Let's work hard against contempt, let's adore Him, let's love...

"We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us." --St. Teresa of Avila

I have a few quiet moments and am thinking about how fast the rest of the year will go by...and, I want to bring a grateful heart to each day, not worrying if I "get everything done". I am a "worry wart," as they used to call my grandpa (my dad's dad). It is important for me to stop and see the big picture, to stop and adore our Eucharistic Lord, even when I am not directly in front of the Blessed Sacrament. He, the Prince of Peace is, so very mysteriously, living inside of me and, as a beautiful song goes, "He is the air I breathe..."

We are all called to be living tabernacles. I love this thought and know that the Incarnation made this all possible. No wonder so many love Christmas. The miracle of Christmas is the gift of Mother Church. Christ came as a baby and would become even smaller in the Sacred Host (think of that!). As a convert, I am still learning and renewing, via His sacramental graces, my knowledge of the truths of the Faith. We know that Purgatory is the "Church Suffering" and that we, pilgrims on earth, are the "Church Militant" and that all persons are created to journey in faith, hope and love to our ultimate destiny of utter refuge, known to Catholics as the "Church Triumphant."

Heaven is the goal. It is the place to which we run. I was talking to some of the members of my Regnum Christ small prayer group (know as our "Encounters with Christ")about the idea that Heaven will be, for me, a place not of rest, as we tend to think of it. As a disabled person, I like to think of Heaven as a place where we are always free to move, free to act with verve and full-blown energy to love perfectly all the time. Come to think of it, that would be eternal rest because we would "rest" in the peace of a fully certain conscience, meaning that our hearts would be utterly pure. We would be unencumbered by our mental, emotional and physical disabilities. Living fully in the embrace of the Blessed Mother gazing in complete communion with the Blessed Trinity, we would be one act of pure love all of the time -- Heaven!!!

I know it is not a sin to be tired, but, as I am so tired so much of the time, I am blessed, if you will, to think, from time to time, of all the good works that I could initiate, if I were to have more energy. Alas, nothing is wasted! What I mean by that is that we can pray with all of our might for souls. We can offer everything up to Him who is Love. And, we must do what we can when we can to inspire and encourage ourselves and others.

We can offer each and every aspect of our daily lives for the salvation of souls, beginning first with our own. A related item I have been pondering is the fact that we must work and pray very hard not to be contemptuous of our own failings or those of others. Our Lord warns us of the only "unforgivable sin" being (all) that which opposes the Holy Spirit (do not quench the Spirit!). God never fails to forgive. We condemn ourselves. We know this. When we make our morning offering and ask for the special intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we must do so humbly and in full recognition of our potential for contempt, of ourselves and of others.

I just looked up contempt and you may be given a bit of a jolt --it is from the Latin contemnere, meaning to despise. Wow! Contempt is "an attitude to something (or someone, I add) which one despises as worthless, insignificant or vile; total disregard." (Webster's)

I believe this is key to understanding the internal persecutions of Mother Church. When any human person is deemed worthless (which can happen internally or externally, or both), then the demons leap in to the situation. When an idea that is good, truthful and beautiful is distorted, then the same occurs. The godly practices of celibacy for the Kingdom, worship of the Blessed Sacrament, family prayer, parish renewal, true friendship, authentic love, filial obedience to Mother Church -- there are so many more -- when these are held in contempt, watch out!

But first, return every hour of every day to the Lord with your whole heart. Ask our Lady to be your mother, to guide you, pray with you and for you. Ask for prayers from the holy souls and pray for them (then you will have "friends in high places," as I tell the kids). Here is a good link on Purgatory.

The one, sure prophetic word of God is to love. Spending time in front of the Blessed Sacrament will increase your capacity to love, of this I am sure for I have experienced it in my own life. I know it to be true both from doctrine and from experience. Both are good and sound. Only magisterial doctrine is constant, but it must be experienced to be transmitted, so that we may evangelize the world.

Is it possible that the teaching can be more sound, more constant, than the teacher? I am speaking of apostles, not our Lord Himself, of course. He mysteriously acts through clay pots. I have more cracks than most! I do know that true and real devotion to our Blessed Mother includes an ardent desire to free the holy souls from Purgatory.

Holy Souls in Purgatory, pray for us! I pray that the holy souls know that we care, that they do have us to pray for them and that they will help us love ourselves as children of the Most High God the Father and that they will help us love others as our Savior has loved us! Amen

St. Teresa of Avila (my Confirmation saint), pray for all inhabitants of this good earth!

Lesson #1: we fear what we perceive will be difficult...

Last night my husband and I watched our 11 year old daughter have a meltdown. She was devastated. She was crying. She was inconsolable. What she said she was protesting she was not protesting; and, as I pointed out to my hubby --and he saw to be true -- she was deeply afraid of the unknown future. Yet, another time when "Lesson #1" kicked in -- and, it is our children who teach it to us, our children who act as the mirror reflecting our fallen humanity right before us.

I too fear the unknown. Unlike our daughter, lots of practice recognizing my fear has often helped me reject it, helped me to push onward with little to no protest. Of course, there are still times when I let it creep up on me, and, just like my tender-hearted, blue-eyed girl, I say one thing when I really mean another. I think fear works that way. We try hard to find an easier path. We work hard avoiding the job God has put before us. Some Bible translations quote our Savior's great exhortation as "Be not afraid." Recently, I heard what I thought a better translation, "Stop fearing."

At a recent three day women's retreat, by God's grace, I spent many hours in concentrated prayer. I was emotionally and physically very tired by Sunday. Then, like the brilliant, yet slowly evolving, sunrise, I awoke from my fatigue and saw a clear day. I wish I could say that I knew exactly what God wanted of me on the hour of everyday...that kind of clarity is not what I mean. What I did see clearly was that, like my young daughter, I fear what I perceive will be difficult. Prayer helps us take on God's perspective. He perceives life much differently than do we fallen humans. At the same time, He created us to love, and to love both naturally and supernaturally, so there must be some recourse to shrug off the terrible fears that so often cripple His will for our lives.

The recourse is His Sacred Body and Blood, His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. I pray that I may bring this wonderful -- this truly awesome-- reality to more people before my earthly pilgrimmage is over. I pray that I might be more open to adoring Him, to just allowing myself to be quiet in His Presence. Lord, hear our prayer!

The Day You Have Just Lived

"You will be judged on the day you have just lived," came as an exhortation from a good and active priest one morning this past spring. A group of mothers had gathered to pray and reflect. I wrote this in my notes, and, since then, it has become a simple, yet powerful, prayer.

This morning my husband and I rose before our children and had a little quiet time. I was reading my Magnificat. There is a lengthy quote from Pope Benedict XVI on the souls in Purgatory and here is a good part of it:

With death, our life-choice becomes definitive -- our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred, and have suppressed all love within themselves...In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell. On the other hand there can be people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbors -- people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfillment what they already are.

Yet we know from experience that neither case is normal in human life (emphasis mine). For the great majority of people -- we may suppose -- there remains in the depth of their being an ultimate openness to truth, to love, to God. In the concrete choices of life, however, it is covered over by ever new compromises with evil -- much filth covers purity, but the thirst for purity remains and it still constantly re-emerges from all that is base and remains present in the soul. What happens to such individuals when they appear before the Judge? Will all the impurity they have amassed through life suddenly cease to matter? What else might occur?...[Saint] Paul [says] that Christian life is built upon a common foundation: Jesus Christ. This foundation endures. If we have stood firm on this foundation and built our life upon it, we know that it cannot be taken away from us even in death. Then Paul continues: 'Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw -- each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:12-15). In this text, it is in any case evident that our salvation can take different forms, that some of what is built may be burned down, that in order to be saved we personally have to pass through "fire" so as to become fully open to receiving God and able to take our place at the table of the eternal marriage-feast.

Sin is at the bottom of the most profound Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist. So many people do not believe they are in need of salvation. Our Savior is both our hero and our best friend. The doctrines of Mother Church are merciful because they come from the Son of Mercy, our Lord, the Christ. The fires of Purgatory purify us, and we need purification. I think often of the famous quote of St. Catherine of Sienna, "Be who you are and you will set the world ablaze." Our Lord calls us to be grateful for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Fear of the Lord, Knowledge, Fortitude, Piety, Counsel, Understanding and Wisdom) and to use them all at all times. Yet, we are weak and we fail. Then, we stoke the dying embers by our faith in the Sacraments; and, thanks be to God, He, by the request of Our Lady, fans our flame. Father, thank you for giving us Jesus as real food to enflame the fires of our love. Help us to love others as your Son has Loved us.

My gasoline analogy and firming our schedule, St. Pius X, Pray for us!

I some times tell the kids that I see grace as the fuel that I run on, much like the gasoline which fuels our minivan. So, when they clamor about going to a daily Mass or spending an hour in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I often tell them that Mom needs to "fill 'er up," and that we all need God to be holy and happy. We are switching our Adoration from Monday mornings to Thursdays from 3-4p.m. Here is our schedule for fall:
Mondays: Hit academics hard, M has youth group at the parish from 5:30-6:45, weekly. J and Dad have boys Conquest meetings once a month from 6:30-8 pm (I think).
Tuesdays: Hit academics hard, J and JB have art at the best art studio, weekly from 3-4:30.
Wednesdays: softer academics, schedule doc visits, vet, possible field trip pegged to Challenge.
Challenge meetings for JB and M in the afternoon from 2:45 to 4:15.
Thursdays: Hit academics hard, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 3-4pm.
Fridays: Spelling and math tests in the morning and Mass and TORCH coop.
Saturdays: Everyone in the family to Confession once a month (Mom, more often).
Once a month -- date night for Mom and Dad
Once a month -- Mom spends her "sabbatical" out of the house solo
Sundays: Sunday Mass, Keep up hosting family and friends for special meals,
at least once a month, down time for Dad. We are going camping in Sept. with TORCH, and, in general, hope to take more family, and family and friends, trips to the North Georgia Mountains (esp. Smithgall Woods). We are moving to Cumming, Georgia, sometime this academic year, so we are packing up our "tent" here and getting ready. Like most people we know, we juggle some health challenges in all of this. God is good and gets us through. The children and I said a slower than usual version of our Guardian Angel prayer today. This is simple, yet powerful.

Amicalola Falls family field trip Friday and some thoughts on unschooling

That was alot of alliteration! Click here for a link to this most amazing Georgia park.

Highlights for this past week: 1966 was a good year! Got to actually spend Rachel's b-day with her here cooking, talking and playing -- so good! So happy that drama is behind us and feel so blessed from all the hard work both kids and adults put into both ALICE and TOM S. Loved Adoration this week in a way that is hard to put into words. JB and I have been having a surprisingly good time preparing for her and M's upcoming ITBS. We have been gardening some, drawing some, walking and talking alot, with less reading, writing and music than is usual around here. Come to think of it, we have read more magazines and newspapers and been discussing current events more than usual. And, spring drama has led to lots of good work and talk. Oh yeah, and we wrote several "thank-you" notes.

M is fully engaged with family and friends. Challenge was fun and inspiring, and we have added a daily Mass here and there. J lost both his front two teeth during the past 2 weeks, so he is past adorable. He asks me every night to make up a story, and I am inventing Aesop's Fablesque stories. Latin is on hold, but I am hoping we will have one more short run with it before taking summer off....Which makes me want to reflect a bit on what happens the minute I say we are "off" -- everyone goes into huge learning spurts. As unschoolers, and any attentive parents, will attest -- kids love to move and they love to learn. Whether they are intraverted or extraverted, kids are always investigating, exploring, expressing/communicating, dancing, listening...They like a little directed work, but just bust at the seams to get on with their lives.

I think every parent and educator should read some of John Holt's work, as he really took the time to observe what is good and true and real about childhood. It makes me think about what Jesus taught in the Gospel about being like unto children. Their learning is so passionate. They have their dishonest moments, but they recover from such dishonesty much faster than adults (in general, I mean, of course...).

Life is not boring when you are young (young at heart, too <: )and given the time and space to use your imagination. I mention this because I am really loosening up and becoming such the unschooler. And, I love it. (And, I do get anxious, but prayer calms my fears.). I think I have a feel for when they are wasting time; and, as I have often heard, unschooling is not unparenting. Our day is punctuated by prayer and devotions. His grace is sufficient for staying faithful both to our families and our vocations. JB and I wrote a "LOVE" acrostic: "learning our vocation everyday". All the happy, enthusiastic individuals and families that I know are true to themselves and the good God that created all.

I am truly amazed at how creative children are and how much they need "down time," which is not to say that they are inactive, but that they are not over-scheduled/being shuffled off to something organized at every turn. My kids are loving the weather and exploring our neighborhood creek as I write this. M got a Wii for her b-day (this Wed.), and, while I'd rather be outside than playing a video game, I do see the appeal. I am happy to report that, though the Wii was part of her gift, she wanted to share it with everyone.

That's all. "Pray, hope and don't worry." Padre Pio

O come, let us adore Him...

After a really wild and wonderful 5 days (dress rehearsal, play, grandparents visiting and Pure Fashion Show), we (mom and kids) all landed in the chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament for our weekly Adoration and prayer time. We have been going every Monday for this Holy Hour for this academic year. It is a time of peace and guidance.

Wrapping up March

JB and I are out the door in a few to try a dance class thru the local parks and rec. I am sending our March attendance in to the county. Highlights: J, JB and our husky Tyler and I took a lovely walk in the woods late this morning. We bought some really cool books at Barnes and Noble yesterday. Adoration yesterday was so needed and so appreciated -- thank you Lord!

Giving Jesus Monday

I have always had trouble with Monday mornings, mainly because we have just gotten used to Dad being home and synched in and then off he goes for nearly 12 hours. So, several months back, I signed us up for 10am Monday Adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. I cannot say I felt much consolation this morning;but, later today, when I looked back at all of our little accomplishments: J and JB helped sick sister M, J and I read about Ancient Rome, JB did her spelling and beautiful cursive, some outdoor/fresh air time, lots of laundry and housework, phone calls, emails, singing, dancing, guitar lesson, play time, dog, cat and guinea pig time, Rosary prayed and three home-cooked meals...well, we were blessed. Our Lord blesses our efforts, no matter the degree of hesitation with which they are offered.
learning notes: we need to post our cool math books for artsy types, get those pics up, plan activities for St. Patrick and, esp., St. Joseph. I want to transplant mini-Christmas tree in kitchen. Do another construction paper body part, like last week's cool tongue. M's 12th bday is around the corner in May. St. Edmund Campion, pray for us!

Wonderful Words

JB and I hope to learn how to take digital photos and upload them directly on to this blog. She composed and drew a lovely acrostic poem on the whiteboard this morning, "SCARF". It is inspired by the noun we all love to wear this time of year, not what hungry hockey players do to their food. If we are quick learners, we will post a picture of this work of art.

Notes: JB and I went to Adoration yesterday. Math is getting beefed up. Our reading in science and history is going well. JB did an experiment and recorded her observations. J is feeling bad and is in slow gear. My learning goal for the year is to retain what we study. We are a family of talkers so talking things through is often our method of review and synthesis. The new three-ring binders I bought for JB and J are helping us get more of our work in the notebooks. One of the joys of winter is that it is fun to get out the glue sticks and the construction paper and add color and design to any activity. Tomorrow, when we drive up to Cumming for Maggie's club meeting, I want to take JB and J's Faith and Life books and do the cover for J's new notebook. JB thought up the title, "Family Fun with Faith". Maggie is keeping her K-12 and Dr. Jay Wile company. She is on a math sabbatical. We are all jazzed up to create some bear books. With three family birthdays in Jan and Feb, as well as George W. and Abe L.,and a family interest in all the migrating birds we have seen this winter, we like B things: birthdays, birds and bears. We are helping to host a baby shower in February -- the love of babies is perennial...which makes me think of the movie that J and I downloaded for free off Netflix last nite: The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

Just got back from music lessons and am off to try that healthy version of "country-fried" steak. Some southerners refer to it as "chicken-fried" steak, which is funny. Much more has gone on here in the last few days. It helps me so much to take a few minutes and count a few of the blessings we experience. I hope J gets well soon as we have various teas and parties we are getting together in the next few weeks. I did not mention the work the girls are putting in to the two plays our family is involved in: Alice in Wonderland and Tom Sawyer.