Merry Mary-Marthas: Chats with Catholic women exemplifying the feminine genius in the world and in the home.
Meet Jenna Hines,
mother and author
Jenna Hines is the author of The Lazy Liturgical as well as owner of the liturgical living digital shop Call Her Happy. She lives in Michigan with her husband of 12 years, her almost five children, and chickens. A former high school English teacher, Jenna now homeschools her kids and works for Our Sunday Visitor.
Her most recent project is helping families with easy liturgical living in their homes. All of Jenna’s activities from her printable shop as well as her book require no preparation or special materials. Just open up or print and go. Jenna believes that it is not the amount of time we put into liturgical living, it is just the fact that we try. In fact, one of her favorite quotes is from the famous G.K. Chesterton, “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” Any type of solid catechism at home is worth it!
Tell us a little bit about yourself – your family, hobbies, experiences, education, etc., basically anything you’d like to share.
I am a wife and mother to four children on earth, one due in December, and a saint in Heaven. I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with our children and homeschool them for the past 11 years. I also do freelance illustration work for Our Sunday Visitor’s children’s magazine, OSV Kids. I love to create in many mediums, and most nights you’ll find me watching baseball while reading a book on my Kindle. As a family, we do a lot of camping and visiting National Parks. We’ve visited 12 so far.
What is your apostolate? How do you bring truth, beauty and goodness to the world? How did your ministry/apostolate begin?
My primary apostolate is always within the domestic church of our home. However, I also look for other ways I can contribute to the community of believers and those seeking. In addition to my work with Our Sunday Visitor, I also run an Etsy shop, head the meal ministry at our parish, host a women’s prayer group, attend parish council meetings, volunteer at VBS, and sign up for participating roles in our liturgy. If you ask God to keep you busy, He will find something that fits your life.
What have you struggled with and how have you managed to balance the interior life of Mary, with the exterior life of Martha? Tell us about your practice of prayer and any special devotions you have, and how this supports/enhances your apostolate.
A while back, the Gospel at Mass was about Martha and Mary. I whispered to my husband afterward, “I always have trouble relating to this Gospel,” and he almost laughed out loud. I am such a Martha. If you ask me to complete a task, be prepared for it to be done immediately. It is my gift and my cross. I am very productive, but I also can make productivity my idol, and I need to constantly ask God (and my husband) for advice on whether or not I should pick up a new task…is this task going to be beneficial to my spiritual life? Luckily, God gave me a husband who is able to talk a lot of sense into me when I start to get too busy. // I love all of the saints, and I have a different saint buddy for every trouble in life. I often ask St. Dymphna to pray for my mental health, and I ask St. Josemaria Escriva to pray for my ordered productivity. I am also often asking the intercession of our saint in Heaven, St. Blaise Dymphna. I ask him to pray for my marriage and my children and godchildren – specifically for our sanctity and vocations.
Where can we learn more about you and your apostolate (contact info, website, etc.) and new projects?
I am always updating my Instagram account (@lazyliturgical) with various feast day activities (and a book!) that can be found in my Etsy shop: callherhappy.etsy.com. Each activity is just print and go. My goal is to create liturgical living resources for families that require no preparation.
