Footprints on the Fridge

Gustav, Gustav Go Away

Please pray for all those affected as we wait out the track of this storm.  Anxiety is high here and amongst relatives and friends in the New Orleans area.  I will be busy making preparations today and then likely headed out of the way by the weekend.  Your prayers are much appreciated.

Our Lady of Propmt Succor, hasten to help us.

Embracing His Presence

I recently read an amazing book on St. Therese, and while the homilies of Fulton Sheen were, of course, inspirational, what I cannot get out of mind are the pictures of Therese in that book.  Some were familiar to me from other reading, but some were new to me.  And I pored over the expressions on Therese's face in those grainy photographs.  Even in their old-fashioned blur, the intensity of the love in her eyes was stirring to my soul.  Those photographs brought out a desire in my soul to love the Lord as she did, with an intensity and passion that spurred her to believe all things, endure all things, hope all things for Him. 

Now certainly, I am no Therese.  Nonetheless, I found myself begging the Lord for that kind of love.  Praying with an intensity and fervor unmatched in my prayer life before--not for things I wanted or needs I had, but to love Him well.  It was an aching prayer.  It was a pleading for mercy for loving Him lukewarmly at times.  With the intensity of the fire came an awareness of the dross on my heart. 

During this time of fervent prayer, I made a holy hour.  As the time approached for the hour to close, I was deeply saddened.  I felt I had just fallen in love and was being separated from the object of my intense affection.  And then Lord reminded me of who I am in His Sight.  He spoke to my heart.

You are no Therese.  You are a different kind of flower and have been planted in a different garden.  Go home.  For right there, in your own home in the physical representation of the love Therese and I shared.  Embrace that call.  When you live the life I gave you--the call to marriage and its extension of motherhood--with the ardent and fervent love with which Therese lived her call, it is then that you will have what you see in her eyes.  It is sanctity that you see.  Do you desire it so very much?  Then come to me and I will fuel that desire, but when your time before me is done, rise, return home, and love with passion and intensity your spouse on earth and the children you have co-created.  Look at them the way my Little Flower looked at me.  Burn with love for their souls the way she did for the souls of others.  Embrace your call with the same humility and obedience with which she embraced hers.  Then your face appear as hers did.

Marriage is the physical representation of Christ's relationship to His bride, the Church.  Therese's life witnessed to that love in the spiritual sense.  She set herself apart for Him, gave herself to Him as His bride, reserved herself  for Him alone, physically and spiritually, and loved with total self-donation.  That love bore spiritual fruit--the salvation of her own soul and many others.

My life witnesses to that love in a physical sense.  I have set myself apart for my spouse.  I have reserved my physical love for him alone.  And I am called to love with total self-donation.  That love bears physical fruit, the lives of eternal souls entrusted to our care--and God's desire is for our marital love to end in the same result as Therese's holy love--the salvation of our souls and those of our children as well as many others.

So I have had to ask myself, when my spouse looks into my eyes, does he see what I can see in Therese's photographs?  Does he see passionate love, earnest desire, a soul aflame with zeal for the salvation of its own soul and his?  Is my act of self-donation to him all that Therese's was to Christ?  Do I live the daily joys, works, and sufferings of my calling with the same spirit of humility, obedience, and charity with which she lived hers?  And do I radiate to my spouse and family the joy that shone from Therese's face?

Oh, how much work there is to do in my soul.  How far I have to go.  But my friend the Little Flower promised to spend her heaven doing good works on earth, so I'm giving her the job.  She's begging the Father and the Son and the Spirit with me and for me, and I'm left only to love, and to love well.  St. Therese, pray for us.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today...

Outside my Window...summer and the start of the school year have taken their toll...things are droopy and messy and begging for me to tend them.

I am thinking...about the oh-so-long shopping list for today.

From the learning rooms...main lesson book pages of the gods of Olympus, the kinds of stars, and the letter B.  New Jersey is in the geography line up this week and more living history of the War of 1812.  Faith blocks for September are mapped out in my planner.

I am thankful for...making it all the way through Mass with the little ones yesterday and getting to see Quinn and Greg serve together at the altar.

From the kitchen...it's empty, I tell ya, totally empty...but restocking is the day's task.

I am wearing...pink plaid pajama pants and white tank top, bare feet.

I am reading...In Silence With God (You must read this book!) and devouring The Little House Charlotte Years alongside Quinn.

I am hoping...we get to go to Houston next weekend to celebrate my niece's third birthday.

I am creating...the most adorable sets of wooden toys for Christmas--a little group of wooden people for my niece and egg-shaped farm animals for Kolbe.

I am hearing...the broken dishwasher beeping its sad alarm over and over again.

Around the house...we have a new chore schedule we're working out.  It has been great so far.  But Greg worked all weekend and alas, I tend to fall apart a bit and so there is much to be done today.

One of my favorite things...being my children's teacher.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...date night with friends Friday night (yay!) and a follow up appointment at the ophthalmologist for Brendan the Bold.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

I'm cheating and sharing a bunch since it's been so long.....And I don't have the patience to make things line up properly, so you'll have to play caption match-up, sorry.

Quinn and friends after starring in the Abbey Players Children's Production, Telling Tales Again Sam.  Quinn played the Old Man and the Miller's Son...and is sad the run is over and he has to wait until next summer to do it again.

This is my husband's new place of employment...are we not blessed?

The members of the Angelic Warfare Society that Quinn began on the night of their installation mass.

Gabriel lounging and loving our friend, Fr. Pio Maria, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Kingtown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  We served in mission with Fr. Pio, a beautiful missionary priest from Samoa, and were blessed this month to spend time with him as he visited our diocese for mission appeal.

I am so happy that so many of you are following along with the Pauline Year Scripture Study.  This is the kids' scene from Saul's blinding.  As you can see, the budget didn't allow for the fancy PlayMobil figures, so we are using wooden people, which we have in plenty, felt, and beeswax, as well as toys we have, to create our scenes.  This one is from a few weeks ago.  The kids adore this project.

I'm Back

A sincere thanks for those of you who have waited patiently for my return week after week.  I didn't say which Monday I would be back after all!  Actually, after my retreat, I went on a two week Internet fast--an opportunity to fine tune my prayer life and evaluate my place in this great big cyber world.  And then I added things back in as it felt right.  My work at Serendipity took the predominant spot in my computer time because it is my family's educational plan as well.  Checking in with my Google Reader was next, and then a return to my favorite forum.  And then nothing.  I kept waiting for inspiration, to have something pressing to say, but I didn't.  I coined a motto during this time that I shared with a few friends: "I want to be a woman of conviction, not a woman of opinion."  I began to evaluate the things I said and if they were worth saying.  I found out a lot of what I said, not only here, but in general, was opinionated, self-serving, and lacked humility.  I sought silence over an opportunity to speak and found joy in not constantly tripping over the sins of my tongue. 

But this week, as the days rolled by and school kicked into full gear here, I began to miss the opportunity to record these moments for my family.  In the summer that has now begun to wear out its welcome, two people in this family learned to ride a bike, one learned to swim, one began to walk, and one potty-trained.  Dad began a new job and Quinn participated in his third children's production at the Abbey Players theatre.  Those are moments worthy of note.  Those are things grandmothers and aunts and cousins like to know.  Those are snapshots in our family's scrapbook.  And this is where I preserve them. 

In addition, moms who pray often learn things that other moms need to hear, not because those moms are any better than anyone else, bu because God is big and great and beautiful and speaks to His people.  And moms are often praying about common circumstances, thinking about the same things and asking the same questions.  So my revelation may be the one someone else needs today.  When God speaks to my heart, His word fills, rises up, and flows over.  That overflow can be shared here, and I can, in my own small way, fulfill the Great Commission.

So I have returned to my corner of cyberspace and I hope you will too.  I hope you will find this space a little bit more lovely, a little bit more humble, a lot less about me, and a lot more about Him.  Thanks for coming back.