Daisy Almaraz won the seventh-grade section of the 2023 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. / Credit: Sacred Heart Academy
Boston, Mass., Jun 24, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is the sentence that won Daisy Almaraz, a Catholic school seventh grader in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, a national competition.
The sentence doesn’t contain any special alliteration or a readable rhyme scheme. But it does contain every letter of the alphabet.
For a national cursive handwriting competition, the judges wanted to see if the students were up to the task of gracefully writing every letter of the alphabet from A to Z.
“Excited” and “surprised” were the words that Almaraz used to describe her reaction when she found out that she was one of nine national winners among about 80,000 entries in the 2023 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, which students at her school, Sacred Heart Academy in Winchester, Virginia, partake in each year.
Julia Moss, Almaraz’s seventh grade literature teacher, told CNA Friday that she was “amazed” and “excited” that one of her students won the national competition.
Moss said that students from the school had won on the state level in prior years and was expecting an awards email to inform her that Almaraz was a semifinalist.
“And I kept reading the email I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is the top!’”
“So it was phenomenal,” she said.
Zaner-Bloser, an education nonprofit dedicated to supporting teachers and students, awards a cash prize and educational materials to students and schools that won awards.
Each Grand National Champion receives a large trophy as well.
Daisy Almaraz’s winning entry in the seventh-grade section of the 2023 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. Credit: Sacred Heart Academy
Almaraz, who won the state competition as a sixth grader last year, said she likes handwriting because “the neater your handwriting looks, the more people are going to connect with your writing.”
“So, I feel like it makes me better understood,” she added.
If someone wants to work on their handwriting in cursive, they shouldn’t rush, Almaraz said.
“Your handwriting definitely looks better when you take your time and focus on how you hold your pencil,” she added.
Almaraz prefers writing with a pen because it “flows better” and cursive writing requires continuous pen-to-paper contact.
Moss said that writing in cursive can communicate something to the reader other than the meaning of the words on the page.
She said that if the writing is poorly written or scrawled it can send a message that something is “out of place.”
Moss also said that learning cursive can be helpful for reading historical documents.
Founding American documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution are all written in cursive.
Many jurisdictions have dropped cursive from their curriculums, Moss said, adding that Catholic schools have, in her experience, prioritized it.
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Ascension’s “Set Free” Lenten program with Father Josh Johnson promises to guide listeners this Lent through daily reflections on overcoming the seven deadly sins in our lives. / Credit: Ascension
CNA Staff, Mar 2, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
As Lent begins on March 5, we are reminded of the opportunity to grow in faith as we journey in the desert with Jesus for 40 days. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the three areas in which we are called to focus throughout the Lenten season as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter.
Here are five resources to help you grow in your faith this Lent:
‘Set Free’ with Father Josh Johnson on Ascension
Exclusively on the Ascension app, “Set Free” by Father Josh Johnson promises to guide listeners through daily reflections on overcoming the seven deadly sins in our lives. The reflections are designed to help participants know what the seven deadly sins are and how they appear in our lives. The program will outline specific fasts to use to combat each one of these sins and show you how to pray with Scripture and surrender yourself to God. The reflections end with a powerful, step-by-step examination of conscience with the goal of helping you experience more deeply the sacrament of confession.
The “Set Free” program is based on Johnson’s book “Pocket Guide to Overcoming the Seven Deadly Sins.” In an interview with CNA, Johnson, vocations director for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, explained that the idea for the book first came from feeling the need to help his brother priests with penances for people in confession.
“I think as a priest we have a responsibility to not only absolve them from their sins but to help them to identify what’s at the root of their sins and as a spiritual father to give them practical and biblical remedies that can help them to combat against those vices that they might be struggling with,” he said.
After praying further about his idea, he realized that it could be helpful for all of the laity in order to help them overcome their struggles with sin.
“I wanted to have a book for the laity … who want to experience freedom and to be able to go deeper into an understanding of what are the seven deadly sins, how are they operative, how might they be masked, what might precede me falling into them, and then what are some ways that I can pray and fast and some wisdom I can gain from Church Fathers, the catechism, and the Bible to fight against these vices,” Johnson shared.
Johnson has three hopes for those who take part in the Lenten program: First, “that people fall more in love with Scripture and rely on Scripture for everything”; second, for “people to have a better capacity to examine their conscience prior to going to confession to really be able to discern deeper vices”; and lastly that they have “an experience of God’s love and mercy in the midst of our ongoing struggles.”
CNA’s full interview with Johnson about the program can be viewed here:
Hallow’s Lent Pray40 Challenge: ‘The Way’
Hallow will be taking listeners on a journey to grow closer to Christ this Lent through “Pray40: The Way.” Jonathahn Roumie, Mark Wahlberg, Chris Pratt, Father Mike Schmitz, Sister Miriam James Heidland, and Cardinal Robert Sarah will help listeners dive deeper into the writing of St. Josemaría Escrivá, author of “The Way.”
Listeners will meditate on the lives of those who followed Christ’s way, including the life of Servant of God Takashi Nagai, a Japanese physician who survived the atomic bombing in 1945 and had a powerful conversion as shared in his biography “A Song for Nagasaki.”
Roumie will take participants through reflections and prayers on “The Way” and “A Song for Nagasaki.” Wahlberg and Pratt will lead listeners in fasting challenges and Scripture readings encouraging the faithful to give their hearts fully to Christ. Heidland will guide listeners through imaginative prayer; Schmitz will give Sunday homilies; and Sarah will offer guidance for silent meditation.
“Our Lenten challenge is always our biggest challenge of the year and it’s an honor to get to pray with so many incredible voices and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world,” CEO and co-founder of Hallow Alex Jones told CNA.
Hallow’s “Pray40: The Way” Lenten Challenge featuring Chris Pratt, Father Mike Schmitz, Jonathan Roumie, Sister Miriam James Heidland, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Mark Wahlberg, and more. Credit: Hallow
Word on Fire online Lent retreat
Father Boniface Hicks, OSB, will be conducting Word on Fire’s first-ever Lenten retreat.
The seven-part online retreat will provide an opportunity for participants to deepen their prayer lives and intimacy with Christ by focusing on the interior life.
Hicks, a renowned spiritual director and author, will guide participants in reflections each week focusing on different topics in order to grow closer to the heart of Jesus. Some topics include slowing down and returning to the heart, loving Jesus like St. Thérèse of Lisieux did, receiving Christ’s love and mercy, and more.
Blessed Is She ‘Under the Olive Tree’ devotional
In “Under the Olive Tree,” author Olivia Spears guides readers to the Mount of Olives to console the heart of Jesus in his sufferings and be consoled in our sufferings as well.
Each week offers meditations on Jesus’ agony in the garden, praying the Psalms, and diving more deeply into Jesus’ sacrificial love.
Readers will also be invited to contemplate Jesus’ love in Eucharistic adoration.
Lenten books
If you’re looking for powerful reads for the Lenten season, there are several to choose from:
“Remember Your Death: Momento Mori Lenten Devotional” by Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, is Lenten devotional that helps readers meditate on their own mortality and the gift of salvation in preparation for Easter.
“Lenten Journey with Mother Mary” by Father Edward Looney takes readers through the journey of Lent alongside the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to view Lent and Easter in a completely new way.
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