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‘Tis the season of lights, laughter, and little miracles in our front-yard football games—but also the season of gift-giving. As a Catholic elementary teacher, husband of four lively children, and founder of The Simple Catholic, I’ve learned that the best gifts are those that reflect more than the wrapping paper. They reflect truth, virtue, and wonder.
This year I’m delighted to share a curated Christmas Gift Guide featuring small Catholic and Christian-owned businesses I’ve had the joy of partnering with. These aren’t just products; they’re invitations to faith, family, beauty, and home. I’ve organized this guide by kids → parents → home so you can easily scroll, sip your cocoa (or eggnog), and find something meaningful for everyone on your list.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Joanna Loop via phone call on May 24th, 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
What inspired you to begin writing Catholic books for children?
To have a resource for mothers teaching their children about the faith. Because it is really difficult to find this information about the faith and help them fall in love with the faith.
It started as a desire to help build the domestic church. It is our job as Catholic parents to help teach our kids about the faith.
My books are tools to help teach the faith. There’s a lot of moms who attended Catholic school but didn’t realize there’s so much more to it. We have to tell our children from birth about Jesus.
I realized how learning the faith is simple. So much of Scripture feels like that I have known my whole life because it was internal to me or because God is speaking to you. There’s no religion out there that is so straight-forward.
We have the ABC book to get that early exposure and the numbers book was a fun way to connect Scripture and Tradition. For example, there’s Seven Sorrows of Mary and there’s Eight people in Noah’s Ark (not everyone knows about this).
The shapes and colors books are my favorite. They are tailored to the youngest office. When my son is tracing the circle he can learn the shape of the Eucharist. It’s been a lot of fun putting these books together.
The most mature book I wrote was on the Marian Apparitions for Kids. All the proceeds from this book go to help the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
The books are available at the Sanctuary Gifts Store in Kingsville, Ontario, The Mustard Seed in London, Ontario, and the Peaceful Dove, also in London, Ontario. Please support these local brick and mortar stores! They are doing so much for our Christian community.
I also travel to different Catholic events to sell the books in person.
More information about the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home:
Our Lady of Guadalupe Home is a registered Catholic charity in Windsor, Ontario, that offers a loving, faith-filled residence for pregnant women and new mothers in crisis. Inspired by the Gospel and guided by Divine Providence, this home provides shelter, food, and around-the-clock care to women who have nowhere else to go. Mothers of any background—regardless of race or religion—are welcomed with compassion and dignity.
The home is unique in offering 24/7 paid staff support, providing stability and hope to women during one of the most vulnerable times in their lives. They offer assistance for up to a year and rely entirely on donations and the grace of God to continue their mission.
As a way to help support this life-saving work, I wrote a children’s book called My First Catholic Marian Apparitions. It’s a beautiful introduction to Our Blessed Mother’s appearances throughout history and is available on Amazon Prime.
* All proceeds from the sale of this book are donated directly to Our Lady of Guadalupe Home in perpetuity.
This is a simple and meaningful way to share the Catholic faith with children while also helping vulnerable women and babies in need.
Thank you for sharing about the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home! It’s a wonderful ministry.🙂 How does your own faith and family life influence your storytelling?
I haven’t really thought about that before. I come from that teaching background (my parents and sister were teachers) so books were a very important part of my children. We had a library in my house. I wanted to have something similar for my kids. In the Marian Apparitions book I wrote it in a way where I told the story like I was talking to my one and two year old son.
What’s been the most meaningful response you’ve received from a reader or parent?
Sometimes this happens a lot actually, parents and grandparents are so excited about my project that they are so joyful. They become champions of my project and encourage me. It’s been really meaningful. The parents want to help get their children closer to the Church.
Natalia from The Peaceful and Jackie specifically have been so helpful to me. I reached out to them and they were immediately supportive of my project.
Your books cover everything from Marian apparitions to Mass symbols—how do you choose which topics to explore?
Very simply, it was about babies. I wanted to make baby books that were approachable for all mothers. I didn’t want to make the books too intimidating. There’s lots of feeling that we carry that we aren’t ready to study certain holy topics. So I figured I would start with more universal things like ABCs and Colors that there’s no requirements for holiness.
For some reasons, these religious topics come with pressure and a feeling of insignificance.
What do you see as the biggest challenge and opportunity in catechizing young children today?
This is kind of complicated. I see a lot of parents trying to catechize their kids and it’s confusing because we live in a secular world. I was there before, and there’s a lot of external pressure to work. So there’s very little time to spend time with your family. There’s a challenge with parents who don’t feel like they have the time and want to rest/relax.
I realized I need to have my priorities. Refocusing our schedule so it involved sacrifices like working from home so I could spend more time with my children and more time for faith events. The importance of being with grandparents and aunts and uncles. To sum up I feel like the biggest challenge is building up the domestic church.
Can you walk us through your creative process—from idea to finished book?
Once I got the idea I started on the book. I cannot stop until it’s 100% done. For a few days there I was telling my kids that I needed to finish the book. So on these occasions my kids found themselves in their independence. It took me about 3 weeks to get the books done from start to finish.
I self-published and I talked to a friend who also self-published.
What advice would you give to other Catholic creatives who feel called to evangelize through storytelling?
I think about the early Church Fathers and how they wrote letters to each other. They always addressed/started the letters with love. Speak from your heart. While the New Testament is the “end of the Bible” it doesn’t mean that the Bible is done.
Understand your own testimony and what drew you into Jesus. You don’t have to make it complicated. Once you know your story and testimony, who knows where this journey will take you.
My journey wasn’t complicated, I just shared my love of Jesus. Don’t be afraid to start.
Pray for the home: “Thy will be done: nothing more; nothing less!”
Buy the book: Search My First Catholic Marian Apparitions on Amazon Prime. It makes a beautiful gift for First Communion, baptism, or family prayer time.
Donate or volunteer: Visit www.ologhome.com to make a donation, sign up to volunteer, or learn more.
Mail a donation: Make cheques payable to: Our Lady of Guadalupe Non-Profit Home of Windsor 591 Alexander St. Windsor, ON N8X 3B8
For tax receipts and monthly donation info, visit their CanadaHelps page.
Together, we can be the hands and feet of Christ to women in crisis. Thank you for your generosity and prayers!
About Joanna:
Joanna Loop is a passionate author and educator from Ontario, Canada, on a mission to share the ancient traditions of the Catholic faith with young readers. With a heart for storytelling and a love for teaching, Joanna has written over five titles devoted to sharing the Catholic faith with the world’s littlest friends. Her books, including the beloved “My First Catholic Books” series, bring the spirit and symbols of the Mass and the stories of Christ into the comfort of homes around the world.
Drawing inspiration from her faith and family, Joanna creates stories that nurture children’s hearts and minds. Her works, such as “My First Catholic: Marian Apparitions” and “My First Catholic: Shapes”, invite young readers to explore Catholic traditions, learn about the saints, and grow in their relationship with God.
When she isn’t writing, Joanna enjoys spending time with her family, engaging in parish life, and exploring new ways to bring the love of Christ to young hearts.
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― G.K. Chesterton
I’ve always been a fan of fairy tales and fantasy stories. The appeal initially began with the wonderful plots and scenery. But it’s the character development (at least in Disney renditions of the fairy tales) that continues to enchant me to revisit these tales. In the book A Catholic Field Guide to Fairy Tale Princesses: Modern Virtues in Tales as Old as Time, author Therese Zoe Williams examines a panoply of classic and modern princesses and the virtues they espouse.
One of the challenges Catholics faces is how to evangelize in a secular modern not in line with traditional Catholic Church teaching. Followers of Jesus know this world is not our home. It’s a pilgrimage towards the next reality― Heaven. But this doesn’t mean we should flee from worldly things completely or never engage with the present culture. Williams says it well, “If we are to be truly ‘in this world but not of it’ (cf. Romans 12:3), then we have to sincerely engage pop culture at large. The whisper of God is in everything” (p. 18).
Williams’ book is divided into four sections: The Official Disney Princesses, Other Notable Disney Princesses, Other Disney Women of Virtue, and Noteworthy Non-Disney Princesses. Each chapter includes a description and brief history of the fairy tale related to the princess. Williams also includes a section titled A Real-Life Fairy Tale where she focuses on a saint who exhibits the same virtue depicted by the fairy tale heroine. Chapters conclude with a prayer related to the virtue and/or saint.
This was a fun and quick read. Williams did a great job in showing how the virtues exhibited by Disney princesses are relevant to our lives today. I particularly enjoyed the Real-Life Fairy Tale section. Williams found appropriate saints throughout Church history to match their fairy tale counterparts.
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Thank you for reading and hope you have a blessed day!
The Catholic Church has endured an awful abuse scandal. It’s easy to view the Church as exclusively a human institution and fall away from the faith. I can’t even imagine the anger, horror, grief, sadness, or despair that one would feel when abused by a member of the clergy.
I had the pleasure of following Catholic author Faith Hakesley on social media. Her book Glimmers of Grace: Moments of Peace and Healing Following Sexual Abuse, is a gift inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Faith shares a vulnerable and grace-filled story about a Catholic priest who sexually abused her and how her journey toward healing involved trusting in God’s will. In the introduction, she writes, “Breaking my silence was one of the greatest graces I have ever received” (p. 11). Healing begins when you allow others in on the suffering you are enduring. Inspired by Saint Therese of Liseux, Hakesley relates how she shared her cross and suffering.
According to the author, “Writing was therapeutic, a way for me to put my deepest feelings into words, a way of finding connection between certain events” (p. 13). Faith wrote Glimmers of Grace to give to other victims (and survivors) of sexual abuse.
Analysis of Glimmers of Grace
The book is divided into three sections focusing on: finding grace, finding healing, and finding freedom. Every chapter in Glimmers of Grace is written in a letter format and ends with reflection questions. Additionally, Faith includes tangible action steps (called One Small Step) to help the reader move toward healing in baby steps.
While I personally have never been a victim of abuse (let alone sexual abuse), I still found value in this book. In 2014 and 2017, I suffered immeasurable loss— the deaths of my unborn children due to miscarriage. My healing took A LONG TIME. Faith details out her healing path and how it took her quite a while to trust the clergy. She even admitted how the abuse affected intimacy in her marriage. I gained strength and hope carrying my crosses simply by reading about Faith carrying hers.
Along with her vulnerable account, I found the format of the book to work perfectly for her story. Hakesley draws in the readers by writing in a direct and sincere style. Her practical tips for healing and holiness are a great resource for anyone (no matter your cross).
A Book of Hope
Glimmers of Grace is a book about healing and discovering the miracles of ordinary life. Faith writes, “What’s a glimmer of grace anyway? It’s a term inspired by my mom, referring to the little miracles that God sends our way” (p. 17). Reading this book helped shift my thinking about miracles. The miraculous can be big (like in the Book of Exodus) or small.
Faith Hakesley is an outstanding writer. Her humility, vulnerability, and trust in God shine through the text of Glimmers of Grace. I strongly recommend this book to any Catholic struggling with the sexual abuse scandal in the Church. You will find perspective, hope, and grace after finishing this book.
