“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo and its worth fighting for.”

Welcome back! I’m glad you’re here :) I am Mariana. Daughter, dreamer, artist, and recent convert to Formula 1 racing. Eight years ago now I started sharing my art and musings over on @bigapplecatholic and it has been the honor of a lifetime to walk with so many of you on this journey Home.

If you’re stopping by just for fun, getting a gift for someone’s birthday, or here to inquire about working together, I hope you leave a little more encouraged as you continue on your way.

Thanks for being here!

Hola holaaa

An April 2026 Letter + Update on @bigapplecatholic Re-opening

It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. . . . It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

G.K. Chesterton

This one is for you.

There is a road beneath the road we walk every day.
A deeper story humming under the ordinary.

This is where we follow that echo— through longing and laughter, beauty and ache — trusting that this life is leading somewhere, and Someone, truer than we can yet see.

This is for the poets, the dreamers, and the deep beautiful feelers. To all who have cried at a sunset, or a beautiful song. To those whose hearts burn with wonder, and who have stood speechless with awe. This is for those who love and ache a little like us in this world. Those who who like us are on Homeward road.

I am overjoyed to welcome as co-host my best friend, fellow artist, and avid Chesteron enthusiast, Katie Jones. I think you will love her just as much if not more than I do.

I cannot wait to walk this new chapter with you by our side. See you on April 29th!

Pssssst. We launched on Instagram. Follow along with us there: @homeward.pod

“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?"

“A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King

Love, it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be

Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More

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There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

C.S. Lewis

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Happy feast of the first married couple to ever be canonized together, Saint Zelie and Louis Martin!

Before reading their letters I saw them as kind of snobby (sorry it’s true). I imagined them as stiff figures praying 50 rosaries a day and h

Mama, help me to come home to my own heart.

While on retreat several months ago it was so clear as day that I was no longer at home in my own heart. Not only was I a stranger to myself but I had no desire to welcome anyone or anything else. For dif

Always longed for a friend and a love like this. It wasn’t too long ago I realized He was already with me.

This heart is love and this love is pure. A heart with no defenses. A real, fleshy, human, heart of a man that loves and receives in to

They speak for themselves.

Take them to prayer today?

Paintings:
1. Rest On The Flight to Egypt by Oliver Mersin
2. The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Carravagio
3. The Return of the Prodigal Son by Girolamo Batoni

#bigapplecatholic
#blessediss

Give us this day our daily bread… not monthly, quarterly, annual bread.

So many of you resonated with the first reading from yesterday of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath.

humbled deeply by the gentle way in which the Lord invited the wid

Hola hola!! I believe the last time I introduced myself around here was two years ago. Currently saying hello from a bus headed to Lisbon. No idea exactly where I am but I know where im headed.. which is quite fitting for an introduction.. more on th

I’ve spent a large part of this year alone in a bedroom. It began with a brutal stomach bug in January knocking me off my feet only to keep me there when a surgery I had planned in February came with unplanned complications in body, mind and sp

It’s time to take things personally.

How often we encourage the opposite: don’t take this so personally but.. this isn’t personal.. don’t be mad that definitely wasn’t personal..

We find so much relief when something i

*Please note this writing is a little more sensitive in nature.

This time last year I sensed a gentle nudge that it would be time to prepare to make a greater gift of myself, mind body and soul.. I didn’t know exactly what that meant but I kn

Family is everything and man has this sweet family of mine carried me throughout my life.

Two years ago I sat in an empty church in Greenwich Village. That semester I had a hellish job, I was overwhelmed by the demands of school and relationship, an

Grafting to the vine. Man…. Oh man.
Two or three years ago I was in New Jersey and heard someone give a talk on wine making. One particular point that has been coming back to me is when a vine dresser sees the need to graft a branch to a new

Silence is the language of redemption.

A few months ago I was in bed for days sometimes even weeks at a time so fatigued that it was hard to think let alone sit for an hour and pray. The uncertainty in my own prayer amidst my pain and fatigue was mo

A few months ago I was reading the gospels and as I came across the flight to Egypt there was a weird feeling in my stomach. I wanted to know more about the flight to Egypt and yet the gospel jumped on as if it was just a couple of days of exile. Wha

So our Lord's sheep will finally reach, their grazing ground where all who follow him in simplicity of heart will feed on the green pastures of eternity. These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven. There the elect look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more. Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us.To love thus is to be already on our way.

No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveler who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going.

From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope (Hom. 14. 3-6: PL 76, 1129- 1130)