Christmas Trees and Angels

Why, after all these years, when I'm finished decorating the Christmas tree does the treetop angel still listing to the right?  No matter how I try she will not stand straight.  And why, after all theses years do I expect perfection in this tree?  Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here.  My focus on perfection should be focused elsewhere.  Yes, indeed, it should be focused on perfection itself and "the reason for the season." My during this season of Advent will focus on the love our Savior showed us by becoming like us.  

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!!!

Cathy  

The Rose Garden

The Rose Garden

For some time I have said the rosary. And to my friends they understand it is a matter of making sure my children are prayed for, if not an obsession. They are patient with me and even keep me on an even keel by showing me the humor in this magnificent obsession.

When I started I was saying one decade for each of my five children. Then each of the children got their individual rosary so that each day is said on their rosary with each decade said for the children. Next came the boxes. That way they weren't getting tangled (reduced the sibling rivalry). A friend makes beautiful porcelain figurines and so I got the stature of the Virgin Mary. Finally, to add to the wonder of my prayers, last Mother's Day my daughter-in-law helped my grandsons make the tray with their beautiful flowers on it. And so came to pass my Rose Garden.

I also have found that saying the scriptural rosary is so much more beneficial for me. I not only pray for each child but I am able to meditate on the life of Christ as well. I also have a large library of scriptural rosary texts so that I don't get bogged down in one. You see it is complicated and most people would be happy just to say the rosary. Not me, I have to have ritual. So there you have it!

This being the month of the rosary and also the month of Marianne's birth I want to wish her Happy Birthday today. Today she is 30 and on Saturday she will be a beautiful bride entering into a new and challenging phase of her life. Pray for her!

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!

Off to Visit Mom...

My Mom

Will be leaving Saturday to visit Mom, Phil, Deb and Megan in MT for a few days. As a result I'm posting today as I will be busy getting organized...

I am still amazed how I am guided to appropriate offerings for this post. I am reminded of my mother and how we were taught. Many evenings while helping with the dishes. I remember her patience when she would remind us that one does not end a sentence with a preposition. (Question: "Where is the milk at?" Answer: "Behind the 'at'") Spelling was a game we would play and Scrabble, the ultimate game and time with Mom, was played with vigor and intensity.

I want to leave you with the reflection from Praying With Saint Paul, edited by Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.

A Mother's "Word-Box"

"And [Christ] gave [...] teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no loner be infants,tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming."
~Ephesians 4:11-14~

I had always considered by sister-in-law toe an outstanding Christian mother, lovingly attentive to the needs of her children. On day I noticed something that helped me to understand a deeper dimension of the vocation of motherhood. as her elder daughter was soon approaching school age, my sister-in-law decided to begin teaching her reading and vocabulary skills. Not willing to allow the television to do such important work, this loving and attentive mother developed her won word game (she called it the "word-box.")

In his 1988 encyclical letter Mulieris dignitatum, Pope John Paul II described the uniqueness of the vocation of the mother as one who "is filled with wonder at this mystery of life and understands with unique intuition what is happening inside her." Indeed, my sister-in-law was responding to the graces of Christ in nourishing and educating her children, ever attentive to their particular needs.

Saint Paul reminds us that Christ gives his holy one the graces to build up his Body, the Church. When we participate in the building up of the spiritual edifice which is the Church, we are preserved from the emptiness that the world offers. When parents respond to the graces of their vocation, their children grow in knowledge and love so that they can resist worldly deceptions. My sister-in-law was building up both her own family and the whole Body of Christ in knowledge and love.

~~~~~~~

Lord Jesus, giver of the gift of motherhood, grant that all mothers may respond to your wondrous graces as they care for their children.

And so, dear mothers and friends, I leave you for several days to ponder, pray, and give thanks for your gifts of motherhood. Christ has indeed blessed us with his graces in so many ways. And you have all blessed me! Indeed, I thank you!

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!

"Have faith in me"

Sedilia
photo by Lawrence,OP

Today's reflective reading in Magnificat is another call for us to trust. It is a testament to our humanity that we must be reminded over and over again to "have faith." In today's Gospel (John 14: 1:12) we are reminded that even Jesus' closest followers still had to be reminded, even while He was among them.

As a result of our creation, God assumes certain all-important claims to our allegiance. He is our origin; he is our supreme good, our monarch, and our absolute sovereign; he is our ruler, our protector, and our defender; he is our judge.

Let us adore and praise God in all these divine aspects. Let us rejoice that he is so great, that he possesses countless perfections, and has so much power over all his creatures who are dependent upon him in so many varied ways. Let us also rejoice that we belong to him by so many claims to our allegiance and that he vouchsafes to exercise all these rights in our regard. It is a marvelous advantage, a great glory and a singular honor for us to have an origin so noble, an end so exalted, a center so divine, a supreme good so bountiful and provident, a prototype so perfect, a king so powerful, a ruler and protector so prudent and strong, a judge so just and equitable, and a God so great so admirable and so good...

As our end, center, element and supreme good, he calls and attracts us to himself continually, saying: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened: and I will refresh you" (Mt 11:28). If there is a secret virtue in the center of a stone, in the element of the fish, and in the sphere of fire, which so strongly attracts them, how much stronger is the virtue of our true center, our true element and our real sphere, which is God? How is it, then, that we allow ourselves to be so little attracted to him? Certainly, we must believe that we offer very great resisitance and that there must be a terrible weight of sin within us to resist such powerful attraction. O my sovereigh End, by Divine Center, attract, me draw me completely to you, and do not allow me to oppose your power in any way. (Saint John Eudes)

Saint John Eudes (+1680) was largely responsible for initiating and popularizing devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

~~~+~~~

Thanks be to God!

Aside: Please note I have added "Catholic Trivia" to the side bar. I found the game we played with the children when they were younger. It is suprisingly educational and amazing how much there is to learn in "trivia." I hope you will enjoy this "corner."

He is Risen, Alleluia!

The Risen Lord
porcelain by Therese Meisling

Two thoughts for the day. The first is offered as an introduction to Easter Sunday's Mass in Magnificat and written by Pope Benedict.

Faith in the resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of the person is indeed answered. Through Jesus we do know 'the room where exiled love lays down its victory.' He himself is this place, and he calls us to be with him and in dependence on him. He calls us to keep this place open within the world so that he, the exiled love, may reappear over and over in the world...God exists; that is the real message of Easter. Anyone who even begins to grasp what this means knows what it means to be redeemed.

Pope Benedict XVI

The other is offered by Richard Rohr, O.F. M. in his book Radical Grace.

The Subversive, Risen Christ

Jesus is among us now in a new way as the Risen Christ, the Christ who is everywhere, beyond all limits of space and time. On Good Friday we say the relationship of all humanity to God: We kill what we should love. We're afraid of the gift that would free us. On Easter Sunday we celebrate Jesus coming back into a world that rejected Him.

If you have ever been rejected, you know how unlikely it is to come back into the midst of those who have said, We do not want you. Yet that's the eternal mystery we celebrate: God is always coming back into a world that for some unbelievable reason does not want God. It's almost impossible to believe that could be true. And yet Jesus, in his humility, finds ways to come back. Jesus knows we didn't like the first time what he had to say. We weren't ready for that much freedom or that much truth. Humankind can't bear that much reality or that much love in one moment of history.

So God had to come back in a disguised form. God had to come back, as it were, secretly, as a subversive, hidden--the Risen Christ. Now he can be everywhere, but we can't capture him. We can't name him too precisely. He can always break through in new and unexpected ways. That's the Risen Christ the world is never ready for and never expects, and sadly, does not even want. That's the Christ who energizes his Church, The Christ forever beyond our control.

from For Teens on the Risen Christ

We have been given so much in the love of God. If we could just accept the gift of life offered with humility by our Risen Lord! We are such frail lace tatted by the hand of God. The strength of the fiber is in the love of the Risen Lord and the intricacies of the life of that work is in the working of the Holy Spirit!

~~~~~~~

Thanks be to God! Alleluia!!!

Letter from Shannon

By e-mail I got an update from China Little Flower and the work Shannon Walsh is doing for those unfortunate children she works with. And so this I share with you...

***
~~~

I could not get the letter to link so this is the best I could do...just click for larger view. And here is the link to Shannon's web page, China Little Flower

The work she does with these children and the love she gives them. Oh, my! And all this with the love and sincere trust of Our Lord! My best to you all and have a Grand Day!!!

~~~~~
Thank be to God!!!

Jesus and The Children

This reflection is taken from Face To Face, Daily Lenten Devotions for Women.

Her Child Was Blessed by Jesus


"Let the Children come to me."
Matthew 19:13-15

She sat quietly on a cool rock some distance from the crowd. her daughter on her lap gnawed on the crsut of bread. Jesus, the teacher, was speaking, but she could hear only a few words now and then. Suddenly a woman shouted, "Master, bless our children," and there was confusion and shoving as parents began to thrust their children into Jesus' arms. His helper pushed them back, trying to protect Jesus. The your mother on the rock watched with a mixture of fear and longing. Then she heard Jesus' voice so clearly, "Bring the children to me. Heaven is full of children." Slowly she made her way to Jesus' side and thrust her wide-eyed child into his arms. Jesus lifted her high in the air and broke into laughter as the baby tried to share her bread with him.

Yes, Jesus loves the little children, but does he love the terrible twos, feisty fours, silly sixes, troublesome adolescents, rebellious teens? Do we love the little children, every day, all the time--all their lives?

Lord, help us keep our children face to face with you always. Even when we can't face them, help to remember you called them to you, you died for them, you made them your children in their baptisms--forever. (Lois Scheer)

~~~~~~~
Thanks be to God!!!