To Be Like Mary...

While we are celebrating the Year for the Priests (have you downloaded your FREE info from us yet??), I am going to focus my year on trying to be more like Mary, the Mother of God.

She is after all our best role model after Christ and being that we are both women and mothers, I often find her a bit more accessible. I can find myself talking to her throughout my day, asking her to take my concerns to her Son. No one can refuse their mother can they?? As many have said before me - "Through Mary to Christ".

As I look at her life I am struck with both the simplicity of the lessons she offers and how deep we can take those lessons. The first lesson I need to take to heart is her obedient docility to what is being asked of her. She is asked by God, through an angel, which would certainly sway any answer I would give, but what she is asked would give anyone pause. She is asked to bear a child, a son though she 'knows no man'.

Yet, she says yes. Her fiat comes without pause and often my fiats, when they come, come haltingly, hesitatingly and not without demands and a good deal of whining.

This first month I will be striving to be more docile to the requests made of me - from God, from my husband and my children. While I will not concede to every and any request as my children, friends and even my spouse are not God or angels (such as the third request for another cookie), I can certainly say yes to many of their simple (and do-able) requests that are merely a delay to my plans or my idea of how the hour should go.

And Mary could say the same couldn't she? Surely, the arrival of the angel and his message isn't how she expected her hour, day or life to go and yet she said yes!

I am the handmaid of the Lord, she says. May I have the ability to repeat those same words more frequently than I do at this time.

Fun Website!

Got a great email the other day from Vee who directed me to her website with tons of really cute saint and historical figure paper dolls for FREE! I'm hoping that Behold Publications can work with Vee to bring more creative stuff for Catholic kids in the future. Meanwhile, enjoy her site!

http://paperdali.blogspot.com/

The Feast of Epiphany

While the date is Jan. 6th for many, we have celebrated it today. There is much for us to ponder with this feast - the star, the prophecies fulfilled, the death of the innocents, the length at which the magi went to be able to sit at the feet of a baby. For me, I would like to think for a moment for those left behind - who was taking care of the homes they left while they traveled to find God and bring Him treasures?

As a wife and mother, this is often the role I take in my marriage. My husband travels far each day for his work and the majority of my day is spent alone. I look after the children and home by myself; including not only the care and feeding but the teaching. It can be a lonely day - day after day.

There is also the concern I live with as he leaves. He drives to the train and takes that into DC where he then gets a subway. I am worried sometimes. One day this past fall there was a tragic subway accident. It was my dh's train and a quick telephone call reassured me that by God's plan he worked late that night and wasn't on it. I imagine the wives, children and families of the three kings worried as well. While I can be reassured by telephone calls, those of the magi could not - no technological support systems back then. They had to rely on knowing that the trip they undertook was also God's plan.

And that is what helps those of us at home do what we do - it is God's plan. Just as it was God's plan that the magi travel far from home to find Him in a stable, it was also His plan that there would be those who stayed behind. God's plan includes everyone - not just the ones who leave and go. While we remember the three in story, song and poem we might want to think about those that stayed. They are also a vital part of the story. Just as my husband reminds me daily that he could not do what he does without me at home - the three magi could not as well. They were strengthened on their journey with the knowledge that everything was being taken care of home by people who loved them enough to let them go.

Before I conclude, I want to make clear that I am not making a statement about mothers who work outside the home as I know well that now, more than ever, many moms are doing just that because they have to, it is necessary. No, I am merely striving to make the point that we can think that what we do - either at home or at a job - is insignificant to God's plan because we aren't doing something heroic, remarkable or worthy of a song. What we do can seem so pointless because it is so mundane.

In those moments, when we are wiping off peanut butter faces or sitting through one more committee meeting we must think of our own dear patron. St. Therese, the Little Flower, makes it clear that nothing is insignificant or small to God when it is done with love, with purpose and as a part of His plan.

As this new year begins, consider both offering up all you do, every small, trivial task to God for His purpose and also striving to see all that you do as a part of His plan. While on some days we might wish that God asks us to take a long trip to some exotic location, the reality of that actually occurring is unlikely. Don't waste time wishing you were on a trip you were never called to take. Enjoy and celebrate the trip you are taking right now. As this trip, commonly referred to as a family still has God at the end. What will you be bringing him?

Happy New Year!

One of my resolutions to be more consistent on my blogging. As you all know, I am not. In giving this some real prayer I have come to admit that I am not a super Mom despite my deep desire to be one. No, I am just a regular Mom who has failings, sins and a lousy memory.

With that in mind, I am committing to blogging every Sunday with a new piece for your consideration. I hope to write something what will give you pause for the week, something to take to prayer or back to your group. It might be a something I've read or come across of a spiritual nature or of a more human nature such as a new game or craft idea. In the end, I want to write pieces that will make your vocation easier and help you to be glad you are a mother, a Catholic and one of God's gardeners.

For that is what we all are after all - we are God's gardeners - assisting him in our own little plot of earth; not unlike Adam and Eve. He has given us a piece of Iowa, Michigan, Florida or (in my case) Maryland and we are being asked to take care of it and be good stewards.

And, just like Adam and Eve, there are snakes in our garden. We have to keep an eye out for them, know what they look like and refuse - REFUSE - to talk to them! When we see them and hear their whispers we don't ever think we can do conquer them on our own.

We need to call on Christ and ask Him - much like we do our husbands when it is a spider in the corner (or am I the only one who does this) - to please come over and crush its head! I hope I can offer you some encouragement, ideas and support for your gardening adventures and ask you to feel free to offer your own!

So, welcome to a new year. Look for a new post on every Sunday and let me know what you think!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

I wish all of the Little Flowers a very Merry Christmas from the littlest of buds who are just starting out to the Master Gardener Moms who are holding down a family and a group. To all those out there who are praying for me and for this small apostolate.

To Joan and her family for keeping this going day to day.

And especially to YOU - the Mom who is striving to be holy when no one else seems to want to. and the Dad who works hard without complaint. Merry Christmas to YOU. May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph watch over you and give you what you need this Christmas for another year of family life, family fun and joy!

Wreath I Badges now Available!

Thanks for everyone's patience on the manufacturing error that occurred with the Wreath I Patches. They are now on their way and we are once again taking orders for them. If you've have them backordered, they will be arriving soon.

As a big THANK YOU for your patience, those of you who had to wait for the patches to come in to order them, we are offering a whopping 50% discount on all shirts and totes just in time for Christmas! Just order your Wreath I badge online and enter the discount code BADGEHALF in the coupon area in your shopping cart and get your shirts and totes at HALF PRICE! This offer is good until December 15, 2009.

Valid on orders placed between December 3rd and December 15th online only. Offer cannot be applied to any other orders and must be placed online.

To order go to: www.eccehomopress.com

Reclaiming Christmas!

We all know that Christmas is coming, after all, it is all over every box store out there from Wal-Mart to JC Penney’s. It seems that Thanksgiving is been completely obliterated by the push to get Christmas to us sooner but we all know they don’t want us to come and adore but come and spend. This year, I am going to join their ranks and push Advent and Christmas a bit early but an Advent and Christmas focused on Christ and His arrival to us as a baby. Consider utilizing this time of early advertising before Advent to get your Advent pulled together.
I remember thinking that God was quite wise when He gave us, as parents, a full nine months (give or take) to prepare for the arrival of our children. For some, this time was longer or shorter if an adoption was involved but, for the most part, we all have a good deal of time allotted to us to make sure that we have all we need for the newest arrival. It is a blessing for both us and the baby that they don't usually arrive in a day or even a week! If we apply this same analogy to Christmas we realize that we have known about its arrival for...well, really for our entire lives. We know it is coming, it comes every year after all, so why do we always seem to be so caught off guard?
For the first time, I suggest that perhaps Wal-Mart or whomever, might be onto something. I am suggesting that you don’t put off considering Christmas, perhaps even making any necessary purchases now before it gets ‘too late’. And too late is when what you need for Christmas Day overwhelms what you need to do before Christmas Day. In other word, are your worries for Christmas overwhelming your Advent?
By giving Christmas - the more secular aspects of it at least - some consideration before Advent arrives might allow you to give Advent the true time, consideration and devotion it deserves. In relating this back to the arrival of the baby, every pregnancy requires time to gather the necessary physical supplies and clothes that every baby requires regardless of family. But we also need to prayerfully consider what our baby requires as they join our family. Perhaps this can take place in our families in regard to Advent and Christmas.
You know you will get a tree and some presents, plan a meal and make travel plans; after all, every family will be doing that. Instead consider what will your family - with its own personal mission and vocation from God - do this Advent? This same attitude applies to your groups - what will they do to make the meetings that coincide with Advent more focused on Christ's arrival and their preparation? Planning a service project for the needy could be done now and not left to the night before. Perhaps helping the kids to bring Advent to their own families with the creation of a simple Advent paper ring with a simple activity each day. With this in mind, you may only need to unpack familiar favorites and replace the pink and purple candles but perhaps you want some ‘new ideas’ for Advent.
A quick search on the internet reveal some good places to start such as: www.holyheroes.com where you can sign up for a free Advent Adventure or be inspired by ideas at www.catholicmom.com or www.catholic.org. And you can always ask at your parish. It just might be that your own parish has a library of ideas or a staff person eager to share. Keeping in mind that Christmas is a time for giving, realize that your enthusiasm and need for a great Advent might give your pastor or DRE a much needed boost of enthusiasm for their vocation.
While I don’t want to hear any Christmas music - secular or otherwise - until Advent starts, and I am not suggesting we start decorating as the stores do, giving Advent and Christmas some thought and preparation before Advent arrives will surely make it easier to dedicate the season to Jesus who is, after all, the only reason to do it!