Wrapped Up: God's Ten Gifts for Women, by Teresa Tomeo and Cheryl Dickow. Servant Books, 2012.

   These two authors believe that God gives ten gifts to women to help them embrace their unique vocation. These two use Scripture and modern culture to prove their case. "God wants every woman to have these gifts. Let Teresa and Cheryl show you how to unwrap them, make them your own and let them transform your life."
   Cheryl offers the gift of God's love in the first chapter. That chapter is followed by these gifts in order: forgiveness, allowing God to be God, joyful attitude, suffering, letting go, sacramental life, your Sisters in faith, setting priorities, and the gift of you!!!
   The aim of these two writers is to honor God, to serve His kingdom, and to bring glory to His ways. The two see that one of God's greatest gifts is "the fact that we ourselves are gifts." As nurturers, women have something the world needs desperately: motherhood.  Some are spiritual moms. Others have been blessed with physical motherhood. Some are both spiritual and physical moms, and offer help, friendship, commitment, and love to a world in need of these gifts. Even though women are sometimes degraded and made to feel anything but gifted, this book seeks to put a stop to such thoughts. "Our God is a God of love who wants to give us, as Jesus reminds us in John10:10, an abundant life. We just have to know where and when to find it."
   This book reechoes the words of St. Catherine of Siena and calls women "to be whom we are called to be,"  and to set the world on fire with love. 

St. Dominic of Silos (c. 1000-1073): December 20

   It's not the founder of the Dominicans we honor today, but there's a poignant story that connects both Dominics.
   Dominic of Silos, was born in Spain around the year 1000 into a peasant family. As a young boy he spent time in the fields, where he welcomed the solitude. He became a Benedictine priest and served in numerous leadership positions. Following a dispute with the king over property, Dominic and two other monks were exiled. They established a new monastery in what at first seemed an unpromising location. Under Dominic's leadership, however, it became one of the most famous houses in Spain. Many healings were reported there.
   About 100 years after Dominic's death, a young woman made a pilgrimage to his tomb. There Dominic of Silos appeared to her and assured her that she would bear another son. The woman was Joan of Aza, and the son she bore grew up to be the "other" Dominic-the one who founded the Dominicans.
   For many years thereafter, the staff used by St. Dominic of Silos was brought to the royal palace whenever a queen of Spain was in labor. That practice ended in 1931.