Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Making Room for God: Decluttering and the Spiritual Life
    Making Room for God: Decluttering and the Spiritual Life
    Making Room for God: Decluttering and the Spiritual Life
    Ebook127 pages2 hours

    Making Room for God: Decluttering and the Spiritual Life

    By Mary Elizabeth Sperry

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    If cleanliness is next to godliness, do our closets have anything to say about the state of our souls?

    Decluttering became trendy with the 2014 release of Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. And while there’s no shortage of secular books promoting the practice, Making Room for God is the first book on organization from a Catholic perspective. Self-proclaimed pack rat Mary Elizabeth Sperry will help you make decluttering a prayerful, peace-filled, and soul-expanding experience.

    Popular Catholic speaker and Bible expert Mary Elizabeth Sperry explores the relationship between our stuff and Catholic beliefs about grace, sin, repentance, prayer, and the common good. She boldly affirms the goodness of our stuff and of God’s abiding presence in the worldly goods all around us. She also reminds us of how sin can distort our relationships, including the ones we have with our possessions. Through spiritual disciplines—especially prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—we can protect this relationship so that we own our possessions but they don't own us.

    Making Room for God offers an enticing and entertaining approach to decluttering, discipleship, and the spiritual life that makes tidying up seem almost fun. Writing from an unabashedly Catholic perspective and with convincing practicality, Sperry looks at the role of material goods in the life of a follower of Jesus. Each chapter includes humorous and often self-deprecating details of the author’s own journey through decluttering to help us believe that we, too, can simplify. Alongside these adventures are Sperry's rich spiritual insights gleaned from extensive knowledge of the Church’s tradition and helpful exercises for freeing ourselves from clutter and the temptation to sin it so often harbors.

    Sperry draws liberally from the Bible, liturgy, Fathers of the Church, lives of the saints, and Church teaching—especially that of Pope Francis—as she explores the relationship between our stuff and our spiritual lives. Practical elements offer a step-by-step approach to decluttering living spaces, getting rid of unused and excess items, and limiting future accumulation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAve Maria Press
    Release dateFeb 2, 2018
    ISBN9781594717987
    Making Room for God: Decluttering and the Spiritual Life
    Author

    Mary Elizabeth Sperry

    Mary Elizabeth Sperry has worked for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops since 1994, and serves as associate director for USCCB permissions and NAB utilization. The author of five books, Sperry's articles have appeared in publications including Give Us This Day, Liguorian, Emmanuel, and Today's Parish Minister. She speaks about the Bible and a variety of spiritual topics in dioceses and parishes throughout the United States and has been interviewed on National Public Radio, EWTN Radio, CBS Radio, Relevant Radio, and SiriusXM. Sperry earned a master's degree in liturgical studies from Catholic University of America and a master’s degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has bachelor’s degrees in international politics, Russian, and economics. She lives in the Washington, DC, area.

    Related to Making Room for God

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Goodbye Things, Hello Life

      May 19, 2020

      Goodbye Things, Hello Life
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Protestant Look At Mary, Mother Of Fesus

      Apr 22, 2019

      She is known by dozens of names: The Blessed Virgin, Saint Mary, Madonna, Queen of Heaven, Mother of Mercy, Our Lady, Mother of Perpetual Help, Queen of Peace, Mother of God, plus numerous devotional titles as well. In the Bible she is simply known a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Clutter, Be Gone!

      Dec 28, 2020

      Clutter, Be Gone!
      4 min read

    • Article

      ORGANISE & CONQUER

      Jun 9, 2019

      When we first launched The Home Edit, our professional decluttering service and consultancy (or THE, as we are often called), we had a very clear objective: to transform the way people think about organisation. When spaces are efficient, user-friendl

      4 min read

    • Article

      Grieving Shirley

      Nov 26, 2020

      Grieving Shirley
      5 min read

    • Article

      MUM’S SECRET I drank THREE BOTTLES OF WINE a day

      Jul 7, 2021

      My husband, David, and I couldn’t have been happier to start the next chapter of our lives – parenthood. We’d just welcomed our sweet baby girl, Addison, into the world. But back at home, I struggled. A counsellor, I’d been a workaholic, taking pride

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hit REFRESH

      Jan 8, 2020

      Hit REFRESH
      16 min read

    • Article

      My Tiny House Life

      Jan 15, 2021

      My Tiny House Life
      7 min read

    • Article

      My Tiny House Life

      Jan 15, 2021

      My Tiny House Life
      7 min read

    • Article

      Possessed By Possessions

      Mar 8, 2020

      Possessed By Possessions
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Sep 29, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      8 min read

    • Article

      Penny For Your Thoughts

      Feb 23, 2022

      Penny For Your Thoughts
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Story of Too Much Stuff

      Sep 2, 2021

      The Story of Too Much Stuff
      4 min read

    • Article

      Less Is More

      Nov 4, 2020

      Less Is More
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fluid Families

      Dec 6, 2019

      Fluid Families
      2 min read

    • Article

      Queen Of Common Sense.

      Dec 10, 2020

      Queen Of Common Sense.
      9 min read

    • Article

      Finding Grace At Christmas

      Nov 30, 2023

      Finding Grace At Christmas
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Ordinary Made Sublime

      Jan 13, 2022

      The Ordinary Made Sublime
      5 min read

    • Article

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0

      Jul 17, 2022

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0
      18 min read

    • Article

      Parent Stories

      Dec 2, 2021

      Parent Stories
      7 min read

    • Article

      To Breed Or Not To Breed?

      Apr 23, 2020

      To Breed Or Not To Breed?
      4 min read

    • Article

      Living Lightly At Home

      Dec 20, 2020

      When we bought our home, my goal was for a place where I only had to plug in my vacuum cleaner once to reach every room. While I’m not a huge fan of vacuuming, there was obviously way more to the decision than just that. Choosing a smaller house was

      6 min read

    • Article

      Finding Grace At Christmas

      Nov 30, 2023

      Finding Grace At Christmas
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Making Room for God

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Making Room for God - Mary Elizabeth Sperry

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1