What is your scourge?

   I had the most wonderful conversation with a mom today.  She was telling me about her husband who is not Catholic.  She has never pressured him, and is grateful that he attends Mass faithfully each week and supports her being a Catholic mom.  But she sees herself as struggling, compared to Catholic families who are all Catholic.
    "The strange thing is," she confided in me, "My youngest son is considering the priesthood!  I am shocked.  But he draws pictures of himself in the hand of God.  I asked him whether he wants to be a priest, or whether he feels God talking to him, calling him to be a priest, and my son said, 'Both.'"  She teared up: "This is astonishing to me!  I did not realize we were on that path!"
    She did not realize that they were on that path, which means she did not think they were "Super Catholics."  She thought of her family as barely passing as Catholics, just grateful that her husband cooperates with going to Mass.
    But I thought to myself: "Isn't that how it is?  God gives us a cross, a scourge, something that keeps us very, very humble.  Then He can work with us."
    As the New Testament says: "Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up."  We are truly lifted up, only when we are humble.  And often, He is generous enough to give us a scourge the helps us to be humble.  He offers it as a gift: our child marrying a non-Catholic, a divorce, an illness, a death, a disfigurement, a disorder, a mental illness.  He offers us these scourges, not to harm us, but to help us see that we are not perfect.  Oh, how horrible it would be if we thought we were!  We would be kept from "being lifted up!"  God allows us our crosses, out imperfections, our embarrassments, in order to make us saints.  Funny how we think we have to be picture perfect to be saints.  Actually, we have not to be perfect, in order to be saints.  Thank you, Lord, for our scourges!

Oh, Poop Again!

It happened again--more poop in the tub!
He even had a big blow out in the car this afternoon.  I took him with me to the orthodontist for Jacob and Mary.  But his diaper was so bad, we had to leave, come home, and change.  I then had to drive back to pick them up.
Goodness, help!  So much poop!

Poop in the Tub!

     Ron is out of town on a week long retreat.  I am so happy for him!  It is my "Happy Sabbatical" present to him.
     Life without him is, of course, harder.  But we are having a ball!  The three day weekend helped.  One evening we played a game, Pandemic, and had a family party.  Then last night, we cleaned and got ready for school today.  The high point of the evening hustle and bustle was Sebastian pooping in the bathtub!  He and Annie evacuated immediately and we had to do a de-tox protocol.  It was one of those rare moments I am grateful for all the immunizations!  No Hepatitis in this house, thank you very much!
     Ah, how "exquisite" is the life of motherhood!

Mary at the Wedding Feast

     The story of Mary at the wedding feast at Cana dumbfounds me.  I still cannot comprehend her overriding her son, and getting away with it.  She says, "Help them with the wine."  He says, "No."  She tells the servants, "Do whatever he asks."  And then he asks them to fill the jars with water, and he turns it into wine.  180 gallons of excellent quality wine.  
     He really defers to her.  He really obeys her.
     As this passage is the Gospel for the week, having been proclaimed at yesterday's liturgy, I have all week to soak it in and see what God has for me in this Scripture.
     One key fact is that commentators since the early Church have understood the wine to represent salvation.  I am with Mary: "Salvation for everyone!  Salvation for the sick, the dying, the hopeless, the evil persecutors, the confused, the homeless, the hungry, the unborn. . .  Salvation for us all!"

Rat's Nest

I have had a wonderful retreat lasting this past week.  Ron is a saint, giving me all that time!  He has been Mr. Mom, carting his around and keeping the show going.
   Today, getting back in the saddle, I told Leigh to take a shower.  It seemed like it had been. . . a week.
   She came to me and showed me the knots in her hair: she had an entire rat's nest.  I laughed, and took out cream and oil and worked on her hair for an entire hour.  A bottle of conditioner and many of Leigh's tears later, we finally got it all out.
   Oh, my family needs me!!

We Receive What We Ask

"Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because w keep his commandments and do what pleases him.  And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.  Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us."
                       (1 John 3:22)
   We receive what we ask from God when we 1) believe in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ; and 2) when we love one another as he commanded us.
    Believing in the name of Jesus--is this just for the fundamentalists?  Is this just what the traditional or conservative Christians do?  No.  It is straight out of Scripture.  If we want a new, wondrous life, a life lived as a new creation, as a child of God, so that whatever we ask of God our true Father, we receive, we need to do as John says.  We need to profess the name of Jesus Christ, and love everyone--God, our friends, and especially our enemies.  Then we are living as a child of God.