By all accounts, she was just a tired old woman, destined to spend the rest of her life in the shadows, far away from the splendor of her earlier years. Her husband had divorced her for a newer and more powerful model. All she had left in the world was her faithful son and her faith in The Son. Who could have known that that faith would be enough to change the world? And yet, that is just what happened. Imagine the joy as word spread from neighbor to neighbor that there was a new emperor and he wasn’t just another Pagan, but a Christian. The centuries of ruthless Roman persecution were over and a new era dawned upon the empire. It was the faith of St. Helen, passed on to her son Constantine, that ushered in this new era.

St. Helen isn’t the only woman of faith to influence those she loved; women like Mary Magdalen, Sts. Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Perpetua, Felicity. There was Clotilde, who converted her husband Clovis, introducing Christianity to the Franks, or Princess Dobrawa, who influenced Prince Mieszko, which sparked a conversion that set Catholicism ablaze in Poland.

Women have always been instrumental in spreading the faith. They do it through their love, their care, their listening hearts, and their tight bonds with those whom they love. This is something that the world has largely forgotten. Catholic women have forgotten it, too. We often find ourselves at odds with the culture. Even something as simple as standing in the checkout line reinforces our alienation because we embrace life, traditional marriage and Christianity. It strains our relationships and sometimes leaves us wondering how people would react to us if they knew what we really believed.

This sense of alienation is also felt in our relationship to the material things in our lives – home décor, hospitality, health care and clothing. On the one hand, they are necessities that we deal with daily, but on the other, so much of the branding, advertising, and design is inimical to our basic beliefs. Catholic women sometimes feel like we have to choose between our Catholic faith and the secular world, or rather, that we are straddling these two worlds. On one side is Catholicism, full of prayer, sacraments and grace, but with a notable absence of beautiful, inspiring, and compelling products at our fingertips.

And yet, we don’t have to live this way. Catholicism has been the greatest inspiration to civilization in history, influencing art, architecture, literature, food and song. It is a faith of stuff, material things, elements that fill all the senses: earthy elements like bread and wine, to the more sophisticated ways to bring glory to God, such as art and statuary. Our faith is not like the Eastern religions that try to ignore the tactile, visuals, smells and feels, but rather, Catholicism embraces these.

Some friends and I have just started a new website, www.HelenaDaily.com, (with a nod to St. Helen) to help cultivate these values so Catholic women know they aren’t alone in the world and to help reinforce our faith by aggregating great articles and insightful blogs. It is, in fact, a great sign of health that the Church has gotten to the point that there are thousands of Catholic women blogging about their journeys of faith, their family struggles and triumphs, their flourishing friendships. Helena Daily taps into these.

Helena Daily also takes a fresh approach to the quotidian details of our lives – clothing, cooking, home décor, travel and relationships. Yes, the material world has the capacity to drag us down or lift us up, but we must find the right relationship to it and allow it to witness to the goodness of God in joy, peace, maturity, beauty, truth and splendor.

As Catholic women, we are not reminded enough that we have the capacity to change the world – just like the Helens, the Lucys, the Marys, of old. And although we may often feel alienated from the larger culture, there many, many of us who love the Church, our families, our friends, our neighbors and even the stranger, who want to reach out and gift them with the faith that so animates our lives.