Family Lent Tradition

For almost a decade now, here is a tradition our family has observed for Lent.

Along with the sacrifices we make for Lent, with what we "take away" from our life, we also decided that this liturgical time was asking us to ADD something to our life. We decided to pray, as a family, every night at dinner for people in our lives.

Here's how we do it.

We write out LOTS of names...family...friends...neighbors...teachers...co-workers....even the Pope!

We cut those names into slips, fold them up and put them in a basket.

At dinner a child or two (or more) depending on how many names you put in (and you'll need more than 50 names in that case) picks a slip and reads it aloud. The children have taken to holding the slips in the air as I have used the term, when praying, that we "lift" these souls to the Lord for their intentions and needs.

Then we mark their names on our kitchen calendar on the date we "picked" them and prayed for them. From the very beginning it was apparent that God "picked" the names. EVERY year someone tells us how meaningful prayers were for them on that exact date because we send them a religious card or email lettting them know we prayed for them and the date their name came out of the basket. It is a privilege to see the names, to pray, to see the children so adamant about who goes into the basket.

It continues to be a very tangible way that my family can see the hand of God at work! And God delights in answering the prayers of little children...

published April 2006

Homeschool class pets

One of the real beauties we've come to enjoy while homeschooling is birdwatching!

It is a welcome break each day to see what types of birds (and squirrels) are visiting our feeders. We can identify them and really enjoy an up close look. Recently, we put a feeder up closer to the school room and now #2 son can be almost nose to nose studying their little feet and eyes.

Our animal visitors are not a bad distraction, in fact, they're invited. They are our homeschool class pets!

like a Spider Monkey!

Today, firstborn son got a bit cantankerous with #2 son as our school day started. It brings us all down when they fight and say mean things about each other. I bowed my head in prayer and we prayed together trying to redirect the beginning of our day. Shortly after that I checked the DAILY DE SALES. Smiling, I summoned firstborn to read it.

Me: Hmmm, God's all over you today!

Firstborn: Yeah, he's coming at me like a spider monkey!


January 28

This poor life is only a journey to the happy life to come. We must not be angry with one another on the way, but rather we must march on as a band of brothers and sisters united in meekness, peace and love. I state absolutely and make no exception: do not be angry at all if that is possible. Do no accept any pretext whatever for opening your heart's door to anger. Saint James tells us positively and without reservation," ... a man's anger does not fulfill God's justice." [Jas 1:20] (INT. Part III, Ch. 8; O. III, p. 162)

If you HAD to choose...

If you HAD to choose one or the other would you choose...

1. Thai or MEXICAN
2. bubble bath or BACK MASSAGE, prefer foot actually....
3. boots or SANDALS
4. the 90% "pro-life" good chance or the 100% PRO-LIFE LONG SHOT(This is a hard one, but if everyone choose the 100% pro-life candidate, he would no longer be the "long shot!")
5. a CRUISE SHIP or a mountain cabin
6. ROME or Paris
7. Ordinary or EXTRAORDINARY
8. ROSARY or Stations
9. SURF or hang glide
10. Regal Cinemas or NETFLIX
11. sweet or salty - BOTH!
12. PEN or pencil
13. HOW-TO BOOK or fantasy novel
14. CROSSWORD or sudoku
15. LOSE A LEG, God forbid or lose your sight
16. NORTH or South
17. a power outage at home or a DEAD CAR BATTERY AT COSTCO
18. CLASSIC ROCK or country
19. wool or LINEN
20. lots of good friends or a FEW GREAT FRIENDS
21. soup or SALAD
22. Merlot or Chardonnay (MARGARITA??)
23. Picasso or DA VINCI
24. CHARADES or trivial pursuit
25. Evangelical Protestantism or Orthodox Judaism (HOLY SPIRIT, CONVERT THEM BOTH PLEASE?)
26. stone age or DARK AGE
27. STEVEN SPEILBERG or Ken Burns
    Thermopylae or ALAMO, we're doing American History this year
28. Big Foot or LOCH NESS MONSTER
29. BABIES to hold AND TEENAGERS to mold

TAG, YOU'RE IT! Thanks to Shower of Roses.

To love with madness...

My birthday was on Saturday. Unfortunately, the stomach virus going around the family finally made it's way to me and #2 son. Thank you dear mother, she could not abide by my not having a birthday cake and so, braving the germs, she still came over with cake and conversation. Nothing stops my mom!

Thank you sweet husband for having the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (extraordinary form) offered for me today at our parish. It was an incredible moment for me at the consecration. (I felt much better today.)

For reflection, I take the following to heart...

Through the Eyes of Faith ~ January 26, 2008 ~ Saints Timothy and Titus, bishops

Father Walter Schu, LC
Mark 3:20-21 Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Introductory Prayer: Another week has passed in your company, in your service. What a joy, what an honor, what a glory to be the subject of a king like you! Lord, I know that you make all things new and that through this moment of prayer you can give me a new vision of faith to see you more clearly.

Petition: Lord, increase my faith. Mary, help me on this Saturday to grow in faith in all of the circumstances of the day.

1. A Man for Others “Jesus was a man for others. Such a crowd gathered around Jesus and his disciples that they had no time even to eat. Nothing mattered more to Jesus than feeding the souls of his neighbor with the nourishment of his love and his truth, so much so that he neglected to feed himself. This self-sacrificing attitude permeated every moment of his earthly existence, culminating in the complete oblation of his life on the cross at Calvary” (John Bartunek, LC, The Better Part, p. 375). To what extent is my desire to serve those around me, even to the point of sacrifice, the thermometer of my love for them? Have I ever been accused by anyone of “madness” because of my dedication to apostolate?

2. Out of His Mind? Some of Jesus’ relatives, whose outlook was all too human, believed that Christ’s commitment to apostolate was excessive. “The only explanation, they thought, was that he was out of his mind. On reading these words of the Gospel, we cannot help being moved, realizing what Jesus did for love of us: people even thought him mad. Many saints, following Christ’s example, have been taken for madmen — but they were mad with love, mad with love for Jesus Christ” (The Navarre Bible: St. Mark, p. 87). Do I long to love Christ, in my heart and in my life, even to the point of madness? Is my one great ideal in life to be a saint — not for my own sake, but in order to be able to transmit Christ’s love to those around me, to help bring about his Kingdom in souls?

3. The Eyes of Faith Christ is vindicated when he asserts that no prophet is accepted in his own native place (Mark 6:4). What Christ’s relatives clearly needed was a greater supernatural spirit, so that they might be able to see Jesus with the eyes of faith. Faith is a great gift, more precious than life itself. But what exactly constitutes the essence of faith? Faith is not just a mere feeling of God’s presence or will in one’s life. Believing to giving yourself, offering yourself to God. Believing is letting God’s love conquer you for his Cause and not raising objections. Believing is journeying, suffering, fighting, falling and picking yourself up again, doing your best to be faithful to a God who calls you but whom you cannot see. Believing is following a star you once saw, though you do not know where it will take you. Believing is accepting gladly the perplexities and surprises, the toil and shocks experienced in being faithful. Believing is trusting God and placing your hope in him.

Conversation with Christ: Thank you, Lord, for the gift of faith. It is a gift more precious than life itself. Help me to see others with the eyes of faith, to pour myself out in loving and serving them, just like you did. Help me to love you with madness as I serve each of my brothers and sisters.

If you would like any further information please contact infoeng@regnumchristi.org

St. Frances de Sales - Where are we?!

Thanks Margaret at HeartofSETON yahoogroup! This DAILY WITH DE SALES will be a welcome addition to our homeschool day.

January 24

During the course of the day, recall as often as possible that you are in god's presence. Consider what God does and what you are doing. You will see His eyes turned toward you and constantly fixed on you with incomparable love. Then you will say to Him, "O God, why do I not look always at You, just as You always look at me? Why do You think so often of me, O Lord, and why do I think so seldom of You?" Where are we, O my soul? God is our true place, and where are we? (INT. Part II, Ch. 12; O. III, p. 92)

Ave Maria

A heartfelt Hail Mary...so powerful! Thank you ALL for your prayers. You were so generous, kind and prompt with your compassion and the virus seems to have subsided. Praise God!

Science Without Wisdom

Today was a day of buckets under vomiting boys. As they improved we watched EDISON, THE MAN- an old black and white classic starring Spencer Tracy. It was a great follow up to Mickey Rooney's, YOUNG THOMAS EDISON. (Thank you KW!)

My husband and I were particularily interested with the final scene, a speech on science. As quoted from Wikpedia, "In his speech, he warns against science without wisdom, saying, “… are they going to discover too late that science was trusted too much, so that it has turned into a monster, whose final triumph is man’s own destruction.” The speech is eerily prophetic, as the atomic bomb was exploded only five years after the movie was made.

The rest of the speech refers to the confusion of the world today...."is man's God-given ingenuity running away with his equally God-given humanity?!" He ends, "Put these in balance, make it work in harmony as the Great Designer intended they should!"

Thomas Edison, kicked out of school and homeschooled, will the educational system ever produce another single individual like him?

At last!

The days that make us happy, make us wise. ~John Masefield

Distraction.

Lots of it here lately.

What should be done? How can I get too concerned about it when they are getting their work done? Why would I want them to always sit in their chairs and subdue their spirited sibling play? If they are getting good grades and building giggling memories with each other, why would I care what "the world" would think?

I'm distracted too. When will I stop measuring and comparing this education, this step "outside-the box" with THE BOX? I need to give myself permission to, as Mark Twain said, "...not let schooling get in the way of education".

I could cry.... Deo Gratias!

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Mass FACING the cross. The Catholic faith teaches that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, led by the Holy Spirit.

See Father Zulsdorf for more.

Matthew 16:13 ...he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

Bishop says Catholics should kneel, receive communion on tongue

By Cindy WoodenCatholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY (CNS)

The reverence and awe of Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should lead them to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues, said a bishop writing in the Vatican newspaper.

" If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would ‘fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,’"

wrote Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, quoting from the First Letter to the Corinthians. In a Jan. 8 article labeled a "historical-liturgical note," Bishop Schneider reviewed the writings of early church theologians about eucharistic reception and said the practice of laypeople receiving Communion on the tongue was the predominant custom by the sixth century.The article in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, appeared under the headline,

"Like a nursing child in the arms of the one who nourishes him.""The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received," the bishop wrote.

In addition to demonstrating true adoration by kneeling, he said, receiving Communion on the tongue also avoids concerns about people receiving the body of Christ with dirty hands or of losing particles of the Eucharist, concerns that make sense if people truly believe in the sacrament.

"Wouldn’t it correspond better to the deepest reality and truth about the consecrated bread if even today the faithful would kneel on the ground to receive it, opening their mouths like the prophet receiving the word of God and allowing themselves to be nourished like a child?" Bishop Schneider asked.

I TAKE potato chips out of my hand. My Lord and Savior should be something so different! In humility, I desire to RECEIVE Him on my tongue, kneeling.

No wonder the devil hates latin

Listen...watch...read the bottom of this New York Times video

(Sounds so Holy & beautiful, you are right Christina, thanks!)

God Homeschooled Today

Today was one of those days I love homeschooling.

The kids slept later today, and I love that they could! I had some time to quietly drink my coffee and greet them each individually as the straggled downstairs. It is our first "real" week back to school after Christmas vacation and they've been great at getting back to work. Oh, there were plenty of distracting moments of hijinx....but all in all I'll remember it as one of those days that warms my heart and affirms the blessing of this education.

Today, God stepped in.

I love it when He does that! He shows and reveals Himself to us in a quiet and unexpected moments.

As we started our day, all of us at the round schoolroom table, I was reading from the Saint of the day. I noticed an email come in from a homeschooling board with a mom asking for advice. I read it to myself and, for some reason I can not explain, I read parts of it to the big boys (10 & 12). I hoped that they would not feel a license to act up or imitate the behavior this mom was lamenting but that they'd rise to maturity and offer advice...and they did! They really thought about it and were able to recognize lessons they've learned. That was good enough!

At the end of the day I was reading from the virtue program,  PACE  and we were instructed to a story about St. Monica and St. Augustine from THE MORAL COMPASS. Halfway through the story my eldest popped up and exclaimed, "Wait, Mom...God wanted us to read just this today! This is what we need to share with that Mom...to pray for her son, to never give up! Cool. "

Revelation.

God set it all up.

He was helping me homeschool today! Thank you Lord!

My boy's hearts were warmed today too...with the reality that God steps in and leads us, delights us, TEACHES  us.....

And I am reminded, once again, that I am just the "sub"...really, just another student... and He is Christ, the Teacher!

The first day of 2008!