Pinewood Castle

Friday Daybook

Outside my window: It's Thursday evening. My kids are shoveling the sidewalk in the dark. It's only an inch or less, but they are squirmy, in need of vigorous exercise, and like seeing the stars.

I am listening to: The scrape of shovels, a kitten playing with the window shade cord, and the tick of the clock.

On my heart and mind: We have a new Holy Father! Almost everyone seems happy with the Holy Spirit's choice, and this event certainly helps ease our hearts after Pope Benedict's abdication. I think many are comforted in knowing that our Pope Emeritus will have time to read, write, pray, and play Mozart. Our new leader will remind us how wide are the wings of our Holy Mother Church. I mean, there are several liturgical rites around the world other than the Roman Rite (like 9? 11?), and the unique charisms of our various religious orders show us many paths to God. Contemplative or missionary, simple or intellectual, practical or innovative, austere or well-funded - all are prayerful and sincere in their desire to serve God. But what style do we want in the leader of the Church? People seem to want the papacy to match their own image of what they want in a pope. Some prefer formality fitting of a king, others will welcome this man's simple humility.

My hope is this: that Pope Francis will set such a loving and humble example in upholding moral truth, that barriers and anger and mistrust will melt away. Messages of love and truth will stop being misconstrued as hate. People all over the world, of many religions, still look on the leader of the Catholic Church as a moral compass. Even if they don't agree with the Church's teachings, or are willing or able to live up to them, they still want a holy man to set an example they can respect.  Based on what I have heard and read, I have a feeling this Pope will show the world how to love the sinner, but hate the sin.

Praying for: So many homeschooling mamas with huge crosses to bear. One who had a brain tumor removed, one whose baby had surgery, one whose son was in a very serious snowmobile accident, another who is carrying a baby with an encephalocele on the back of it's neck. One of my first cousins passed away from brain cancer, and a neighbor's mother has been in the hospital. Praying for all of you!

Taking care of mama: Neither lab tests, ultrasound, nor a CT scan indicate there is anything amiss with the upper right quadrant of my abdomen, but it still feels like something is swollen in there. I've been experimenting with more water with lemon juice, grapefruit, dandelion tea, and similar cleansing foods. My plan is to get back to a low-fat, low-carb diet and get outside for more walks. By July I think I will have the time to invest in a gym membership to help chip away at the belly fat.

In the schoolroom: We are still reading Anne Frank. The kids are amazingly interested in this book, and I am glad for it, but I am ready to get back to some entertaining fiction. We have Ancient Greece going on in 7th grade, Trail of Tears in 5th, and Pocahontas in 4th. My 5th grader is on Africa and 4th grader on Missouri. In Logic of English we are learning when to keep the /e/ when adding a suffix and when to drop it. We finished Ave Verum Corpus in Lingua Angelica and are moving on to Stabat Mater. The kids are getting better at Words with Friends and traveling the world with Google Earth. Once a week we unschool and spend the morning looking posts I've starred on 22 Words. The Clarkson's 24 Family Ways is sparking some interesting and insightful discussion. I have decided we have way too many balls in the air and need to simplify for next year. Expect a post about that next week!

From the kitchen: I spent too much time watching the news on Wednesday, which delayed my trip to the grocery store and library, so I broke our weekday abstinence and picked up some beef fillets and dulce le leche gelato for a celebratory dinner.

Around the house: Little People, La La Loopsy, and Legos are all over. It's "L" week in kindergarten.

I am creating: Compiling info and images for composer flashcards to use next year.

I am lamenting: Google Reader is going away in July. Why?

I am reading: I have yet to finish a book in 2013. Too many in the pile!

Favorite things: New sparkly pink princess shoes for a five year old girl. What could be more exciting?

This weekend: Suzuki piano graduations, group string classes and orchestra, Musical Stars class for the little bears, and St. Patrick's Day on Sunday! We'll make beef stew, soda bread, and cupcakes (with pistachio pudding in the mix) topped with candy shamrocks.

A picture for you:

Bread of Angels

 

 

Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.

May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto everlasting life. Amen.

 

First Confession

"I feel lighter!"

A New Year

Do you make resolutions? Seems kind of redundant for Catholics. I mean, we make then during Lent. We make some during Advent. We make them when we pray the Act of Contrition and when we go to confession. And I think at those times and in that context we get the grace from God to actually stick to them.

But it doesn't stop me from making them anyway, along with many plans for the new year. So my list for 2009 is an odd mix of resolutions and plans. It looks something like this:

• exercise regularly (after cleaning the basement and reacquainting myself with my treadmill I already feel like less of a blob!)
• start program with nutritionist/chiropractor I've been seeing after the car accident for health overhaul (further thyroid testing, low glycemic diet, de-tox program)
• get mercury fillings out now that the baby is weaned
• read more
• knit more - learn to knit more than just scarves
• bake more bread
• join YMCA this summer
• cook more meals for the freezer for easier weeknights
• go to the North Shore and Canada this summer
• explore future career ideas for my empty nest years (I need more social security points!)
• more love

The last one is the one that's really been bugging me. I need to take some time to recharge my love batteries.

When I struggle daily to get the kids to obey promptly I think "Love makes obedience easy. How much do I really love them and do they really love me? Do I model politeness and patience or are they just deaf and resistant to remembering the steps of our well-posted routines?"

When my husband and I quarrel or at a stand-off I think, "CLANGING CYMBAL!"

And most of all with prayer and Catholic devotions that sometimes feel tedious I think, "True love of God should really be the foundation out of which these devotions flow" and wonder if my efforts are sincere. More on this later - it's on my heart after reading Called Out of Darkness, conversion story of author Ann Rice (thanks, Sheri!)

So this is a small part of my ongoing conversion - more love. Taking joy in serving my family. With real love for God as the foundation of it all.

Thank you, everyone who reads this, for your support and friendship.

I wish you many blessings and graces for the New Year. Pray for me and I will and do pray for you too!

Tracy

The Bell

I received this first as an email - thanks Sheri!

THE  BELL 
I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God's child (John  1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John  15:15)
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor.  6:17)
I am bought with a price (1 Cor  6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ.  (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt  5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor   12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom.  8:1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil  3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom.  8:31-34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor  5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph.  2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom  8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God  (2 Cor  1:21-22)
I am assu red all things work together for good  (Rom.  8:28)
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John  15:16)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph.  3:12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil.  4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor.  3: 16).     I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).. I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph.  2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
Who you are?


Keep this bell ringing...pass it on  
'The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
The LORD turn His face toward you
And give you peace...
Numbers 6:24-26

Nine First Communicants, One Dress and a Saintly Grandmother

We had a memorable First Holy Communion/Pentecost/Mother's Day, didn't you?!

Let's cover Mother's Day first. No breakfast in bed or roses this year. We had a cake to decorate, food to put in the crock-pot, fruit to cut and a girl to dress up. Good thing Mass was at 1pm! I did receive a stack of cards, a coupon for a massage from my wonderful hubby and this frame from Dancer. She made it herself.

I actually did get roses - from myself the kids. A rosebush, to be exact. I found an "Oklahoma" variety at Wal-Mart for $3.96 and couldn't pass it up.

We finished the Garden of the Good Shepherd Easter calendar. Yeah!

I spent most of the morning with a pastry bag in my hands. Warning: If you ever take a cake decorating class at Michael's and buy $$$ worth of equipment you may never splurge for a $25 bakery cake again. No matter how rusty your skills become in between your children's birthdays. My roses had ragged petals, so please don't look at those! Look at the photo of the girl and her grandmother and I'll tell you a story.

This photo was taken thirty years ago. This is me on my First Holy Communion with my "Grandmama".  She was a saintly woman, from what I can remember. I think of her particularly on All Saints Day as one who must surely be an uncanonized saint in heaven. She rose early every morning to bake and pray. She attended daily Mass and was a Third Order Benedictine. She prayed the rosary each afternoon before nodding off in her armchair. She was loving, welcoming and always glad to see you. And she smelled wonderful. I wish I could smell her again.

The dress I am wearing in this photograph was handmade by my grandmother. My mother and her three sisters wore this dress, my sister and I wore it, my two nieces wore it and so I was naturally thrilled when my mother passed it along to us for our girls! Our daughter is the ninth First Communicant to wear this vintage treasure!

Not that the dress is the focus - like Red Cardigan recently reminded us, the focus of a Sacrament should be on -- the Sacrament! Not the dress, not the cake, not the food, etc. All of these things are important aspects of our celebrations, but should not be the main event. So please forgive me for going on and on about the dress and the cake.

What is more important is all the preparation of the heart and soul in the years leading up to a child's first communion and even before that. Generations before. My grandmother was strong in her Catholic faith and she passed that faith to my mother who passed it to me and my husband and I are doing our best to pass it along to our children. We can't see this baton of faith being passed, but it is indeed a strong chain, keenly felt, that unites the generations together. This dress, to me, represents this connection and I am forever grateful to my grandmother for the gift of my faith and for this dress that reminds me of my Catholic heritage.

My daughter's First Holy Communion day brought all of this full circle for me. She not only is named for my grandmother, but the two were were also born 100 years apart - my grandmother was born in 1900 and my daughter in 2000. And she got to wear the dress her great-grandmother made by hand nearly eighty years ago. My daughter will never see her great-grandmother on earth, but with the grace of God they will meet someday in heaven!

Ok, ok, on to the pictures!

By the forsythia. Burr it was chilly and windy - wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, right?

At the church. When we arrived at the church and I was pinning on her veil the priest spoke to her, "Remember, it's your mom's job to worry about how you look and you just remember to prepare your heart for Jesus."

The Big Moment

Afterwards at home we served up the IKEA meatball family pack (easy in the crock pot) and Twelve Fruit Salad - for the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit! Cake and ice cream, lots of lovely gifts, friends and family and even our wonderful Catholic babysitter stopped by!

There are two things my daughter said that I want to remember forever.

The first, "I know I will have a birthday every year, but I will only have one First Communion."

The second was when she was telling me that Grandma D. (my MIL) told her that on her First Communion Day Jesus would grant her any wish she wanted. Well, I went from half-listening to attentively thinking, "Uh-oh, what did she wish for and will she be disappointed?"

I asked, "And what did you wish for?" not really looking at her.

"I wished that I would grow in grace of God every day," she replied. I really looked at her then and saw that she was glowing and smiling and crying all at the same time. Her heart was indeed prepared for Jesus.

Grandmother S., pray for us! Come Holy Spirit with the grace of God and help us on our way to heaven!

The Angel Declared Unto Mary . . .

I was just browsing around the website of the church we will be attending Mass next Sunday, The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and upon discovering the online tour of the stained glass windows found this image fitting to share with you today - The Annunciation.

The windows of this Cathedral are based on the theme of Mary, the Mother of God. I am looking forward to soaking in every detail of this church. This is where I and my three siblings were baptized. Where my mother and her four siblings were baptized and where my grandmother attended daily Mass.

 

Food for Thought

These thoughts, could not be better expressed.  So true.

Motu Proprio

Deo gratias!  There are actually priests in our neighboring diocese who are taking a leadership role after the Motu Proprio announcement that allows any priest to offer the Traditional Mass without the previously required indult (special permission).  The priests of the deanery are assessing the interest of the people by offering a Mass once a month at various locations.  When more interested priests are trained the Masses may be more frequent.  Last Sunday Mass was held at this beautiful little church below.  I am borrowing images from The Knight-Errant of the Cross, a blog "dedicated to renewing the ideal of authentic Christian chivalry, defending the Catholic faith, and serving the sick and the poor."

Martinmas

The very short story: St. Martin of Tours, before his conversion, was a soldier.  He passed a beggar dressed in rags, shivering in the cold.  He used his sword to cut his own cloak in half and gave the other half to the beggar.  That night Martin dreamed that he saw Jesus wearing the half he had given to the beggar and this prompted him to be baptized at age eighteen and went on to be ordained a priest, then bishop.  Click here for the full story!

Traditions on this day range from eating foods that can be cut in half, giving winter clothing to the poor, giving winter clothing as a gift to family members, acting out the scene of the meeting of the saint and beggar and processing with paper lanterns symbolizing the light of generosity. 

Some ideas we will file away for next year (though we have been making regular trips to Goodwill lately) - the children did enjoy acting out the scene and participating in our first annual lantern procession.  We sang a lantern song as we wound our way around the yard:

Prayer for All Souls' Day

O God, bountiful in forgiving, and lovingly desirous of man's salvation, we humbly beseech Thy mercy in behalf of our friends, relations and benefactors, who have passed from this world, that, through the intercession of the blessed Mary ever virgin and all the saints, Thou wouldst permit them to come to the full participation of everlasting happiness.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Prayer for All Saints' Day

The Church today honors all Saints, those holy souls who, during life, loved Jesus and strove to imitate Him and to practice His virtues.

Almighty and everlasting God, You have granted us to venerate in one solemn feast the merits of all Your Saints; we beseech you, that, since so many people are praying for us, You would pour forth upon us the desired abundance of Your mercy.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.