The Birth of a Blog

Dear Friends both old and new!

Welcome to my first post at Water into Wine, a blog about the transformative power and beauty of our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic faith.

I love all things Catholic, which for me includes sacraments and scripture, saints, the catechism, and common sense! Throw in all that is natural and healthy, educational and inspirational, and I’ll be sharing recipes and research, reviews of great resources–and interviews with fascinating people. I look forward to bringing you along as I attend enriching Catholic gatherings and travel around the country speaking at parishes, dioceses, and regional events.

Living a life of faith can be a great joy and I hope we will, in a virtual sense, walk this path together in the peace of Jesus Christ. I invite you to have a conversation with me and with the wider community by subscribing to Water into Wine and sharing what you have found helpful in your search for greater intimacy with God.

I ask that all comments be made with kindness and respect out of love for God, since it’s all too easy to focus on each other’s faults and differences of opinion. There are plenty of trolls out there whom I plan to completely ignore, just so you know up front. I don’t respect abusive behavior and I can’t answer every charge, nor do I have time to tussle with every professional wet blanket out there. I believe we really can choose the high ground and make this world a better place, one combox at a time.

However, if I mess up and misstate the facts and you feel that I have been careless or insensitive in some way, let me know. I may not always agree with you, but if you treat me with respect I promise I’ll try to hear you in a spirit of love. Please know that I struggle against my own weaknesses daily, and that I expect to fail sometimes, in spite of my best efforts. I just hope that God will choose to make something worthy out of my broken efforts.

As happy a day as this is for me, as I launch on my favorite Marian feast, it is very sad for me to start a blog about transformation and the beauty of faith when hatred against Christians around the world is at a fever pitch. The suffering and destruction perpetrated by the death squads of ISIS is simply unimaginable, and I thank my colleagues at Patheos, especially our incomparable editor and den mother, Elizabeth Scalia, for bringing so much of this tragic story to light, when most secular outlets shamelessly ignored it for too long.

I trust that with our prayers, sacrifices, donations, and activism we can all help to support the innocent victims of this hellish outpouring of violence. I believe with all my heart that God is present to each suffering soul, providing graces and blessings that are invisible to us now but will bear fruit for eternity. It chafes, but we need to remember to pray for the bad guys, too. Their immortal souls are likewise precious to God.

So as I launch in humility, knowing that this blog is a very small thing of no real importance, would you glance heavenward for me and say a little prayer for my work? I’m a wife and mom, and my family comes first, so you’ll know the reason if I disappear from time to time. But I am sincerely offering my writing for souls, especially those who die unprovided, and for those who are suffering so greatly in this life. Please ask God to keep me faithful, help me write everything that He wants me to, and use this blog to spread love and deepen faith.

On her feast day, I ask Blessed Mary Ever Virgin, our most pure and Holy Queen, to make of this work whatever pleases her most, so that it will be transformed by grace into something beautiful for God–like water into wine.

Thank you and God bless you.

Lisa Mladinich

August 15, 2014

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary