Easter Blessings 2011!

I will hopefully add some family photos to this post soon. Spiritual renewal is ongoing; and, this time of year we feel the blessing and power of the Resurrection. We pray to be risen, to live and work and see all reality with that supernatural vision that faith in Jesus Christ and His Mission give us. I have ups and downs like everyone, even still, there is one constant thought in my mind -- it is the utter and absolute amazement that Christ would die for us sinners. This is inseparable from the reality that He rose for us too, so that we would have the courage and confidence to accept our adoption as children of God.

For a wonderfully inspiring article that encourages us to see how St. Therese can give such timely spiritual guidance throughout the Easter season, go here.

“Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples” (Matthew 28:8).

"Ascending on high he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men." (Ephesians 4:10)

Our Lady of the Annunciation, pray for us!

This prayer is from the Invitatory on DivineOffice.org:

Prayer to Our Lady of the Annunciation

Queen of heaven and earth,
daughter of the Father,
Mother of the divine Son,
spouse of the Holy Spirit,

I praise God for the unique grace given to you.
Mary, you became the great Mother of our divine Savior,
our Master, true Light of the world,
uncreated Wisdom, source of all truth and first Apostle of truth.
You gave the world the book to read, the eternal Word.

For this I bless the holy Trinity
and I ask you to obtain for me
the grace of heavenly wisdom,
to be a fervent disciple of Jesus
and to be lovingly devoted to the Church,
the pillar of truth.

Make the light of the Gospel
shine to the farthest bounds of the earth.
Queen of the Apostles, pray for us!

Prayer Source: Fr. James Alberione SSP

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

I am over here to wind down and marvel at the beauty of it all!

St. John the Baptist

Gospel according to St. Luke Chapter 1: 57-66, 80

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child

she gave birth to a son.

Her neighbors and relatives heard

that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,

and they rejoiced with her.

When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,

they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,

but his mother said in reply,

“No. He will be called John.”

But they answered her,

“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”

So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.

He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”

and all were amazed.

Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,

and he spoke blessing God.

Then fear came upon all their neighbors,

and all these matters were discussed

throughout the hill country of Judea.

All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,

“What, then, will this child be?”

For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

The child grew and became strong in spirit,

and he was in the desert until the day

of his manifestation to Israel.

How language can set our hearts ablaze with Love...

I had half an hour to read and pray a little...these reflections printed in Magnificat at the end of the Mass readings are rich indeed. This is from Mother Marie des Douleurs who was the foundress of the Benedictine sisters of Jesus Crucified. Since she died in 1983, I hope to have the time to research this inspired foundress. Here is a quote from the meditation:

She (Mary) put herself wholly into this perspective of final, absolute triumph, and we see her always in a golden light. She believed, not in a timid faith in tune with the weaknesses and vicissitudes of our present life, but with a faith in harmony with the awesome ardors of the Infinite. She had seen the reign of the Spirit of her Son, and in her serenity she was in no need of patience while waiting till the sparks led at last to the blaze of glory.

(italics mine -- wow!)

12 Wise Men...possibly...

I was just reading this excellent commentary on the Magi. It snowed here -- beautiful!!!

More 12 days...

(This card was a favorite of mine for years and years and years -- I still love it!) Back to a few impressions: on the 5th day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me...another morning sleeping in, more dogs jumping on me and hot EggMcMuffin before loading the van and driving back to Georgia.

On the 6th day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me, a day at home resting very peacefully.

On the 7th day of Christmas, I made Spanish tortilla and feasted with family and friends thinking what a lot of goodness surrounds us all the time.

On the 8th day of Christmas, I started stressing out about school starting back, so I sat down and drank more coffee....which brings us to the 9th day of Christmas, a cold and bright morning, when I think I'd better stop feasting so much and focus back on the coming Epiphany!

(Oh, in the last couple of days, I did have time to read this marvelous true account of Mother Catherine Spalding, an American we must learn about to see what we can really do when we put our heart and soul to plow for Christ and with Him.)

...and she laid Him in a manger...

Today, the Solemn Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will try hard to dig out our family's lovely Nativity scene. I am reading this and this to better prepare myself for the natural discussions and questions that will come as we place our figures around our home. Maybe, with careful planning, we can be ready to plant an Immaculate Conception rose bush out back next Advent 2010. Like lots of mothers who are converts, it is wonderful for me to make a file of traditional customs, crafts and songs that I want to add to our family's preparations for the most moving Feast of the Nativity. This excerpt below is from the Catholic Culture link -- so beautiful:

Why was Christ born? ...God loved man and He sent His Son as a tiny Baby. Get the children to think why He came as a baby. (We adults need to think of this too, SS.) They will think of good reasons. Lead them on to see that God wanted to be close to us, a little baby in our midst, because He loves us. One of His names, "Emmanuel," means God-with-us.

The point to make clear is that He came for love. Few people take in the fact vividly that God loves us, and that is, after all, the greatest fact of life. If He loves us, we love Him back. We don't want to displease Him. We thank Him for loving us, knowing that the love of God for us is something so great that we cannot even begin to be grateful enough.

Excellent Advent Overview

Here is the link to the No-panic Advent series....

Getting ready for All Hallows Eve...

To kick things off, here is an excellent sampling of the best writing I have found in my many searches for all things authentically Catholic about All Hallow's Eve. Like me, you will probably want to go check out Ray Bradbury's fiction after you explore Fitzpatrick's comments on his blog. I like the idea of a modern writer who does not find himself mired down in the muck of modernism. The quote below, as well as the swell vintage postcard, can be found here at "Recta Ratio":

The celebration of the day is Celtic and Christian. It is the dying time of the year, with the harvest almost all in now, and even the green leaves of summer suddenly blazing into brilliant color and then dropping to the ground. The days are growing notably colder and shorter. It is the appropriate time to recall our dead, to think about, and to pray for the all the dead. The merry season of Christmas lies ahead. But, as the liturgical year winds down over the next 5 weeks, let us pause to recall death. It is the first of the Four Last Things, after all. --G. Thomas Fitzpatrick

The Holy Father's Prayer Intentions and new blog

Going over here to see a new blog. I copied the Holy Father's October intentions from Catholic Culture website. Go here for the liturgical overview for the month:

The Holy Father's Intentions for the Month of October 2009

General: That Sunday may be lived as the day on which Christians gather to celebrate the risen Lord, participating in the Eucharist.

Missionary: That the entire People of God, to whom Christ entrusted the mandate to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, may eagerly assume their own missionary responsibility and consider it the highest service they can offer humanity.

Expanding our hearts

After I read about St. Lydia over at Catholic Culture (click on last link below), I went over to the blog Catholic Fire and am amazed at such faith. Often we feel nearly helpless when it comes to increasing the theological virtues. We feel like we are trying so hard and have so little control. I know this is our weak humanity chaffing against the demands of authentic Love. Well, here are some links to lift us up: go over to Catholic Fire and know that -- whether you feel it or not -- the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus will strengthen Faith, Hope and Love within us. Pray for the Holy Father's intentions and review the liturgical season for the month of August.

To Jesus through Mary! Amen.

The prophetic writings of John Senior

I still want to learn Latin, and, truthfully, haven't gotten very far. This past week I finished The Death of Christian Culture by John Senior and plan to go back and re-read The Restoration of Christian Culture, which I bought and read first. Senior's writings kindle the fires of Love. Go to IHS Press and learn more.

We've often heard it said that "there is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time". This summer 2009, I am finding this true in a particular way.

We are having blinds installed on all our windows, so I am signing off...

St. Augustine of Canterbury

I am going to read this link about St. Augustine of Canterbury tomorrow.

My favorite links for FEBRUARY...

Here is LovetoLearn's Calendar of Resources -- excellent. I love this mom's approach to the months of the year; she has everything, so go over here for a visit to all the possibilities this cold-hands-warm-heart month has in store for us all. Go over here for what I have found is the best overview of the month for the liturgy. This is a very odd juxtaposition of material, but here goes: I love this book and this other, very odd-ball, yet entirely reverent, book to gleen seasonal and liturgical material for our domestic churches.

Lovely Easter link....

I got this lovely art work from Catholic Culture (click here for the link). He is risen! Alleluia!

JB, J and I will get back to Our Roman Roots tomorrow. I hope to color eggs for an Easter season egg tree. I have always wanted to spray paint a branch from the yard and use some nice ribbon.

I am a real crafter wanna-be.

May all of us be blessed these 5o days.

Blustery and cold in Georgia

After taking Holy Week off, we are about at half mast today. It was so cold here. JB is loading up her guitar for her music lesson later. I have corned beef in the crock pot. We were very blessed last week with a retreat for the girls and the quiet and time to reflect on Christ's Passion.

Holy Week is around the corner.

Just before Ash Wednesday, the thought crossed my mind that we could try a Lenten custom that I read about in Susie Lloyd's funny and inspiring book, Don't Drink the Holy Water. They only watch religious videos during Lent. Now, we cut the cable tv long ago, and are very particular about our media intake. We watch alot of movies about the saints, and the kids loved all the ***CCC videos when they were little.

Better still, would be complete fast from tv shows and film. You could play board games, put good radio on, have evening family read-alouds, sing, have people over for dinner, dance, play guitar, or cook or craft. All of these things (except the radio listening) we do regularly. We still split off, however, in an "every man for himself" mode a bit too much. The whole media fast problem is that we almost always have sickness this time of year and "screen time", as I've seen several moms call it, helps to get through colds and flu.

I see myself as the heart of the home and try to reflect on these things so as to tweak our family life. Over the years, and especially during the blessed time that is Lent, we have, through actions both sudden and gradual, grown closer to our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary and each other. Advent, likewise, is a special time around here. Fasting, praying, and giving are emphasized during these seasons all of which could be summed up in the word preparation. We prepare to love and for Love. Jesus is Love and wants us to be ready to receive His Incarnation and Passion as the pure gifts that they are.

learning notes: ***J would love some of those CCC videos. Last week, I was happy to see the girls working together on a movie script they wrote and played out. Notebooking is going well for J and JB. I need to get my seasonal binder done, and M needs to write more. Mens sana in corpore sano./A sound mind in a sound body. was our quote for the day in Latin. J did muscles (we thought of making a tricep with a rubber band, but didn't...) and JB did the nervous system. I need to finish The Joyful Mysteries of Life w/JB. I plan to take a teacher work day away from the house soon and consult my three main sources for grade-level objectives and skills: MODG, the Core Knowledge Series and CHC. I do not blog much on our love of art and music because it is so effortless. With spring around the corner, we'll get out our sketchbooks and nature journals. Also, I want to close the year with a scroll-style history timeline that we do as a family.

J is in heaven 'cause he gets to work at home tomorrow with Dad. We girls are off to Cumming tomorrow for Challenge. St. Gemma Galgani, pray for us!

Celebrating Sunday!

I was making baked potatoes in our microwave, and it broke! So, our Sunday lunch will be a Sunday supper. This is my one day to put sugar in my coffee. I make a latte with microwaved milk and sprinkle yummy brown sugar crystals on the frothy milk. Oh, it is the little things that can get us!

This week, I re-discovered a beautiful website to help enhance our knowledge and practice of the liturgy, both at Mass and at home -- Catholic Culture (click here). JB and I are trying to get J, Dad and Mags to pose for updated pics on this blog. We are on the last leg of rehearsals for Alice in Wonderland and Tom Sawyer, which our homeschool coop parent teams are producing. I am loving my new role as Team Mom for girls' Challenge, a Catholic apostolate of the fruitful movement Regnum Christi. Four years ago, when I was the mother of a 2, 5 and 7 year old, I joined Familia (also a RC apostolate) at our parish for bi-monthly prayer, study of the Cathechism, the Sunday Gospels and fellowship. Since then, we have had many "Familia babies" -- Alleluia! And, I see our participation in Challenge as a natural and blessed fruit of those years of prayer and friendship.

Lent feels really long this year. Like all the young people around me, I have spring fever, big time! May we all stay blessed! May we show the world the beauty and power of the Resurrection by our experience of the little, daily blessings, as well as the wider issues that surround us.

Potential versus Progress

Are we asking God for the graces we need to tap in to our potential as His holy servants? Lent: Pray = good morning prayer with St. Casimir and daily Mass, Fast = Mom fasted from her common tendency to get distracted from her duty to manage household properly. Give = here at home and outside the home...we all need to work harder to do a little every day in our home, while also setting aside time and energy to give to others. Let's give more effort to our community involvements (various: our neighborhood, friends and family near and far, Challenge, our parish, TORCH, BSA).

Scientia potestas est. "Knowledge is power." This was our Latin quote for the day. I was taken back to all that literary deconstructionist jargon of my college days. How beautiful to be a Catholic and to no longer be saddled with all the immediacies of Marxist, feminist literary criticism and its companion ideologies. Whew! How I hungered and thirsted for truth in those days and was so impressed, and so often misguided, by my instructors and professors in the ivy league.

Dr. James Leek, who wrote Our Roman Roots, commented in the teacher's manuel that "Knowledge is power" could be a dangerous maxim. So true! Why? As happens often in my discussions with children, we came up with a short "answer" to a social ill: Our Lord does not need a microscope to see a molecule. He created everything from nothing! The pride of our modern, and post-modern, scientists and social scientists is so evident from the perspective of faith. Faith is potentially the freedom from the burden of sin. Grace is power. I am new to Latin, but I think that this might be expressed, Gratia potestas est. We will be buying a Latin dictionary soon.

Learning notes: It is nice to make some progress. Like many educators, I am sometimes frustrated when I see the untapped potential of one of my scholars. As their mother and primary educator, the untapped potential of the person relates to the whole person, not just to the scholar as scholar. Academic pursuits are part of a larger vocation. It is hard for me to manage the entire range of my children's daily duties. I try to pay particular attention to their personal habits, as so many youth, at present, have atrocious personal habits. Sin and sinning are deeply ingrained in our nature and manifest in habits both large and small. Our God-given temperaments are such gifts, and we must see ourselves as created good by a good God, while, at the same time, we all wrestle with our sinful nature, a consequence of that first fall of mankind. I think it was Cathy Duffy (others too, probably) who called homeschooled children "hothouse flowers". We are not truly in that category, as we have been in and out of both private and public schools. No matter where a family has been with regards to education, grace can perfect nature. Grace is so powerful. We need to ask our Lord to bless the little knowledge we have and to direct it to His Will.

This is countercultural. The modern (post modern) media often desires idolatry, particularly the idolatry of self. Toward what are we progressing? Is God's Love our ultimate goal? Do we desire, with all of our heart, to bring others into Christ's Kingdom? He wants us to live in His Kingdom now, as a foretaste of the eternal beatitude we will experience with Him in Heaven. Dear children of mine, you are heirs to life and love now. Do not miss even the smallest opportunity to grow in union with our Savior. Peace.