Learning what is most important

     It was a day in which God was palpably present in our home.
     The night before, I felt compelled to call the school day off--not to rest, but to do something unusual.  I've never done that before.  I thought, let's go to a museum.  But it was Monday, and all museum's are closed that day.
     So we went to Mass.
     It was so powerful.  It was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.  The kids and I had intense discussions about how Mary helped Bernadette be the radical kind of Christian we are all called to be.  I told them that I was not sure that I could do what she did, that I would need much help from God to be as humble as Bernadette.  I think that was significant for them: that this is an adult's struggle, to become totally yielded to God.
     Then we did not have the wonderful, exciting events that I had hoped.  But we did some simple acts of mercy.  It felt like "not enough" to have warranted no school.
    But then that evening, I had us all watch "The Song of Bernadette," given the Feast Day of our Lady of Lourdes.  We watched all 2 and a half hours of it, and the kids were riveted.  We were intensely wrapped up in it.  By the end, the children were crying, that it was so amazing how God had worked in Bernadette's life, and how Mary showed the world the foolishness of atheism, and the power of her Son.
   The kids literally went to bed crying, and resolving a stronger commitment to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit was moving in them.
    I learned something powerful too: that when the Holy Spirit tells you to do something you do not understand (like cancel the normal school day for no apparent reason), you should do it.  Even when you do not see what the benefit is, just trust Him.  He is teaching me to surrender these days.  Boy, did He deliver!  In the 11th hour, my children had the most intensely positive religious experience that I can remember.  The Holy Spirit swept them off their feet.  I had nothing to do with it: it was all God's work.
    The kids learned what God wanted to teach them about the Christian life, and I learned, I hope, what God wanted to teach me, about surrender: God is powerful, and I am not.
     We are all in God's school in this house.  Not always very good students, but He teaches us all the same!