Potty Training in Style!

All the trips to the potty over the past month. . . so exhausting, so NOT WHAT I WANT TO BE DOING. . . 

And then, he got all dressed up with his backpack: I could finally laugh and enjoy it!

Today's Second Reading: For Mothers!

"Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near.  Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts."  (Isaiah 55:6-9)

Mothers have such an important role: They are shaping the future.  As John Paul II says, "All of humanity passes by way of the family," (Familiaris Consortio, 86).  He claims that mothers and fathers are forming the faith and character of the next generation.  Mothers have a weighty role.  If we want government institutions to be run by virtuous people, where are they going to acquire virtue?  In office?  No.  government positions do not make people virtuous.  Elected officials needed to have acquired virtue when they were young, under the direction of their mothers, fathers, other caretakers, teachers, and role models.  If we want schools and universities to be filled with people of intellectual and moral character, where will those people get those virtues?  In those schools?  No.  They needed to have acquired those virtues at home as young people.  If we want the market place and business sector to be populated with just and honest people, where are those people going to acquire virtue?  On the trading floor of Wall Street?  No, they needed to have acquired it from their families as toddlers and children.  Mothers have the crucial obligation to help their children learn faith and morals, so that they will bring these virtues--indeed, the very presence of God--to the public square.  

Isaiah 55 speaks to mothers, encouraging them to "turn to the Lord for mercy."  Mothers need God's mercy.  Their children need God's mercy.  All people are so fallen, we cannot grow in the goodness that the world needs without abundant mercy from the Lord.  Let all mothers "turn to the Lord."  Let them bow down, worship and adore their God, who is worthy of all praise.  Let them give themselves, their children and all their loved ones to God "who is generous in forgiving."  God does not have to forgive.  He is set apart in this way.  It is a sign of incredible generosity and compassion.  It is so sublime, that we cannot comprehend a God so rich in forgiveness: "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways love your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts," the Lord says.  Let all mothers rest in God's merciful love, which is one of his richest gifts.  

A Mother's Prayer: Lord, I love you and adore you.  I give myself, my children and my loved ones to you.  Please help us to become loving, merciful, and virtuous in every way.  Help us to shine the light of Christ in the world and show all people the good news of your merciful love.  Amen.  

Every Knee Shall Bow

Philippians 2:6

Although [Christ Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This passage speaks so eloquently of the humility of Christ.  As followers of him, we are to be emptied out for others, as he was.  What better way to do that for some people than through motherhood!  Mothers are constantly emptied out for others, their children.  I pray that God will one day see fit to celebrate the choices of mothers who give so much to their children!

Mary's posters

Mary is running for class representative for her 9th grade class.  Here are the posters we spent all night making!

Looking around at Mass. . .

     As I looked around at a Mass, held outdoors on the Rome campus of the University of Dallas a few months ago, I was struck by the reverence of so many of those in attendance.  First, there were students, kneeling on the hard Italian stone, in the absence of kneelers.  The priest had selected the longest form of the liturgy for this particular Mass.  As I pondered the decision of some of these young men and women to kneel on the travertine, I admired their dedication. With their postures erect, shoulders thrown back, eyes tightly shut, hands folded, they were engaged all the more attentively in their worship by being on their knees.
     Then I could not help but notice a few children, the daughters of some faculty.  These girls wore white, lacy mantillas on their heads, in the style common to the traditional Mass.  Their precious headpieces spoke volumes of the piety brimming in their hearts, since the mantillas were not required by the campus, and not even their mother wore one.  I could only imagine that it was an act of singular inspiration for the girls to pull the scarves out of their bags or purses, and elect to place them on their heads without any prompting from their family or friends.  Juxtaposed to their graphic t-shirts, bluejeans shorts, and Crocs, the mantillas spoke loudly the girls' message of personal devotion to God.
    But then my eye turned toward the mothers of small children gathered in and around the back row.  Some mothers bounced the infants in their arms to calm them.  Other mothers chased after their toddlers, keeping them from wandering too far or making too much noise.  Were these mothers less reverent than the prayerful students on their knees?  Were they signaling less love and devotion, donning, not white lace scarves to cover their hair, but white burping cloths to cover their shoulders?
        To me, these mothers showed in their bodies a reverence for Christ that surpassed that of all the other Mass attendees on that sunny afternoon.  I do not know all of these mothers personally.  But I know mothers.  Some mothers are swollen and stretched, having shed blood for their children in labor and delivery.  Who, besides martyrs, reflect so purely Christ's gift of himself on the Cross, his blood being poured out for others, as do some mothers?  Other mothers carry in their wombs the cause of their infertility, scars of another kind.  Just as Christ's resurrected body bore the wounds of the Cross on his hands, feet and side, so too these adoptive mothers, and mothers who may have conceived, but did not bring their child to full term, bear the mark of a love that is made holy through its brokenness.  They reflect so vividly the love made manifest through the broken body of Christ.  
     Still further, some of these mothers nurse their infants.  How remarkable is this reflection of Christ who nourishes us with his body?  As I stood there in Mass, I was awe-struck by God's design of motherhood, so aligned with Christ in the Eucharist, made present on the altar before me.  Other mothers bottle feed their infants, either by necessity or by choice, and all mothers spend the duration of the time in which their children live under their roofs, providing meal after meal for their children.  Such mothers are not merely meeting a biological need.  One mother holds a bottle with love, attentively gazing at the priceless treasure in her arms.  Another serves a full plate on the table, at once satisfying the bodily hunger as well as the need for maternal love that every child's heart craves.  Every mother finds her own way of resembling Christ who gives himself as our spiritual nourishment, feeding her children with food that is at once physical as well as laden with a spiritual dimension.  In a special way, adoptive mothers bear the image of the Eucharistic Christ.  These women elect to raise their children.  Just as the Son chose to become the Bread of Life for us, so, too, do adoptive mothers choose to become the bread of life for their chosen ones.  These moms make the choice to provide bread and all sustenance, physical as well as intellectual, emotional and spiritual, for their adopted children as long as they are in their mother's care.  All mothers--biological mothers, adoptive mothers, foster mothers, step-mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, spiritual mothers, aunts, big sisters, cousins, close friends--find their own way of nourishing and providing for their children, resembling the body of Christ in some way or another for them.

     Maybe some of these mothers behind me on that luminous afternoon in the Italian Albani hills would return to their rooms after Mass and read the readings that they missed hearing during the liturgy.  Maybe some of these mothers would say prayers late that night, once their children are fast asleep, words of praise, thanksgiving, and petition to God, making up for the prayers they were not able to utter during the Mass that afternoon.  Maybe some of them would never get to these tasks, so depleted by all the chasing and feeding and rocking and wiping and holding that they had done that day.  But far from being less reverent, less engaged, or less a part of the Mass than those participants who were more attentive, mothers distinctively image the body of Christ in their own humble bodies.  As we celebrated Mass that day, it struck me that it was the mothers, most of all, whose bodily form radiated a reverence for the body of Christ.  

My Awesome Sister, Leah!

     Look at my awesome sister, Leah, speaking on a panel for the "Women Moving Millions" Summit.  It is the 10 year anniversary for WMM, which my Mom was instrumental in creating.  Its aim is to make it popular for high-income women to give in the millions (rather than in the thousands) to poor women and girls.  Many of said women give millions to museums and Ivy League schools, but give a tiny fraction of those gifts to poor women.  WMM sought to change that.  They did, have have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the poor--Go, Mom!!
     My sister, Leah, was part of this project.  She spoke at the ten year anniversary event.  She spoke about "unleashing money for the poorest of the poor."  Way to go, Leah!!

My sis is the dashing gal, second from the right :)

 

My New Ministry!

    I am overjoyed to announce the birth of my new ministry!  It has been 10 years in the making.  Finally, God's timing has arrived!  Yesterday, I went down to the County Clerk and filed for Catholic Mothers Ministries.  It is an umbrella ministry that hosts "Catholic Mothers' Retreat" which my team and I will be bringing to parishes.
   I began organizing retreats for Catholic mothers in our wonderful community here in Irving.  After several years, two parishes reached out to me and invited me to bring a Catholic Mothers' Retreat to their parish.  Given that it was two parishes, both contacting me within about a week of each other, I felt like that was no coincidence.  After much prayer, I decided to move forward with creating a Catholic Mothers' Retreat that we could take to any parish or community.
   Our first one is this Oct. 7th at Holy Family of Nazareth Parish in Irving, TX.  Join us if you can!  The second one is at St. Rita's Catholic Community in Dallas, date TBA.  The website and registration site are at: https://catholicmothersretreat.com.

Clare's Funniest Line of the Day

     At the dinner table, Clare was telling us about a picture of a woman who had been stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction.  Clare described the woman: "She was past the point of obese-ness!"
    We all got a good laugh.

Pope Francis' Comments About Women

Today, Pope Francis made these remarks about women in Latin America:

In Latin America, hope has a woman’s face

I need not dwell on the role of women on our continent and in our Church. From their lips we learned the faith, and with their milk we took on the features of our mestizo soul and our immunity to despair. I think of indigenous or black mothers, I think of mothers in our cities working three jobs, I think of elderly women who serve as catechists, and I think of consecrated woman and those who quietly go about doing so much good. Without women, the Church of this continent would lose its power to be continually reborn. It is women who keep patiently kindling the flame of faith. We have a grave obligation to understand, respect, appreciate and promote the ecclesial and social impact of all that they do. They accompanied Jesus on his mission; they did not abandon him at the foot of the cross; they alone awaited for the night of death to give back the Lord of life; they flooded the world with his risen presence. If we hope for a new and living chapter of faith in this continent, we will not get it without women. Please, do not let them be reduced to servants of our ingrained clericalism. For they are on the front lines of the Latin American Church, in their setting out with Jesus, in their persevering amid the sufferings of their people, in their clinging to the hope that conquers death, and in their joyful way of proclaiming to the world that Christ is alive and risen.

"How was your casa?"

    Sebastian just began a Montessori program.  They call it "the casa."  Sebastian has needed phasing in, but he now really loves it.  The first day was 30 minutes, the second day, an hour, and so forth.  This week, he has had three days of the full day, which is 8-11:45am.
    The first morning, he asked, "Mommy, where did you go?"  I said, "I took a walk down the street and back."
     "Oh," he replied.  
     The second day, he asked, "Mommy, where did you go this time?"  "To Mass," I replied.
     "Hmm," he said.
     The third day, he asked again, "Mommy, where did you go today?"  I said, "To work."
     He said, "What is your work?"
     I said, "I am a teacher."
     "Like Ms. Polly [one of his Montessori teachers]?"
     "Sort of," I replied.
     "Hmm," he said again.
     Today, he asked, "Mommy, how was YOUR casa?"    

Jacob's Sixteenth

     Sometimes milestones in a person's life (like graduations or anniversaries) are quiet, and pass by relatively unnoticed.  But Jacob's sixteenth birthday has measured up to all that such a birthday might be:
     -He recently got his driver's permit
     -He just earned and received as gifts enough money to buy a car
     -He (and our family) hosted a school-wide event at our home, inviting approximately four hundred teenagers for a big bash
     -He just completed four years of being the founding editor-in-chief of the Dallas Catholic News, an online monthly paper that he created
     -He just released the first issue of this year's Informer--the Cistercian newspaper--as its editor-in-chief, and it is greatly expanded and developed from its previous leadership
     -He just got to a sub-22 minute 5K, beating his previous personal record

    It is a watershed time in his life, and how grateful I am for all the blessings he enjoys!