God is Calling You with Allison Gingras of Reconciled to You

In her 30s, Allison Gingras was invited to her first Bible study by a friend. Initially, she attended primarily for the snacks. 

But then, Allison fell in love with the Word of God. 

As Holy Scripture touched her heart, Allison began to live her faith. 

Allison has embraced God's call to follow Christ, even when it has been difficult. Her journey has included writing and speaking about her Catholic faith. Additionally, she and her husband, Deacon Kevin, adopted a toddler girl from China.  

In the series “Women of Wisdom,” Allison inspires listeners to trust that God has a purpose for their lives. God’s call is eternal; as long as we are alive, we continue to be called. 

Learn more about Allison Gingras at https://reconciledtoyou.com.

Transcript:

Lindy Wynne (00:01.512)

Welcome to Mamas in Spirit, a podcast pointing you towards God in everything you are and everything you do. I'm Lindy Wynne and it's a blessing to be with you. Hello everyone and welcome to this gathering, to this mini retreat in a podcast. What a gift it is to gather as sisters in Christ and to take pause in our lives so hopefully we can contemplate the goodness, the generosity,

the blessing of the Lord and how the Lord is uniquely calling each one of us in our lives. And today we are going to be talking about just that in this series, Women of Wisdom, because I know that for myself and for all of us, we are hungry for wisdom, the wisdom of the Lord every day of our lives. And also the joy of the Lord, because we are here with Allison Gingras. Allison, welcome to Mamas in Spirit.

Allison Gingras (00:54.428)

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really looking forward to this time together with everyone.

Lindy Wynne (00:58.806)

Well, we are so looking forward to being with you and Allison, you are really a hoot.

Allison Gingras (01:06.044)

Thank you. That's the best compliment.

Lindy Wynne (01:06.542)

Actually, it kind of is. Because who doesn't love to laugh and who doesn't love the joy of the Lord? And I told Allison before we started that I spent time with her book, Jesus Heals, Finding Hope, Wholeness and Peace. And I always check because I have made some pretty significant errors on names, know, live and learn while doing mamas in spirit over the almost past seven years. And so I always ask people, even if the name seems so obvious, how to pronounce it?

And so Allison explained to me that it's gin grass. If you drink too much gin, you'll land on the grass.

Lindy Wynne (01:44.206)

You just speak in truth in so many ways already to Dallas.

Allison Gingras (01:44.69)

It's a true story.

Allison Gingras (01:51.73)

Sure try to.

Lindy Wynne (01:53.833)

And I even liked it when I asked you, said, is it okay if I repeat this when I introduce you in Mamas in Spirit And she's like, of course.

Allison Gingras (01:59.154)

you

Absolutely, if you don't, I will.

Lindy Wynne (02:03.668)

Yeah.

That is what you said. And it really was external confirmation from a tiny choice that I made today, which I told Allison, if you are on YouTube with us, that I am wearing this sweatshirt and I happen to have my loved ones home with a cold today and I have a little one, which is no big deal. I told Allison I've recorded with COVID the first time I ever had COVID multiple podcasts. Like I was literally like hot and sweaty from COVID recording podcasts.

Allison Gingras (02:09.042)

loud.

Allison Gingras (02:27.666)

Ha

Allison Gingras (02:31.681)

gosh.

Lindy Wynne (02:34.583)

But God is always generous because I find that when I'm in that situation that God places people that I'm recording with as people who do this. Like this is not new to them. They don't need a lot of carrying or whatnot. Like clearly the Holy Spirit, the Lord carries us in every podcast, but it's like, God is that good. So today I am wearing a sweatshirt because I find it very comforting and it's very cozy.

And it's really hilarious. It's one of those eighties, literally. This is like legendary sweatshirt screen printings that my dad gave my mom in the 1980s of me and my brothers. And you cannot see it says my little angels at the bottom. And so the one big face you can see is my older brother. He's big headed in so many ways. I'm just kidding.

Allison Gingras (03:05.874)

you

Allison Gingras (03:11.938)

Osterical.

Allison Gingras (03:19.652)

I love it.

Lindy Wynne (03:22.314)

He won't listen to this, so it's okay. And then it's me and my little brother on there. I'm in the middle, you can tell, mischievous middle child.

Allison Gingras (03:31.042)

I am too. I knew we had a lot in common. Yes. I have an older brother and a little sister. Yeah. Yep. Yes. I love being a middle child. I mean, people make a big deal out of it, but I think it's the best place to be. Just saying.

Lindy Wynne (03:33.097)

surprised. I know. How many siblings do you have?

Lindy Wynne (03:39.742)

sweet. See? One of three and both in the middle.

Lindy Wynne (03:50.816)

Me too. Me too, a little hidden in the middle.

Allison Gingras (03:54.962)

Yes. And I was laughing at your sweatshirt because I'm wearing squirrels. I love squirrels. had a dear friend, her name was Lori Lynch, and sadly we've lost her, but we shared having ADHD in common and she would call me squirrel girl. And I just kind of ran with it on social media because it just fits so perfectly. Linda, you can't even imagine the gifts that I get. Like this was a gift from somebody. I have received my favorite one and my favorite one all time.

was I received a rosary made out of acorns. That was my favorite squirrel gift yet.

Lindy Wynne (04:31.305)

I could have dreamt that up. I didn't even know I was waiting to hear what the gift was and I could not have dreamt up that it would have been made of acorns or rosary

Allison Gingras (04:36.722)

It's teeny tiny little acorn shaped beads. It's phenomenal. It's my favorite.

Lindy Wynne (04:44.478)

my goodness. Well, you would love where I live because I live on land and it's still strange to me four years later. It's still new to me and clearly as well as wild turkeys and all the things, the chickens that we now have, which my dad was like, who are you? Who have you become? You have chickens, but there's tons of squirrels and I often watch them with their little acorns. But the glorious part of living on land is that it is a beautiful indescribable

Allison Gingras (04:51.442)

you

Allison Gingras (05:00.774)

Ha ha ha.

Lindy Wynne (05:12.807)

revelation of God's love. in that spirit, in the Holy Spirit, Allison, I would love for you to open us in prayer.

Allison Gingras (05:15.303)

Love it.

Allison Gingras (05:19.806)

I'd be honored. Let's pray. In the of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear, good and gracious God, we are so grateful for the gifts of your love, your peace, your hope, your joy, and your laughter in our lives. Lord, we ask you to pour out your spirit upon each of us, each of us who are speaking and those who will listen, that we may speak your work and your will. Let that be done and let us get out of your way. Let us speak to the hearts of the women.

who need to hear from you. Let us be your hands, your feet, your mouth today especially as we bring you into the world visible and loving. And we ask all of this in your most precious name, Jesus Christ, amen. You're the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Lindy Wynne (06:05.527)

Amen. You are a joy, Allison. I just love that prayer. So beautiful, fills the heart. And I know that so much of our formation comes from our stories, from living our very real lives and our real circumstances. And I know we have a piece of our story that we share in common, which is adoption. Yet I know it touches on a much deeper thread that touches all of our lives and is intertwined in all of our lives. And that's the call of the Lord. That is

Allison Gingras (06:11.26)

Thank you.

Lindy Wynne (06:34.524)

Endless that is never ending in our lifetimes. So I would love for you to start at the beginning of your story.

Allison Gingras (06:41.042)

So I was a Catholic my entire life, but I didn't really start practicing it until my mid twenties. My husband and I got married very young. I was 21. He was 23. We had been together since I was 16. We were high school sweethearts, prom dates to both the junior and the senior prom. And then we got married and we got married in the church, but we actually met at the church. He's to clean it. And he worked at the church and I was there teaching religious education. So I feel like the Lord has had his hand in our marriage and in our lives.

without us even knowing what was happening. And I love that about the Lord. He's just so kind and gentle with us. So we got married and we were really struggling and we tried everything we tried. I tried shopping my way to happiness. We tried partying and just all the things that the world had to give to try to find some kind of joy and nothing was working. And I said to my husband, Kevin, one day, who's now Deacon Kevin, I said,

Lindy Wynne (07:33.386)

you

Allison Gingras (07:40.068)

let's try God because we've tried everything and nothing is making us happy. And so we started going back to church and it worked. Who knew? We started to really navigate life together prayerfully. We weren't really two people who prayed together, even as a deacon and a person in full-time ministry. We still don't really pray together, but we both pray and we both encourage each other.

in our prayer, but it wouldn't be until my early thirties that I actually started to live the faith. Up until then, I was kind of doing my Catholic checklist. You know, like if heaven is real, I'm going to have perfect attendance. I'm going to be able to like show that to St. Peter at the gate. Look, I was never missed mass and, you know, I try to volunteer my way into heaven by doing all the things that the church I could possibly do. But my heart didn't enter into the

into the program for a couple of years, almost 10 years. And it all started with an invitation. I was, like I said, trying to volunteer my way into heaven and I was part of the Vacation Bible School. And one of the organizers said to me one day, I feel like the Lord has put it on my heart to start a Bible study. And I feel very strongly that He wants you there. I love women who can do that. So just like pray.

and hear the Lord and then act on it with the Holy Spirit. That comes with lots of practice, by the way. That doesn't happen overnight. That goes with lots of prayer and time in His word and practice. And I looked at her and I said, we're Catholic. We don't read the Bible. I had no idea. And in fact, I'm embarrassed to say until that moment, I had no idea that the readings at the mass were scripture.

Don't ask me where I thought they came from. Maybe I just thought the bishops are really good at writing. I just never put the two together. And I also love that the Lord knows my heart. And so he had her purchase the book for me and give me that with the invitation. So my, my guilt-ridden, guess, little Catholic heart knew like, well, I have to at least go once. So that was my intent. I'm going to go one time and then I'm out. Tap it out, right?

Lindy Wynne (09:44.714)

.

Thank you.

Allison Gingras (09:58.874)

I get there again, the Lord knows me so well. They have phenomenal snacks. Like I don't bake. They had baked goods, they had guacamole, which I had never experienced before. So I came back week after week thinking it was just for the snacks. But little did I know that the Lord had far, far more in store for me. And I fell in love with the word of God. And then much to my surprise, within three years, this

Lindy Wynne (10:18.504)

.

Allison Gingras (10:25.99)

This group had become so tight-knit and I had four women that I'd become very, very close to. And they chose to leave the Catholic Church and become evangelicals. And it was really hard to maintain that friendship. I felt like I was always defending our faith. And we just really saw things very differently. I loved the Eucharist. I loved our Blessed Mother. I was devoted to the Rosary.

It was really hard to reconcile those two things. So I went to adoration one day and I was by myself in this little chapter and I started yelling at God. I don't know if you've ever yelled at God, but I have this theory. Like God gave me my brain, he can read it, he knows what's going on in there, I don't need to hold back. And I just got very upset. I'm like, Lord, I don't understand. You brought me these godly friends, you brought me people to journey with the word of God. But at that time, almost, you

15 years ago, there wasn't a lot of good Catholic Bible studies and spiritual reading out there. Now there's so many great things, but back then, all we were finding that really fed us was these evangelical Protestant Bible studies. They're phenomenal. These women have such a connection to the Lord through his word, but we weren't finding that in the Catholic church. So there I was crying and yelling and saying, Lord,

Lindy Wynne (11:40.648)

.

Allison Gingras (11:50.45)

What we need in the Catholic Church are women to write these types of studies, who to go out and speak with you with passion and humor and just this devotion that they have from really knowing you as friend. And all of a sudden I hear in my heart, yes, you, Allison. To which I replied, funny, Jesus, but that's not happening. I said, in case you've forgotten, your daddy has

you let me be born and deal with anxiety, like paralyzing anxiety. I'm not going to go out and write anything. mean, speak, I'm not going to go out and speak about anything. And the idea of writing a book with my ADHD just seemed very overwhelming. I love how I limited the God of the universe before even giving him a chance to do something in my life. I just was like, no, not going to happen.

Lindy Wynne (12:35.528)

.

Allison Gingras (12:44.562)

And he just reminded me like, what degree did the Lord, did you get a degree in English? And what were you doing as a career before you stayed home with your children? Oh, I was an early childhood educator that went out and spoke about early childhood education. He's like, you have all the gifts and talents. If God calls you to something, He will equip you in it. And I firmly believe that. It took me a while.

to get to that point, but I opened my heart and I said, okay, Lord, I will try. And he opened door after door after door. If you had told me that this, I live in such a tiny little country town. If you, thanks to the internet, our world is bigger and I would go to conferences and I would meet people and I met different publishers and different mentors along the way. And I was blessed to begin writing, but what?

I feel like that's, so that was my call, right? Like I was called to write and through this discovery of Jesus, through scripture studies, that's what I mostly write, I discovered that the Lord was calling me to a greater calling. And when we were praying about expanding our family, the Lord revealed something else he had in mind for us. And that was to adopt a little girl, a special needs little child. He made it so

Lindy Wynne (14:07.847)

.

Allison Gingras (14:14.45)

so clear in our prayer, again, going to adoration and asking the Lord, what did you want me to do? I'm fine, Lord, know, trying again to expand our family in any way you see fit. But I had two premature babies. I'd had a miss, an ectopic pregnancy that nearly took my life. I had a miscarriage. I'm like, Lord, if you have an easier way to do this, and perhaps it can may include drinking a little wine here and there. I'm in.

Lindy Wynne (14:36.647)

Okay.

Allison Gingras (14:44.562)

And so that's when I started to feel this call to adopt it. And I had so many questions, just like before. Lord, I don't think I can do this. Like you've seen my bank account. How are we going to pay for this? Where do I find this child? Which country do I go to? There were so many questions. And every time I prayed, little by little, he revealed the plan.

He didn't reveal it all at once. I love that he gave me just what I needed to know to do the next thing. And he revealed in my prayer that she would be deaf and she would be three years old, which answered that question. How do I know which child to adopt? Because there's so many children out there and I didn't want it. Like if you give birth, it's easy. Like here's your child. But when you're adopting, I had heard stories like they could put 10 pictures in front of you. And how do you choose?

So I said, Lord, please make it perfectly clear that the child you have for us. couldn't be more specific than a little girl from China who's deaf and three. And when our adoption agency called with that exact child, I knew that was ours. And we named her Faith because everything we did was just in this act of faith, this absolute act of faith. So.

He also explained, he sent people to show us how we would pay for it. And my favorite story is standing in mass right at the prayer of the faithful. We were going the next day to write the first check to get started to really move forward this adoption. And my two boys at that time, they were like six and nine.

Lindy Wynne (16:09.237)

.

Allison Gingras (16:30.392)

And they were, you know, know how boys can be, I don't know if you know this, but boys in church can sometimes be a little tiny bit rambunctious. And so they're kind of weaving in them out of my leg and trying to poke each other. And it's the prayer of the faithful and I'm trying to pray. And I looked at the voice and I looked up to God and I said, I am so willing to become an adoptive mother, but you've seen what a stellar job I've done with these two. Are you sure?

This is what you want. And as soon as I finished that prayer, the deacon said, may all the orphans of the world find good homes. I call that a God sentence. Like I couldn't make that happen if I tried. And in that very moment, I understood that God truly is real. He hears me. If He calls you to it, He'll equip you for it. And He doesn't leave you wondering if

what He wants you to do. It requires us to be cooperating with grace, to be open to that grace. And to go back to what I started to say a few minutes ago, I was called personally through prayer and through understanding the scriptures and this friendship with God to become a Catholic writer and a speaker, to work in full-time Catholic ministry. I want to talk a little bit about family rosary, I hope, during our conversation and to become an adoptive mother.

But the point of my sharing my story and even the Encountering Signs of Faith book, which I wrote about faith's adoption, was I wanted women to see that God has a purpose and a plan for your life. That if you're still breathing, God has something he wants you to do. And it may take a little while to get that answer. Like I was almost 40 years old before I adopted. But if you continue to trust in his timing,

and you continue to seek him through his word, through prayer, through sacraments, I call it the spiritual trifecta of participating every day in prayer and in reading the word and in taking some kind of grace from our sacramental life, whether it be calling upon the grace of our baptism or going to mass each day or trying to get, I try to get to confession at least once a month.

Allison Gingras (18:54.044)

Like I don't want more than that on my soul. I I'd like to go every day, but that's called scrupulosity. If we try to avoid that. I really love that God gives us this grace, right? The undeserved yet freely given gift of God's Holy Spirit within us. And it was that grace that animated me to say yes to what I thought was impossible, both writing and going around the country and speaking, to be speaking to you right now on this podcast.

Lindy Wynne (18:59.045)

.

Allison Gingras (19:24.122)

to go all the way across the world to China to bring home this precious little girl who knew nothing. She knew no language. We struggled at the beginning for her to bond with me. And that too was like, Lord, you called me to this and it's not going exactly the way I thought it should. And I think that's also a beautiful lesson that just because God calls you to it doesn't mean it's gonna be smooth sailing.

It's going to require trust, daily trust over daily trust. And that's the beauty of faith. It's believing when you don't know what's happening. And courage isn't doing things because they're easy. Courage is doing something when you're afraid, when you're not sure, when you're relying on God of the universe and not you of the earth. When you're really allowing God to work within you.

That is the beauty that I hope that my story helps other women see in their own life and that they understand that God truly adores you and he wants what's good for you and he wants what brings you joy. that joy may also come with strife or confusion, but God is always in there.

Lindy Wynne (20:25.188)

.

Allison Gingras (20:47.792)

rooting for you and willing to help you if you just ask, which I think women are not good at asking, but that's a whole nother. We never ask for help. That's a whole nother story, but that's my story.

Lindy Wynne (21:00.462)

Allison you use the words grace animates and that's what I sense in you is that God's grace animates you you're incredibly inspiring and encouraging reminds me of the first Thessalonians 5 11 encourage one another and build one another up and it comes from your soul like I think sometimes

We can encourage others in a very surface level way and go through life in a very surface level way. But it's that deep down dive, that deep dig within not just ourselves, but really the laying down of ourselves so that God can infill, God can indwell within us. And I witness that in you and it reinvigorates me. It's inspiring to me. I'm so thankful for that, Allison.

Allison Gingras (21:46.674)

Thank you.

Lindy Wynne (21:49.992)

And you just said that woman, have a hard time asking for help. And do you think that that has something to do with our desire to control?

Allison Gingras (22:00.1)

I think it's partly control. It's partly the way society has kind of made being vulnerable a bad thing that needing help means you're weak, but that's not at all what, what needing, I think it takes a stronger person to say, Hey, I can't do this by myself. I'm struggling. I need help with these little guys. I need help with, with

my finances or the next step in life. Like, you know, I'm going through that kind of a little bit of the empty nest state where I didn't realize when you had children, they grew up and moved out. And my daughter will probably will be with us forever. We just learned recently that she has a pretty significant cognitive disability, but my boys are older ones already moving out and getting married and the other one just finished college. And so

Lindy Wynne (22:48.482)

.

Allison Gingras (22:55.27)

this idea that, you know, I thought my whole life was going to be being a mom and taking care of them. And now there's something like there's a shift and I'm going back to work. And I think as I travel and I speak to a lot of women, I see this, my whole identity has been put here, but now who am I? Now what am I supposed to do? And even there, we need to be reaching out and ask for help.

asking our friends, our priests to help us discern, what does God have for me? Instead of feeling like, well, now that I'm no longer a mom or no longer whatever, like some people leave careers or they retire, like what's next? Like, I don't know what God's asking me to do. But again, I go back to where I said, if you're still breathing, God's got a purpose and a plan for you. And it's okay to ask for help.

in anything, whether you're struggling physically, financially or mentally or spiritually, to know that that's true courage is to reach out and say, I need help. And I could really use a friend or some kind of assistance. So I think a little bit is controlling. We don't want to be seen weak. And I don't think we want to bother people. That's the other side of it.

I think there's so many dimensions to this, but that I don't want to be a burden. Like I remember praying to God and feeling like I could only ask God like one thing, like it was like a magic genie lamp, right? Like I can only ask God a few things instead of understanding that I could ask God everything, including like, what am I going to eat for dinner tonight, God? Like the scriptures talk about this intimate relationship God wants to have with you. There's this one scripture that talks about

Lindy Wynne (24:43.138)

.

Allison Gingras (24:44.816)

He knows the number of hairs you have on your head. Now I can understand how he can count my husband's hair. It's a little easier, but the idea like just that intimacy. And there's another one that is in the Psalms that talks about how he collects our tears. Now that has to be the grossest room in heaven ever. But the idea that every tear I cry, happy or sad, God sees, recognizes, and

holds dearly to himself. Like that's who we are in him. And so it's okay to bug him continuously all day long. What St. Paul says, right? Pray without ceasing. That's kind of being that nudge all day to God's heart. Like I need you, I need help. think that's, we struggle to ask people for help. We struggle to ask God, I think even more thinking we have to have that.

bad thing or that one serious thing to reach out to God and it's not an everyday conversation or relationship.

Lindy Wynne (25:48.207)

Yes, I love that you use the word intimacy. And I think that that is one of my favorite words. And I'm realizing as you're talking and as I'm listening to you, there's so much that's not intimate in our world. Like we're having a very intimate conversation that's gonna be put out on.

social media and into like the great abyss per se of the online world. Yet so much of the online world is anything but intimate and even keeps us from intimacy. Like when we think of clickbait or just scrolling or all those different things, there's nothing intimate about that. And that's why probably people end up feeling so desolate after doing those kinds of things because our hearts are restless until they rest in thee, Lord.

St. Augustine, which is the most quoted St. quote in Mamas in Spirit of the almost seven years of Mamas in Spirit. So that's made a really big impact on me. And I think about the intimacy going back to your time in adoration. And I think about even before we started recording this podcast, Allison, I was in my little chapel praying and praying for our time together. And there is that sense of like,

Allison Gingras (26:39.57)

Ha ha ha ha!

Lindy Wynne (26:58.581)

glorious communion with the Lord and what you're pointing to I'm hearing always correct me if I'm wrong is is that we hear that intimate call from the Lord when we are in intimate prayer with the Lord and What I'm also hearing is transitions and just so everyone knows the reason why I'm doing this series is because really this series was asked for like I asked for feedback from listeners and this time of transition and this idea of I think you are friends with

Maria Johnson, her book is the second act. know, we have many acts in our lifetime and how do we transition and adapt and change close to the Lord and them and to follow and surrender to the will of God. So I want to flip the script a little bit, Allison, because you have so much wisdom that you're pouring and you're blessing me. And so when you talk about vulnerability, even for myself, I think that I recognize because I too,

feel like in some way, even though I'm not an empty nester and like you, I still have one child at home. I think I feel a lot of the feels of an empty nester because our first two children, we adopted at six and three and their needs have been so severe, like daily needs, like momentary needs, so significant and so encompassing for our family that now that they've both moved out, I'm like, my goodness, this is so different because

Even though I think from the outside looking in, someone could look at me like, oh, well, you do mamas in spirit or you do speaking engagements or you lead retreats or these things. It's not as intimate as my family life. Like the call to adoption, the call to love my family is my primary vocation and my primary call my husband. And then of course, our children, which I like to call our shared little V vocation. And so as those

as those intensities have kind of fallen away after 20 years. I mean, it's a long time. I was a child when I made these. My husband and I are gonna be married 25 years and I got married young too. And so as some of these very significant parts of our lives have shed away, I'm like, goodness, kind of, not who am I? Because we know who's we are. it Thea Bowman St.

Allison Gingras (28:59.356)

Yeah.

Lindy Wynne (29:19.913)

Thea Bowman has a quote about that to knowing whose we are. I can't remember exactly what it is, but we are all God's beloved daughters and we need to know our daughtership. Yet at the same time, I find myself a little bit depressed, if I'm be honest, just to be vulnerable on this podcast, that like, gosh, like that was so intimate.

Allison Gingras (29:26.236)

Mm.

Allison Gingras (29:38.674)

Yeah.

Lindy Wynne (29:46.234)

And now that feels a little bit lost, but that doesn't mean that I need to be lost because God is always the one who has found us already and continues to find us in our humaneness. But like, what's this next season that God is calling me into?

Allison Gingras (29:51.855)

Amen.

Allison Gingras (29:58.641)

Yes.

Allison Gingras (30:04.156)

Well, first I want to address the hearing of God. It's in the whisper, right? The scriptures say it's in the whisper and we're not going to hear a whisper unless we're being quiet, unless we're making time for prayer. I call it coffee with Christ here at my house. When I get up in the morning, even with my to-do list, as long as it can be, and I work for the church. I work for, like I always say, I work for Jesus, right? So I was always getting intermingled with my to-do list and

prayer like, well, Lord, I'm writing about you. He's like, but I don't want you to write about me. I want you to sit with me. And we think that we have to tackle those to-do lists or they're not going to get done. And I can attest when I give God the first fruits of my day, more things get done than when I decide I'm just going to barrel through them and Lord, I'll, you know, I'll just catch you on the flip side. He's like, no, put me first. So when I make that quiet time.

That's when I really hear God. And we need that relationship with Him. And I also talk about like, if you only saw a person on Christmas and Easter, how close would you be to them? If you only saw them during the holidays, and that's like going to Mass, right? To making Mass a priority, at least on Sundays, at least once a week. But then that communication with God every day, like I have a sister and a cousin, the three of us text.

all day long. We are the closest we've ever been thanks to technology because we can text all day long. So, and when I get to see them and I try to see them often, I think this is exactly the way we need to look at God. So we're not texting God, but maybe our prayers, we can look at them like sending God a little instant message, right? Continuing that conversation. And then to go to the part of that being called to do something, it's,

In my head right now, I'm picturing this little meme that's been going all over in the internet for many years. There's a little girl holding a tiny teddy bear so tightly. And Jesus is standing in front of her with his hand out asking for that teddy bear. And behind his back is a ginormous teddy bear. And she's refusing to let go of the thing that she knows for what she doesn't know. Like what's behind door number two?

Allison Gingras (32:28.934)

We're afraid of what's behind door number two. And I think back to when my daughter, I was a homeschooled So I was trying to homeschool my daughter and we made it for about five years. but I'm not educated in teaching of the deaf. And I quickly realized after this five years together that I couldn't do what was best for her. couldn't teach her her native language of American sign language.

I didn't know how you gave language to somebody without reading to them without speaking. And I had to make this really difficult decision to let her go to school and her school is almost an hour away. So we're talking like 10 hour days that she's away from me. And I remember sitting in the quiet with my scriptures, praying to God saying, what am I going to do with myself? Like what, what's next for me? And so

sad, scared, unsure. Like I just didn't want to let her go because I was going to miss her. I, this again was where my identity lay. And he said, trust me, just trust me. I'm going to keep you so busy. You'll forget that she's not here until she comes back home again. And when I let her go and I decided to switch careers and just open myself to what God had,

I ended up becoming a Catholic social media consultant and I got to use the internet. I would tease people. figured out how to get paid for being on Facebook, but I got to use this digital divide, right? This digital continent that Pope Benedict used to speak about to bring Christ to others. Now that dream and all of the subsequent beautiful things that the Lord's allowed to happen since would have never happened if I hadn't let

go with my little teddy bear, my little girl and let her do what God had for her to do so that I could make room in my life for what was next. And I think that's another way of reframing it and looking at it. Like this next season of life is making room in your time and your heart for what God has for you to do next. It's that movement to something better instead of

Allison Gingras (34:54.8)

looking at it like, well, the good days are behind me. Those were the most precious. They were precious days, like taking care and all those snuggles with those little babies. Those were precious days. But it doesn't mean there can't be more precious days ahead and fulfillment of what God has for you next. And it doesn't mean it has to be some crazy career of like bringing Jesus to the people on the internet. It could be how you volunteer. It could be how you take care of yourself. Think about how

As mothers, the last person we take care of is us. Maybe this is your turn to learn how to paint or knit or join the knitting club at the church or volunteer or just rest and get to know God. And those are good things too.

Lindy Wynne (35:41.804)

You know what I notice in you, Allison, that is just brilliant. It reflects the light of Christ is your clarity. And I just my sense is that that can only come from your time of prayer, your time of that intimate communication with the Lord.

Allison Gingras (35:59.046)

Yes. And I tease when I start, I also MC events and I'm usually a hotness. I'm seeing the event because it's just, my brain is not very clear or concise. And the minute I pray, Lord, let your work and will get done and let me get out of your way and start to speak about Him. It's like the Holy Spirit just moves through me and I'm so blessed to be given that, that gift and to be cooperating with that gift. talked earlier about grace, right?

Grace is the undeserved yet freely giving gift of God's Holy Spirit within you. And it's that gift that I use to talk about God. It's that Holy Spirit moving through me. But here's the thing about gifts. Gifts have to be received, opened and used. And if you don't receive it, open and use it, it becomes useless. And I think of the story of my sister. She's about seven years younger than I am. She is very physically fit. She's a sports medicine graduate.

She, I'm pretty sure she can bench press a Buick and used to run barathons for something to do on the weekends. And at 50 something years old, she still plays soccer. And for Christmas one year, this sweet little sister of mine gave me Wii Fit. I was a wee bit angry. I was like, how dare you tell me that I'm fluffy? I was so mad because she's so slight and I'm not. And I was furious. Well.

fast forward, I received the gift, I had wrapped it from its wrapping, but I never opened it. I just shoved it on the counter. A few months later, my dad who had had a heart attack, his first heart attack at 34, a heart transplant at 55, had then started to have congestive heart failure. My mom had, who had pre-diabetes had just become full blown, insulin needing type two diabetic. And it was in talking to my parents that I had this aha moment.

about what my sister's gift really meant. My sister wanted me to be physically healthy. Both things that my parents dealt with, typically through diet and exercise, can be controlled or avoided. And my sister saw that I was on that same path as my parents and she just wanted me to have a chance to be physically healthy so I could lead the best life possible. That's the gifts God has for us.

Allison Gingras (38:19.814)

that maybe sometimes we fear or rail against or feel like he's telling us there's something wrong with us. He gives us the gift of grace and hope and peace and faith and all of these beautiful things that he puts out there for us. But we have to cooperate with them. We have to receive them, open them and put them to use, which we do, I think, through the grace trifecta of prayer, sacrament and scripture.

Lindy Wynne (38:23.13)

I'm

Allison Gingras (38:42.778)

of making that quiet time, whether it be coffee with Christ or at the end of the day, maybe it's a cocktail with Christ. Like you just make room and time for God so that you can receive all the beautiful gifts, but don't see them as him manipulating you or making you feel guilty or bad. No, every good gift comes from God and God is love and everything he wants from you for you is for you to be with him in heaven forever. And so he really just

I love how you say that. You say that a lot about being poured. I love the way you say that. Pour himself into you so that you can grow in your own sanctification, your own holiness and have that ultimate beautiful reward of being with God in heaven forever. And again, it begins with building a relationship with him so that when you get to those pearly gates, right? That God, Jesus knows who you are.

We know the scriptures say, if you don't know me, you don't know my father. So we need to know God. We need to know Jesus, God through Jesus. And how do we do that? Through prayer, sacrament and scripture.

Lindy Wynne (39:52.063)

Prayer, sacrament and scripture. So this mini retreat in a podcast, I mean, it's chock full of wisdom. I mean, my goodness, I'm like,

Okay, what is the main invitation from this podcast? Surrender at all. But one of the things I'm hearing is to build that intimate relationship with Christ through personal prayer and to be attentive and discerning to how God is drawing you to really be able to listen to that whisper into each one of our hearts. Our hearts belong in the sacred heart of Christ. That's where we belong.

Allison Gingras (40:04.78)

Amen.

Lindy Wynne (40:29.867)

And so, Allison, I have one more question for you. How would you encourage us in this sense? Because I love how you brought up the concept about confession and going monthly, but not daily, because there's this thing called scrupulosity. And one of the things that sometimes I feel a little bit concerned about is that when we get into kind of like that...

rut per se rather than a living breathing dynamic relationship with Christ. It's like, I should do these things, whatever they are. And I'm not talking about Sunday mass because there are things that we should do. Yet sometimes I think we can get in those things where it becomes more scrupulous and it's like, I have to do this and this and this. Yet God is like this revelatory living breathing endless.

Allison Gingras (41:06.066)

You

Lindy Wynne (41:18.719)

Larger than life like you talked limitless you talked before that how you were limiting God and that spoke to me because it's like I could never imagine the things I'm doing and I still think that I want to clutch on in some ways to that little teddy bear and the things that I know or that I think I know how to do But it's all been by the grace of God anyway instead of accepting the big teddy bear like letting go Releasing the grip and actually my spiritual director

Allison Gingras (41:36.178)

Yeah.

Lindy Wynne (41:45.548)

really encouraged me to go to adoration with my hands open, like to spend some time with my palms open, receiving the gifts and also offering back like in Thanksgiving the gifts that I've been given. And so how would you encourage each one of us today? Let's just stay in the day, like today to be open to spending that time and how to do it today, like how we're each drawn because we're uniquely drawn.

Allison Gingras (41:50.758)

Allison Gingras (42:04.134)

Yeah.

Allison Gingras (42:16.016)

Yes. And I like to say that there's no right, R-I-T-E, way to pray. The right is kept for liturgy. But we get stuck, I think, in thinking our prayers have to be right, R-I-G-H-T, and there isn't any right way to pray. And there's so many beautiful devotions. I cover so many of them in Encountering Signs of Faith. There's so many different ways to pray. And I used to think

I used to have to do all of them. Like I would sit with a stack of prayer cards and books and my rosaries and my divine mercy chaplets and think I had to do all of them. But I don't, I can do one of those in a day. And I don't have to do the proper devotional in a day. I can just talk to God. And I think that's the number one place to start when you're trying to figure out how do I have a relationship with God?

It's the simplest solution and the thing that comes to our minds the slowest. Let's ask God. God, how should I have a relationship with you? What does that look like? What do you need me to do? And my morning prayer is always, Lord, give me the grace for today to do what you need me to do and to be who you created me to be. It's a simple prayer. It's just reaching out and asking for an outpouring in graces.

Lindy Wynne (43:26.36)

.

Allison Gingras (43:43.706)

I think of the miraculous medal with Our Lady of Grace with her hands wide open. And she said that the rays coming from her hands in that image is all the grace that God has for his people, for his beloved children. And the dark rays were the graces that went unaccepted and unused.

Lindy Wynne (43:54.955)

Hmm.

Allison Gingras (44:07.652)

Now, I don't know about you, but I love a bargain and I love free things and I don't want to leave anything on the table, especially God's grace. I am such a grace beggar. I'm constantly asking for that outpouring of grace in my life. And that's what we need to do today is start being grace beggars and asking Him how best to be His beloved daughters.

Lindy Wynne (44:31.748)

I'm so glorious. I feel like I couldn't stump you if I tried not that I was trying to

Allison Gingras (44:36.152)

you could trust me.

Lindy Wynne (44:41.047)

And I love how you talked about being in the day because I think when we look big picture, it's so overwhelming. But all we really have is this moment. All we really have is this day. And it's very, for me, it's very settling and very peaceful and very manageable with the Lord to be in just today, the gift of this day. Thank you so much. so today.

because for me, every day does look different. Like I wasn't raised in the Catholic faith and I was so deeply drawn to the mystery and the mystery of the prayers that have been prayed over the ages. And sometimes I feel like when those shoulds are put on them, like it makes it like I'm a little bit rebellion, if that's a word, a little bit of a rebel. And I'm sure that there's a...

Allison Gingras (45:23.25)

Beautiful.

Allison Gingras (45:33.362)

a little bit.

Lindy Wynne (45:33.748)

really good part of that and really not so good of that. Hopefully continue to be sanctified for God's glory. But just meaning that like I want to be free, I think we all do internally free with the Lord like in the Lord's goodness and that flow of the Holy Spirit. And so today I felt very drawn to pray the scriptural rosary and that is that is a rosary that just my gosh it's just so divine like it's so

generous. Like the rosary is generous and there's something about the way that the scriptural rosary is also tied into scripture that literally you can read a little piece of scripture with each bead. And so today the day that we're recording is the glorious mysteries and God is so generous that we're doing this series with women of wisdom and you can all hear that I got problems and they're pouring out wisdom onto me. I got probes.

Allison Gingras (46:30.77)

Hehehehehe

Lindy Wynne (46:33.206)

And so there is a scripture in here today that I would like to close with before we talk a little bit more about you, Allison, and where everyone can reach you. And so I want to open with this specific scripture as we close this mini retreat in prayer in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. And this is from Proverbs chapter eight, and it's a compilation of verses 32 and 33. And now my children.

Listen to me. Listen to instruction and learn to be wise. Dearest Lord, you are generous. You overflow with mercy and goodness and grace. I cannot thank you enough for bringing your beloved daughter, Allison, to us today for us to be fortified in our own daughtership in you and our sisterhood together in Christ.

Allison is a beautiful example of how when we are more truly ourselves by your grace, then we can reflect, point to, and love you more fully with our lives. And Lord, I pray for that for each one of us. I pray that no one here gathered be lost in any desolation today, but may be sanctified.

and may be fortified in you to know of your will for her. How you so deeply desire for us to know that you have a plan for us and that that plan falls perfectly in your much greater plan for the glory of this world and for your eternal kingdom. In your holy name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen.

Allison, you are a treasure. Can you please tell us how we can get ahold of you more?

Allison Gingras (48:33.568)

Yes, you can find me all over social media with the handle reconciled to you, but you can also find me from my name, Allison Gingras. If you drink too much gin, you end up on the grass and you lose an S. That's how you spell Gingras. And I just want to offer your listeners a special treat. I was brought back to the faith through the gift of an invitation. Somebody purchased the book.

and gave me a copy of it and then invited me to a group study. So I am giving away copies to any woman who is willing to lead their own small group. And you can find out more about that by visiting reconciletoyou.com or finding me on any of the social media platforms and sending me a message. If you're interested in leading women closer to Christ through small group Bible study, the state connected journals for Catholic women, I would love to gift you a.

Lindy Wynne (49:29.737)

That is so brilliant, Allison. And the hope, one of them of Mamas in Spirit is that we will gather more in real life. Like that's what God really wants for us is for us to be intimately gathering and going to the well, the well of living water as sisters in Christ. Thank you so much, Allison.

Allison Gingras (49:48.508)

Thank you, Lindy. This was wonderful.

Lindy Wynne (49:50.845)

And thank you everyone for being here together. It is a gift and a blessing to my heart for us all to be sisters in Christ together. And you can go to mamasinspirit.com for many more faith-filled podcasts. Can't wait to be together again next time. This is Lindy Wynne with Mamas in Spirit. May God bless you and yours always.