Hot flashes. Sleepless nights. Wrinkles. Body shifts. Where's the joy in menopause? Where's God in menopause? Melanie Rigney explores both in Menopause Moments: A Journal for Nourishing Your Mind, Body and Spirit in Midlife (May 2021, Twenty-Third Publications). 30+ short reflections, scripture, and journaling/prayer prompts.
Melanie Rigney is writes and speaks about saints... and women's spirituality. Her other books include Radical Saintss: 21 Women for the 21st Century (June 2020, Franciscan Media). Woman of Worth: Prayers and Reflections for Women Inspired by the Book of Proverbs (June 2019, Twenty-Third Publications); Blessed Are You: Inspiration from Our Sisters in Faith (July 2015; Franciscan Media); and Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration (July 2013; Franciscan Media) and the companion Brotherhood of Saints (October 2020, Franciscan Media). Blessed Are You was the Summer 2016 online book club selection for Wine in the New Evangelization, a national group for Catholic women. Melanie also is a frequent conference and meeting speaker. She is also the owner of Future with Hope Women LLC, which offers events for Catholic women over 40.
Melanie is a regular contributor to Living Faith, the Catholic devotional; Catholic Mom; and Women in the New Evangelization.She also has written for Viva Mercy, Catholic Update, Catholics for Family Peace, and numerous other sites and organizations.
Earlier, Melanie co-authored When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics (Twenty-third Publications). She returned to the Catholic Church in 2005 after being away for thirty-three years.
Melanie has spoken to Catholic women's groups as large as 1,600 and as intimate as ten. Among the groups she's been blessed to address are the San Antonio Catholic Women's Conference and the National Council of Catholic Women (breakout session) national conference. She's also appeared on a variety of Catholic radio and television programs. Her presentations and retreats can be tailored to meet your needs, ranging from twenty minutes to three days.
Thanks to the expertise she gained during her five years as editor of Writer's Digest magazine, Melanie also is a popular writers' conference speaker, having presented on a variety of topics more than 100 gatherings.
Melanie is a native of South Dakota. Before moving to Virginia in 2004, she spent most of her adult life in Chicago. She also has lived in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio.
Melanie's Presentations
- Be Radical: How in the world could a group of women, ranging in age from nine to ninety-three at their deaths, women formally canonized by the Church, be considered radical? Because being a Christian is radical! Learn from them how to incorporate a radical love of Jesus in your life.
- The Proverbs 31 Woman of Worth and You. She's a wife, mother, and astute businesswoman. She weaves, she spins, she serves. Yes, we know the woman of worth gets up before dawn, but how does she do it all? Through faith, the faith that's there for the offering for each of us. Verses are dissected and applied to today's women's lives.
- Rejoice and Be Glad! The Beatitudes are beautiful and simple in concept… but so hard to live. Learn what the Catholic women saints—some well known, some you may not have heard of—can teach us today about living Jesus’s challenges set forth in the Sermon on the Mount.
- Your Life with the Saints… and How to Become One. They prayed, they laughed, they cried, they got angry. Some traveled thousands of miles for Christ; others never left their hometowns. Some had deaths only satan could have orchestrated; others died peacefully in their sleep. In other words, our Church’s saints were people very much like we are today! We’ll look at our own gifts and the ways in which we are called to be saints to others.
- Living on a Prayer: How's your prayer life going? Need an infusion of new energy... or introspection? "For me, prayer is a surge of the heart ... a cry of recognition and love, of embracing both trial and joy," Therese of Lisieux wrote. We'll talk about the origins of our Church's formal prayers, and learn more about the lives of those who helped define our styles of prayer. Participants will have the opportunity to experience communal and individual, mental and vocal, form and spontaneous prayers. We'll also talk about making time for prayer and what to do when the well has run dry. Written guides and journals will be provided.
- When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics. The Church needs the gifts and talents of each of us to help bring the Kingdom of God to this world. In this spirit, parish leaders and adult faith formation and religious education ministers are invited to reach out to the inactive Catholics in their midst. This reaching out means sharing their gifts and talents with those who have drifted away and are now searching for renewed faith and involvement. It also involves helping returning Catholics recognize how their own gifts and talents can build up and complete the parish.
