Back from retreat! Whew. I survived my fourth Miles Christi silent retreat of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius! Kind of long for a T-shirt, isn't it? If you've never done one, what are you waiting for...It will change your life (or it least it should - that is the whole point of it!).
A pearl of wisdom from one of the priests... God has a plan set for you, and He will not change His mind. It is up to you whether or not you are going to cooperate with His plan. If you do, you can gain graces from the cross He has chosen to send you. If you don't cooperate, you lose those graces but still get the cross anyhow.
Just some food for thought as we progress through Lent.
Thanks for the prayers. Keep them coming for our "Seven Last Words of Christ" performance. The first one is Friday, March 19th and as one would expect, we are besieged with many problems, conflicts and annoyances. It's gonna be a GREAT performance :)
It has been quite an interesting Lent around my sphere of the blogging world. While blogging was not on my list of things to give up this Lent, it seems as if it was on everyone else's. Most people whose blogs I read have taken Lent off. The few people who leave comments here seem to have taken Lent off. Oh well, as it turns out, I haven't had much time nor inspiration to blog anyhow.
That all being said, I thought I'd pop in here for a few moments and ask for your prayers. We are in the thick of preparing for another set of performances of "The Seven Last Words of Christ". Our first performance is on the 19th of March and, as always, there have been many challenges. It is always such a long road to these performances, but once we are there and the tears are flowing again I remember how worth it it really is.
This truly is a performance that everyone should see. I do not say that because most of my family is in it :) It really has nothing to do with that at all. I say that because God works through these performances to change hearts; and we have two years worth of experience to back that statement up. So I ask for your prayers for our performances. We will have three: the 19th, 28th and 30th. We are hoping for sell-outs at each one. With your prayer support, we can do it.
Also, this weekend, Ms 17 yo and I are going on a silent retreat with Miles Christi. I had told her I would take her this year as a graduation present. Well, it seems we can't go to the one in July so we will be making it an early graduation present. These are always such powerful retreats that I am looking forward to seeing what she thinks. Please pray for us and for all the women who will be on this retreat that we will hear all that God wants to say to us and that we will have the grace to accept it.
Thank you for your support. I hope that your Lent is fruitful and peaceful.
Yesterday morning I was standing at the kitchen sink trying to get the breakfast dishes washed before lunch time, and I was thinking...
about Mr 9 yo who was ready to start school but waiting on his sister (so I only had to explain the math one time...)
about Ms 6 you who was somewhere in the house instead of at her seat with her handwriting
about Mr 4 yo who had asked me twice already to help him get dressed and get his teeth brushed
and I was feeling guilty and rushed and frustrated again. And then I had a thought.
Why is it such a bad thing that I can only do one thing (maybe two, sometimes) at a time? Did God really design us to be able to accomplish all of those things listed above at the exact same time, in perfect harmony?
I also thought about a conversation I had had with a friend the day before along those same lines. She is frustrated, too, because no matter how much she tries to schedule, she still can only do so much at one time, and it never seems to be enough. She said, "I wish I could sit down with a cup of tea in the afternoon and feel good about it."
And why can't she??? What is so wrong with our society that we have to feel guilty for sitting down with a cup of tea once in awhile and relaxing? Why must we feel this constant pressure to do more? Why do we feel like failures if we don't accomplish everything on our "to do" list at the end of each day, in addition to having all the kids taught and fed and happily tucked in their beds?
I had another mom today voice the same frustration. She said that no matter how hard she tries, she just can't get it all done. SO WHAT? Why is this such a big deal?
Does God really expect us to be working like fiends every day and feeling so frustrated about not being able to do four things at one time? What if we just did one or two things at a time and did them with love? with that attention to detail that we can imagine the Blessed Mother having in all of her work?
Now there's an image...Mary with her veils flapping around as she frantically tries to multi-task. Sorry, but I just can't imagine that one!
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I must go now and cook dinner and tend to the other things that I haven't accomplished yet today....
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Try as I might, I have no way to connect those two topics! I just wanted to take a moment to close the month on No Complaining. I should have done this two days ago, but haven't had the time. So, I hope that your month of No Complaining has proven fruitful and has brought some peace to your days. I know it was much more pleasant around here, and after not complaining for so long, hopefully we can keep it up for awhile!
Also, it is time to run another sale on the handcrafted soap that I am selling. This month, from March 1st thru the 20th (the first official day of Spring :) I will be running a 10% off sale on the following spring-like fragrances:Lavender *Lavender Mint * - a nice combination of lavender and peppermint
Lavender Rosemary * - a little medicinal, great in the morning shower
Lavanilla - a combination of lavender and vanilla
Just click on over to the Soap tab at the top of my blog and you'll get the full listing of soaps that I offer, as well as the pricing and the "how to order" information.
There's also a few new fragrances that I'd like to introduce before I go:Lime Basil * - a definite lime scent
Tea Tree * - a great facial
Bergamot * - a nice lemon - rose combination
Herb flower * - a combination of bergamot, geranium and rosemary
The * indicates that those fragrances are made with 100% natural essential oils!
So pamper yourself, think Spring and smell good!
Dear Fellow Homeschoolers,
I'd like to take this opportunity to ask a favor of you. Do you remember what it was like when you were trying to decide whether or not to homeschool? Were you frustrated? Confused? or was it a super easy decision for you?
No matter what your story, if you are willing to briefly share it with others so that they might be better able to make that decision, then I have an opportunity for you.
On my website, I've just put up a section that allows you to build your very own web page that tells YOUR homeschooling story. There will be a permanent link there that other people will be able to click on so that they can get helpful advice and/or encouragement with what is a very important, and sometimes difficult, decision to make.
I'm sure other people have helped you along the way, so pay it forward and help someone else. If you click here it will take you to the page that the invite is on. All you need to do is to scroll down the page and follow the instructions. With a bit of time, I hope to have a whole bunch of entries that will help others who are exploring the homeschooling option to make a more informed and better decision.
So, thanks in advance for being willing to share a bit of you with other people. What you have to say may just have a positive impact on someone's life!
A short meditation on my theme for the month. I came across this in "My Imitation of Christ" Book III Chapter 47:
Oh, if thou hadst seen the everlasting crown of the saints in heaven, and in how great glory they now triumph who appeared contemptible hertofore to this world, and in a manner even unworthy of life, doubtless thou wouldst immediately cast thyself down to the very earth, and wouldst rather seek to be under the feet of all, than to have command over so much as one.
Neither wouldst thou covet the pleasant days of this life, but wouldst rather be glad to suffer tribulation for God's sake, and esteem it thy greatest gain to be reputed as nothing among men.
Ah! if thou didst but relish these things, and suffer them to penetrate deeply into thy heart, how wouldst thou dare so much as once to complain!
Hope your lent is a fruitful one!
I received an email last week that had an article in it by Fr. Thomas Euteneuer. In it, he was discussing some good ways on how not to waste Lent. This passage, in particular, caught my attention:
Finally, go for high spiritual impact. That is, identify and practice faithfully just one really magnificent goal for your personal conversion this Lent. I say conversion and not "personal improvement" lest anyone interpret the call to spiritual discipline as a chance to lose weight or quit smoking! What Lent demands of us is to look into our vicious, slothful and petty nature and challenge it with the full prophetic force of the Gospel. A well-intentioned person who stacks up a dozen goals for personal change but accomplishes few or none of them is not a better person at the end of Lent. He is more scattered, less disciplined and under a the illusion of false piety thinking that he is doing something holy by multiplying activities without transforming his heart. In contrast, the one who targets his habit of petty backbiting with a shock-and-awe campaign of generosity toward those he finds disagreeable is the one who receives a blessing from the Lord because he acts like John the Baptist who Jesus said "took the Kingdom by storm." Any mature person will know that a single, firm and effective intention to convert one's heart is worth more than a thousand acts of superficial piety.
It caught my attention because I tend to be the kind of person who needs a spread sheet in order to keep track of all of the things I feel I should be doing during Lent. Could it be possible to pick only ONE thing and just focus on doing that ONE thing really well and actually have a fruitful Lent? Maybe even more fruitful than ever before?
And what if that one thing had to do with complaining? The way I see it, there are really three levels of complaining:
1. Verbal - yada, yada, yada - you get my drift. Probably the easiest of the three to stop.
2. Non-verbal - okay so maybe one has achieved the ability to keep one's mouth shut and not let that complaint slip out, but what about the roll of the eyes, the stomp of the foot, or more subtle: the blanket that is wrapped tightly around hunched-over shoulders that tells everyone how COLD you are. There are still many ways to complain without ever saying a word.
3. Once a person has mastered not complaining with words and not complaining with body gestures or postures, there still remains another form of complaining. What about complaining in your heart and head? What about those thoughts that still pop into your head, or worse yet, your heart that you'd really like to let out of your body somehow, but don't? Don't those still do damage? What if this Lent, one was to focus on stopping those thoughts and feelings from ever even taking root in the heart? Wouldn't that make for a fruitful outcome? Think of all the prayer, sacrifice and grace that that might take to become a reality? Wow.
Of course, I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge, but it is definitely something to pray about :) No matter what I pick, the above paragraph from Fr. Thomas really got me thinking about narrowing my focus and really concentrating on just one or two things. Now, if only I could decipher which ones those are supposed to be....
