Hey Folks,

Summer’s almost over … but it’s never too late to promote purity … so we have a special sale on for you!  (See details below.)

First, I’d like to tell you about Surrender, the sequel to Arms of Love, and how special it is to me.  There were so many struggles in my life as I wrote this book, and now I’d like to share with you my own personal story of “surrender”.

Back in 2006, our family was at a time where we had to make the decision for my husband to go back to work fulltime (after having takensome parental leave with baby number 7) or let go of his permanent contract as a teacher.  Letting the job go would mean there would be no more “stable” income in our life – not to mention the benefits.  Going back to work would mean that we would be shutting down our ministry.  There was no way I would have been able to continue writing the sequel to Arms of Love – I had started it, but it was far from done at that point — not to mention running a business and ministry along with managing family life.

We prayed over the decision.  We agonized.  I spent nights awake, crying out to God.  Sometimes I’d wake up at night and find my husband had been up for hours praying.  We sought direction and advice.  We discussed the implications with our children … we wanted to know how they felt about a life of fulltime ministry – for we knew there would be sacrifices ahead.
continue reading "My personal surrender … a testimony on learning to trust!"

Why I chose to compare Purity with Pornography:

Impurity is rampant in our world — where does one start to point to its damage?  So, I decided to just focus on one area in this blog: pornography.

In today’s blog, read about:

1. Comparing Purity vs. Pornography

2. The Addictive and Progressive Stages of Pornography

3. Steps to protect against pornography (including internet resources for info and help)

4. Our P3 plan: please consider becoming a “Partner in Promoting Purity”

Here are some thoughts for your consideration,
comparing Purity vs. Pornography

Pornography drags souls as far away from God as possible, often leading them and others into a hell on earth, and sadly – if left unrepented — those souls can end up in eternal hell (… that is Satan’s goal, afterall).

Purity trains people to see each person as a child of God, worthy of respect and dignity.

Pornography trains people to see each person as an object to be used … and even abused.

Purity blesses many. The pure in heart are people who seek the face of God — not just as a reward in heaven, but even here, on earth — in every person they meet.  They set Christ at the heart of their lives, and seek to love and serve Him in “the least of their brothers”.

Pornography hurts many. Many people think that pornography is a personal sin — a choice that affects them alone.  However, the lust that it stirs in their hearts causes them to objectify people, seeing them as objects to be used for self-gratification, not loved.  It wounds the people around the person addicted to it, as they feel lessened in worth.  It destroys marriages and homes, leaving spouses and children confused, abandoned (emotionally if not physically) and betrayed.  It often leads those addicted to act out on that addiction … it is the fuel of sexual abuse in every form in our society.  It can lead people to violence as they desire to act out on those deviant behaviors they’ve seen.  And the industry itself exploits many!  The list of harm goes on and on!  No sin is ever private — sin brings disorder and chaos into the world — and into the lives of many.

Purity sets you FREE! Free to be all you can be.  Free to live the life you were called to live.  Free to dream and to have the chance to make those dreams come true.    Free to enjoy the gift of each friendship.  Free to enjoy romance with all its beauty and joy.  Free to love the way God calls us to love.

Pornography enslaves you. It makes you a slave to your desires.  It makes you a slave to your addiction.  It makes you a slave to sin.

Purity is not a money-making industry. Trust me — we’ve been working for eight years in this apostolate — and purity’s value is not monetary!  But the value of purity is priceless as it brings a soul closer to God!

Pornography is one of the biggest money-making industries in the world! Just as an example, a few years back there was a couple in Texas running a child-pornography website.  At the time they were arrested, they had over 70,000 subscribers paying $30 per month!  That’s over $2.1 million per month, for people to see children being abused … how very deep and dark this sin is in our world!  Satan is running a huge industry out there, and many are becoming  very rich by worldly standards … but how very poor these souls are.  Think of the number of souls being dragged down by pornography — those producing the industry, those abused by the industry, those addicted to the industry. 
continue reading "Purity vs Pornography"

Summer’s here …

… even in Canada where I live!  Well, sort of!  We’ve had so much rain my husband has suggested we start looking around our acreage for gopherwood to reinforce our house’s foundation — just in case we have to launch it!  Nevertheless, I’m sure hot days are just around the corner.  (Yes, it does get hot here up north.  Our hottest days hit 40+ degrees Celcius, which translates to 104+ degrees Farenheit!)

Inevitably, hot weather and sunshine bring along with them the temptation to drop the standards of modesty and just follow the fashion trends of our world.  So I just want to address the issues of modesty and integrity in today’s blog.
continue reading "Modesty and Integrity … we can’t get along (as men and women) without them!"

As we approach this sacred time of year I wanted to wish you all the blessings of this holy season.  It is a time for each of us to reflect on the meaning of Christ’s birth in our lives.  With that thought in mind, I wanted to  share with you a music video my daughter put together for our parish’s Christmas pageant.  I love the song, “Welcome to Our World” by Chris Rice, and I’m sure you will find this three and a half minutes well spent — even during these busy days of preparation for Christmas!

May your homes and lives be filled with the Peace and Joy of Christmas – who is Christ — and may your New Year be filled with many blessings as we welcome Him into our world once again!

In gratitude for all your support and prayers for this ministry!

Carmen

“A God who became so small, could only be mercy and love.”
~ St. Therese

Seven years ago was an exciting and intense time for the Marcoux family.  Arms of Love came to print for the first time, just a week before Christmas, and five days later I gave birth to Gemma Mary Catherine (number six in our clan).

Our family life shifted at that point in ways I would never have anticipated.  I suddenly became a public speaker and have since traveled all over North America speaking on courtship, chastity and purity.  I’ve done numerous radio interviews and have recorded several televion interviews including a few on EWTN.  From home-schooling mom to international T.V. in one fell swoop!  (God certainly has a sense of humour!)

Seven Years Later …

Gemma, our Christmas Angel!

Today my husband, James, is home fulltime doing his best to keep One Way Publishing House running and Pure Witness Ministries functioning.  God has blessed us with three more children, Benjamin, Jacob and Joshua.

Our Three Musketeers

We’re up to our elbows in diapers, up to our eyeballs in debt, and I feel like I’ve joined the circus doing my best to juggle family, ministry and writing.  I confess, I’m a terrible juggler!  We’ve narrowly escaped bankruptcy on a number of occasions — learning to live by Providence has been very humbling to say the least!

On the upside …

We’ve encountered the most amazing people over the years through this ministry, we’ve heard back from literally hundreds of readers whose lives have been brought closer to God through reading these books, and we’ve seen our own children sincerely embrace this message of purity in their lives as they daily make sacrifices to accomodate a family ministry.  It’s an amazing blessing to have the support of our children and to know that their faith has not been shaken by all the challenges of a life in ministry.

Mother Angelica was right!

As I reflect on everything that has transpired over the years, I must say, “It’s certainly good that we can’t see what is in our future!”   I don’t think I would have taken ”the leap” of writing and publishing a book if I had known how challenging the path would have been.  But the blessings along the way have been so numerous that I’m glad fear did not hold us back.  As Mother Angelica says, “Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, and a queasy feeling in the stomach!”  That’s the best way for us to describe the past seven years here at One Way “Crazy” House!

To celebrate these seven crazy years …

We thought it would be fun to respond to a request that has come to us many times from our readers.  In both novels, Arms of Love and Surrender, the card game Canasta is a Collins family-favourite.  Their curiosity peeked, many readers have requested to know the rules for Canasta.  So what we did was to put together the rules for Canasta on our website, featuring a few video clips and pics with our children playing the game.

As often games have many variations, we are playing by the rules passed along in our family by my Uncle Arnie and Aunt June who got our family hooked on the game when I was just a teen!  We have played and loved this game for years in our home with our children (from ages seven and up), as well as in our parish community, having monthly Canasta nights at our church where we often bring out thirty adults for a great evening of socialization.  We also regularily have family tournaments, getting relatives together for fun-filled family gatherings.

Fun for the Family this Holiday

We hope that you would take time over the holidays to learn this game and enjoy it with your family and friends.  It’s a great way to build memories with your family and to build community within your neighbourhood or parish.

While the rules can seem overwhelming at first, once you catch on, it really is an easy game to enjoy while socializing at the same time.  That’s what makes Canasta our family-favourite!

Pure Virtue Playing Cards

This past year we created Pure Virtue Playing Cards.  These decks of cards are like regular playing cards (52 plus 2 jokers), with a different virtue for each number and a unique Bible verse featured on every card.  They’re an excellent way to evangelize and fun to play with.  The game of Fish takes on a whole new dimension when you ask, “Do you have ‘Patience’?” and your opponent answers, “No, go fish!”  As they are a full card deck, they can be used for any game for which you would use a regular playing card deck.

And they make great STOCKING STUFFERS!

So here’s the great “Celebrating Seven Years” deal.

(Seven is a special number in Canasta, as you’ll soon find out!)

• The Pure Virtue Playing Cards are regularly $6/deck.
• Buy 3, Get 1 FREE!
• Buy 20 decks, get them at 50% off (that’s just $3/deck).
• And our Christmas bonus is:

Get 4 FREE decks when you purchase 20!
That works out to just $2.50/deck!
Now that’s a great STOCKING STUFFER
that packs a lot of value in promoting VIRTUES!

And for the readers on your list, don’t forget that Arms of Love and Surrender make great gifts and are an excellent way to share the faith and to encourage people to live out Purity in their lives!

The Two-Two-Book Combo Christmas Special:

Buy two combos (that’s 2 Arms of Love and 2 Surrenders)
for only $54.95
that’s a savings of $16.85!

These offers will be in effect until December 31st.
Follow the link below and click on Christmas Specials!

Click Here to Order Now!

Every purchase you make

… helps us to continue this important work of promoting Purity in our world!  We have many great projects that will hopefully be coming into print in 2010.  Please pray for our ministry that the Lord will provide for us the benefactors we need to accomplish these projects!

(If you are in a position to help us in our ministry efforts,
please contact us at 1-800-705-7396.)

And thank you for your support over the years for our ministry.  We would not have survived these past seven years without your prayers and financial support!

We hope that you and your family will have a wonderful Christmas and that you will build great memories over the holidays enjoying fun-filled Canasta evenings … as our family surely will!

May the Peace and Joy of the Christ Child fill your homes this Christmas and throughout the coming year!
Carmen, James and Family!

P.S.  Baby Joshua’s arm has healed beautifully and he is doing very well — growing strong like a warrior!  Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes for us over the past 5 weeks!

Last March, while our family was on tour through the United States, we discovered a little “stowaway” on board!  By the time we were in Pensacola, Florida, we realized we had one other hidden passenger in our 12 passenger van.  That stowaway didn’t take up another seatbelt, but with me sick for the next two weeks of our tour, he certainly made his presence known to us!  For all these long months we have anxiously awaited the arrival of God’s precious gift to our family

(Our family in August 2009)

and finally …

… on Monday, November 9th, 2009, at 11:09 pm,
Joshua Francis Joseph Marcoux
(10 lbs-14 oz. and 22 1/2 inches long)

made his dramatic entry into our world!

Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho!

Appropriately named, our little warrior Joshua’s first battle was fought while entering our world!  Labour went well, until the very end.  During delivery, our Joshua — built for battle — got his shoulder caught and was stuck.  The attending obstetrician made the quick decision, in order to get baby out — before major complications set in – to break his little arm and pull him through.  In the end, Joshua was born, a little beat up from the battle with many bruises and a broken bone, but otherwise very healthy!

(Joshua, 15 minutes old, with broken left humerus.)

Three days later, he’s doing fabulously!  His left arm is healing very well, and they say within three weeks it’ll be completely healed.  Praise God!

(Joshua, the one-arm bandit, 3 days old.)

Our family is thrilled with our newest member, as we now sit at 5 girls and 4 boys!  We are looking forward to the many wonderful adventures ahead that life promises to hold for each of us!

(The clan visiting Mom and meeting new brother, Joshua, in hospital …
and Dad with his four sons — the boys’ team is catching up!)

Mommy is doing great as well!  It’s wonderful to be home and settling into our new family dynamics.  It’s amazing how quickly a baby works its way into your heart and home and you wonder, “How did we ever get along without you?!?!”

In the midst of all this excitement … I wanted to let you all know about my upcoming appearance on …

EWTN’s Bookmark Program

(Carmen Marcoux with Doug Keck, on set in July 2009.)

Be watching this Sunday, November 15th and throughout the week on EWTN when I will be interviewed by Doug Keck on the Bookmark Program.

Please note the following scheduled times this episode will be aired:
(Times are Eastern and Pacific)

Sunday, Nov 15th 9:30 am EST / 6:30 am PST
Monday, Nov 16th 5:00 am EST / 2:00 am PST
Wednesday, Nov 18th at 5:30 pm EST / 2:30 pm PST
Thursday, Nov 19th at 1:00 pm EST / 10:00 am PST
Friday, Nov 20th at 11:30 pm EST / 8:30 pm PST

Please pass these times along to family and friends and help us spread this message of Purity to the world!

The following link is to an info page about my books, Arms of Love and Surrender that you could pass along as well to help spread the word: http://www.courtshipnow.com/infopage.html

Christmas is coming …

This is a great time of year for people to get copies for family and friends as Christmas gifts.  We bulk discount (starting at two books and with a combo) to help you to help us to evangelize with this important message!  Every purchase allows us to continue this important work, to which we have dedicated our entire livelihood.  Thank you for your support!

A Special Thank You …

… to all for your prayers which have sustained our family over the years!  I especially felt all the prayers during the time of my labour and delivery.  Through the confusion of the sudden turn of events in Joshua’s delivery, I had a tremendous sense of trusting in God’s will and providence for our little (big) baby and for our family!  Joshua’s name means: “The Lord Saves” … and indeed He does!

Please be assured of our prayers for all our readers.  I offered up my labour for a few special intentions, one being: Purity in our world and for the intentions and needs of all our readers — particularily that their lives would be witnesses of Purity in the world to draw souls to Christ!  Without the witness of your lives, our ministry would not amount to a thing!  So thank you for carrying this message to our world, so desperately in need of hearing it!

Blessings, with gratitude, as I return to my expanded family duties — and joys!
Carmen (Mama of nine!)

Over the years of doing ministry I have had many requests to address the issues of self-image: “beauty” and “modesty” being at the top of the list.

The Cult of the “Body Beautiful”

These are difficult issues for many girls and women in our society because of all the pressure of several multi-billion dollar industries out there, aimed at trying to make us all feel inadequate and “needing” something more!  From cosmetics to hair products, dieting to work-out programs, the clothes we wear to the shoes on our feet … the world is telling us that we are just not good enough the way we are.   Surrounded by pornography and sensuality everywhere we go, we cannot escape the cult of the “body beautiful”.

All these messages coming at women and girls, day after day, play an effect on how we perceive ourselves and how we value who we are.  It’s a real challenge to come away and begin to really see ourselves as the beautiful, unique creations, made in God’s own image, that we are!

A Response by Seven Young Women

A few years back some of my daughters and nieces got together and created a video called “Beauty Quest” for one of our local Purity Rallies, to address this issue.  It was an excellent production — though the quality reflects the low-budget equipment of a little digital camera video’s capacity.

These young ladies get right to the heart of the issue of “Beauty”.  So rather than me expand on it here, I’ll let them share that message with you in their own words!

(It’ll be seven minutes of your day well-spent, I’m sure!)

continue reading "Beauty Quest"

Making a Fresh Start

Dear “Seeking pure romance later in life!”,

I applaud your decision to make a fresh start and set the standard for purity higher in your life!  Purity begins — for each of us — anew each moment.  No matter our past — pure or impure — we are presented daily with temptations toward impurity!  We have to choose to become or to remain pure moment by moment.  And when we fail, we have to remember, we can always start fresh!  It is the deep conviction of the value of purity and our relationship with Jesus that will help us hold our standards high.

continue reading "Seeking Romance Later in Life"

I love that song … the melody is so catchy and the words are so appropriate to everything we try to promote through our ministry.  And of course, it reminds me of the wonderful experience I had during my interview with Fr. Mark and Fr. Anthony on Life on the Rock July 16th!

Many of you saw this interview, but for those who missed it, we have clips of it now posted on my website.  (See the link at the bottom of this blog.)

What I learned from my experience of “Life on the Rock”:

Having received such an overwhelming response to my interview on Life on the Rock made me realize just how important it is to get this message of purity out to the world!  There are so many who have never heard this proclaimed with a new and fresh enthusiasm for our youth!  So many people have lost hope for young people to ever embrace purity.  Yet, young people are truly willing to embrace this with everything they’ve got!  We just have to get the message to them!

At times I have taken for granted the importance of this work … and even fallen into discouragement — is it making any difference?  After my time on Life on the Rock, I realized that yes, indeed, this work is needed and is making a difference!

The presence of men and women of all ages in the Life on the Rock studio audience, especially the families, was so encouraging to me.  It was awesome speaking with them after the show and hearing their personal testimonies.  It’s always great to meet young people, face to face, who have said “YES” to this message!  They are making a difference in the world around them … their light shines out as a great beacon of hope for many lost in the darkness!

Building the Culture of Life:

Getting these books, Arms of Love and Surrender, into the hands of families: men and women, young and old, is so important!  There is so much going on in this Culture of Death trying to pull people away from living pure lives.  I realize even more now how valuable these works are for bringing souls to Christ and encouraging people of all ages to embrace purity!

As a way of HELPING YOU TO HELP US SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF PURITY, we are offering — from now until Mary’s Birtday, September 8th — 30% off our two-book combo! (See coupon below.) Let’s get these books into the hands of youth, our priests, DRE’s, teachers, junior high, high school, and college students and whomever you think will benefit from this message of purity!

Holy Spirit Marketing:

We don’t have a budget for advertising, but we do have our readers to help us spread the word!  We’ve all seen what a difference these books have made in so many lives.  Now, more than ever, our culture is needing courageous men and women of all ages who are willing to take this message of purity to the world.  Let’s see how far we can get this message!  For only $25 you can get a two-book combo and help to change someone else’s life … and impact the lives of everyone around that person who will be moved by what a difference they see!

Here are just two quotes I’ve now received from readers who discovered these books through Life on the Rock:

“I saw you on Life on the Rock a few weeks ago and promptly ordered your books afterward.  I obviously didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but … you helped me to believe in the beauty and simple grace of a prayer, and how to trust in His perfect plan for me…. Your books bring me back to the heaven inside me, and give me hope for what He has in store for me. (Emily, 21 years old)

“Informational and inspiring – page turners. They truly lift up Catholic family life. Will be sharing these works with my children and grandchildren.”  (John, Age 76)

A Great Tool for Evangelizing:

And here’s a slightly longer testimony where you can see the “domino effect” of these books in the lives of several young people … from just one person giving it as a gift to another!

I am writing to you because I want to let you know how much your books are affecting people!! … I had never heard of courtship, you, or your book until this spring semester at college when a friend gave your book to me as a gift. I was VERY MUCH inspired by your book after I read it after going through a long break up, it is what gave me the hope and faith in God that it was for the better because now I can start over and with this new idea of dating and men that I never knew! I absolutely loved this book so much that even though I never used to feel comfortable talking about God to my friends, this book made it seem like it was cool and I wanted to have a family and friend network like the people in the book had so I decided I’d share it with my friends to see what they thought and hopefully inspire them. In the summertime between college I work at Dairy Queen and decided to have a boy read it from there (who did not believe in God). I was sooo nervous sharing a book like this with him but I prayed everyday as he was reading…. when he was done he wrote me about 40 text messages b/c he didn’t want to talk to me in person or on the phone. And through those many many texts, he told me the story of how it had affected him more than I’ll ever know. And he said, this book made him go to the library (which he NEVER does) and check out books. He said “I didn’t go to check out romantic books but books about God.” … The second story is about a girl, who after watching his change in behavior when he read this book, decided she wanted to read it…. She didn’t believe in God either. After reading the book, she asked me if she could come with me to church … and she actually liked it and it made her want to search for what she believed in and find out more…. This book has opened up the idea that it is ok to talk about God at work amongst us teenagers! Before, we just wouldn’t talk about that because it wasn’t “cool” or we were scared how other people would think and stuff. Through your book, all the workers at Dairy Queen are now talking about God a lot and aren’t afraid to say they believe or that they are starting their journey!!!! I’m not good at talking and preaching so my first shot at evangelizing was through sharing your book and by golly it worked! (Anita, a college student)

Over the next few weeks I will send out some blogs with some Q&A’s that address issues that come to me over and over again regarding purity at various ages and stages in life.  So be watching … because there might just be an answer there that someone in your life is needing to hear.  Sometimes its just a few words, a thought, an image, a vision that makes all the difference in the world for someone searching for the truth!

Enjoy the videos and I’ll get back to work on those Q&A’s!

Blessings,

Carmen Marcoux

The E-mail:

My response to this young lady was this:
continue reading "To Freak Out Someone, or Not To Freak Out Someone"