Emily Stimpson Chapman

Emily Stimpson Chapman is a wife, mother, and best-selling Catholic author of over dozen books, including The Story of All Stories: A Story Bible for Young Catholics (Word on Fire Votive, 2025); Letters to Myself from the End of the World (Emmaus Road, 2021), The Catholic Table: Finding Joy Where Food & Faith Meet (Emmaus Road, 2016), and These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body (Emmaus Road, 2014).

In addition to The Story of All Stories, Emily’s newest books include Around the Catholic Table, a cookbook for everyday dinners and handbook for easy hospitality (Emmaus Road, 2025) and Sacred Wine: The Holy History and Heritage of Catholic Vintners (Marian Press, 2005). In recent years, she also has written studies for the women’s ministry Endow, edited the Formed in Christ high school textbook series (published by Tan Books), and published three children’s books with Scott Hahn. A fourth children’s book with Scott Hahn, this one about Saint Joseph, will be forthcoming in 2026.

Through the years, Emily has published widely in the Catholic Press, with her work appearing in First Things, The National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, Touchstone, Faith and Family, The Catholic Digest, and elsewhere. These days, you can mostly find Emily on Instagram and on Substack, where she both writes the popular weekly newsletter “Through A Glass Darkly,” and co-hosts the podcast Visitation Sessions. You also can also find her in a rambling old house in Steubenville, Ohio, where she and her husband Chris are raising their three young children, ages 7, 5, and 4.

The Theology of Hospitality

Long have I appreciated the insightful and humorist musings of Emily, all of which have encouraged me to let go of scrupulosity and embrace joy. Through the many years that Emily embraced her single state, I admired her honesty and the ways in which she encouraged others to live deeply meaningful single lives. As she entered marriage, struggled with infertility, and adopted three children, Emily lived the Catholic faith out loud and on the pages of her works. All of these moments of embracing God’s will through the struggles of life have formed her into the brilliant woman that she has become, and we are the benefactors of that wisdom!

One of the aspects of Emily’s work that most inspires me is how she and her husband actually embrace and live it. What I have come to understand as their theology of hospitality, is their lived experience of simplifying their lives in order to make room for others through community building. By opening their home to others and preparing a meal in order that they can share conversation and quality time together, they are preaching a theology without words. This receptivity gives home to weary souls in need of spiritual replenishment as well as a satisfying meal and smiling faces at the end of a long day. It is a way to step out of the busy rat race and journey with others through their weekly battles and successes, celebrating and grieving in community. In this podcast episode, Emily shares simple ways in which every Christian can respond to their call of charity and hospitality.

Links

The Story of All Stories

These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body

Letters to Myself from the End of the World

Hope to Die

Around the Catholic Table

Fr. Dave Pivonka

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, is a well-known speaker and has served as the President of Franciscan University of Steubenville since May 21, 2019.

Father Dave has hosted multiple video series including The Wild Goose on the Holy Spirit, Sign of Contradiction on St. Francis of Assisi, Metanoia on conversion, and in 2024, 10th Hour Production’s My father’s Father on God the Father. He has written eight books, including The Breath of God, Living a Life Led by the Holy Spirit, and Joyful Sons and Daughters, Embracing The Father’s Love. Fr. Dave hosts Franciscan University Presents on EWTN, and cohosts the popular podcast, They That Hope.

My Father’s Father

In one of his most recent and certainly his most emotionally raw video series, Fr. Dave takes an in-depth look into fatherhood. He explores the ways in which our relationship with our earthly father forms and shapes our original perception of God the Father. The series sheds light on the importance of the relationship of a father with his children and how even his failings and the hurt a person may have encountered in childhood can be transformed into healing through Christ, who ultimately presents us to his father. Fr. Dave brings the viewer along as he reminisces about his own childhood, which was blessed with a father who was like a best friend and loved him unconditionally. Yet not everyone on the series has that same experience with their own fathers. Repairing the father wound requires necessary healing in order to embrace the reality of our sonship, because all of us must find our identity as sons and daughters of God the Father.

Spiritual Fatherhood

One of the most powerful points of my discussion with Fr. Dave was the insight into his spiritual fatherhood, as priest and president of Franciscan University. In his daily encounters with so many young people who are carrying their own woundedness, the priests on campus have a very important and redemptive role in the story of healing for those with father wounds. Their spiritual fatherhood is an imperfect reflection of the unconditional love of God the Father, which offers hope and a healthy reference point for those without one.

Links

My father’s Father

Wild Goose Films

Joyful Sons and Daughters

Erika Bachiochi

EPPC Fellow Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is also the editor-in-chief of Fairer Disputations, the online journal of sex realist feminism.

Bachiochi is a Senor Fellow of the Abigail Adams Institute. Her book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision was published by Notre Dame University Press in 2021.

The Rights of Women

Bachiochi’s study on feminist history uncovers an underlying reliance on the cultivation of morality. This was as much for the betterment of individuals as it was for society. Author of the Rights of Men and the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft was strongly influential in British society. Her work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in 1792, appealed for women’s education in order that they should have greater independence of mind and thus be better able to appreciate their duties and enter into marriages of reciprocal friendship.

Bachiochi makes the argument that “The trouble with the women’s movement today lies, rather, in its near abandonment of Wollstonecraft’s original moral vision, one that championed women’s rights so that women, with men, could virtuously fulfill their familial and social duties.” Wollstonecraft believed that in reforming themselves, women could reform the world. The weight she places on domestic duties is novel compared to the base regard we give it today. Reading her work, one is inspired by the heroic perseverance and resolution necessary to be a woman of purpose, particularly as wife and mother. Virtue is the measure by which all things should be judged.

Reimagining Feminism Today

My question to Erika mirrored the title of the final chapter of her book. As we find ourselves Reimagining Feminism Today in Search of Human Excellence, we again ask questions regarding men and women that are framed in virtue. This topic was key in my own research for the book Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love. The conclusions point to the necessity of self-governance and independence of mind, which may only be formed through education and proper moral formation. For this reason, parents, above most, have a vital mission to cultivate these virtues in their children through guidance and nurturing care. These manifestations of human excellence are found in the fulfillment of the day-to-day responsibilities one has to God, self, family, and society, emphasizing sexual integrity, faithful marriages, and devoted parenting.

One of the essential starting points in understanding ourselves is to know our purpose and mission in this world. Understanding that shared mission of our humanity then allows us to explore our differing modes of humanity, that is as women or men. When I asked Dr. Deborah Savage to delve deeper into these points, she answered that our mission, and the mission of all Christians is to return all things to Christ, to whom they originally belonged anyway. She added that woman reminds man that he cannot make a gift of himself to a bottom line or a project. He can only make a gift of himself to another person. Both of their work must be ordered toward authentic human flourishing. “Woman’s task is to bring the divine presence into the world.” This is the model that the Blessed Mother creates for all women through her fiat.

Therefore, if a woman enters a corporate boardroom, parish office, or her own home, her task is to bring the divine presence into that room. “Woman is responsible for reminding us all that all human activity is to be ordered toward authentic human flourishing.” When pressed to answer how individual women live out their mission in their particular vocations, Dr. Savage emphasized the critical importance of a woman’s prayer life, because she can’t give what she doesn’t have. Further, she added, “Whatever I do, I do it as a mother.” This was my favorite and the most compelling line that Dr. Savage spoke to me, because I believe that spiritual maternity is the gift that women bring into all situations. This spiritual maternity is imbued in her nature as a woman and is oriented toward the care of all of humanity. Understanding this truth gives women access to fully living their mission in Christ. As Savage so eloquently articulated, “Women are the guardians of the gift of life.”

Politicians have often debated about the capacity, roles, and therefore the rights of women. Philosophers have considered the differences of women and men in their mental abilities and trajectory of potential. Yet, theologians, inspired by the wisdom of the faith and the Scriptures, ask what mankind is to God, in the created partnership of male and female, and beyond that, how each individual relates to God and finds his own way back to Him. This is why I was struck when Dr. Savage stated that the real driving force behind the question of what it means to be a Catholic woman, is “what does it me to be me?” In asking this, I am asking, “How can I live out my womanhood in a way that God had in mind when he created me?” Now this is certainly a deep question to ponder in prayer, and one that all women should be dedicating far more time to than to any political debate about women. This question should shape us.

“It’s a principle of the natural law, that we’re born already in debt to our Creator for the gift of life, and the only way to repay that debt is to become that person God had in mind when he created me.”

Have I become the person God had in mind when he created me? This question has certainly resonated with me and I believe it should challenge any area of our lives that have become lukewarm or apathetic. Let’s pause to experience the great mystery of human existence! Living within my body and soul is how I discover the meaning of creation and my place in it, not by creating my own body or my own purpose.

Lovely Lady Linens

Originally published in 1938 in German by Gertrud von le Fort, The Wedding of Magdeburg recounts the sacking of a German city, in 1630, by the Holy Roman Empire. It takes place in the wake of the Reformation and challenges both the wielding of power and religion in war. “The Wedding of Magdeburg tabulates the spiritual cost of war and shows how grace can dramatically imbue even the darkest moments of history.” The book was recently translated into English and published by Ignatius Press. I had the delightful opportunity to receive an advanced copy and read it in preparation to discuss the work with Vivian Dudro, a senior editor at Ignatius. Vivian has a great love of Le Fort’s work and is a wealth of information on the author. She has been a senior editor at Ignatius Press for more than twenty years. Prior to that, she wrote for Catholic publications including the National Catholic Register and Catholic San Francisco.

Gertrud von le Fort (1876-1971) was a German novelist and essayist. She was a baroness and attended the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg. Le Fort converted to Catholicism at the age of 50, after which she wrote most of her influential works, including the Song at the Scaffold and The Eternal Woman.

Relevance: The work of Gertrud von le Fort is extremely relevant to the work that I am doing, in exploring the role of woman and mother in humanity. Le Fort visited St. Edith Stein in the Carmel in Cologne as well as exchanging letters with her. Both women were deeply impacted by the concept of woman and mother, elevated by the most perfect example of the “eternal woman,” the Blessed Mother. While The Wedding at Magdeburg does not focus on the concept of woman in the same way that Le Fort did in The Eternal Woman, she masterfully weaves in the concept of bride and mother, both in physical reality and as symbolism.

Motherhood Redeemed A Hermitage of Her Own

About Erin

Erin has extensive experience coaching and training high-achieving professionals at all levels of their career. Her approach is informed by her diverse experience in project management, strategic planning, and human formation in the political, legal, nonprofit, and higher-ed industries. She spent her early career in public policy and project management in Washington, D.C. Often finding herself at the beginning phases of multiple start-ups, Erin enjoys the challenges of entrepreneurship. She currently serves of the Board of Advisors at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America. Erin holds a Bachelors degree in political science and coaching certifications from multiple programs including the Life Coach School. Her favorite city is Krakow, Poland where she lived for nearly 3 years. You’ll find her traveling on adventures with her husband and 4 boys.

SMART Goals

When you determine the goals that are actually meaningful to you and your family, the ones in which you really want to achieve, then you need to put them into SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. These goals help us actually achieve what we set out to accomplish because we can measure and know when and how we have succeeded because of the specifics we outlined for ourselves. In evaluating through the SMART goals formula, we are also able to decide if our goal is relevant to the stage in life we are in and if it is the right time to set such a goal. If we decide that it is the right goal and time to accomplish it, then we need to have proper accountability and a deadline set in which to accomplish the outlined goal.

Questions to Ask

Begin with reflection, asking what I am grateful for in this last year and what goals I accomplished, what good habits I formed, and what drove the most happiness for me, personally and professionally. What am I most proud of? This kind of reflection helps to ground us and grow our self-reflection. If we skip this first step of reflection, then it is hard to move forward and we are not setting ourselves up to succeed.

Then ask, what it means if I succeed or fail at my goal? How long will this goal realistically take to achieve? What does this look like in the greater context of my life? How will I give myself parameters that will make something very big become practical? Am I allowing perfectionism to get in the way of meeting my goal? Do I need to adjust my expectations? Who is my accountability partner? How will I prioritize my goals?

Keeping in mind what it will look like to succeed and what I will do when I fail are important to beginning to set realistic goals. Sometimes the ultimate question to ask myself is whether or not my goal or the means of achieving that goal are realistic or if I need to shift the parameter of what success looks like.

First thing’s first! What is first for you?

Links

Goal Setting Guide

West of Perfection

The Busch School of Business CUA