 Hi, I'm Mary Harrell for Tan Books. Peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and meatballs, Catholic kids lit, and Katie Warner. Some things just are better together. And Katie is here today to talk about her newest book, which takes us inside a day in the life of a Dominican cloistered monastery and the sisters that live within its walls. Take a look. There it is. Pretty darn cute. Katie's here with us today, as I said. She's a Catholic homeschooling mom. She's the author and editor of the First Faith Treasury series that you can find here on Tan Books. Her other picture books include Father Ben Gets Ready for Mass, Lily Loleck, Future Saint, and Listening for God, Silence Practice for Little Ones. Katie also writes for the National Catholic Register and helps others come to the church through Catholics Come Home. Katie, thanks for joining us. It's so good to be with you, Mary. Katie, how did you get to this picture book about Sister Claire? How did you pick the Dominicans? What was your inspiration behind this? Yeah, so we knew for a while after the popularity of Father Ben Gets Ready for Mass that we wanted to do a book for religious sisters. I think it's a much lesser known and understood life. For most Catholics have never been to the grounds of a cloister, let alone inside of a convent. So we thought it'd be really neat to give people a look inside and help them experience a day in the life of a cloistered nun. One of my dear friends from graduate school had actually been discerning her vocation with the contemplative Dominicans and made her final vows during the process of Meg and I working on this book. So she and I wrote letters back and forth about her daily routine, and I used her schedule as the basis for the storyline. So the timing of her solemn profession couldn't have come at a more Holy Spirit-driven time because Meg and I got to attend and Meg was able to get a really good look at the grounds and the chapel and was able to base much of the artwork on the actual monastery. So we in the end received permission from the prioress to include a photo of our friend, Sister Dominic Mary of Mercy, that she took with us while we were at her solemn profession in the back of the book. So it's really fun for kids to get to the end of the book and then to see the real life nun that has ties to the story. Wow. Just like in thinking about how the apostles were real people, you know, the saints are real people, religious sisters are real people. They are not made of plaster. They're actual real flesh and blood, right? You know, as I mentioned before, many, you know, very few Catholics really know much of anything about this type of religious life, specifically life in a cloister. We see priests and active sisters very, you know, fairly often, but the life of a contemplative monk or nun is reserved and so it's kind of mysterious to us. And it's funny because one of our test readers, one of our pre-readers was actually surprised. I maybe shocked is a better word for it to see Sister Claire napping and playing during her typical day. And I think many of us without realizing it can kind of picture nuns just kneeling and praying all day long. And trust me, they definitely do a lot of praying, but there's actually a lot more to their day. It's filled with chores and work and rest and leisure. And the books makes all of that tangible and sort of peels back the curtain on what's really going on in a convent behind those closed doors. So these are women who still need to run their home and grow together as a family. And my sister or my friend, Sister Dominic Mary, has told me before that her life is very much similar to our family life. There's sisters that you're close to and sisters that you don't really get along with. And there are chores and tasks that you don't always feel like doing. And you're required to be obedient to the superior. But then there's also so many joys again, as in family life, getting to grow and holiness together and celebrate the prayer or pray together and celebrate the sacraments together and do liturgical living together, play games and laugh and make memories. And so I think that, and I hope that children will really enjoy experiencing all of this throughout the book. Sister Claire gets ready for prayer and adults can maybe even learn a little bit along the way too. Kitty, you made a great decision, I think, in this book in that you would break what they call the fourth wall in that you actually talk to the reader and you ask the reader, probably a child, to light a candle or to say a little prayer with you or to stand up, sit down, kneel down, all those things. How did you come to that decision that that would be your tone for the book? Yeah. So I really like this aspect of Sister Claire. Like you mentioned, the children are invited to interact on every page. So they'll sing, they'll count, they'll move around, they'll talk about what they would do in their free time if they were none, pray with the sisters and more. Having this participatory element of the story really brings the whole book to life and I think makes it an experience and not just a book. It kind of allows you to create memories as a family and it makes the book really fun in a way that has the child asking for repeat readings and then also delights the adult who gets to engage with the child and the story. It also just helps with memory, having these kind of tactile ways to interact with the story as you're going along, really cements the teachings of the book in the memory of the child. I was actually really surprised, honestly, Mary, that all of my kids from toddler to the almost 10-year-old really loved the prompts and to connect with the book and then also sharing their thoughts. It was such a joy for me the first time I read it with them and I learned things about my kids in the process too, which was really fun. That's darling, so I was just going to ask, what inspires you with your own kids? I'm sure you do a lot of reading at home, both your kids reading and read aloud. What are some of the stories or authors or book series that have inspired you as a family in your literary journey together? Yeah, absolutely. I think that one of the things that helps us tremendously in helping to foster vocations in our children and teach them about vocations is just good books. We really immerse ourselves in the lives of the saints. I love Tan's series from Mary, Fabie, and Wendia. All of those saint chapter books are just fabulous and we're always in the middle of reading one as one of our read-alouds and the kids know they can pretty much expect me to cry at some point during those books. The stories are so touching and immersive and I think just reading and studying the saints together is probably one of the capstones of our theology at home with the kids. We always make sure that we're spending time every day in the Bible together and in the lives of the saints and it really creates a lot of amazing conversations also because as kids, I don't think my husband and I really immersed ourselves in the lives of the saints nearly as much as our children are able to do now and so we're often learning for the first time what's going on in the lives of these saints, applying it to our own lives and it's really amazing to see my children bring up the saints in everyday life and experiences as if they were their friends and that's who they're meant to be. They're meant to be our friends in heaven and it's neat to have children today through great books be able to bring their faith in a tangible way into the home and in a way that they can discuss those things with their parents and see their lives reflected in the books and then also see what they're learning in the books reflected in their own lives. Makes for great conversations around the dinner table when you can bring in saints you've read stuff that's happened to you and bring it back to your family life, incredible. Katie, the aspect I mentioned this to someone on on Instagram I think about Sister Claire gets ready for prayer about how many vocations Katie Warner is going to influence in her writing career and beyond but do you think about that that little girls could be looking at this book and thinking hey this could be me I could be taking a nap in a monastery someday wearing white and black right? I do I do genuinely hope and pray for that Mary like one of our regular prayer intentions in the evening as a family is for our first faith treasury readers and I do pray for future vocations to come from this. My daughter my five-year-old just told me for the first time the other day after you know we had read Sister Claire a week before that that she thinks it'd be really cool to be a nun when she grows up and that wasn't a thought that she'd ever expressed before so I knew that it was the book that kind of got that just even stirring in her head. I'm just I was amazed all of the thought-provoking questions and discussions that came from my kids during and after reading Sister Claire with them for the first time and we've been able to continue those discussions. I think that really all parents and godparents and teachers and grandparents can really do just a few simple things that allow this fostering of vocations to be something very doable in their own homes and one of them as I mentioned is through books. Reading books like Sister Claire gets ready for prayer. You mentioned Father Ben gets ready for Mass. We also have a book called Jack Giorgio Future Priest that also highlights the priesthood really beautifully and then another fairly newer title One Holy Marriage the story of St. Louis and Zaley Martine and reading books that highlight the sacraments whether that's the religious life or the vocation to marriage I think really helps children kind of make that vocation a little bit more tangible so they can see what living that vocation is really like and then also prayer like I mentioned we make praying for our children's future vocations a daily habit we teach them how to pray for their future vocations whether that be to marriage or to the religious life and then we also pray for vocations in general which can be as easy as just making that one of the intentions in your regular family rosary and then finally I think relationships is another really good way to foster vocations with our kids so that means giving our kids a chance to be around with to talk with and to learn from Catholics in various vocations so inviting your parish priest over for dinner or getting to know the sisters at a local Catholic school or order taking pilgrimages to spend time at a monastery or convent so your child can see and pray with monks and nuns who have given their life to Christ in the church to and then and then also even with the vocation of marriage we can help them better understand and appreciate the vocation of marriage by talking about our wedding day about our vows and letting our children experience the real joy of married life by intentionally caring for one another and growing in holiness together in a way that's visible to the kids I was just telling my husband that that in the same way that we take kids to go visit colleges when they get to that high school level think of can you picture yourself here we should do that with seminaries we should do that with monasteries can you picture yourself here do you see this as a life you could see yourself in but that's not always in the psyche of the parent today's take them to that kind of place yeah my husband just got back from having a silent retreat at a Benedictine monastery and immediately upon his return we knew that he want we wanted him to bring the boys in a few years because just being able to see their way of life like I said for most of us is just mysterious we kind of as I mentioned before we kind of picture them just kneeling and praying all day and that is a big part of their life but also seeing the way they relate to each other the way they work the way they follow a rule and all of that is so helpful for our kids it makes it less of you know less of just some imaginary lifestyle in their head and more of a real thing and real people and real faces really radically giving their life to God in this way and then seeing that it brings them joy I feel like especially in our culture today that's looked at as really a crazy form of life and it is radical but it's radically beautiful and I don't think you could really understand that unless you saw it for yourself and so even again bringing you know your family to a monastery where they can even hear the nuns choir singing through the mass like that's such a beautiful opportunity that you can't get at a parish church that I think is really helpful and formative as children kind of flesh out and begin to pray and discern God's call for their own life right or just leaving that that mark on their soul that when I was little I went and heard this choir somewhere and I was none I was never the same I never forgot it and had hearing those voices yeah chills gives me chills I would say Mary too like even just the I know my husband was just inspired by that level of piety you know like just how how in the midst of our vocation you know in family life prayer looks very different than it looks like in a monastery or convent and it can be a good reminder for children and adults just to really give your heart very fully to prayer in those moments you are able to be in silent prayer with God you know because you can move mountains in your own life if you just make more time for that that quiet time with the Lord for allowing him to speak to your heart as you mentioned we have another book called listening for God that helps children recognize that silent time is so important because that's when God's going to speak to your heart he's going to draw closer to you you're going to develop a friendship with him that allows you to hear his voice when he's calling you to a particular vocation and we can plant the seeds for our children to do that especially if we show them examples of Catholics who are really giving their life wholeheartedly to prayer which can include their own parents giving their life wholeheartedly to prayer and that allows us to know what God's will is for our life of all the feedback on your books and there's been a lot of parents who love one book or the other I think I've seen the most people have feedback that listening for God has changed their home prayer life so much because I don't know what other Catholic book or Christian a book that teaches children about the power of you're like a modern day mama cardinal sarah about the power of silence and translating that for toplers no one else has done that that is humbling and high praise and I will come nowhere near earning and deserving that title but I actually had been reading the power of silence by cardinal sarah and leading up to that book and so it really was very much inspired by my own search for more of that quiet contemplative prayer in my own life as a busy mom and wanting to teach my children those seeds of silent prayer and what I love about the book it was actually funny because there was an amazon reviewer who had had made an assumption about the book without reading it which was so unfortunate that you know this idea of we don't seek silence as an end in itself and that's exactly I completely agree you know we don't just seek silence to go into like internally into ourselves and stay there we're we're we're seeking silence as a way to hear God's voice and so the story actually uses the story of Elijah in scripture as the basis for the storyline and that idea of the still small voice and he wasn't able to hear that still small voice until he quieted himself and so children as they're busy and you know just going about their days that kind of listening for God allows them to jump into roar you know like a fire and to and to pound the ground like an earthquake and get their wiggles out and then encourage them to be quiet so they can learn those building blocks of prayer because we can't eventually hear God's voice until we learn how to be quiet first and then in the book I also mentioned in the back how we can hear God's voice in other ways in our life too because some children think well I'm quiet but I can't hear God speaking to me and it helps to encourage them by showing them that God is actually speaking to you already he's speaking to you through his word every time you read sacred scripture that's God's message and love letters to you and he's speaking to you through speaking to you through other people in your life he's speaking to you through nature when he puts a rainbow in the sky after a storm and so it just kind of helps children have a tangible way to start recognizing that God is trying to speak with them he already is you know communicating with them and that the more they practice that interior silence and listening for his voice the more they'll be able to hear it in their daily life so I do think that book was especially useful in our own home and that's probably why it's been useful to many other parents in their homes because it really gives us that launching point to teach our children how to be quiet so that they can hear God's voice in their life. Everyone likes a little more quiet in their home there's no one that my house is too quiet I guess Katie wrapping up with you here what surprises you in your own looking at this growing stack of books that you have authored now what does the prize do about assuming this life of the not just Catholic children's literature author but also just a Catholic author in general yeah actually Mary more than people commenting on any particular book I do have people ask me very frequently where do you find the time and I think the answer is that I don't even know like sometimes I say yeah how am I finding the time for this and I really believe that the Holy Spirit wants this work to be done and so he's making the time I'm like you mentioned I am a homeschooling mom I'm a full-time stay-at-home mom my kids and my family life is my primary vocation and I never want any work that I do to take away from that and this beautiful children's book work Mary I'm gonna I'm gonna say all this without crying just just watch but it really has been such a blessing in our life because it only it only brings life into the family and it doesn't take anything away and I thank God for that every day because I am I love reading beautiful children's books to my kids and Meg and I got into this work because one because I wanted her artwork to be available to more people because it's beautiful and she's pragmatic so she could use a caloric that may you know help make it happen but also because we really wanted our faith represented in a good true beautiful and fun way while still being solid and catechetical to our children so that we could plant these seeds of truth in their heart and have these discussions and experiences that we really wanted to have with them over good books and to have Catholic children's literature that our kids were as excited to grab off the shelves as they were their secular counterparts and so thanks to Meg and Amy and Leah and some of the amazing illustrators that I work with they've really allowed that to happen because these books obviously wouldn't be what they were without the incredible artists behind them and I'm just thankful for that every day because I've seen the impact they've had on my own children I mean my son still reads Jack Giorgio almost every day and wants to be a priest when he grows up and and books can really change lives and they can change the hearts of young children and I'm just I'm truly thankful that I that I get to do this work and I feel like just mother Teresa once said that she was a little pencil in the hand of God and I kind of I feel like that when it comes to the children's book I'm just your little pencil for as long as you want me to do this I'm so thankful to be on this ride and I hope it can last for many decades because I'm enjoying it so so much and I'm very thankful to Tan for making these books so widely available to kids all around the world well I know there are there are moms and dads across the country probably actually around the world who are grateful that you have taken the time to put these models of what children can be in the religious life out for all children to see hold in their hands think about every day think about in the years to come so thank you for all the work you've done on these again the book today is Sister Claire Gets Ready for Prayer you can find it here on tanbooks.com and also at your local Catholic bookstore kitty congrats on another amazing amazing project thank you Mary it's a blessing thanks for allowing me to share more about it today