Creativity is Not a Distraction

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The Creative Catholics, a podcast focused on creativity, faith, and the hidden life.
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I'm your host, Alex Cahill, and I am so excited to be on this journey with you.
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This podcast is really focused on being a companion for you in your creative
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life and figuring out how creativity can fit into your work and your vocation
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and the path towards sanctity.
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Before I dive into how this podcast came to be, I do want to say a quick thank
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you to Riverside.com, which we are using to record this podcast.
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Riverside is fantastic for recording podcasts, hosting webinars.
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It's a fantastic tool. Please check them out if you're interested in anything
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like that. I'll put their link in the description and in the show notes.
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I also want to say a very big thank you to Marie Miller, who is letting us use
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her amazing music for the intro and the outro of this podcast.
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Thank you so much, Marie.
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Marie will actually be on the show with us in the coming episodes.
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So definitely tune in to hear about her journey as a musician.
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I also want to briefly mention our launch giveaway.
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I'm so excited about this project that I wanted to do a celebration that we
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are releasing this podcast into the world.
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Our launch giveaway runs May 25th to June 1st of 2026. And you can find the
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details and enter at thecreativecatholics.com. All right, a little bit about
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where this podcast came from.
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Let me set the scene for you. Last autumn, I got the amazing idea in September
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that I would knit five sweaters for my children for Christmas in the style of Molly Weasley.
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Now, for those who don't know what those sweaters are, they are hand-knit jumpers
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that have an intarsia-knitted letter on the front of them for the first name of your child.
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So I have five children, so that meant five sweaters.
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Now, intarsia-style knitting is where you weave in the color instead of adding
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it later after you've knitted the jumper.
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I'm talking about this like I actually knew what it was in September when I started.
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I did not. The biggest thing that I had knitted before September of last year
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was a scarf for my husband and one for my brother.
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But let me say that I had gotten so fed up with the scarf that their scarves
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were 18 to 20 inches long each, which if you want to do a rough estimate,
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that's about the amount of scarf that you need to wrap around your neck once
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and then tuck it into your coat because there are no tails on an 18 inch scarf.
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It literally just wraps around your neck like a washcloth, okay?
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That was the biggest thing I had knitted before deciding that I could definitely
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knit five sweaters, intarsia knit, five sweaters between September and December.
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All right. So I got this amazing idea.
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My husband was like, yeah, sure, go for it. My husband is fantastic.
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I'll try and convince him to come on the show sometime because he loves the
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fact that I dabble in crafting.
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I don't know how many people would actually enjoy the fact that their spouse
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dabbles instead of committing to one particular creative project.
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But I am that person that I dabble in loads of different creative projects.
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Perhaps you are too, which is maybe why you're here. But my husband loves that
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feature about me, which I am extremely blessed and thankful for.
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So I got the idea that I would knit these sweaters.
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Okay. In the meantime...
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We had bought a dollhouse off Facebook Marketplace that was secondhand because
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my 10-year-old really wanted a dollhouse.
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And she'd never had a dollhouse before, so we bought this secondhand dollhouse.
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And my husband was spent most nights up until Christmas repainting the dollhouse,
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resurfacing it, cleaning all of the little furniture that came with it.
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And we were trying to do this completely, obviously, without my 10-year-old daughter knowing.
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My kids 100% knew they were getting sweaters because there was no way I could
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just knit them at nighttime. So I was knitting them during nap times,
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during the day, whenever I had free time.
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One night in particular, it was about beginning of November,
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I want to say. So it was just after All Hallows Eve.
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And I realized maybe I should have started this project a little bit earlier.
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But I also wanted to have something that I could listen to because I'm not one
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of those people that can knit without looking at my hands. So it couldn't have
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been a video or something like that.
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I wanted something that I could listen to that would feed my soul.
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And we hadn't fully gotten into Christmas music time yet because my husband
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is quite strict about Christmas music.
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He has given up a little bit over the years, but before it was December 1st.
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He wanted Christmas music to start on December 1st.
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We have now negotiated that a little bit into November, but it was still too
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soon, right, for my husband to be listening to Christmas music.
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And I wanted something that could feed my soul while I was knitting these sweaters.
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I wanted it to feel like someone was also creating with me, even though my husband
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was, but we weren't able to engage in conversation because we were both quite
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focused on the tasks of the creativity that we were doing.
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And I knew exactly in my head what I wanted.
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What I wanted was, so when I was a child and when we would drive anywhere to
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visit family or if we were out for the day, when we were driving back at nighttime, it would be...
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Dark and I would be curled up in the back seat and my parents would put on Love Songs with Delilah.
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Does anybody remember this radio show? It was huge, kind of in the late 90s, early 2000s.
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Wasn't just a Midwest thing, I don't think. I think it was nationwide.
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But it was called Love Songs with Delilah. And while I loved the music that
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would play, because everyone likes a good love song, right?
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What I absolutely loved was Delilah's voice and her storytelling ability,
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the way she could capture certain
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moments that really just made you feel warm and made you feel safe.
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And it made you feel like there was someone with you.
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There was a feeling of being connected to people.
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And even though it was a quiet and gentle show, you just felt held.
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And as I was knitting during these nights, I kept thinking,
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I really want something like Love Songs with Delilah, but the storytelling version
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of it, but something that was rooted in my Catholic faith and something that
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was rooted in creativity.
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I have been, over the past few years, going through a much deeper conversion
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or a purification in recent years.
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I think we can all agree 2020 was difficult for people in different ways.
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Some people didn't like being home all the time. Some people obviously might have had job loss.
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Some people might have had their studies interrupted.
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There was so many difficulties going on in 2020.
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And my difficulty came from kind of going through my first real purification in my faith.
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And it was like a gold purification, right?
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In the sense that it is hot, It is difficult, but God is continuously taking
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off that top layer to try and get down to the pure gold at the bottom.
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It was quite a difficult year.
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And thankfully, in that year, I was able to,
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end the year with finding my spiritual director and being extremely deep in my faith.
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Now, over the years since 2020, I just feel like that conversion and purification
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keeps going deeper and deeper.
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And of course, there are plateaus as there always are in people's religious
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life. And I'm talking about personal religious life.
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But by doing that, you know, we go deeper and deeper into the interior castle
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that St. Teresa of Avila talks about.
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And because I feel like I'm going deeper and deeper, by the time I'd gotten
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to, let's say, November of last year, I was at this place where I wanted to listen to stories,
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conversations that would feed my soul, nourish my soul, but also feed my creativity
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and something that would be spiritually nourishing as well as creatively companionable.
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So the heart of this podcast is a podcast accompanying Catholics towards holiness through creativity.
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I want us to all recognize and believe that creativity is not a distraction from holiness.
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It can be, but we can also see it as a way that God brings us closer to Him.
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It can be a place where God works, and it can sanctify our ordinary life.
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I think it is amazing that in the Bible, the first person in Scripture that
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is specifically described as filled with the Holy Spirit is not Noah.
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It's not Abraham, and it's not Moses or Jacob.
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In Exodus 31, then the Lord said to Moses,
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See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
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and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom,
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with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills,
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to make artistic designs for work in gold,
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silver, and bronze, to cut and set gemstones, to work in wood,
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and to engage in all kinds of crafts.
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Isn't it amazing that the first person in the Bible, the scripture tells us
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that God filled with the Holy Spirit was an artist.
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What does that tell us about God's view of artistry and creativity?
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It shows us that beauty matters to God, that craftsmanship matters to God,
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that creativity has spiritual significance. And by making things, this can be holy work.
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God is a creator and he wants us to be creative as well.
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So this podcast is meant for all those who want to create or who are creating,
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who maybe want to have a companion while they create, but it's meant to encourage you to get creative,
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to find your creative spark.
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Each week when we start an episode, I will say, please grab whatever you're
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working on creatively and let's work on it together.
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If you're planning lessons or if you are working on a business design or if
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you are baking or painting or knitting, whatever it is, please bring it to the podcast.
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Let's work on it together. I want to be there for you and I want to encourage
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you that your creativity, it matters and it matters to God.
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There's going to be two types of episodes in this podcast. So we're going to
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have solo episodes where we talk about perfectionism or we talk about artistry
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or we talk about the hidden life.
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These are all meant to encourage you and to be reflective and thoughtful.
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But we're also going to have inspiring conversations with guests.
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And I'm so excited about the guests that we have lined up already.
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When I started emailing people and asking them if they would be interested in
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joining us on this podcast, their response was amazing.
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It was so heartwarming that artists and mothers and fathers and priests and musicians and actors,
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they all wanted to share how they're using their creativity to bring themselves
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and their world closer to God.
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Our guests include artists and musicians and priests and actors,
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but also producers and entrepreneurs.
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We have storytellers. we have thoughtful online creators, and we have Catholics
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building beauty and meaning in their everyday, and you could say, hidden lives.
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This is to show you that creativity is for everyone, and everyone has a different creative spark.
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It isn't a matter that some of us are more creative than others,
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but I want to encourage you to really find your own spark, what lights you up
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inside, what brings you closer to God by seeing his craftsmanship alive in you.
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Please, if you work on projects while you're listening to this podcast,
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please, please share them with us on Instagram. You can find us at The Creative Catholics.
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And please follow us for updates and to see what the community is working on
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in their projects and to support them.
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But at the same time, we recognize that not all creativity needs to be shared with the world.
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Sometimes it is just meant for your own heart. And so in that sense,
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please just listen with us, pray with us, and create in your own time and in your own way.
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Just a reminder that we do have a launch giveaway that will be happening in
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the first week of our podcast launch, and that runs from May 25th to June 1st,
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and you can enter at thecreativecatholics.com.
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We have some amazing prizes from amazing Catholic companies,
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and you can definitely check them out both on our Instagram and on thecreativecatholics.com.
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I just want to leave you with one final thought.
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The fact that beauty matters to God.
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The fact that creativity matters to God. And the hidden work of ordinary life matters to God.
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So why shouldn't it matter to each of us?
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Until next time, stay creative and keep making...