Preparing our hearts for Lent

Today is Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras...whatever you like to call it.  It is the last day of feasting and celebration before we turn our hearts to a much more solemn and sorrowful season of the Catholic liturgical year.  Lent is a time to prepare our hearts for Easter.  We must come to the foot of the cross, repenting of our sins and truly grasping our need for a Savior.  It is at the foot of the cross that we can bring all of our troubles and sins and be met with mercy and love.  For our God is loving and He is merciful!  He wants nothing more than for us to bring Him all of our struggles and He will give us the strength we need.  It is in Christ's presence that our peace is restored and we feel strengthened.  He is the source of our goodness.

St. Augustine (in his book, Confessions) said it so well and it is quoted in the Catechism:

"You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and heart is restless until it rests in you." (CCC 30)

Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.  Lent is a time when we bring all of ours sins before God.  We must acknowledge those sins, receive the healing grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and then begin to prepare for our renewal of our baptismal promises at Easter.   So what are you going to do for Lent to draw closer to Christ?

Our family this year has much planned.  The boys are finally at the age where they can really participate and begin to understand what we are doing.  I started by setting goals and making a poster board with our goals.  I got the awesome idea from Shower of Roses and Family at the Foot of the Cross.  I took their ideas and made our own!  Here is what we came up with:

We have set goals for Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving that the boys can do.  I have also listed seven scripture verses that the boys will memorize one per week.  I will sit down today and fill out the post-it notes, which will get replaced with purple ones.  The flowers on those are far too cheery for Lent.  On each post-it note will be something that the boys have to go around the house and count how many of that item and then we will put the corresponding number of pennies into a bowl. At the end of Lent, those pennies will be a donation from the boys to the poor people.  Underneath the post-it note will be some good deed, prayer or act of giving that they will perform for the day.  Whew...it will be a busy Lent, but hopefully one that we can all grow closer to Christ!  We will be doing crafts from the Lent-Easter Book which is amazing!  Every family should have this book!

One of the biggest sacrifices my boys are going to make is no TV except for Religious videos.   Poor little guys have no idea that Lent is 47 days; they will surely be missing Curious George and Cat in the Hat by Easter, or will they?  My hope is that they detach themselves from it and most likely, they will adjust better than I will.  This is more of a sacrifice for me, since that is my free time each day.  It will be good for us all; TV is a luxury that we should do without.

As for me, I have 5 bible studies that I am doing, 2 of which will end about the time Easter comes around.  I am going to replace much of my free time with studying and preparing for those bible studies, but also doing some additional reading.  The first book I want to get through is True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis De Montfort.  This book is heavy theology, so I have to read it two or three times before I somewhat understand a paragraph.  At the end of the book, you make a total consecration to Mary and I am finally ready to prepare myself for this!  I hope to do this by Easter.  I will also be doing this study: Come and See Catholic Bible Study: The Synoptics while reading the text of Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen that correlates with it.  There is so much more that I want to do and read, but I think this will keep me more than busy.  Hope I still have time to clean the house! ;-)

I have never done much fasting, but since I am not pregnant or breastfeeding for the first time in 5 years, this would be the perfect time.  I am abstaining from soda through Lent and will fast on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout Lent...not true fasting of only bread and water, but rather only one meal for the day, no snacking and the other two meals combined cannot add up to the one regular meal for the day.  This fasting will be a good reminder of my need for God and not to cling to the things of this world!

My prayer for our family and friends is that this Lent proves to be a time that you are able to draw closer to Christ, meditate on the sacrifice on the Cross and find peace in Him!

Prayer Warriors

Prayer Warriors?  Certainly not me, I am a stay at home mom with three small children.  How could I possibly have the time or energy?  How wrong I was to ever think that!!!  As a mother, I have the opportunity and calling to be a prayer warrior and here is why:

I was listening to Catholic Radio a little over a month ago and they were discussing the decline in religious orders.  In our current American culture, very few young men and women discern and choose to live a life of chastity as a monk, priest or nun.  The numbers have declined dramatically in the last 30 years.

According to official church statistics, from 1978 to 2005 the number of religious priests worldwide declined from 158,000 to 137,000, while religious brothers decreased from about 75,000 to 55,000. The sharpest drop was in the number of women religious, which went from 985,000 to 783,000.

The situation is clearly going to get worse in coming years, mainly because of the aging population of the largest religious orders.

There are other problems, too, including the increasing defection rate of new entrants; in many places, 40 percent to 60 percent of those entering religious order formation programs leave before making their final commitment.

Father Lewandowski said his own Crosier order has projected that its membership will decline by half over the next 10 years.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801033.htm

These numbers are concerning.  It caused me to wonder, what is the role of these religious?  They are called to be witnesses to Christ.  By living a life of simplicity, often times poverty, they are a witness to the rest of us, how we are to submit to God's will and live for Him and the good of others.  Our own personal will must decrease, so that God may increase within us.  Wow.....what a difficult thing to do.

How have these religious affected our society?  We have an education system today because of the monks.  We have hospitals and modern day medicine because of the nuns who began healthcare at a time when Government had no desire to help the poor.  Many of the nuns were trained as nurses and started hospitals in Europe and in this country.  Today, about 30% of hospitals are still Catholic.

One of the most important roles that these religious have is their prayers.  Often times, we underestimate the power of prayer.  However, we all believe that God answers prayers, so why are we not praying without ceasing as St. Paul encouraged us to do?? (1 Thessalonians 5:17)   If you look at the Rules of Life for any of these Religious Orders, many hours a day is spent in prayer, meditation, reading Scripture and spending time with God.  It made me wonder why we as the lay members of the church do not orient our days in the same manner?  Most obvious answer, because of our sinfulness.  As a stay at home mother, the other reason is lack of time.  But is there a way that I could be a prayer warrior and in some small way, make up for the lack of religious?

Of course we as stay at home moms can be prayer warriors!  I pray without ceasing throughout the day, but often my prayers are random and apply to whatever the current situation is.  It made me wonder if my prayers and days would have more purpose if there was a daily theme to them.  So, I have sat down and constructed a prayer "theme" for each day.  Every day, I focus my prayers on these intentions and it is nice to have a specific intention throughout the day, in addition to my own personal requests.  So, here is our family schedule:

Monday - Abortion
Tuesday - World Hunger
Wednesday - Pope, priests and other religious
Thursday - American Leadership
Friday - Conversion of Souls to Christ
Saturday - World Peace
Sunday - Domestic Church

This is our schedule for now.  Even small children can be encouraged to pray for these causes throughout the day.  For the first time, I fasted yesterday for the cause of World Hunger.  It was humbling to physically feel hungry and remember what so many people throughout the world go through on a daily basis.  If done properly and with the right spirit, we are able to unite ourselves with Christ, His suffering and the sufferings of those throughout the world.

Our society tells us that as stay at home moms, our role and purpose is minimal.  A career is much more rewarding than raising children to do God's will and strengthen the Domestic Church.  The Catholic Church couldn't disagree more.  As mothers, we have the opportunity to increase our prayer life for the good of others.  While we cannot make up for the declining religious orders, we can offer our prayers daily while we wait for vocations to increase.

And while you're praying, make sure you encourage your children to someday seek a life of commitment to God as a priest, nun or monk!!!!  Those religious orders will only increase in numbers if we as parents, encourage our children to discern if God is calling them to that vocation!

Epiphany - May we never go back!

Today is the celebration of Epiphany!  Many Christians do not celebrate this liturgical holiday but most everyone knows the story of the three kings who came to visit baby Jesus.  There are many beautiful insights written about the Three Kings, who they were and how they found baby Jesus.  Perhaps the most beautiful insight about these men, has come from the late Rev. Fulton Sheen.  The story of the Visit of the Magi that can be found in chapter 2 of the gospel of Matthew.

The Three Wise Men arrived in Jerusalem searching for the Christ child.  They were gentiles; scientists who came to pay homage to the King.  When Herod heard of their inquiry, he immediately asked that they return to tell him where to find the Christ so that he too could pay homage.  The 3 Kings brought 3 gifts, gold to honor His Kingship, frankincense to honor His Divinity and myrrh to honor His Humanity.  Myrrh was also used at His burial.

After paying homage, God warned the Three Wise Men not to return to Jerusalem but instead go home by another way.  It is in this Scripture passage (Matthew 2:12) that Fulton Sheen has immense insight.  He says "No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way he came."

Of course the Wise Men went home a different way.  What does this mean for us?  It means that when we approach Christ, the Divine Life, we must allow a conversion within our hearts, such that we do not go back to our old sinful ways.  We must allow His presence and His love to change us, to conform us to His Will.  In doing so, we take a different path with our lives.  It is our response to His grace and love that allows God's will to become our own.  These conversions can happen daily, if we allow it.  As Catholics, we don't believe that there was one conversion that has achieved us Salvation.  Though you may experience a great conversion that forever changes you, we all experience many conversions throughout our lives that help us to become more Christ-like.  It is our response to His love that allows us to change the path of our life; resisting the temptation to return to our sinful habits.

This is why a strong prayer life is so critical.  We must humbly approach God each day through his Word, through daily Scripture reading.  When we read Scripture, our hearts and minds are hearing the Truth.  Reflection on these holy words allow us to incorporate these Truths into our daily lives.  We must listen with an open heart, one that is willing to hear things we may not want to hear, but we know that it is Truth.  We must then take these Truths that God reveals to us, examine our own life and then commit to change our own actions.

I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of "Life of Christ" by Fulton J. Sheen.  Fulton Sheen was the bishop of Rochester and lived from 1895 to 1979.  He was a great man of immense faith and wisdom who is without a doubt, a Saint.  His canonization by the Church is under consideration.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Eve Mass

My favorite masses of the year are Christmas Eve and Easter.  We celebrated our first Christmas Eve Mass at St. Mary Magdelene's at 4pm.  After speaking with some friends, we were warned about how crowded the Mass would be.  So, we arrived at 3pm, with all the boys decked out in their suits, and took our seats.  I had brought some books and a notebook for Jacob to draw in.  By 3:30pm, the church was standing room only, and even then, most of those spots were taken too.  It was such a joyous thing to see!!!!  I couldn't help but pray to God that our church would look like this every week; now wouldn't that be something?!  The 4pm mass was the children's mass, so it was fun to see all the kids dressed up and hear the children's choir.  The boys did surprisingly well despite sitting for 2 1/2 hours.  Caleb slept through most of it and Noah charmed the teenage girls in front of us.  

Christmas means so much more after 5 weeks of Advent to prepare for Christ's birth.  There are such wonderful books that help to quiet the noise of the world and focus on Jesus and what His birth means to us, 2000 years later.  I have grown to appreciate anything written by Rev Fulton Sheen and Pope John Paul II.  Both of them have such beautiful insight and message of God's love for all!  Merry Christmas and may God bless you abundantly in the year to come!

The boys were so proud they were dressed up like Daddy!

Merry Christmas

Preparing for Baby Jesus

This Advent has been fun; the most fun I've ever had!  Why?  My kids are finally starting to get old enough that they understand what Christmas is really about.

In our house, we do not do Santa Clause.  Most people look at me like I have 3 heads when I tell them that.  Then they usually ask...Why not?  What is the harm?  But my question is this: Does Santa help us to draw closer to Christ?  For our family, the answer is no.  Sure, the big elf is pretty fun and what is the harm in allowing kids to believe in magic?  For me, it is a lie; the whole Santa thing is.  What really bothers me is this notion of being good or bad.  If you are good, Santa brings you gifts, if you are bad, you get coal.  Kids get threatened that they will get coal, but when push comes to shove, do parents actually follow thru?  I have never met one that did.  So from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, parents are constantly telling their kids "You better be good; Santa is watching."  What about God?  Isn't God watching?  Isn't God the ultimate authority on good and bad?  Shouldn't we teach children to obey and behave properly based upon God's moral code?  Every family is different and must discern God's will for their family.  For us, taking Santa out of the picture has allowed us to move away from the "What am I going to get for Christmas?" to the "What can I do for Christ and how can I grow in my faith?".  What a blessing that has been!

Instead of Santa, we do something different with our nativity set.  I set up our criche and told the boys that we wanted to make a very soft manger for baby Jesus filled with cotton balls.  The only way that they could put a cotton ball in His manger was for mommy or daddy to catch the boys in a good act.  For every good deed, they got a cotton ball.  You would have thought I was giving them cotton candy every time; they loved it!!!  The boys were SO excited to do something for baby Jesus in preparing for his birth.  At first, they tried to report to me each time they would do something for their sibling or to help me around the house.  I quickly stopped that by not giving them any cotton balls.  They had to get "caught" in the good deed.  This was definitely a big success.  The result?  A lot of good behavior for Jesus!!!  I really believe that it made an impression on Jacob how important it is that we do things that are pleasing to God.  It doesn't earn our way into Heaven, but it helps us as we work out our own salvation. This really helped the boys to understand that everything we do must be with Christ in mind!

Our next favorite activity was the Jesse Tree.  I had purchased a kit from Leaflet Missal last year and had never finished it for Advent in 2010.  So this year, I decided that I would finish making the ornaments and do it with the boys each day.  For each of the 29 days, there was an ornament that went on the tree and an Old Testament story.  The Jesse tree begins with the creation story and follows chronologically until Jesus' birth.

Every morning, Jacob would beg me to do the next ornament.  I had purchased a Catholic Children's Bible that was perfect for reading the stories.  I am embarrassed to say that even I did not know all of the stories; it was a very humbling experience.  Thankfully, our church is offering a bible study on the Old Testament starting in February; guess I better sign up! ;-)  Regardless, we enjoyed these stories and lessons on how many men remained faithful to God; despite great struggles and suffering.  Here is what it looked like at the end:

Advent is truly about the three comings of Christ, His coming at Bethlehem, His coming daily into our hearts; if we allow Him; and His final coming that we are awaiting.  Here is a beautiful season in the liturgical calendar that allows us to focus on the virgin birth and Christ humbling Himself to become a man.  I hope that you have had a beautiful Advent in preparation for the coming of our King!!!

Approaching God as a Child

What does it mean to have a child-like faith?  This is something that has been weighing heavily on my heart recently.  As I strive to teach the Faith to my children and help them experience our Father's love each day, I see how they approach God.  They approach him without question, full of love and a desire to do His will.  Though signs of our inherent sinfulness start to kick in around 1 year of age, children are still an ideal example for adults to emulate when it comes to our faith.  They are quick to forgive and forget, they love unconditionally, they accept whatever we teach them without question and they accept the Father's love wholeheartedly.  I would argue that the only exception for us as adults is that we should question things we are taught if they are coming from an unreliable or questionable source.  This is one thing I love so much about the Catholic Church.  We have an entire Catechism at our fingertips that has many of the answers to our questions.  If it cannot be found there, the Magesterium (clergy) are another unified source of information.  This consistency in the Church provides great comfort for me and allows Catholics to be unified in our beliefs.

But what does Jesus say about the children?

"Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray.  The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:13-14.

Jesus loved the children, especially at a time when society did not view women and children equal to a man. When observing children, it is clear what Jesus is saying.  Children approach Jesus without reserve.  They openly worship and adore Him.  My youngest (18 months) does that in his screams of "Jesus" during the quietest moments of mass! They are not afraid to speak of Him to others.  They are not afraid to ask for forgiveness and when forgiveness is given, they quickly forget their wrongdoings and start fresh.   So how can you emulate a child's approach to God? 

This is one of my favorite passages from St. Frances de Sales; the book is titled Set your Heart Free.  It is especially meaningful to me because I can understand the analogy of a child holding onto his/her parents hand.  This is so real to me right now as I am constantly holding my childrens' hands.  Just as I hold my child's hand, so does God hold tightly to each of us.  Do we let go or do we cling tightly to His hand?  Take some time to read it and contemplate on it.  Are you holding tightly to your Father's hand and not collecting too many earthly goods?  Is what you are doing pleasing to God?  Do you put your total trust in God and be satisfied with what He gives you?  How can you approach your Father as a child?

If you hope to succeed

in whatever you do,

place your trust totally in God's providence.

Cooperate with him,

then rest secure 

that whatever happens,

will be best for you.

Think of a little child

walking with her father.

One hand clings tightly to his,

but with the other

she gathers fruit from trees along the way.

Imitate the child.

With one hand go ahead and gather

what you need of the world's good things,

but with the other 

hold on to your heavenly Father,

checking regularly

whether or not,

he approves of what you are doing with your life.

Above all, 

beware of letting go of your Father

to free up both your hands

to gather more of the world's goods.

You will find

that by yourself

you will stumble and fall.

And when your gathering does not require

all your attention,

turn your mind to God as often as you can.

Like a sailor returning to port,

look to the sky

and not just to the waves that carry you.