Eucharistic Motherhood: meeting the challenge

Saturday, September 3, 2011

meeting the challenge

There are some prayer intentions I pray for everyday. One of them is a true impossibility: it feels like it would take a miracle.
New subject: Annie has been SO HARD of late. She screams and thrashes when I try to put her down for a nap; yesterday, she threw a temper tantrum that lasted over an hour--that is a LONG TIME. Of course I did everything I knew to do, but sometimes, you just have to say, "This too shall pass." You can't fix everything in the moment.
Annie has be so hard that I have considered quitting homeschooling. After the hour long temper tantrum yesterday during which I resolved to quit homeschooling, I arrived downstairs to an immaculate kitchen and four sweet children quietly tending to their assignments. Oh my goodness! Clearly, they are not the problem, and sending them to a different school would not fix my wild toddler.
So I thought about it. In an otherwise wonderful life, I have a temporary nightmare, which is a tantrum throwing toddler. It is an isolated issue. What do I do about that?
Then it hit me: Annie is a perfect match for that prayer request! Offering up the challenges that she presents to me consistently for this one intention--AHA! I finally have power in my prayers because of the hardship with Annie. As I offer up her behavior right now for this one intention, I can be "content in all things," as Paul says. I am content in this short-lived hardship, since it has power in it for God's vision of things. Not to mention the fact that Annie gets to be blessed by cooperating in the advancement of good in the world without even knowing it. Surely, her soul will be blessed in a deep-seated way through the process. God, grant me the ability to stay "content" and hopeful!

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About Me

Born in Texas, raised in NYC, I earned my Ph.D. in philosophy and married a gorgeous theology student who rides a motorcycle and looks like James Dean. We now have six kids, are based in Irving near the University of Dallas where my husband teaches theology and where I sometimes teach philosophy. We currently live in the Castelli Romani, just outside of Rome, Italy. In addition to teaching some semesters and raising our 6 wonderful children, I am studying theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. Passionate about the vocation of motherhood, I founded a Catholic mother's ministry, Mighty Is Her Call. Our retreats and blog can be explored here: https://mightyishercall.com.

My book, Motherhood: An Extraordinary Vocation was released August 2021.

What's Special about Motherhood?

Motherhood is patterned on the life of Christ, particularly the Eucharist, in a way that no other vocation is. Some mothers shed blood for their children in childbirth--just as Christ shed his blood for us, a gift we celebrate in the Eucharist. Some mothers nourish children with their own bodies--just as Christ nourishes us with his body in the Eucharist. Mothers give themselves up in countless ways for their children--just as Christ gave himself up for us: "This is my body, given up for you." Every aspect of our day, from feeding our children, to cleaning up their messes, to disciplining them, to listening attentively to them, to hugging them, to laughing with them, to cherishing them, reflects the ways Christ gives himself to us. Motherhood is a role fashioned in the image of Christ, more so than perhaps any other vocation. It is singularly close to and reflective of the Heart of Christ.