Fathers, Daughters and St. Thérèse

By Nancy Ward

 

An interview with Connie Rossini, author of Trusting God with St. Thérèse.

Connie gives practical advice for overcoming fears and frustrations that hamper our relationship with God. I asked her about her father-daughter relationship as compared to that of Louis Martin and his daughter St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Nancy: Thérèse was blessed with parents who were “more worthy of heaven than of earth.” Thérèse had a special relationship with her father, who called her, “my Queen.” She formed her image of God from her father who never denied her love, affection and care. How did your father-daughter relationship compare to this?

Connie: In some ways, my relationship with my father when I was growing up was miles apart from the relationship between Thérèse and Louis. I am very quiet and reserved. As a child, I was also timid. My dad, in contrast, was outgoing and frank. He was also the primary disciplinarian. My mom often said, "Wait till your dad gets home!" I grew nervous around him. I avoided talking to him about any serious subjects.

In my book, I tell how my dad left me home alone when I was about five. When he returned about an hour later, he didn't show any sympathy for my fears. So that didn't help my relationship with him or God.

Read the entire interview at JOYAlive.net

Happy birthday, Mary, teach me to be lowly

By Heidi

 

I am re-posting a reflection I wrote a couple years ago, May the Mother of God bless us all today with her motherly love and guidance into the heart of her Son Jesus!

Today is the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Mary, whose immaculate conception was celebrated 9 months ago, was born on this September day.  And as is the way of the Lord, this monumental day, this wondrous birth went quietly by in time, and still goes quietly by in our lives, we could easily miss it. In fact, we often do miss it.  Yet, this feast day invites us to ponder the woman whose life modeled most fully how to allow the word of the Lord to be conceived in us and born through us, in our own words and deeds.  Insignificance and lowliness are not barriers to these wonders, they are requirements.

Which is good, because  I do not have much to offer. I am a Catholic who fails a lot in living my faith.  I am a wife who fails a lot at being a wife.  I am a mother, who fails a lot with her children (I have two crying, fighting and whining in my presence right now - thankfully they are only mildly annoying me, so I am ignoring them...).  And, in a culture that is pragmatic, cliquey and materialistic, I am a stay-at-home mother of 8 who writes for an insignificant blog because I perceived a call to do it from Him, no money in it, no huge following, no "career" to validate me - nothing.  I am nothing.  And oh, how I have caused myself and others around me much pain in fighting that truth for most of my life.

Continue reading at Journey to Wisdom.

A weary mama's morning offering

By Jaime Cheaney

Dear Jesus, I offer you my sufferings today.  The lack of sleep, messy house, never-ending laundry, marathon nursing sessions, and squabbling children.  I especially offer up the feeling that I am failing as a parent.  I entrust myself and my entire family to your care, knowing You are in control.

Please unite my sufferings with Yours on the cross, using them to bring others to know You.  Please comfort those who pray for a baby, those who mourn the loss of a child, and the neglected children unloved by anyone but You.

Jesus, I thank you for every late night teenage heart-to-heart, every sloppy kiss and snuggle, and even the constant busyness.  Every day with my family is a gift.  Please give me Your heart and Mother Mary’s simple yes to Your will.  Guide me as I teach this to my children.
In Jesus’ name, I pray.  Amen.

**The picture above is one of my favorites.  I took it standing at the foot of the crucifix statue at the Black Madonna Shrine in Eureka, Missouri.

Jaime blog at Fruitful Mama.

Our home: A flexible tabernacle

By Melanie Jean Juneau

A Happy Family by Eugenio Eduardo Zampighi

My husband and I discovered how to build relationships with our children and encourage their relationship to God  through a combination of the grace of God, parental intuition and perhaps a dash of sheer luck.

In order to nurture authentic Catholic family life, we learned that we had to first nurture our own intimacy with God. When parents are in communion with the Trinity (who are the first community), our children are also drawn into a spiritual relationship with their parents and in turn with God as well. A blessed home, dedicated to God, could actually be called a tabernacle because it is filled with a tangible Presence of God. 

When we give God permission to be Lord of our lives, our children and our family life, then the Holy Spirit is in the very air we breathe.

The image God gave me of Christian family was a triangle of light with strong bars of light flowing from the heart of the mother and father at the base  and up to God at the top of the pinnacle, with the children protected in the middle of the triangle. The light of God’s love filled the triangle protecting and nurturing the children. This is a vision of family as a community, submersed in the community of the Trinity.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

Connecting spirit to spirit with infants

“Contemplation is learned at the mother’s breast.” St Bonaventure


I was delighted to discover that it is possible to connect with infants, not simply with their hearts but with their spirit as well. It is a gift to connect with a newborn, knowing that they know, that I know, that they are not idiots but vibrant souls who are in communion with God.

Michael and I were lucky because we somehow understood, right from the start, that we were relating to another human being when we communicated with our babies. I stopped and listened when they cooed and then I answered them when they finished cooing. It might sound foolish but I believe that this attitude instilled respect for themselves and others. I tried to treat them as people, albeit little people.

I learned that we can bless our unborn child. pray over them, relate to our babies while they are in the womb just like the women in the Old Testament who prayed psalms and were often in seclusion. An unborn child hears and reacts emotionally not only to his mother but also to the people and activity around him.

Prenatal babies have personalities before they are born. As any mother can tell you some babies move around energetically both in and out of the womb, while other infants are physically passive. Some infants are night owls both in and out of the womb and others actually sleep well at night.

Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

What is really important in life?

By Melanie Jean Juneau

 

Nordic Madonna by Neuhuys (Wikimedia Commons).

 When Life is Stripped Down to The Basics

One afternoon before Easter, I was ironing cotton dresses and shirts for church the next day. Six year old Claire watched for a while and then pointed to the iron and asked,

“What is that mummy?”

I laughed because I realized that this little girl had never seen me iron; I usually used the clothes dryer as my wrinkle smoother when I wasn’t looking for perfection but rather efficiency. Actually it was not just the iron that seldom received attention as I mothered a large family, something that I considered essential was eliminated from my life with the birth of every child.

Painting portraits went with my first-born. Other births gave the boot to crafts, dusting, bread making, interesting meals and laundry folding ( each child dressed out of their own personal laundry basket). As every mother knows, a newborn takes at least eight hours a day to nurse, burp, rock and comfort, bath, change clothes and diapers( at least ten times a day), and to wash diapers, clothes, receiving blankets, sheets and baby blankets as well as your clothes which tend to get covered in vomit, and other nasty surprises.

The lack of sleep leads to a rather narrow existence where the best days are when you can sneak in a nap or shower and dress before noon. Oh, those were the days when life was reduced to the basics.


Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

The great task of teaching kids purity

By Robert Batch

 


I just returned from a speaking engagement in the diocese of Joliet Illinois this past weekend speaking to parents and 8th graders.  I was speaking to the 8th graders about the importance of Confirmation, and giving a workshop to the parents on how to keep their kids active in the faith life after being confirmed.

During the Confirmation retreat, one of the chaperones approached me and told me how much of a pressing issue purity and sex is with today’s youth and even young adults.  I asked, “Are you surprised?” and the answer was simply, “No, but what do we do about it?”

Unfortunately, I had to go and give my next talk, but my quick answer was: “We have a great task ahead of us.”

I was pondering that on the flight home, and realized the most important word of that answer would be “we.”  The devil is at work in all of us but the majority of today’s youth have been wired, and brought up in what I like to call a “sex driven generation.”


Continue reading at Robert's blog Love is Calling.

God homeschools a grandmother

By Nancy Shuman

Bubbles by Gardner (Wikimedia Commons)

As a homeschooled grandmother, I graciously accept all the privileges to which my age and position entitle me, and I'm grateful for this time to settle back and learn.

I watch a two year old thoroughly enjoy a room filled with toys... until I set up safety-boundaries.  Suddenly it dawns on her that  she's not supposed to cross these, and then they become all she can think about.  I remember that God watches as I test the edges of His will.  I realize He knows more about what dangers are "out there and down the road" than I do. I think of the garden of Eden...

and thus I've had a lesson on "why there are commandments."

I see a day bursting with spring. Tossing aside thoughts of  any "trouble" I might have to go to to do this, I grab the bubble-blowing toys and say "let's go outside!"  I settle into a lawn chair and watch a preschooler blow, chase, laugh, pop.. blow, chase, laugh, pop.  I notice early buds on trees, daffodil splotches of yellow against green; I hear the nearby cooing of a dove...  


Read the rest at Nancy's blog The Breadbox Letters.

Helping your kids stay in the faith

By Robert Batch

 

Child at Prayer by Eastman Johnson
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

I have been asked to speak in Illinois next month for a 8th grade Confirmation Retreat, and to put together a workshop for parents on how to keep their kids active in the faith.  Now, I am definitely not a parent, but I do have a mom and dad who both raised me Catholic and did a wonderful job at it!  I would definitely say that if it was not for them, I would not be where I am today.

Some of you may be in the same position, and some of you may be thinking what am I missing?  Or what am I doing wrong?  Lets take a look at Matthew, Chapter 13: The Parable of the Sower.

“A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they had not much soil, and immediately sprang up since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scored; and since they had no root they withered away.  Other seeds fell upon thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears, let him hear.”


Continue reading at Robert's blog Love is Calling.

Shadows of God's Fatherhood

By Nancy Shuman

The Bookworm  by Spitzwieg
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

The shop was long and narrow, dimly lit by naked bulbs dangling from the ceiling. It was a shadowed, solemn, wondrous place, tucked away in a dusty corner of the city where shops didn't sparkle like the department stores over on Main. Mysterious and musty it was; filled with with rows and racks and piles of volumes.  Used hardbacks, yellowing paperbacks, comics... all stacked haphazardly and ready for a rummager's quest.

I'd step out of the light of day and onto the squeaky wood floor in search of buried treasure.  It was my own personal library, and the best part was: I could read the books and then - I could keep them!  No need to keep close tabs on them, no stamps inside warning that this was a "14 day book," no falling in love with a whole fictional family only to have to dump them on a counter at the end of the month.

I was allowed to buy all of the books I could carry, pretty much.. . and this because of the kind man who took me to the bookstore: my father, who (okay, I'll admit it) spoiled me.  Rather than leaving me home on a Saturday so he could go rummage for his own treasures at "our bookshop," he patiently took his bubbly little buddy and shelled out who-knows-how-much for mystery stories I would stay up much too late reading.

I think back now and imagine the one sided "conversations" he had to endure on the drives home, as I cradled newfound treasures in my arms (no putting them in a bag for me, no sir) and rattled on about this being the EXACT Nancy Drew I've been looking for and oh LOOK at the green cover on this book it looks JUST like leather and omigosh I once got this one from the library and then couldn't find it ever again and oh Daddy isn't this just the best BEST day?


Continue reading at Nancy's blog The Breadbox Letters.

Got Jesus on weekdays?

By Anabelle Hazard

A friend just asked me why I regularly receive Eucharist beyond Sunday Mass. Do I go for the kids to get used to Church?

“I go for me,” I replied.“I need Jesus.  If I let two consecutive days pass without the Eucharist, my soul is not at peace.”

To clarify: It’s not like I get heavenly consolations or mystically levitate during the Mass.  If I’m not late and trying to creep in so as not to distract the pewsitters, I can’t even concentrate from beginning to end.  Lots of days, I’m taking a child out to the bathroom, fiddling with their askew veils or correcting them. (“It’s time to stand;”  “Don’t turn your back on Tabernacle”; “Put that plastic tomato back in your purse! Why did you bring a purse when I told you not to? What do you mean you need a snack? Its toy food! Stop licking it NOW!”) I certainly don’t feel holy by just being in Jesus’ presence at Church.


Continue reading at Anabelle's blog Written By the Finger of God.

A mother's prioritites

By Melanie Jean Juneau

The Child's Caress by Mary Cassatt (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

One afternoon before a special occasion, I was ironing cotton dresses and shirts for church the next day. Six-year-old Mara watched for a while and then pointed to the iron and asked,“What is that mummy?”I froze in shock and then laughed because I realized that this little girl had never seen me iron; I usually used the clothes dryer as my pwrinkle smoother when I wasn't looking for perfection but rather efficiency. Actually it was not just the iron that seldom received attention as I mothered a large family, something that I considered essential was eliminated from my life with the birth of every child. Painting portraits went with Matthew. Other births gave the boot to crafts, dusting, bread making, interesting meals and laundry folding ( each child dressed out of their own personal laundry basket).

As every mother knows, a newborn takes at least eight hours a day to nurse, burp, rock and comfort, bathe, change clothes and diapers (at least ten times a day), and to wash diapers, clothes, receiving blankets, sheets and baby blankets as well as your clothes which tend to get covered in vomit, and other nasty surprises.

Guess what? The lack of sleep leads to a rather narrow existence where the best days are when you can sneak in a nap or shower and dress before noon.

Oh, those were the days when life was reduced to the basics. This basic truth was actually miraculous when I relaxed and allowed myself to live in the moment, enjoying my newborn rather than bemoaning all the important activities that I couldn't seem to even start. The very fact that everything that my little one required to grow and thrive was inexpensive and near at hand was amazing. My baby didn't need a lot of money spent on him, he simply needed arms to hold him, mother’s milk to drink and warm clothes and blankets.  A friend who had five children, couldn't quite grasp my peaceful demeanour as I sat nursing a newborn with family life whirling about me. She finally surmised that I was content to enjoy the present experience of mothering a tiny, dependent newborn.Really though, the basic truth I learned was that my first priority as a mother was to love and cherish my children as gifts from, God. They were not inconvenient, or simply extensions of my ego but unique wonderful people, albeit little people.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

III. THE DUTIES OF FAMILY MEMBERS
2222 Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons.

I think that I was given the gift of understanding that although I strove to run the household well, little people's needs come first.   


 Melanie Jean Juneau blogs at  Joy of nine9.

The mother of all parenting books

by Anabelle Hazard

Catholic Mothers of the world, drop whatever book you are reading and read this one, The Mother of the Little Flower by Celine Martin. 

Here are some of the 7 quick things I’ve learned from Blessed Zelie Martin:

1. She encouraged her children to perform acts of self-denial for heaven and had them slide rosary beads or fill a drawer with nuts for each good deed.  I was so inspired that I sprinted off to Hobby Lobby with a project.  My flower-picking girls placed baskets on our altar and decorated it with a flower for each good deed/self-denial.  The bouquets will be offered up when we renew our consecration to Our Lady.

 

2. Bl. Zelie “was constantly busy with lace-making, housekeeping, working for her children and correspondence.”  I note the ‘correspondence’ with glee because what remains of her letters have been used as evidence for her canonization and gives me justified permission for the time I spend online. It’s certainly possible that if Bl. Zelie were living today, she’d be e-mailing, blogging or face-booking to keep her friends and family inspired.

3. She was vigilant at correcting her children’s faults: from poutiness, to selfishness, to vanity. But did her children call her a nag?  No!  Pauline, her oldest praised her:  “My parents always seemed to me to be saints.  We were filled with respect and admiration for them. I sometimes asked myself if it were possible to find their equals on earth.”

Read the rest of this guest post by Anabelle at her blog  Written by the Finger of God.

A mother's prayers

by Terry 

I stood by helplessly and watched as a text message received by one of my older children instantly transformed a situation that showed much promise into a state of uncertainty.  My child was visibly disappointed and frustrated.  All I could do was give a reassuring hug and offer some words of consolation.

Throughout my work day, I prayed for my child, my heart heavy at seeing my child’s sadness.
Before they are born, we pray for our children.  Our prayers are full of hope and promise as well as petitions to safeguard the nine months of gestation.  As our newborn is placed in our arms for the first time, we praise with rejoicing and thankfulness.  We implore God to give us the strength, courage and wisdom needed to mother our babies and we ask Jesus and His Blessed Mother to make up for what is lacking in our imperfect motherhood.

As the children grow into toddlers, school children, teens and young adults, our prayers reflect the different stages. We intensify them as we see the spark of independence that will one day carry our offspring to lives of their own.  I think the most urgent of a mother’s prayers are when our children start to venture forth,  away from our protective gaze and helping hand.  Our worries and our need to let go bring us to our knees begging God and all the angels and saints to love and protect them in a way that we can’t.

Continue reading Terry's post at  8 Kids And A Business.  

(So sorry the link was wrong again this morning! I changed it last night and for some reason, the change didn't take. Please click through to Terry's blog! Thanks!)