2023 Year in Review
Celebrating our 5th Anniversary as we look back on another grace-filled year.
As we celebrate the 5 Year Anniversary of the founding of Journeys Revealed Ministries on January 28, 2024, we find ourselves reflecting on 2023 with much wonder and awe. This past year was another one of great growth for us. Now, we’ll admit, this growth looks a little different on the surface than in previous years. But perhaps what we’re noticing is a deeper, more rooted growth taking place. As our humble nonprofit continues to mature, one of the developments we are noticing is that we are finding ourselves coming to better know who we are and who we are not. Though our mission “to Spread the Love of Jesus by Sharing the Stories of Our Souls, One Intimate Moment at a Time” hasn’t changed these past five years, how we’re striving to carry out this mission and communicate it with others certainly has. With that being said, we are beyond grateful for the countless ways the Lord has grown us and shaped us over our time here, and we pray for the grace to continue to follow where He leads in the years to come.
“The World Is Noisy – God Whispers: Volume II” Release
JRM’s Founder, President, and Director of Apostolic Works, Julia Monnin, released her THIRD book The World Is Noisy – God Whispers: Volume II, My Trials and Tribulations on January 2nd – the 100th anniversary of the birth of our patroness, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Pictured with her here is her Aunt, Uncle, and Grandmother. This book marks the sixth book we have published since our founding in 2019. . . .“The World Is Noisy – God Whispers®” 3rd Annual Retreat
We held our 3rd Annual The World Is Noisy – God Whispers® retreat on January 20 & 21, 2023 at The Retreat Center in Maria Stein. We spent our time this year unpacking the beauty of authentic masculinity and femininity in a retreat titled “Do you love Me? . . . Will you fight for Me?”. Over forty men and women joined us at this retreat as we all learned to better embrace what it truly means to be “man” and “woman” and . . .
A New Team Member
Valerie Christman (you might know Valerie as one of the hosts of the JRM produced the Red Sunflowers podcast) officially joined the JRM team as our “Coordinator of Apostolic Works” in January of 2023. Assisting in all things big and small in the JRM office, Valerie has been a welcomed presence in our day-to-day endeavors. She is such a wonderful member of our team, and we are blessed to have her. You can learn more about Valerie and her role with us here.Hail Mary Media App Partner Podcasts
Edified and inspired by the messages we are sharing on our podcasts, Mater Dei Radio (based out of Oregon) began “partnering” with us by sharing some of our podcasts on their own platform. In their “Hail Mary Media” app, listeners can find JRM’s The World Is Noisy – God Whispers® podcast as well as Julia Monnin’s The Schoenstatt Way of Life podcast and Julia & Fr. Sean Wilson’s podcast Darting Through The Faith. (Sidenote: We’ve never been to Oregon before but have heard it’s beautiful. Who wants to go?!?)
“The World Is Noisy – God Whispers®” Podcast Turns 5!
The first of JRM’s podcasts, The World Is Noisy – God Whispers® podcast reached the 81st episode mark as host Julia Monnin continues to share her “behind the scenes” thoughts and ponderings related to the reflections found in her books on this monthly show. Keep reading this Year in Review to learn more about some of the special episodes she produced (with some very special guests) in 2023! And click here to see a full list of all 81 episodes (and counting!).“Heroic Virtue” Day of Recollection
On our list of firsts for JRM, we hosted our very own Day of Recollection in March of 2023. Thirty men and women (priests and parish staff members) joined Julia Monnin at The Retreat Center in Maria Stein for this day of discussion, reflection, and prayer. Some of the main themes from the day’s talks included: Growing in Holiness, Building Saintly Relationships, and Understanding Realistic Expectations. To learn more about this Day of Recollection and consider hosting it in your own parish family, click here.
A New Spiritual Companion
Did we mention that 2023 was a year of growth for us that’s been unlike any of the growth we’ve experienced before? Well, in addition to adding Valerie Christman to the team, we have also been blessed to officially welcome Theresa Jenkins to the JRM family. Theresa joins Julia Monnin as a Spiritual Companion who is available to sit down with others one-on-one to offer a listening ear and an . . .
“Running to Jesus” Blog Turns 1!
In other “did you know” news, did you know that Krista Schulze, a writer at JRM, has been sharing her insights on the joys and sorrows of motherhood in her Running to Jesus blog for over a year now?!? You can learn more about Krista and subscribe to her blog here. You can also check out her latest post here. Krista is yet another wonderful woman we are blessed to walk with as she strives “to Spread the Love of Jesus by Sharing the Story of Her Soul, One Intimate Moment at a Time.”
New & Improved Website
As we mentioned in the opening paragraph, our growth and maturation over the years has brought with it the ability to better understand who we are and what we are called to do. As we’ve realized this more and more, we wanted our website to better reflect our understanding. Our new and improved website (which was released on May 31st of 2023, the Feast of the Visitation) does a much better job . . .
“The World Is Noisy – God Whispers®” Podcast Mini-Series
Host Julia Monnin sat down with Catholic therapist Alex Wallace for a conversation about the problem with loneliness, the beauty of authentic relationships, and the security (not to mention freedom) that can be found in being vulnerable. The two were then later joined by Fr. Jedidiah Tritle in an episode about the differences between Confession, Therapy, and Spiritual Direction in this podcast mini-series released in June.
Intimate Sharing Between Friends
“For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” Taking our inspiration for the title of these regular, ongoing, in person events from St. Teresa of Avila’s quote above, we continued to grow our apostolate by launching our “Intimate Sharing Between Friends” gatherings in the fall. The St. Henry Parish Family in St. Henry, Ohio hosted us for this opening series during which we discussed Section 4 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (the section on prayer). We plan to continue offering this ISBF series (with rotating topics, dates, times, and locations) in the future. Check out the Events Page on our website to see where we’re at next.Wine, Women, & Jesus Collaboration
Julia Monnin joined her friend Missy Bennett and the ladies of Wine, Women & Jesus at their September event for an evening of “Girl Talk . . . Catholic Girl Talk.” This was Julia’s third time speaking at a Wine, Women & Jesus event and, as always, the evening invited all to be “filled to the brim” for Him! (See John 2:1–12.) To listen to the talk Julia gave at this event, check out Episode 80 of The World Is Noisy – God . . .
Happy 3rd Move-In Anniversary, JRM!
Taking a leap of faith and trusting in God’s goodness and providential care, we moved into our very first office space in September of 2020. It’s hard to believe we’ve been working out of this little “corner” of the world for three years already! Though small in size, the space has adapted quite well (at least thus far) to our ever-growing needs. (In this process of growth, we may have had to turn the shower into our . . .The “Red Sunflowers” Podcast Turns 3!
Hosts Grace Weatherhead and Valerie Christman recorded their 31st episode of the Red Sunflowers podcast in 2023. On the show they host book studies, talk about their favorite saints, discuss a variety of Catholic topics (whatever the Lord is stirring in their hearts), chat about Catholic nerdy things (any Lord of the Rings fans?), and love to ask each other strange, off-the-wall questions. You can learn more about Grace and Val and check out all the episodes of their podcast here.
“The World Is Noisy – God Whispers: The Second Daily Devotional” Release
Joined by some of our closest companions, we celebrated the release of Julia Monnin’s FOURTH book The World Is Noisy – God Whispers: The Second Daily Devotional with an event hosted by our friends at Silver Cross Catholic Store. As with Julia’s “Second” Daily Devotional, store owners Jim and Missy Bennett were also celebrating a “2nd” in their life. This book release coincided with the celebration of the second year of them owning the Silver Cross store. . . .“In Persona Christi” Pilgrimage
Seeking to fulfill the purpose of “helping others develop lives of deep prayer, study, contemplation, and service” as well as “to create a culture of openness” as listed in our official decree signed by Archbishop Dennis Schnurr designating us as a Private Association of the Faithful, we hosted our very first pilgrimage in 2023. As stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Pilgrimages evoke our . . .
COMING SOON – Pilgrim Letters
Speaking of pilgrims, check this out! In 2023, we began sitting down with Audrey Weatherhead, a new writer for JRM, who felt called to share the story of her young soul in an “old” sort-of-a-way. After months of discussion and prayer, we were thrilled to announce in our 2023 Fall Newsletter that COMING SOON (in the spring of 2024), “fellow pilgrims” will be able to sign up to receive a copy of a handwritten . . .Gifts that Keep on Giving: Our FIRST Online Holiday Sale
Since a large part of how we sustain ourselves financially is dependent on us selling our books at our full, retail cost, we don’t discount our titles often. However, we wanted to encourage our readers to “gift” our books to their family and friends this year for Christmas, so we offered a 20% discount to any purchases of five or more books in our online store. Another first for us, we ran this Holiday Sale from November 15, 2023 – January 7, 2024.
“The World Is Noisy – God Whispers®” Blog Turns 9!
Nine years: that’s how long it’s been since Julia has been “sharing the story of her soul” in her The World Is Noisy – God Whispers® blog. She’s sent out over 400 reflections to her subscribers over the years through these weekly posts. To quote a footnote of hers found in Volume II of her writings, “I’m certain you won’t be surprised to hear that I did not want to [start a blog]. I had made up my mind that if I really was meant to share any of my writing with the public, then I would just wait to share it all at once when my book was actually in print. But [my spiritual director] was very persistent in his directive [about me doing so] and, after some time, I knew he was probably right about the matter. Besides, whether he was actually right or not, I had an obligation to proceed with what he was asking of me. So, out of obedience to him, I began sharing my journal reflections, one by one, with others. And this is when (and why) I started my blog.” You can subscribe to Julia’s blog here.As you can see from the above Year in Review, we’ve been striving eagerly to make the most out of the many gifts and graces our good and gracious Lord has sent our way over the years. And we certainly don’t plan to stop serving Him as we grow in our love of Him anytime soon! In addition to all of the above, it seems noteworthy to mention that we sat down one-on-one with 32 people at 78 different Spiritual Companionship meetings in 2023. (Again, you can learn more about this ministry here.) We also had 14 meetings with different men and women discerning the possibility of sharing their writings with others. (Which perhaps might, one day, lead us into turning these writings of theirs into a book!) Additionally, we spoke at 16 events in 2023 which connected us with over 700 people. Oh, and lest we forget what is most important of all, we rooted all of these external works of service in prayer encouraging everyone we’ve been blessed to meet along the way to join us in invoking the intercession of our patron saints during our novenas leading up to their feast days throughout the year. In short, 2023 was a year unlike any other! We’ve grown. We’ve shared. We’ve learned. We’ve loved. We’ve journeyed. We’ve revealed. And, you know what? God willing, that’s exactly what we’ll keep doing in 2024!
Do you feel called to join us in our mission? There are many ways to get involved, but please start by praying for us and for the fruitfulness of our ministry. The financial support we receive from generous donors is also deeply appreciated. There are significant costs associated with publishing books, hosting events, and providing the resources writers and speakers need to share the story of their soul. Click here to offer your gift and to learn more about what the future holds for us at Journeys Revealed Ministries.
To sustain our apostolate, our funding need for 2024 is $50,000. Do you feel called to help us reach our goal?