While Walking with Purpose Founder Lisa takes time to write our next women’s Bible study, Laura Phelps welcomes guest Caitlin Bean to the Hope for Right Now podcast for a seven-week series: Desert Bloom, A Lenten Journey.
Lent is a time of sacrifice, preparation, and spiritual waiting—a time to prepare our hearts for Easter through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For many of us, it has become about exterior performance, a “holy checklist” we begin on Ash Wednesday and struggle to sustain for 40 days. And preparation? Who has time for that? We are exhausted—after all, it was just Christmas!
If this is how your heart feels at the start of Lent, this series is for you—offering practical encouragement, Scripture reflections, and simple ways to experience a more meaningful, peace-filled Lent.
In today’s episode, Laura and Caitlin talk about receptivity, an aspect of the feminine genius, and why losing distractions is necessary for interior transformation.
Open your Heart to our key Scripture.
Matthew 6:2–4: Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Open your Bible to other Scriptures referenced in this episode.
John 6:10: Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.”
1 Peter 5:8: Be sober, be watchful; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Psalm 22:1–2: The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing. He hath set me in a place of pasture. (Douay-Rheims)
John 5:17: My Father is working still, and I am working.
Invite Him in with this episode’s questions for reflection.
Are we too busy to receive because of our ungodly need to achieve? Let’s not forget that spiritual transformation depends on receptivity, not activity. We can rest, because God is always at work.
Is there something in your life that you have called a failure that is actually the Lord setting you in a place of pasture?
Show mentions.
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Caitlin Bean and Laura Phelps, Desert Bloom: Discovering Unexpected Joy in the Wilderness
Grant Herbel, Substack, “The Spiritual Danger of Turning Everything into Content”
Pope Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Letters, Mulieris Dignitatem and Letter to Women
Dan and Stephanie Burke, Avila Institute
Luke Burgis, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Mary Oliver, “Sometimes” (Red Bird, 2008)
Danielle Bean, Substack
Monsignor Charles Pope, SpiritualDirection.com
Edith Stein, quote
Alice von Hildebrand, The Privilege of Being a Woman
Flourish 2026: Spiritual Motherhood, The Transforming Power of the Feminine Genius, St. Louis, MO, April 17-19, 2026. Register here.
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