;o)

(The lovely image of the hand drawn vector red rose flower set is by rawpixel.com on Freepik and the image of the vintage badge ornamental logo framing the book is also by rawpixel.com on Freepik.)

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🌹This is a glimpse of some of the Roselyn characters (the merchant father and his daughters) encountering the “Beast.”

🌹The rest of the chapter can be read on my official author website:

https://www.booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/once-upon-a-time-stories/.

🌹Happy reading!~

(The image of the circular rose frame is cropped from the gold frame red rose set by rawpixel.com on Freepik and the other image of the red rose border banner is also by rawpixel.com on Freepik.)

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✨🥿✨This is a glimpse of some of the Graceland characters; the stepmother, stepsisters, and Ellen (Cinderella), who are discussing the rumor that the Prince is going around in disguise seeking a bride.

✨🥿✨The rest of the chapter can be read on my official author website:

https://www.booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/once-upon-a-time-stories/.

✨🥿✨Happy reading!~

(The image of the square blue neon frame background is by rawpixel.com on Freepik and the Cinderella glass shoe is by freepik on Freepik.)

June 9, 2025:

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Here is the book trailer for 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘! Enjoy!

Excerpt from my official author website: “Several years ago, after writing the first few volumes of the Catholic Once Upon a Time Series, I had fun putting together some ‘book trailers’ for my stories. Some of them still need a little editing work that I haven’t been able to finish due to technical difficulties with the movie editing program, — to make the font easier to read (for example, I didn’t learn about outlining the white-colored letters with a darker color until later), and to take out mention of the novels’ availability on the Createspace eStore (which is no longer operating since the merge with KDP), — but they nevertheless make for enjoyable viewing with great music and neat pictures/and videos. . . .Despite their shortcomings, I hope that you have fun watching them too!” ;o)

Click HERE to view the video on Instagram

June 16, 2025:

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📖 𝑅𝐸𝒞𝒪𝑀𝑀𝐸𝒩𝒟𝐸𝒟 𝒮𝒰𝑀𝑀𝐸𝑅 𝑅𝐸𝒜𝒟𝐼𝒩𝒢 📖

𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 (𝟣𝟫𝟣𝟦) 𝒷𝓎 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒯. 𝒲𝒶𝑔𝑔𝒶𝓂𝒶𝓃

🌻Out of the many children’s books that Mary T. Waggaman (1846 – 1931) penned, my sisters and I consider 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 one of her best — a real gem. It is very humorous, with some seaside excitement (as indicated by the cover art on our copy!), and just an overall good Catholic story, involving a “lost lamb” brought back to the fold. I remember it being one of my inspirations when writing 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨’𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳. Traces of “Francis Arden” can be found in young Pip (or rather, vice versa)! ;o)

🌻Happily, for those unable to acquire a print version, this old book can be found in digital format on Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/shipmates00wagg/mode/2up

🌻Happy feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel!~

🌻P.S. I have shared several updates in a 𝕹𝖔𝖙𝖊 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕬𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗 on my official website, which can be read by visiting this link:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-7-16-2025/

June 31, 2025:

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❀ I have decided to “unpublish” most of my fiction books on Amazon starting from now until late Nov./early Dec. 2025. This simply means that Amazon will not be printing any new copies while my book files are in a draft status rather than a “live” status. Although 3rd-party-sellers may still offer my books for sale, I would advise against buying any, since these copies contain formatting issues that might lessen the enjoyment of the reading experience. However, all of my eBooks will remain available for sale during this time, as well as nicely formatted paperbacks of 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘱𝘴𝘦 and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨’𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 (available also as a hardcover).

❀ At the time that I began self-publishing (in 2013) I believed that I had done my best when formatting my documents and felt quite pleased with the results… until I looked back and saw that at the start I hadn’t even known about “mirror margins!” ;oD I’ve learned a lot more since then, even just as recently as this April, when I was helping my youngest sister to format her debut novel.

❀ Lacking funds and feeling daunted by the world of cover design, my books were first published using Amazon’s free assigned ISBNs and their Createspace (now KDP) cover templates. Being more immersed as an author in the brainstorming & creative writing side of things, I’ve simply carried on in this routine for these past 12 years.

❀ Lately, while taking the time between writing projects to work on some long overdue reformatting, I looked into a cover design program (at the suggestion of my “genius” ;o) sister Renae) and realized that, with a bit of extra effort, I could closely recreate my beloved book covers. So I’ve decided to take my reformatting a step further by not only updating my published books’ interior files but also replacing their covers and making Second Editions with my own ISBNs purchased from Bowker. This is a huge step that I am thrilled to be taking!

❀ God willing, I will be able to make these new and improved paperbacks available again by Advent with special pre-Christmas sale prices. Please pray for me and look forward to it!~

August 6, 2025:

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❀ I have an exciting update to give today…

❀ Change of plans!! Unexpectedly, I was able to purchase the batch of 100 ISBNs from Bowker 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 week, instead of having to wait until late November/early December to make the payment. So, as I finish reformatting each document and redesigning the covers, I will be republishing my thirteen books as Second Editions and making them available for sale again on Amazon one-by-one throughout these next few months. Deo gratias et Mariae! Hooray! ;o)

❀ For more detailed, regular updates of the republishing process, please visit this page on my official author website:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-7-24-2025/

❀ Happy feast day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord!~

September 8, 2025:

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🎉♡ On this most lovely feast of Our Lady’s Nativity, I am beyond thrilled to announce that both the editing and the formatting of 𝓐𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓤𝓹𝓸𝓷 𝓪 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 have been completed!! 🎉😄

🎉♡ Thanks be to God and Our Lady, thanks bunches 💐 also to everyone on the “KMS Writing Team” for making this release possible, to our holy angels and patron saints, and a heartfelt thank you to R.M.B.🌹 for providing us with such great motivation to tackle another difficult editing project after so many years.

🎉♡ The files are currently in review; allowing 72-hours for everything to update, it will be officially available for sale on September 10th here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969291265

🎉♡ Some neat promo materials for the story will be uploaded this Wednesday as well (on IG). Look forward to it! ;o)

🎉♡ Happy Marian feast day!~

Click HERE to view the teaser for Additional Once Upon a Time Stories on Instagram

serenajardon commented: Man, it’s been so long and we finally did it!! 😭👏💖Congratulations, old pal!!!🎉🎉😁😘 This is awesome!

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Thank you so much, champy! 🎉😭👏 (😂) I really couldn’t have done it without all of your help!!👋🐼🐧💛💖

kristennicolefaustina commented: YAY! 👏I am so excited about this! 🎉 (I can’t wait to read the polished version!) I love this Series so much! ❤️😊

aimeejardoncom commented: Many happy congratulations to you! 🤗

September 10, 2025:

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✧ Hurrah! 𝓐𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓤𝓹𝓸𝓷 𝓪 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼, originally published January 13th, 2015, is now officially available for sale on Amazon in both paperback and ebook format! 🎉😊

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969291265

✧ Happy feast day of St. Nicholas of Tolentino… the patron saint of mariners! ;o)

✧ And a most blessed and happy (Middle) Name Day to my dear Big Sis, Christine W.! with special thanks and gratitude to our wonderful “Wiggie” for designing today’s cool promo materials!! 🌹❤️

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✧ This snippet provides a glimpse of the two new “retold” main characters that feature in 𝓐𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓤𝓹𝓸𝓷 𝓪 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼—The Little Sea-Maid and our version of the Prince (who is so unlike the original prince in Andersen’s tale that you could more aptly call him his distant cousin😆).

✧ Happy reading!~

✧ (The image of the beautiful seaside waves is by freepik on Freepik.)

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✧ Oh my, there are quite some memorable, humorous moments in this story… It really was a lot of fun to write. I’ve added some trivia about Volume Six over on my author website, which can be viewed here:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/trivia/

✧ One “behind-the-scenes” tidbit that I shared is the origin story for this additional retelling… Hehe, fun fact: A subtitle for the Catholic Once Upon a Time Series could easily be “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘨𝘢 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘢 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘞. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘜𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘐𝘵; 𝘈𝘯𝘥, 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘢 𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘛𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 ‘𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭’, ‘𝘜𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦’, & ‘𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨’ (𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴…)” ;oD

✧ On this day, I am also very happy to announce that my dear Editor has been working on 𝑶𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝑶𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑼𝒑𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒑𝒕. 𝟐 (Volume Eight) and is almost finished with its first stage of editing! Yay! 🎉😄👏

✧ More fun stories to come!…

✧ (The image of the beautiful seaside waves is by freepik on Freepik.)

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✧ Here is the book trailer for 𝓐𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓤𝓹𝓸𝓷 𝓪 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 that I made years ago… Just a word of warning, this Series features the same main cast of characters throughout, with new characters and settings added with every featured fairytale retelling. They are all connected, and the sequence of events is chronological. Volume Six picks up soon after the momentous events at the end of Volume Five, so if you haven’t read Volumes One through Five of the Series (and are intending to do so), you might not want to view this trailer/description yet! ;o)

✧ (Fun fact: This was the very first book trailer that I began looking into and incorporating free, usable videos, instead of using only photographs/illustrations. Aside from the regrettable flaws that I mentioned in an earlier post, the trailers become increasingly “cooler” with this blend of media, and I look forward to sharing more of them in the future!)

✧ Enjoy!~

✧ Attributions for music: Thunder Strike 1 recorded by Mike Koenig (soundbible.com) and Celtic Impulse by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Both tracks licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Click HERE to view the video on Instagram

September 29, 2025:

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❀ 𝕬 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖇𝖑𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝕾𝖙. 𝕸𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕬𝖗𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑!

❀ 𝑺𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒔 is a beautiful book that I would heartily recommend for growing in knowledge about and love for the Nine Choirs of Angels, St. Michael, and Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, as well as strengthening our devotion to the Blessed Trinity and even to the Precious Blood of Our Lord. I’ve referred to it several times when writing stories. It is really interesting, informative, and filled with many lovely verses; each chapter is nice and short, making it easy to read in small snippets at a time. While written to be read from September first to the thirtieth, any time would be a good time to peruse its pages. October will be the Month of the Holy Angels, especially dedicated to our dear Guardian Angels, so I have shared a poem in their honor by Eleanor C. Donnelly, along with part of a neat hymn from the Office of St. Michael. ;o)

❀ This book can be found in digital format on Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/saint-michael-and-the-angels/mode/2up

[ᴇᴅɪᴛ: Oops! I just realized that the text on the last picture had gotten a little cut off. My apologies! Here is what the full sentence should read: “𝘔𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘊. 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴.”]

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❀ Please excuse me for repeating the following introduction of myself that I made on a fellow author’s IG account three months ago, since I think it sums up my exuberance for today’s First Class feast day quite well!

❀ “I chose Angela Marie Michaels for my pen name in honor of Our Lady (the Blessed Virgin Mary), the Holy Angels, and St. Michael the Archangel. St. Michael is my actual patron saint/namesake. His name means “Who is like unto God?” and it was the battle cry of the good angels when Lucifer and the bad angels revolted against God and were thrust into hell. Being the Prince of the Heavenly Host, the first defender and Champion of the Kingship of Christ, and Protector of the People of God (among many other glorious titles), he is a VERY inspiring patron to have!” ;o)

❀ ᴘʀᴀʏᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴏɴᴇ’ꜱ ᴘᴀᴛʀᴏɴ ꜱᴀɪɴᴛ: “𝘖 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯, 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘐 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦: 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩; 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘦; 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵; 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘯.”

❀ Today, I have also written a 𝕹𝖔𝖙𝖊 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕬𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗 over on my official website, in which I have some exciting updates to share. It can be read by visiting this link:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-9-29-2025/

❀ 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐬!!~

October 24, 2025:

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Last Friday, Renae and I took a break in between editing books to prepare our outdoor cats’ winter quarters for the coming cold weather. It was a beautiful Fall day, and several monarch butterflies were attracted to our Mexican sunflowers. Their combined, vibrant colors set against the clear blue sky looked so beautiful, that I took some pictures/videos, and would like to share them with everyone on this great feast day of the “Medicine of God.” Please enjoy a restful three minutes!~

Many thanks to my dear youngest sister @serenajardon for finding such a lovely, public domain song/recording to go along with the video! I very much appreciate all of the effort that you made to clean up the 1920’s music track!! ;o)

serenajardon commented: You’re welcome, pal! It was a great pleasure. And your video turned out super-duper!😸👏💖

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Yay! Thank you, champy! 👏🐼💛

kristennicolefaustina commented: This is so beautiful! 😍🦋What a lovely video and song! 😊Thanks for sharing! 🤗 I love it! 🧡

angelamariemichaels @kristennicolefaustina: You’re welcome! I’m so glad that you liked it!! 😊❤️ It sure felt nice to do a little something more on the creative side in between editing phases. 😄💛

Click HERE to view:

Autumn 2025
Monarch butterflies & flowers
featuring
Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1
~1920 recording polished by Renae~

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🦋 𝕬 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙 𝖇𝖑𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝕾𝖙. 𝕽𝖆𝖕𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕬𝖗𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑!~

🦋 I’m so happy to be able to give this latest update: As of yesterday, Renae and I have finished Phase Two editing for 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘜𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘱𝘵. 2. Hooray! 🎉😄 God willing, we will begin the last stage of editing starting next week!!

🦋 A checklist of editing and formatting updates can be found here, on my official author website:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-7-24-2025/

🦋 The last slide is a picture that was taken of Renae (L) and I during one of our editing get-togethers. ;o)

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1) As I was occupied taking pictures of those beautiful monarch butterflies, I suddenly heard a very insistent “ME-OW!” from near my feet, and looked down to see this adorable 😆 face peering up at me: One of my favorite kitties, demanding “𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘦, now!”

2) …And then she proceeded to secure a position under my skirt and several minutes of my time to pet her. ;o)

3) Meet Calico Kitty. This striking photo was taken earlier in the month by Renae from our kitchen/dining room window. (Pay no attention to the evidence of our roof showing every sign of falling down over our heads😆…) Calico Kitty is the latest stray to find its way on our property… For several months after seeking shelter in our shed, she was an enigmatic “monster in the attic,” peering out from shadowy storage boxes or hiding up in the rafters, venturing out for food only when she was certain that no one else was around. In the few times that I happened to walk into the shed when she was eating, I only glimpsed the tip of her tail as she promptly dove for the nearest cover. She’s come a long ways since those days! Such a cute kitty!!

4 to 9) Taken the same October day as the pictures of the butterflies and flowers, Calico Kitty “in clover.” ;o)

October 25, 2025:

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This is just a full-screen version of the 30-second clip that I shared in my last post… There, the video automatically went to a close-up shot for some technical reason, but the way that she crosses her legs as she makes her two-part turn is too cute to miss! 😉💛

Click HERE to view the video on Instagram

November 1, 2025:

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💛 ℌ𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔶 𝔄𝔩𝔩 𝔖𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔰’ 𝔇𝔞𝔶! 💛

What a wonderful feast!!~

“The Church commemorates on this day all the Saints in heaven without exception, and thus honors also those who are unknown and who have no public recognition in the Liturgy.”

ℑ𝔫𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔦𝔱: “𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴: 𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥.”

ℭ𝔬𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔠𝔱: “𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴: 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴, 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨.”

𝔓𝔬𝔰𝔱𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔪𝔲𝔫𝔦𝔬𝔫: “𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵, 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦, 𝘖 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴…”

💛 I have also shared some excerpts from Dom Gueranger’s 𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝒴𝑒𝒶𝓇 (and another religious book), which can be read on my official author website:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-10-31-2025/

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-11-1-2025/

Another 𝔑𝔬𝔱𝔢 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔄𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯 will be posted on the website for Nov. 2nd. ;o)

💛 (っ◔◡◔)っ𝐸𝓍𝒸𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒰𝓅𝒹𝒶𝓉𝑒!

In less than a week(!?), Renae and I finished our Phase 3 editing for 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 (pts. 1&2). I am now in the midst of the fourth, and final, stage of editing for the 7th and 8th volumes of the Catholic Once Upon a Time Series, which involves formatting the ebook and paperback editions. Thank you so much for all of your prayers; please keep praying for me. A book release in time for Christmas is looking 𝒱𝐸𝑅𝒴 hopeful indeed! Hooray!! 😄💛

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❀ This also being the first day of the 𝕸𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖍 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖞 𝕾𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖘, I would like to heartily recommend one of my favorite books from the “religious genre.” It was first published in 1904 under the title of 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕-𝑴𝒆-𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝑮𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔, 𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚 𝑫𝒂𝒚𝒔’ 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒚 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔, and later republished by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. as 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍. Compiled from Traditional Sources by an Ursuline Nun of Sligo, Ireland, it is filled with informative and inspiring, short readings and verses for each day of November.

❀ Another book about Purgatory that I really like is 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔 by Rev. John A. Nageleisen (1895), as it both beautifully and clearly explains this doctrine, and the importance of Catholic burial, the Requiem Mass, and the use of sacramentals–such as holy water and the lighting of blessed candles–for the relief of the Poor Souls. Highly recommended as well! 👍

https://archive.org/details/charityforsuffer00nage/page/n5/mode/2up

“𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙨.” (𝟐 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐗𝐈𝐈. 𝟒𝟔.)

“𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙚, 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙚, 𝙖𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨, 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚.” (𝐉𝐨𝐛 𝐗𝐈𝐗. 𝟐𝟏.)

“𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙖𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙈𝙮 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙣, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙈𝙚.” (𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡. 𝐗𝐗𝐕. 𝟒𝟎.)

“𝘽𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙖𝙢𝙗.” (𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐜. 𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐈. 𝟏𝟒.)

November 21, 2025:

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🎉 Announcement!! This year, I am super excited to be participating in Perry Kirkpatrick’s Black Friday Book Sale, which lasts from November 28th through December 1st and features a whole bunch of clean, Christian reads! During these days, all fourteen of my ebooks on Amazon will be priced at $0.99, which I must say is a real bargain buy! ;o) Now would certainly be an excellent time to give one of my books a try! 💛😄👍

🎉 You may visit the main sale page here:

[3-24-2026: LINK IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE]

🎉 (My books can be found in the Children’s and Romance genres.)

🎉 And more information about my books can be viewed over on my official author website:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com

🎉 (The lovely classical music in this 46-second video is taken from Vivaldi – Four Seasons “Autumn” RV 293 – Arr. for Strings, kindly licensed as free for use by Gregor Quendal.)

🎉 (PS. Renae aka my youngest sister @serenajardon is also participating in this book sale! Visit her IG account for a really neat video, and past posts, promoting her incredible debut novel, 𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔!!)

#blackfriday #blackfridaybooksale #perrykirkpatrick #perrykirkpatricksale #perrykirkpatrickindiesale #cleanreads #indieauthors #cleanindie #cleanfiction

Click HERE to view the sale announcement video on Instagram

serenajardon commented: Say, thank you, my old pal! And I really like your video that you put together!!🎉😃💖

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Thank you, too!! 😄💛💖 (And I was so pleased with how nicely the video came together as well!)

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🍂 After skimming through dozens of so/so books in Benziger Brothers’ catalogue of late 1800’s/early 1900’s novels, I discovered 𝑩𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒆 by Jean Connor (1913) and found it to be a great gem. Something about the deep emotional and spiritual conflict of the main male character set it apart from the other stories for me. It came to be another one of my inspiration reads when I was writing 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔓𝔯𝔬𝔡𝔦𝔤𝔞𝔩 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔎𝔦𝔫𝔤’𝔰 𝔇𝔞𝔲𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔢𝔯 (and a later story that featured a similar difficult, interior struggle).

🍂 I remember being able to happily acquire a physical copy for around 30 dollars several years ago; you can imagine my shock when I looked it up again while preparing this post and saw an “antique” copy being sold for over $300!!! Thankfully, a digital copy of this hard-to-find but well-worth-a-read book can be easily accessed at either of these two links:

https://archive.org/details/BondAndFree/page/n1/mode/2up

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435064820525&seq=1

🍂 Happy reading!~

November 28, 2025:

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(っ◔◡◔)っThis is such an amazing sale! Really, don’t miss out on so many incredible clean, Christian “indie” ebooks and/or paperbacks that you can try out either for free or for only 99¢ during this time!!

(っ◔◡◔)っFrom among my own, I would highly recommend any (or all!😆) of the three standalone novels:

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖎𝖌𝖆𝖑 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕶𝖎𝖓𝖌’𝖘 𝕯𝖆𝖚𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖊𝖗
𝒯𝑜 𝐹𝓎𝓃𝒹𝑒 𝒶 𝐻𝓊𝓈𝒷𝒶𝓃𝒹: 𝒜 𝒞𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓉𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝒯𝒶𝓁𝑒
𝙊𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝘼𝙥𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙥𝙨𝙚

(っ◔◡◔)っAnd for readers who especially enjoy fairytale retellings:

𝔒𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔘𝔭𝔬𝔫 𝔞 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢 𝔖𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰 (a two-part, combined retelling of 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 and 𝘊𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 | Volumes One and Two of the Catholic Once Upon a Time Series)

(っ◔◡◔)っFinally, I never miss an opportunity to recommend 𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 by Serena R. M. Jardon @serenajardon! My youngest sister’s exceptional debut novel is also available for $0.99 in ebook format: “A newly-orphaned boy goes to live with his estranged older brother. A good read for Christmas; suitable for all ages.”

(っ◔◡◔)っHappy book-buying!~

#blackfriday #blackfridaybooksale #perrykirkpatrick #perrykirkpatricksale #perrykirkpatrickindiesale #cleanreads #indieauthors #cleanindie #cleanfiction

serenajardon commented:Your post looks great! 🎉And I really like what you put together for Out of Darkness, chum. Thank you so-o much!!😻💖

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Thank you, Serena! and you’re so-o welcome!! 😁💛 I really love the video that you made for me too! 💕💯

Click HERE to view the sale graphics on Instagram

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(っ◔◡◔)っPS. Serena surprised me with this video yesterday… She said that she made it for fun after seeing the graphics that I’d prepared for 𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, and that I didn’t have to use it if I didn’t want to, but how could I not share such a fun, chipper, and really very beautifully put together, sales pitch made by my little sis (however far removed it is from my usually more, ahem, “dignified and sedate” style of posts😂), hehe?

The jaunty tune is an instrumental of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦 (a simple melody composed by Christine W., which appears in the Catholic Once Upon a Time Series). Serena created a more adventurous-sounding version and presented me with the surprise recording quite awhile ago, only I haven’t gotten around to adding the audio to my official author website yet. I love how she utilized it for this video! 👏😄

The cool image which appears at the end of the video is an actual poster that Serena (aka “Renae”) designed to celebrate the momentous 10-year anniversary of when I first began self-publishing, and gifted me for Christmas 2023; it seamlessly features the covers of all of the books that I had written up to that date. For a closer look, it can also be viewed on my website’s homepage, and here:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-1-1-2023/

Thank you so much, Serena @serenajardon, for the fun surprise! I really like it!! 💛💖

“Start your collection today!”~ 😉👍 (😂)

#blackfriday #blackfridaybooksale #perrykirkpatrick #perrykirkpatricksale #perrykirkpatrickindiesale #cleanreads #indieauthors #cleanindie #cleanfiction

serenajardon commented: Aw, I’m so glad you like it, pal! 💖Thanks for the neat graphics you did for Out of Darkness!😍🥰🥰

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Yay, I do indeed love it! 💛💕 Thanks again, champy! Hehe, and your story, book cover, and title are REALLY neat! It was a real pleasure making a little something to showcase our precious Baby Wilhelm. 😍😆👍

Click HERE to see the video on Instagram

November 29, 2025:

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Oh dear! My “𝒜𝒾𝓂-𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔” younger sister @aimeejardoncom 💙 totally surprised me yesterday by posting about the sale on her own IG account! (And not just once, either, but three times!!!) Do take a look at them; they’re truly awesome, and great fun! 😄💛

She also gave me the terrific idea to provide links to my individual books for ease of finding each one! (Thank you, dear Aimee💙, for your dedicated work in locating and collecting all of the links!) Here they are:

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒:

📖 [3-24-2026: LINKS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐔𝐏𝐎𝐍 𝐀 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒:

📖 [3-24-2026: LINKS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE]

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐒:

📖 [3-24-2026: LINKS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE]

And here is the link to 𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 by Serena R. M. Jardon @serenajardon:

📖 [3-24-2026: LINK IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE]

(っ◔◡◔)っHappy book-buying!~

#blackfriday #blackfridaybooksale #perrykirkpatricksale #cleanreads #indieauthors #cleanindie #cleanfiction

serenajardon commented: Your posts look terrific, pal! 🎉And bwa!! I just love what you did for Out of Darkness!👏💖

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Thank you! 👏😊💛💖 (And bwa!! It’s such a great book for making graphics with! 😆)

Click HERE to view the sale graphics on Instagram

November 30, 2025:

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❀ I can hardly believe that today is the First Sunday of Advent, and the beginning of a new Liturgical Year! As we have now also come to the close of the 𝕸𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖍 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖞 𝕾𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖘, I would like to share some last lovely, fitting verses and excerpts, etc., on the subject, in this post and the next…

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒:
❀ 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔐𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔞𝔤𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔑𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯 𝔚𝔦𝔫𝔡
❀ 𝔑𝔬 𝔒𝔫𝔢 𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔨𝔰 𝔬𝔣 ℑ𝔱
❀ 𝔏𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔖𝔴𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔬𝔴𝔰
❀ 𝔄𝔫 𝔄𝔲𝔱𝔲𝔪𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔏𝔶𝔯𝔦𝔠
❀ 𝔊𝔬𝔡 𝔞𝔫𝔡 ℑ

𝒥𝑀𝒥+

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒:
❀ Excerpt from 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕-𝑴𝒆-𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝑮𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔, 𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚 𝑫𝒂𝒚𝒔’ 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒚 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔
❀ 𝒜 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝓎𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒪𝓊𝓇 𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒟𝑒𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑒𝒹
❀ 𝔉𝔲𝔫𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔩 ℌ𝔶𝔪𝔫
❀ Quotes…

❀ “𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺.” —St. Francis de Sales

❀ “𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘐𝘧 𝘑𝘰𝘣’𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 (Job 1:5), 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.” —St. John Chrysostom

❀ 𝕰𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖌𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖒, 𝕺 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖕𝖊𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖑 𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖊 𝖚𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖒. 𝕸𝖆𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖞 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖈𝖊. 𝕬𝖒𝖊𝖓.

December 1, 2025:

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(っ◔◡◔)っHappy book-buying!~

#blackfriday #blackfridaybooksale #perrykirkpatrick #perrykirkpatricksale #perrykirkpatrickindiesale #cleanreads #indieauthors #cleanindie #cleanfiction #cybermonday #cybermondaysale

Click HERE to view the sale graphics on Instagram

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✶ Including meditations for every day of Advent and several lovely prayers for the Novena of Christmas (and much more!), this is my absolute favorite devotional book to read at this time of the year!! 😄💛

✶ There are quite a few digital copies available online. Here is just one:

https://archive.org/details/incarnationbirth0000stal/page/n11/mode/2up

✶ Dom Gueranger’s 𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝒴𝑒𝒶𝓇 also makes for excellent reading!

https://archive.org/details/V01TheLiturgicalYear/page/n7/mode/2up

✶ “The name Advent is applied to that period of the year, during which the Church requires the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the Feast of Christmas, the anniversary of the Birth of Jesus Christ. The mystery of that great day had every right to the honor of being prepared for by prayer and works of penance…

“Advent is a season specially devoted to the exercises of what is called 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦, and which is implied in that expression of St. John, so continually repeated by the Church during this holy time: 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥! Let all, therefore, strive earnestly to make straight the path by which Jesus will enter into their souls. Let the just, agreeably to the teaching of the Apostle, 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥, and labor to acquire fresh merit. Let sinners begin at once and break the chains which now enslave them. Let them give up those bad habits which they have contracted. Let them weaken the flesh, and enter upon the hard work of subjecting it to the spirit. Let them, above all things, pray with the Church. And when our Lord comes, they may hope that He will not pass them by, but that He will enter and dwell within them: for He spoke of all when He said these words: 𝘉𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬: 𝘪𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘺 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮.”

✶ “𝑶 𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔, 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒎𝒚 𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒚 𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆!”

December 8, 2025:

𝒥𝑀𝒥+

❀ “At length, on the distant horizon, rises, with a soft and radiant light, the aurora of the Sun which has been so long desired. The happy Mother of the Messias was to be born before the Messias Himself; and this is the day of the Conception of Mary. The earth already possesses a first pledge of the divine mercy; the Son of Man is near at hand.…Joachim and Anne find their union, after a long barrenness, made fruitful by the divine omnipotence. Glory be to God, Who has been mindful of His promises, and Who deigns to announce, from the high heavens, the end of the deluge of iniquity, by sending upon the earth the sweet white Dove that bears the tidings of peace!

“The Feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Conception is the most solemn of all those which the Church celebrates during the holy time of Advent; and if the first part of the Cycle had to offer us the commemoration of some one of the Mysteries of Mary, there was none whose object could better harmonise with the spirit of the Church in this mystic season of expectation. Let us, then, celebrate this solemnity with joy; for the Conception of Mary tells us that the Birth of Jesus is not far off.

“The intention of the Church, in this Feast, is not only to celebrate the anniversary of the happy moment in which began, in the womb of the pious Anne, the life of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary; but also to honor the sublime privilege, by which Mary was preserved from the original stain, which, by a sovereign and universal decree, is contracted by all the children of Adam the very moment they are conceived in their mother’s womb. The faith of the Catholic Church on the subject of the Conception of Mary is this: that at the very instant, when God united the Soul of Mary, which He had created, to the Body which it was to animate, this ever-blessed Soul did not only not contract the stain, which, at that same instant, defiles every human soul, but was filled with an immeasurable grace which rendered her, from that moment, the mirror of the sanctity of God Himself, as far as this is possible to a creature.…”

https://archive.org/details/V01TheLiturgicalYear/page/393/mode/2up

❀ Happy feast day of Our Lady!~

December 14, 2025:

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✶ “Today, again, the Church is full of joy, and the joy is greater than it was. It is true that her Lord is not come; but she feels that He is nearer than before, and therefore she thinks it just to lessen somewhat the austerity of this penitential season by the innocent cheerfulness of her sacred rites. And first, this Sunday has had the name of 𝘎𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦 given to it, from the first word of the Introit [𝓡𝒆𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆]… How admirable this condescension of the Church, wherewith she so beautifully blends together the unalterable strictness of the dogmas of faith and the graceful poetry of the formulae of her liturgy! Let us enter into her spirit, and be glad on this third Sunday of her Advent, because our Lord is now so near unto us. Tomorrow we will resume our attitude of servants mourning for the absence of their Lord and waiting for Him; for every delay, however short, is painful and makes love sad.…

“The Night Office commences with a new Invitatory. The voice of the Church no longer invites the faithful to come and adore in fear and trembling 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦. Her language assumes another character; her tone is one of gladness; and now, every day, until the Vigil of Christmas, she begins her Nocturns with these grand words:

“𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔏𝔬𝔯𝔡 𝔦𝔰 𝔫𝔬𝔴 𝔫𝔦𝔤𝔥; 𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔢, 𝔩𝔢𝔱 𝔲𝔰 𝔞𝔡𝔬𝔯𝔢.”

https://archive.org/details/V01TheLiturgicalYear/page/205/mode/2up

✶ On this most joyful Sunday of Advent, I am so very glad to be able to announce that, its editing and reformatting completed, 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 (part one of two) is now ready to be released! There will be more promo materials shared Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Look forward to it!~

serenajardon commented: Happy Gaudete, pal! Can ya believe even now that we whipped through three books!!👏🎉

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: My thoughts exactly! 😄💯 Incredible, isn’t it!! 😊 💛💖

Click HERE to view the teaser for Other Once Upon a Time Stories on Instagram

December 16, 2025:

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✶ I can hardly believe that today marks the beginning of the “Novena preparatory to Christmas-day”! I must say, now that it’s getting so close to it, I’m really starting to look forward to celebrating the full 40-day Christmas Season in the finest of festive spirits!! 😄🎉🎄✨

✶ If you will recall from an earlier post, St. Alphonsus has some great meditations/discourses and prayers for this novena in his book that I recommended for reading in December. Here are the links to the exact pages:

https://archive.org/details/incarnationbirth0000stal/page/n17/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/incarnationbirth0000stal/page/214/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/incarnationbirth0000stal/page/300/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/incarnationbirth0000stal/page/348/mode/2up

✶ Now, here is my other, early Christmas gift to you, Dear Readers, given with lots of love & holiday cheer 🎁💕: In honor of Our Lady and the Infant Jesus, 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 will be officially released on December 18th, 2025, with the following special sale prices until December 24th, 2025:

Paperback: $11.53 (15% off)
Ebook: $1.99 (originally $4.99)

✶ And, happily celebrating 10 years since the story was first written, 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 will be available at 10% off ($12.21) for the duration of this upcoming Christmas Season (which lasts from December 25th, 2025, through to February 2nd, 2026). During this same time, it will also be sold for $2.99 in ebook format.

✶ May you have a most blessed and grace-filled remainder of Advent!~

💜💜💖💜

✶ Attributions for the lovely background video and music:

PicturalU (light, blur, christmas free stock video) Free for use & download.
https://pixabay.com/videos/light-blur-christmas-bright-137460/

Christmas Is Coming by MaxKoMusic | https://maxkomusic.com/
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

serenajardon commented: No…I still can hardly believe that we’re actually releasing another one…😮😂Congratulations, chum!!🎉Nice sale!

kristennicolefaustina310 commented: Ooh, I love this! 🥰😍I am so very happy for you, that you are able to make another book available in time for Christmas and the Christmas Season, Little Sis! ✨🎄Congratulations! 🎉and great video to promote your nice sale! 👍

Click HERE to view the sale announcement video on Instagram

December 18, 2025:

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1. “Like the dawning of the morning
On the mountain’s golden heights,
Like the breaking of the moonbeams
On the gloom of cloudy nights;
Like the secret told by angels
Getting known upon the earth,
Is the Mother’s expectation
Of Messiah’s speedy birth…”

✶ Happy feast of Our Lady’s Expectation, “which the Church has established and sanctioned as a new means of exciting the attention of the faithful during these last days of Advent”!

𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴, 𝘖 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘮, 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘣; 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘚𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦; 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥-𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭. 𝘠𝘦𝘴, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴. 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺; 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴.

✶ Just a few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but here we have it, another new release from my dusty shelf: 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 is now available on Amazon! Hooray!!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969291281

(っ◔◡◔)っ 𝒫𝓉. 𝟐 is nearly complete as well, and will be released before the close of the Christmas Season (God willing). Updates can be viewed on my author website:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-7-24-2025/

✶ Happy Holiday Reading!~

serenajardon commented: Absolutely lovely post, pal. Happy feast day, and congratulations on releasing Other!!🎉🎉

angelamariemichaels @serenajardon: Thanks, champy!! Happy feast day to you too!! and I couldn’t have done it without you!! 💛🐼🐧💖

serenajardon @angelamariemichaels: Thank you, chum!😍

𝒥𝑀𝒥+

2. “…Thou wert happy, blessed Mother,
With the very bliss of heaven,
Since the angel’s salutation
In thy raptured ear was given;
Since the Ave of that midnight
When thou wast anointed Queen,
Like a river overflowing
Hath the grace within thee been.

3. And what wonders have been in thee
All the day and all the night,
While the angels fell before thee,
To adore the Light of Light;
While the glory of the Father
Hath been in thee as a home,
And the scepter of creation
Hath been wielded in thy womb…”

✶ Here is the book trailer for 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 that I made years ago… Just a word of warning, this Series features the same main cast of characters throughout, with new characters and settings added with every featured fairytale retelling. They are all connected, and the sequence of events is chronological. Volume Seven picks up a few months after the end of Volume Six, so if you haven’t read Volumes One through Six of the Series (and are intending to do so), you might not want to view this trailer/description yet! ;o)

✶ Again, I apologize for the less-than-perfect quality of this video that I put together so many years ago, especially the text being difficult to read in parts (and I’ve only now realized that I misspelled Rumpelstiltskin at the end!) but I do hope that you may still derive some enjoyment from it.

✶ A bit of trivia: At the part of the description when the devil intends to “nip this threat to his plans in the bud,” a beautiful, fully-bloomed rose is shown… indicating that he, ahem, may not be succeeding 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 as well as he might hope. I did not realize the incongruity at the moment when selecting that image, but now it always amuses me to see it. 😆

✶ Attribution for music: Fairytale Waltz by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Click HERE to view the video on Instagram

𝒥𝑀𝒥+

4. “…Thou hast waited, Child of David!
And thy waiting now is o’er!
Thou hast seen Him, blessed Mother!
And wilt see Him evermore!
Oh! His Human Face and Features,
They were passing sweet to see;
Thou beholdest them this moment;
Mother, show them now to me!”

(ᴏᴜʀ ʟᴀᴅʏ’ꜱ ᴇxᴘᴇᴄᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ by Fr. Faber)

✶ This selected snippet gives a glimpse of the main plot of 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 that sets into motion so many important “happenings,” as well as a look at our version of Rumpelstiltskin…

✶ (Special heartfelt thanks to “Christine W.” @kristennicolefaustina319 for putting together such a beautiful design for this chapter snippet, as well as the “now available” picture from today’s first post. Thank you so much, Kiffy! 😍❤️💕)

✶ (And of course I must add: 𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖐𝖘 𝖇𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝕲𝖔𝖉 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝕺𝖚𝖗 𝕷𝖆𝖉𝖞 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖔𝖋 𝖒𝖞 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖕𝖆𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖓 𝖘𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖘 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖞 𝕬𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑, and 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒀𝒐𝒖 to everyone, who made this year’s amazing second book release possible!! 😄💛)

December 25, 2025:

𝒥𝑀𝒥+

💛 “We apply the name of Christmas to the forty days, which begin with the 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, December 25th, and end with the 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯, February 2nd. It is a period, which forms a distinct portion of the Liturgical Year, as distinct, by its own special spirit, from every other, as are Advent, Lent, Easter, or Pentecost. One same Mystery is celebrated and kept in view during the whole forty days. Neither the Feasts of the Saints, which so abound during this Season; nor the Time of Septuagesima, with its mournful Purple, which often begins before Christmastide is over;—seem able to distract our Holy Mother the Church, from the immense 𝘫𝘰𝘺, of which she received the 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 from the Angels, on that glorious Night, for which the world had been longing four thousand years. The Faithful will remember, that the Liturgy commemorates this long expectation, by the four penitential weeks of Advent.

The custom of celebrating the Solemnity of our Savior’s Nativity by a feast or commemoration of forty-days’ duration, is founded on the holy Gospel itself; for it tells us, that the Blessed Virgin Mary, after spending forty days in the contemplation of the Divine Fruit of her glorious Maternity, went to the Temple, there to fulfil, in most perfect humility, the ceremonies which the Law demanded of the daughters of Israel, when they became Mothers.

The Feast of Mary’s Purification is, therefore, part of that of Jesus’ Birth; and the custom of keeping this holy and glorious period of forty-days as one continued Festival, has every appearance of being a very ancient one, at least in the Roman Church.…”

💛 I hope and pray that you may all have a most blessed and happy Christmas Season!!

💛 “Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all.”—St. Leo the Great

𝒥𝑀𝒥+

💛🎄✨ “Now then, O all ye devout souls, does Jesus invite you to come and kiss His feet this night. The shepherds who came to visit Him in the stable of Bethlehem brought their gifts; you must also bring your gifts. What will you bring Him? Listen to me; the most acceptable present you can bring Him is that of a contrite and loving heart. Let each one then say to Him:

Thou must know that I am poor, and that I have nothing to give Thee. I have nothing but this heart; this I now offer to Thee. It is true that this my heart offended Thee at one time; but now it is penitent, and I bring it to Thee penitent.…I am a sinner, and I do not deserve to be pardoned; but I come before Thee, Who, being God, hast become a little child to obtain pardon for me. Eternal Father, if I merit hell, look at the tears of Thy innocent Son; they invoke Thy pardon in my behalf. Thou dost deny nothing to the prayers of Thy Son. Listen to Him, then, now that He asks Thee to pardon me on this night,—the night of joy, the night of salvation, the night of pardon. Ah, my Infant Jesus, I hope for pardon from Thee; but the forgiveness of my sins alone is not sufficient for me. On this night Thou dost grant great spiritual graces; I also desire that Thou shouldst bestow a great grace on me,—it is, the grace to love Thee. Now that I am about to approach Thy feet, inflame me wholly with Thy holy love, and bind me to Thee; but bind me so effectually that I may nevermore be separated from Thee. I love Thee, O my God, Who didst become a little child for my sake; but I love Thee very little; I desire to love Thee very much, and Thou hast to enable me to do it. I come, then, to kiss Thy Feet, and I offer Thee my heart; I leave it in Thy hands; I will have it no longer; do Thou change it, and keep it forever; do not give it back to me again; for if Thou dost, I fear lest it should betray Thee afresh.

Most holy Mary, thou who art the Mother of this great Son, but who art also my Mother, it is to thee that I consecrate my poor heart; present it to Jesus; and He will not refuse to receive it, when presented by thee. Do thou, then, present it, and beg Him to accept it.” (—ꜱᴛ. ᴀʟᴘʜᴏɴꜱᴜꜱ)

January 1, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

💛 I already shared today’s posted poems over on my official author website back on Dec 31, 2024, and Jan 1, 2025, but they are so neat that I would like to share them here on IG, to ring out 2025 and welcome 2026. They are all penned by Eleanor C. Donnelly and well worth revisiting! 😊👍 I would also like to share here the following beautiful passage for Jan 1 from the 𝔏𝔦𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔤𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔩 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯:

“Our new-born King and Savior is eight days old to-day; the Star, that guides the Magi, is advancing towards Bethlehem, and, five days hence, will be standing over the Stable where our Jesus is being nursed by His mother. To-day, the Son of Man is to be circumcised; this first sacrifice of His innocent Flesh must honor the eighth day of His mortal life. To-day, also, a Name is to be given Him—the Name will be 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, and it means 𝘚𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘳. So that, Mysteries abound on this day: let us not pass one of them over, but honor them with all possible devotion and love.

But this Day is not exclusively devoted to the Circumcision of Jesus. The mystery of this Circumcision forms part of that other great mystery, the Incarnation and Infancy of our Savior—a mystery on which the Church fixes her heart, not only during this Octave, but during the whole forty days of 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴-𝘛𝘪𝘥𝘦. Then, as regards our Lord’s receiving the Name of 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, a special Feast, which we shall soon be keeping, is set apart in honor of it. There is another object, that shares the love and devotion of the Faithful, on this great Solemnity. This object is Mary, the Mother of God. The Church celebrates, to-day, the august prerogative of this divine Maternity, which was conferred on a mere creature, and which made her the co-operatrix with Jesus in the great work of man’s salvation.

The holy Church of Rome used formerly to say two Masses on the first of January; one was for the Octave of Christmas Day, the other was in honor of Mary. She now unites the two intentions in one Sacrifice, in the same manner as, in the rest of this Day’s Office, she unites together the acts of her adoration of the Son, and the expressions of her admiration for, and confidence in, the Mother.…”

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

💛 “…It is to-day that we … must pour forth all the love of our hearts for the Virgin-Mother, and rejoice with her in the exceeding happiness she feels at having given birth to her and our Lord. During Advent, we contemplated her as pregnant with the world’s salvation; we proclaimed the glory of that Ark of the New Covenant, whose chaste womb was the earthly paradise, chosen by the King of Ages for His dwelling-place. Now, she has brought Him forth, the Infant-God; she adores Him, Him Who is her Son. She has the right to call Him, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥; and He, God as He is, calls her in strictest truth, 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.

Let us not be surprised, therefore, at the enthusiasm and profound respect, wherewith the Church extols the Blessed Virgin, and her prerogatives. Let us, on the contrary, be convinced, that all the praise the Church can give her, and all the devotion she can ever bear towards her, are far below what is due to her as Mother of the Incarnate God. No mortal will ever be able to describe, or even comprehend, how great a glory accrues to her from this sublime dignity.…”

❤️ (っ◔◡◔)っ In honor of Jesus and Mary, 𝓞𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓞𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓤𝓹𝓸𝓷 𝓪 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 is still 10% off the paperback and $2.99 for the ebook for the duration of the Christmas Season (until February 2nd). 😊🎉

💚 And the ebooks for the following stories will all be on a special $1.99 sale until the feast of the Epiphany (January 6th):

𝔒𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔘𝔭𝔬𝔫 𝔞 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢 𝔖𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰
𝔒𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔘𝔭𝔬𝔫 𝔞 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢 𝔖𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰, 𝔭𝔱. 2

𝑨 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝑶𝒍𝒅
𝑨 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝑶𝒍𝒅, 𝒑𝒕. 2

𝒯𝑜 𝐹𝓎𝓃𝒹𝑒 𝒶 𝐻𝓊𝓈𝒷𝒶𝓃𝒹: 𝒜 𝒞𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓉𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝒯𝒶𝓁𝑒

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖎𝖌𝖆𝖑 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕶𝖎𝖓𝖌’𝖘 𝕯𝖆𝖚𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖊𝖗

𝙊𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝘼𝙥𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙥𝙨𝙚

💛 Happy Holiday Reading!~

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

“…A Mother of God!—It is the mystery, whose fulfillment the world, without knowing it, was awaiting for four thousand years. It is the work, which, in God’s eyes, was incomparably greater than that of the creation of a million new worlds, for such a creation would cost Him nothing; He has but to speak, and all whatsoever He wills is made. But, that a creature should become Mother of God, He has had, not only to suspend the laws of nature by making a Virgin Mother, but also to put Himself in a state of dependence upon the happy creature He chose for His Mother. He had to give her rights over Himself, and contract the obligation of certain duties towards her. He had to make Her His Mother, and Himself her Son.

It follows all this, that the blessings of the Incarnation, for which we are indebted to the love wherewith the Divine Word loved us, may and ought to be referred, though in an inferior degree, to Mary herself. If she be the Mother of God, it is because she consented to it, for God vouchsafed, not only to ask her consent, but, moreover, to make the coming of His Son into the world depend upon her giving it. As this His Son, the Eternal Word, spoke His FIAT over chaos, and the answer to His word was creation; so did Mary use the same word FIAT:—𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦, she said. God heard her word, and, immediately, the Son of God descended into her virginal womb. After God, then, it is to Mary, His ever Blessed Mother, that we are indebted for our Emmanuel.”

💛✨ I am so delighted on this wonderful Octave Day of Christmas to share the exciting news that 2025 unexpectedly closed for me with the barest inkling of a new story idea that “Christine W.” (@kristennicolefaustina319), “Renae” (@serenajardon), and I are now enthusiastically pursuing. 👏😄🎉 It’s been a LOT of fun brainstorming for it so far!! I will share some more details by-the-by…

❤️✨ Quick update: Work on reformatting/republishing continues slowly | there are plans for more editing to make more of my books available in 2026 | and creative work on my (totally awesome! 😉) four-volume novel is also still underway this Christmas Season!

💚✨ May God bless this New Year! 😊

January 6, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

🌟 “The Feast of the Epiphany is the continuation of the mystery of Christmas; but it appears on the Calendar of the Church with its own special character. Its very name, which signifies 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, implies that it celebrates the apparition of God to His creatures…

🌟 The Epiphany shares with the Feasts of Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, the honor of being called, in the Canon of the Mass, 𝘢 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺. It is also one of the 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 Feasts, that is, one of those on which the arrangement of the Christian Year is based; for, as we have 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳, and 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵, so also we count six 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘱𝘪𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘺.

🌟 The Epiphany is indeed a great Feast, and the joy caused us by the Birth of our Jesus must be renewed on it, for, as though it were a second Christmas Day, it shows us our Incarnate God in a new light. It leaves us all the sweetness of the dear Babe of Bethlehem, Who hath 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 to us already in love; but to this it adds its own grand 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 of the divinity of our Jesus. At Christmas, it was a few Shepherds that were invited by the Angels to go and recognize ᴛʜᴇ Wᴏʀᴅ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ Fʟᴇꜱʜ; but now, at the Epiphany, the voice of God Himself calls the whole world to 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘦 this Jesus, and 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘏𝘪𝘮.…”

🌟 https://archive.org/details/V03TheLiturgicalYear/page/121/mode/2up

🌟 https://archive.org/details/incarnationbirth0000stal/page/268/mode/2up

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

“…Let us, then, open our hearts to the joy of this grand Day; and on this Feast of the 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘺, of the 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴, of the 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, let us look with love at the dazzling beauty of our Divine Sun, who, as the Psalmist expresses it, runs his course as a Giant, and pours out upon us floods of a welcome and yet most vivid light. The Shepherds, who were called by the Angels to be the first worshippers, have been joined by the Prince of Martyrs [St. Stephen, Dec. 26], the Beloved Disciple [St. John, Dec. 27], the dear troop of Innocents [Dec. 28], our glorious Thomas of Canterbury [Dec. 29], and Sylvester the Patriarch of Peace [Dec. 31]; and now, today, these Saints open their ranks to let the Kings of the East come to the Babe in His crib, bearing with them the prayers and adorations of the whole human race. The humble Stable is too little for such a gathering as this, and Bethlehem seems to be worth all the world besides. Mary, the Throne of the divine Wisdom, welcomes all the members of this court with her gracious smile of Mother and Queen; she offers her Son to man, for his adoration, and to God, that He may be well pleased. God 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 Himself to men, because He is great; but He 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 Himself by Mary, because He is full of mercy.”

🌟 𝕳𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕰𝖕𝖎𝖕𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖞 𝖔𝖋 𝕺𝖚𝖗 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉! 𝕸𝖆𝖞 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖆 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙 𝖇𝖑𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖏𝖔𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖘 “𝕾𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖉 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘!!” 😊💛

January 13, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

🌟 “The thoughts of the Church, today, are fixed on the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan, which is the second of the three Mysteries of the Epiphany [the third being the Wedding at Cana]. The Emmanuel 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 Himself to the Magi, after having shown Himself to the Shepherds; but this manifestation was made within the narrow space of a stable at Bethlehem, and the world knew nothing of it. In the Mystery of the Jordan, Christ 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 Himself with greater publicity. His coming is proclaimed by the Precursor; the crowd, that is flocking to the river for Baptism, is witness of what happens; Jesus makes this the beginning of His public life. But who could worthily explain the glorious circumstances of this second Epiphany?

It resembles the first in this, that it is for the benefit and salvation of the human race. The Star has led the Magi to Christ; they had long waited for His coming, they had hoped for it; now, they believe. Faith in the Messias having come into the world is beginning to take root among the Gentiles. But faith is not sufficient for salvation; the stain of sin must be washed away by water. 𝘏𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥, 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥. The time is come, then, for a new 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 of the Son of God, whereby there shall be inaugurated the great remedy, which is to give to Faith the power of producing life eternal.…”

[This excellent excerpt from the 𝔏𝔦𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔤𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔩 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 for today’s feast is continued over in the picture slide…]

🌟 Update? Still thoroughly enjoying sitting up by our one-of-a-kind Christmas tree and Nativity scene, admiring the beauty and warmth of incandescent Xmas lights, listening to cheerful/peaceful Christmas music, watching an occasional fun movie with my family, reading from my enormous stack of backlogged books, and feasting on a “well-balanced diet” of Christmas goodies (hehe)! while also, ahem, working on my two new writing projects with “Christine W.” and “Renae” and getting closer to being able to make 𝑶𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒕. 2 available for sale by the end of the Season…

🌟 𝓜𝓮𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓶𝓪𝓼! (‾◡◝) 💛✨

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

💛 𝐻𝓊𝓇𝒹𝒸𝑜𝓉𝓉 by John Ayscough (1911) was one of my recent Christmas gifts from my youngest sister Serena. I’ve been enjoying reading it bit-by-bit when I have time, and it just seemed like a good fiction book to share with everyone for this month… The girl is very nice, and I am intrigued to find out more about what happens with the title character, Hurdcott!! (Also, how many books have you ever read that begin one of the first chapters with a lion attacking a group of Victorian coach passengers in the middle of the night in England?…😂)

https://archive.org/details/hurdcott00aysc/mode/2up

💛 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔳𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 by Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J. (1893) was an Epiphany present for my sisters and I from our mother this year. I’ve yet to peruse all of its pages myself, but from the snippets that I’ve seen so far, it looks really good!! 😊👍 I love seeing all of the various devotions featured throughout the year for each month, and the meditations are only a page in length, “short and sweet, like a donkey’s gallop (😉),” which makes for easy, daily reading!

https://archive.org/details/TheDevoutYear/page/n7/mode/2up

(っ◔◡◔)っ BONUS BOOK!

💛 Tʜᴇ Bᴇꜱᴛ Fᴏᴏᴛ Fᴏʀᴡᴀʀᴅ, ᴀɴᴅ Oᴛʜᴇʀ Sᴛᴏʀɪᴇꜱ (1900). Heartily recommended as well; this is a tried-and-true good one from an old favorite author of mine, Fr. Francis J. Finn. With a title like that, and one of the stories even ending on January first, it seems like quite a fitting read for the start of a New Year! Plus, there are two sweet little Christmas stories in it! 😍💕

https://archive.org/details/bestfootforwardo00finn_0

💛 Happy Holiday Reading!~

January 23, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

✶ Happy Feast of the Espousals! With this feast, we are finally nearing the end of the joyous Christmas Season. The Crib was always meant to lead to the Cross, but until we needs must bid a fond farewell to Bethlehem and look more toward Calvary during the upcoming penitential Lenten Season, I pray that we may all fully enjoy these last days of Christmas merriment!! 😊💛

✶ Tomorrow (January 24th) will begin the novena to Our Lady of Good Success, whose feast day is also celebrated on February 2nd, along with the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Under this title especially, Our Lady has always been a most loving and powerful patroness of my writing endeavors, ever since I first began self-publishing my stories in 2013. Please pray for me and for the good success of our team’s current writing projects during these nine days!!

✶ As a last Christmas gift, I am beyond delighted to announce that 𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈, 𝓅𝓉. 𝟐 is now officially available in paperback and ebook format on Amazon. Thanks be to God and Our Lady! Hurrah!! 👏😄🎉 Thanks again, dear “Renae” @serenajardon, for your immense help with editing and making our recent releases possible!! 🥰 And thank you, dear “Christine W.” @kristennicolefaustina319, for all of the fun that we had when first working on this story together way back in 2015!! 🥰

✶ Special ongoing sale prices which will last until the close of the Christmas Season (February 2nd, 2026):

𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈
Paperback: $12.21 (10% off)
Ebook: $2.99 (originally $4.99)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969291281

𝒪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒰𝓅𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈, 𝓅𝓉. 𝟐
Paperback: $12.74 (15% off)
Ebook: $2.99 (originally $5.99)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969291303

✶ 𝕸𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖞 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘!~

(っ◔◡◔)っᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ɴᴏᴛᴇ: Beginning this New Year, I have decided to lower the set retail price of several of my bigger-sized ebooks from $6.99 to $5.99, and to raise the cents of my available paperbacks (from .07, .25, .50, .55, .57, .75) to .99 “across the board,” in order to have a more simple, standardized price listing from now on. 😉💛

Click HERE to view the teaser for Other Once Upon a Time Stories, pt. 2 on Instagram

January 29, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

✨ “𝕴 𝖕𝖗𝖆𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕵𝖊𝖘𝖚𝖘 𝖒𝖆𝖞 𝖋𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝕳𝖎𝖘 𝖇𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖉𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖘𝖍𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 𝖚𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝕳𝖎𝖘 𝖋𝖆𝖛𝖔𝖗𝖘.” (Sᴛ. Fʀᴀɴᴄɪꜱ ᴅᴇ Sᴀʟᴇꜱ)

“…The angelical Bishop Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the Crib of Jesus, on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the childlike simplicity of his heart, and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the lustre of his glorious conquests upon him — seventy-two thousand heretics converted to the Church by the ardour of his charity; an Order of holy servants of God, which he founded; and countless thousands of souls trained to piety by his prudent and persuasive words and writings…” (See the picture slides for a few pages of beautiful excerpts from 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔏𝔦𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔤𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔩 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 and St. Francis’ letters. 😊💛)

✨ I just wanted to post a little something in honor of St. Francis de Sales (1567—1622), the Patron Saint of Writers, whose feast day it is today… May God bless, and Our Lady and your patron saints help you with, your writing endeavors, dear Authors!~

✨ And a most Merry Thirty-Sixth Day of Christmas! (𝘖𝘩 𝘮𝘺, 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘢𝘺… 𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯!!)

February 2, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

🕯✨ Until next time, God willing:

𝕸𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖞 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘! 𝖆𝖓𝖉
𝕬 𝕳𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖑𝖊𝖒𝖆𝖘!!,
𝕰𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞𝖔𝖓𝖊! 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝕱𝖆𝖒𝖎𝖑𝖞,
𝕱𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖘!!~

🕯✨ “Almighty and everlasting God, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, that as Thine only begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so Thou wouldst cause us too with purified hearts to be presented unto Thee.”

🕯✨ “We beseech Thee, O Lord our God, that the most holy mysteries, which Thou hast given us to safeguard our regenerated nature, may, through the intercession of blessed Mary ever Virgin, be to us a healing remedy, both for the present and for the future.”

https://archive.org/details/V03TheLiturgicalYear/page/519/mode/2up

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

𝓢𝓱𝓮𝓹𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓭𝓼’ 𝓕𝓪𝓻𝓮𝔀𝓮𝓵𝓵
(Cᴏᴍᴘᴏꜱᴇʀ: Hᴇᴄᴛᴏʀ Bᴇʀʟɪᴏᴢ)

“𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨,
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦.
𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘦, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨,
𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦.
𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳,
𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦!

𝘉𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦,
𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳,
𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦,
𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦!
𝘔𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘥’𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨,
𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳!

𝘉𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦,
𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘥!
𝘎𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘺𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷’𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦,
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥!
𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘨𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶,
𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥!…”

💛 To hear this entire hymn, as beautifully sung by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles (from the Sisters’ lovely 2008 ℭ𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔪𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔱 𝔈𝔭𝔥𝔢𝔰𝔲𝔰 CD), please listen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4EkXt3K9bQ

https://benedictinesofmary.org/product/christmas-at-ephesus/

💛 I always like to listen to this hymn at the close of the Christmas Season, late at night on the feast of the Purification, after all of the festivities have ended and the merry lights are turned off for the last time. 🤗

💛 Happy feast day!~

Click HERE to view the “Shepherds’ Farewell” Christmas card/video on Instagram

February 14, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

(っ◔◡◔)っ 𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒚, 𝓗𝓪𝓹𝓹𝔂 𝓢𝓽. 𝓥𝓪𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓮’𝓼 𝓓𝓪𝔂, 𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮!
(‾◡◝) 💛💐🍫🍬

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

❀ The books that I mentioned in the picture slide can be read online or downloaded as PDFs! Here are some links:

❀ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧: 𝙑𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙢𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚 (𝙇𝙚𝙣𝙩)

https://archive.org/details/V05TheLiturgicalYear/page/n9/mode/2up

❀ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩: 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙇𝙚𝙣𝙩

https://archive.org/details/TheDevoutYear/page/n149/mode/2up

❀ 𝘿𝙤𝙪𝙖𝙮-𝙍𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙢𝙨 𝘽𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 (for passages to be read in conjunction with 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧)

https://drbo.org

❀ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩

https://archive.org/details/passiondeathofje00ligu/page/n7/mode/2up

❀ May you have a most blessed and fruitful Lenten Season!

❀ ᴀ ɴᴏᴛᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍʏ ᴘᴀᴘᴇʀʙᴀᴄᴋ ʀᴇꜰᴏʀᴍᴀᴛᴛɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴘᴜʙʟɪꜱʜɪɴɢ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ: I must sincerely apologize, dear Readers; this process has taken a 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 than I had originally intended!! I’m so happy that I was able to finish editing and formatting three of my previously unreleased titles, and make them available for sale last year/early this year, though! And, rest assured, in the midst of my new writing and editing projects that I have lined up to work on during this Lent, I will still continue to reformat and republish my remaining “old” paperbacks, just at a necessarily much slower pace. 😊👍

Since I am progressing more slowly than I would have liked, it is rather nice to take my time and be extra careful about making sure that everything is satisfactorily all in order, so that I (hopefully) won’t look back someday and find that I need to make yet another major revision. Please bear with me, and pray for me! And, in the meantime, look forward to the BRAND-NEW release of the totally cool and exciting four-part 𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖈 𝕮𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝕾𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 later this year, yay!! 😄💛

❀ Regular updates on this project can be found here on my official author website:

https://booksbyangelamariemichaels.com/note-from-the-author-7-24-2025/

February 18, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

☙ This is such a neat poem for Lent by 𝔈𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔬𝔯 ℭ. 𝔇𝔬𝔫𝔫𝔢𝔩𝔩𝔶 (1838 — 1917) that I wanted to share it with everyone here on IG.

☙ And I’ve come across more of these fun little “face characters”; I’m going to enjoy using them in future posts! 😊

ლ(╹◡╹ლ)💛

[ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ʜᴜɢ]

☙ “𝙍𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧, 𝙢𝙖𝙣, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙙𝙪𝙨𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣.”

☙ “𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚: 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝, 𝙬𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙠 𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩.”

☙ “𝘼𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙, 𝙊 𝙇𝙤𝙧𝙙, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮: 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙚.… 𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙪𝙨, 𝙊 𝙂𝙤𝙙, 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙎𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧: 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙝𝙮 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚, 𝙊 𝙇𝙤𝙧𝙙, 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙪𝙨.”

☙ “𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙪𝙨, 𝙇𝙤𝙧𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙣’𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙨: 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩, 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡, 𝙬𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛-𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙡.… 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙩, 𝙊 𝙇𝙤𝙧𝙙, 𝙩𝙤 𝙏𝙝𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.”

https://archive.org/details/V04TheLiturgicalYear/page/n217/mode/2up

☙ Have a good Lent! ;o)

February 26, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

☙ A special thank you to “Christine W.” @kristennicolefaustina319 for mentioning to me that today is National Fairytale Day! Hearing this, it seemed like a good time to highlight our Catholic Once Upon a Time Series. (^▽^)💛

☙ Update: The first two volumes have now been officially republished (along with volumes 6, 7, and 8); volumes 3, 4, and 5 will be available again as new-and-improved republished paperbacks in these upcoming months. Meanwhile, all eight volumes can still be read in ebook format.

☙ Here is the description for the first volume:

…Told in a way as never before, 𝕺𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖀𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖆 𝕿𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 is the retelling of two beloved classic fairy tales—𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 and 𝑪𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂.

🌹🌹🌹

In persecuted Roselyn: three sisters and their merchant father have recently come upon hard times and have moved to the country to seek other lodging. They are directed to an uninhabited manor or so they think…Just who is the mysterious “beast” that lives there and his silent companion? Will the “curse” of the Masonic revolution ever be lifted from the land?

✨🥿✨🥿✨

Meanwhile, in neighboring Graceland: many scheming mothers are hoping that their daughter will be chosen to wed the Prince. Rumor has it that he is in disguise searching for a bride. Will he find her? And will he be able to save his kingdom from being taken over by the Masonic Revolutionaries who wish to conquer Graceland as well?

+++

Written from a Catholic perspective, the two plots are woven together until a happy ever after ending is reached—complete with glass slipper and a beast transformed!

ᴘᴀꜱᴛ ᴘᴏꜱᴛꜱ:

☙ June 8, 2025: How the Catholic Once Upon a Time Series Came to Be…

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKqDGCWvFVO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

☙ Roselyn Chapter Snippet:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKqIRw9Pa3O/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

☙ Graceland Chapter Snippet:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKqI7WyPJ6H/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

☙ Book Trailer for Once Upon a Time Stories:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKqtjN1p2Kv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Click HERE to view the graphic on Instagram

March 1, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

Editing for 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖈 𝕮𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖘 has been going unbelievably well! We are already almost halfway through Phase 3 of Part 2! 😄🎉 For those interested in tracking our progress, here is an informative summary of what these four phases mean…

(っ◔◡◔)っᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇꜱꜱ:

☙𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟏: My dear “Editor-in-Chief” goes through the entire physical proof with a red pen, making basic grammatical corrections, such as removing lots of out-of-place contractions in the narrative, inserting many a neglected “that,” condensing long, rambling descriptive sentences, while catching any factual errors that she notices, etc.

☙𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟐: On a computer doc, Renae @serenajardon and I quickly go through the book, checking only for “the red” and inserting whichever of these suggested corrections improves upon the original story text. Some do, some don’t, so my youngest sister’s genius 😉💖 and understanding, decisive help is greatly appreciated and indispensable for this, and for the next, middle portion of the editing process!

☙𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟑: We then read straight through the entire computer document together for a final time, making further corrections as we read aloud until everything sounds good, flows nicely, makes sense, meets with our approval, etc.

☙𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟒: This final phase involves several small steps. First, I clean up the whole computer document and format a very simple, functional ebook version to the best of my (limited) ability.

After that, I restore all of the formatting for the paperback edition’s front and back matter and main text, reinserting any illustrations, fancy font, drop caps, and more complicated design elements used in the print copy that are not featured in the digital copy.

Finally, I go through the entire main text to correct any lines that are too tightly or loosely spaced and ensure that the document looks as neat and tidy as possible and that everything is in order.

Once the page count is set, the cover can be designed, and then both the book files and cover files are uploaded and approved for publication…

Please pray for the continued good & speedy success of our Lenten projects!

Have a good Lent!! 😊💜

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

☙These lovely poems that I wanted to share with everyone today were, again, penned by 𝐸𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓇 𝒞. 𝒟𝑜𝓃𝓃𝑒𝓁𝓁𝓎. And here are some links to the books that I mentioned over in today’s first post (along with the next, upcoming Lenten volume in the Liturgical Year):

𝙎𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙅𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙥𝙝’𝙨 𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙥

https://archive.org/details/saintjosephshelp00kell/page/n3/mode/2up

https://ia903207.us.archive.org/34/items/CatholicBooks/saintjosephshelp00jose.pdf

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧: 𝙎𝙩. 𝙅𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙥𝙝. 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝

https://archive.org/details/TheDevoutYear/page/n113/mode/2up

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧: 𝙑𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙢𝙚 𝙎𝙞𝙭 (𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙮 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠)

https://archive.org/details/V06TheLiturgicalYear/page/n7/mode/2up

☙Happy Second Sunday of Lent!~

( ˊᵕˋ )♡

March 12, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

☙ I quite liked these questions and wanted to answer them after I’d had more time to think. So here we go! Thank you for the fun tag-in-general back at the end of February, Naomi! @naomi.writes5 I enjoyed reading your answers! 😊💛

☙ As for continuing the game: I can think of a few names, but I’m a bit shy about tagging anyone else… so if you’re an author and you read this and find these questions as interesting to answer as I did, then “Tag! You’re it!”

(NOTE: I left out these😉👉 My Favorite Kind of Stories Are the Ones That & When I Don’t Know What to Write I…)

“…This day brings us to the middle of Lent, and is called mid-Lent Thursday. It is the twentieth of the forty fasts imposed upon us, at this holy season, by the Church.…The Catholic nations of the west, though they do not look on this day as a feast, have always kept it with some degree of festivity and joy. The Church of Rome has countenanced the custom by her own observance of it; but, in order not to give a pretext to dissipation, which might interfere with the spirit of fasting, she postpones to the following Sunday [Laetare] the formal expression of this innocent joy, as we shall see further on. Yet, it is not against the spirit of the Church that this mid-day of Lent should be marked by some demonstration of gladness; for example, by sending invitations to friends, as our Catholic forefathers used to do; and serving up to table choicer and more abundant food than on other days of Lent, taking care, however, that the laws of the Church are strictly observed. But alas! how many even of those calling themselves Catholics have been breaking, for the past twenty days, these laws of abstinence and fasting! Whether the dispensations they trust to be lawfully or unlawfully obtained, the joy of mid-Lent Thursday scarcely seems made for them. To experience this joy, one must have earned and merited it, by penance, by privations, by bodily mortifications; which is just what so many, nowadays, cannot think of doing. Let us pray for them, that God would enlighten them, and enable them to see what they are bound to do, consistently with the faith they profess.…”

(The Liturgical Year, Vol. 5 p.284)

naomi.writes5 commented: Lovely answers! And wow, what a Christmas story!!

angelamariemichaels @naomi.writes5: Thanks! 😄💛 (Brainstorming for this one has been a real blast… When exploring every important plot point, characters would not act according to the usual route in my stories, creating some truly hilarious developments!!😆)

aimeejardoncom commented: The whut? 😳 Dendrolatrous- 👀 Oh… trees. 😶 I would of totally gotten it better if it was something like deciduo-latrous for worshiping deciduous… ✌️😌✨

angelamariemichaels @aimeejardoncom: Hehe, maybe not an actual term as far as I’ve been able to find, but I wanted to be able to use an official-sounding descriptive word like “idolatrous” and since dendrolatry is the specific worship of trees and has a similar ending to idolatry, I tacked on a “trous” to differentiate what the pagans are doing from regular dendrologous stuff, which more concerns just the 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 of trees… ;oD

aimeejardoncom commented: Oh, he was younger than 21. 👀👀👀

angelamariemichaels @aimeejardoncom: The first synopsis just wouldn’t have sounded as cool if I had called him “Baby Vence”… 😂

aimeejardoncom @angelamariemichaels: 😂😂😂

March 22, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

𝕿𝖔-𝖉𝖆𝖞 𝖎𝖋 𝖞𝖊 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖛𝖔𝖎𝖈𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉, 𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖉𝖊𝖓 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖘!

“…The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from heaven; His death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into yourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy; for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. 𝘛𝘰-𝘥𝘢𝘺, therefore, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴!”

https://archive.org/details/V06TheLiturgicalYear/page/103/mode/2up

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

“𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞.

𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬.

𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬.

𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐬.”

(St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, 1873–1897)

“𝘖 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 ‘𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘯, 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴’, 𝘐 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥; 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘭𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳! 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘯.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘱, 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦. 𝘖 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘐 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘹 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯. 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘯.”

“…Oh, I would wish to tell everybody to study and venerate an Image of the Holy Face as He left it on Veronica’s Veil. When sorrow strikes, it will be the only consolation. No matter what our grief, surely it will never be as fearful as was His!”

☙ May you all have a most blessed and fruitful Passiontide!~

March 24, 2026:

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

☙ A most blessed feast of St. Gabriel the Archangel, the “Messenger of God”! 😊💛

☙ Today happily marks the 1-year anniversary of when I first made an account with Instagram. I’m so glad that I decided to take this step at my eldest sister’s suggestion, because it has been most enjoyable to interact with other friendly, clean-fiction authors and to put together creative posts and videos to share. Just to let you know, I have updated my pinned post — “𝑨𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍𝒔” — from March 24, 2025, to reflect all of the editing and publishing progress made over the past year; to include book content for Readers; and, lastly, I also added another introductory section: “𝑴𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒆𝒂𝒎.”

☙ I recently received my first official✨ tag! compliments of @kristennicolefaustina319: “𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵.” Since I’ve just been occupied with reformatting, editing/formatting, and organizing outlines this month, I’ve shared a few lines from five of my currently ongoing projects. I took them from the exact spot(s) that I was working on at the time that I received the tag.

☙ Thanks bunches for the fun tag, Big Sis! (And a hearty “thank you” to Naomi @naomi.writes5 for tagging Kristen in the first place; I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s answers!!)
(ˆ◡ˆ)♡

serenajardon commented: Jolly fun, pal! Happy Anniversary!🎉💯

aimeejardoncom commented: Happy 1 Year Anniversary!!! 🤗🎉

kristennicolefaustina319 commented: Happy Anniversary, Little Sis! 🎉👏It’s been a great year! 😊 Love you! 🤗💛

24-hr. Instagram Story:

March 24, 2025 (2026):
PINNED POST

+𝒥𝑀𝒥

“𝑨𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍𝒔”:

❀ I am a self-published author. Beginning in 2013 with the help and encouragement of my dear mother and sisters, I have been actively writing, editing, formatting, and publishing my stories.

❀ Since then, I have penned over 50 novels; 16 of which are officially available for sale on Amazon (in either paperback or e-book format); 4 more books will be made available by this summer, at the latest; 2 others are currently in the editing process; I am in the midst of writing a fun new standalone novel, while a novel in four volumes that I am really excited about is in the last stages of the brainstorming process; and a planned miniseries has been temporarily shelved for future development, DV.

❀ Having been greatly inspired by authors such as Fr. Francis J. Finn, Meriol Trevor, and Constance Savery, I like best to write wholesome and enjoyable Catholic fiction about “kingdoms of old and fairytales retold.”

Content: close familial relationships & good friendships formed; clean, light romance (when included); no bad language, crude humor, or gratuitous and excessive violence.

❀ A few years ago, I was happily able to set up my own website and now I would like also to share more about my stories through Instagram.

❀ May you have a most blessed feast of the “Messenger of God,” patron saint of telegraphers, postal workers, communications, etcetera! :o)

(っ◔◡◔)っPS. 𝑴𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒆𝒂𝒎:

❀ “Christine W.” and “Renae Summers” are my two indispensable brainstorming, writing, & editing collaborators. My eldest sister has a public IG account for leaving likes and exchanging comments, while my youngest sister debuted her first published novel on May 8th, 2025; check out her IG account to learn more about 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 and to see some neat promo materials!

@kristennicolefaustina319
@serenajardon

❀ My younger sister, aka “Armi,” has been my absolute best technical support. She has her own self-improvement and sales business. She shares great posts on human behavior, neuroscience, neuromarketing, and more! here on IG:

@aimeejardoncom

✍️𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃: 𝟑-𝟐𝟒-𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔

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