Honoring Our Mother

Is there a more beautiful month than May?  May brings us warm summer breezes, bright yellow sunshine, flowers blossoming all around, and Mother’s Day, the celebration which honors all mothers.  May is a month in which the world is simply swathed in God’s glory.  

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photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/6817938912/">Lawrence OP</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>

The Feast of the Assumption

Happy Feast of the Assumption

and for us, happy first day of school!

Mother Mary, pray for us.

A Marian Craft

I started with this, my initial sketch and basic idea:

Then I gathered some supplies:

Felt- in cream color, light blue, dark blue, and black

Felt glue, puffy paints, ribbon, also (not pictured) brown yarn, scrapbooking "brads", and permanent markers

Did a little prep work:

Made a template

Traced the pieces onto the felt (with a little help from my daughters)

Printed out the Magnificat

Then we were ready for crafting:

And our finished projects turned out beautifully!

Ironically this was NOT my answer to the great Rosary craft search disaster.  This was our craft for the first Little Flowers meeting on Mary.  It was a more simple craft, for our second meeting of the month, that prompted the aforementioned search and subsequent upset, but I decided to share this craft because I now see the need to flood the internet with beautiful holy references to Our Blessed Mother to counteract the more negative things out there.  And because I thought others might be on the look out for crafts to celebrate Marian feast days.  And because it is almost May, the month that we dedicate to honoring Mary.  And because "my" girls did such a beautiful job I wanted to show their banners off!

Celebrating Mary

            December 8- the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which means today is the day we, as Catholics celebrate Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, being conceived without sin.   Today we honor Our Lady mindful of her peace, her meekness, her holiness, and her obedience.  

The morning found my house looking anything but peaceful, meek, holy, or obedient.  Mass was at 8 am and I had the job of rousing the children and getting them all ready- dressed, hair brushed, shoes on, and out the door in time.  My children, much like their mother, are not morning people.  I started the process of waking them at about 7:20.  “We have to leave for Mass in half an hour,” I warned pulling up the shades in their dim bedrooms and tugging at their covers to awaken them.  It was a frigid Florida morning with temperatures topping out at 43 degrees, so surely stripping them of their comforters would get them moving.  Yet, my oldest uttered not a sound, she simply pulled the blankets back up to her chin and went right back to sleep.  My second child yelled from his bed, “It does not take a half hour to get ready for church!” and also lay back down to slumber.  The 8 and 6 year olds did get up but for a few minutes wandered drowsily around looking lost, and the little one, my two year old, blinked her eyes in a daze as I took her out of her cozy crib and to the bathroom to fix her wild hair.  Two little ponytails, a bag of oyster crackers to take along for nibbling during Mass, ruffle bottom tights to go with her long sleeved shirt and green plaid jumper, little shoes buckled on her little feet and my toddler was all ready to go.  By that time, the three middle children had also found their way and gotten themselves ready.  It took three more tries and, I admit, a bit of yelling, to finally get my oldest up though.  She dragged herself out of bed threw on some clothes and yanked the hairbrush through her hair, presenting herself in the family room just minutes before we really had to leave.  The scowl never left her face, even as I thanked her for finally obeying.  

Mass of course, was beautiful- peaceful and holy and a true celebration to honor both Mary, and her son Our Lord, Jesus.   “Peace be with you,” the priest said (and with your spirit)..... and for an hour it was.

Back home to rush and get the children fed so we could get the oldest to her math co-op by 9:30.  Everyone needed hot chocolate to combat the “freezing” weather and everyone was staaaaaarving for breakfast,  so we tripped over each other in the kitchen to get something in our bellies before jumping back in the car and setting off for math.  We set off, steaming to-go cups in our hands, toast crumbs on our chins, to fight the traffic on the way to get one child to class, then back home for the rest of us for an hour or so of our own work before going back out to get their sister from her class.  

As I was contemplating the chaos of life, in light of the beauty of the Feast we celebrate today, it occurred to me how blessed we are to have the Queen of Heaven watching over us.  How, like Mass was a moment of peace and tranquility in the craziness of my busy morning, Mary is a beacon of peace in the world.  She is, for me, the perfect example of meekness and obedience.  Whenever I turn to her she always offers me a bit of peace and serenity.  When I go to her in prayer, she gives me rest and quiet stillness and her intercession, always leading me closer to her Son, the Prince of Peace.  When I pray the Holy Rosary, honoring her and remembering her in the prayers, she fills my heart with overwhelming peace.  

God knew we would need a mother interceding for us from Heaven, He knew we would need her example of holiness, He knew we would need her peace, especially in the madness of preparing for Christmas.   This feast celebrating Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is so perfectly timed-- a little reminder of peace and of what matters most, in the midst of the busiest (sometimes craziest) time of the year.

A peaceful Mother

    Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal.  Tomorrow, in our Church and in our home, we will remember and commemorate the miracle and we will turn our minds and hearts to Our Lady of Fatima.  I don’t usually share about our family’s celebrations of feast days for 2 reasons.  First of all,  I am not great about keeping up with them all.  Usually, I will remember that it is a special feast day at about 3 in the afternoon (if at all) and then I will casually mention it to the kids without any special celebrating.   Second of all, when we do remember to acknowledge the special feasts of our faith, our celebrations hardly seem worth mentioning to others.  They are not very significant, not very creative.  Yesterday, for example, to commemorate the Feast of Our Lady of La Leche, we drank milkshakes together before bed.  Will milkshakes encourage my children to be better Catholics or increase in them a devotion to our Blessed Mother?  Would other families be inspired by our idea of celebration?  You see why I do not share more often…..
    The story of Our Lady of Fatima is one of my favorites though.  I love the simplicity and innocence of the three little shepherd children.   I love that they never wavered in their insistence of proclaiming Mary’s message to the world.  I love the accounts of the Miracle of the Sun, witnessed by thousands in a little sheep pasture in Portugal.  It was an amazing event that changed hearts and brought about the conversion of many. 
    Earlier this week, I heard about a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Fatima, that was going to be traveling to different parishes in our diocese this week to celebrate the miracle and, hopefully, inspire greater devotion to Mary.   The statue would be at a parish very near to our home on Wednesday, but just for the morning and early afternoon.  I made the decision to take my children to see the statue, hear the stories, and pray before Our Blessed Mother.  But then yesterday, Tuesday, we had a very long and exhausting day.   Before bed last night (and before our nighttime snack of milkshakes) :) I told the kids I had changed my mind.  We would not attempt to get up early and out the door to attend the Mass and presentation.  It would just be too much. 
    This morning, (by the grace of God?) I had another change of heart.  Despite our busy, overwhelming week so far (or rather, because of our overwhelming week, so far), I really thought we should be there.  So, I woke the children early, practically having to drag them out of bed, and we made it to the 8:30am Mass, where Our Lady’s statue sat in silent peacefulness up front.  After Mass, we moved a little closer and listened as a woman spoke of the miracles that had followed the beautiful statue of Our Lady as "she" had traveled the world.  The parish priest joined us and added his own spiritual miracle to the list, sharing his own devotion and attributing his vocation, at least in part, to his connection to Our Lady of Fatima.  Then, the children and I got a few moments to pray before the statue while holding 1st class relics from Jacinta and Francisco, two of the young shepherd children Mary had appeared to for the last time almost exactly 94 years ago.  
    It has been one of those weeks.  A week, not only of busyness and chaos, but also of questioning myself and doubting myself and looking for God but not feeling like I was finding Him.  But, today,  as my children and I knelt in prayer before that amazing replica of Mary, the Mother of God, I was at peace.   Through the beautiful example of His mother, Jesus gave me just the renewal I was so in need of.   And He reminded me, once again, how important it is to trust, to let go of my perfectionism, and to believe in miracles, even little miracles like peaceful home schooling and a calm, relaxed mommy.

Missing Mother

    Nothing frustrates me more than losing things.  Lots and lots of things frustrate me.  Whining toddlers, getting stuck behind slow people in traffic, that game that my children play where they repeat everything they hear. “Stop copying me!”,  “Stop copying me!”, “I mean it, stop now!”, “I mean it, stop now!”   It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.  But losing things makes my blood boil like nothing else in life.  I remember one time when I was about 17, I lost my wallet.  It had in it my driver’s license and whatever little amount of money I had to my name and I could not find it anywhere.  I remember looking everywhere, turning the whole house upside down, completely baffled as to where it could be.  After searching high and low, I was so irritated and upset I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t even see straight.  The wallet finally turned up in the basement, though I never could remember taking it down there. 
    I lost my keys for several months a few years ago.  I had spent the day with my grandmother, who had just bought a furnished double-wide mobile home about an hour north of us.  When I came home with the (then) four kids and all the stuff they had brought along to play with, and all the various things Nana had sent home with us, I spent a few moments putting everything away to avoid leaving the mess of junk at the front door.  Somehow in the midst of all the stuff my keys disappeared.  I could not find them anywhere and, of course, the expensive electronic locking/unlocking thing that comes with all keys these days was missing along with the rest of the key ring.  We could not afford to replace that.  Talk about frustration.  I ended up using Tim’s set of keys to the minivan and finding a spare house key to make do with, giving up entirely on ever finding my keys.  Then one day, literally months later, I pulled out of the closet a set of sheets that Nana had given us because they were twin bed size and she had no twin beds in her house, and low and behold there were the lost keys all folded up inside. 
    This morning, I woke up and sat down on the couch to snuggle with the baby for a few minutes to enjoy the beauty of the Christmas tree.  I was sitting for about 30 seconds when I realized one of the ornaments was missing.  The baby has been stealing ornaments, rearranging ornaments, and tasting ornaments since we put the tree up over the weekend so the fact that one was out of place should not have been even noticeable much less surprising.  This was a special ornament though, purposely placed in the center of the tree, up much too high for little hands to reach.  It was one of a set of three, hand-painted by my mother, ornaments from my childhood that depict the Holy Family.  There on the tree was baby Jesus all wrapped in His swaddling clothes and next to Him, St. Joseph all dressed in brown with his hands folded in prayer and on the other side… just an empty branch.  The Blessed Virgin Mary was missing!  And on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  I searched under the tree, sure the ornament had just fallen off somehow.  No Blessed Mother.  I searched in the tree, peeking through the branches.  No Blessed Mother.  I searched around the tree and looked at every branch in case she had been relocated, though I could not, for the life of me, figure out who would have done that.   No Blessed Mother.   With the kids help, I searched through all our library books, through all our Christmas books, through the overflowing “Pack n’ Play” that has become our toy box, through the hall closet, and under all the couches and chairs.  Still no Blessed Mother.  At this point, I was bordering on frantic.  How could we lose Mary?  And especially this Mary, that had been a part of Christmas since as long as I could remember.   I prayed, and asked the kids to pray, to St. Anthony, who is the patron saint of lost things.  I was at a loss and kept picturing Mary accidentally tumbling off the tree and being picked up by the baby when no one was looking, only to be deposited in the trash can or some strange place we’d never think to look.  Then, finally, my oldest daughter put her hand into the branches of the tree and pulled out Mary, unscathed and holy and peaceful as always.  I don’t know how I missed her in my crazy searching but thankfully she was back and hung again lovingly on the branch next to her baby and husband.  All was well again. 
    Since then we have lost a math book and a sippy cup full of milk, but I am trying not to let that frustrate me.  As long as we know where to find Our Lady and Our Lord, we are doing just fine.   Nothing else really matters in life, and the milk, at least, is sure to turn up eventually…

Pray For Us

    I have been wanting a patron saint for my blog for a while.  Lots of blogs I read have little pictures of their patron saint on their page and I have always wanted to add one to mine as well.  There are so many saints I admire but none seemed to be the perfect one. 
    The other day as I was driving around running errands with the kids, I heard a little snippet of a segment on our local Catholic radio station.  They were talking about a painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary known as the “Mater Admirabilis“, which is Latin for Mother Most Admirable.  They said that the painting depicts Mary with a pile of books at her side and that copies of the painting are often found in schools.  We were in and out of the car a lot that day and I was only able to listen for a few minutes in between stops, so that is all I heard.   It was maybe two minutes of a segment that likely lasted a half hour.  I am not even sure why they were discussing the painting or what context they were discussing it in.  Furthermore, I am not sure how I happened to hear anything on the radio in the chaos of an afternoon of shopping with all five children during back-to-school sales.  Yet I was intrigued by what I had heard.  I came home that evening and searched the internet for Mater Amabilis, (my spelling was wrong but I had only heard the name that one time, for a second, with five rambunctious children in the car, and though the kids and I have started our Prima Latina lessons several years in a row we have yet to advance very far into it, so my Latin is rusty to say the least).   I found a website for a free online Catholic home school curriculum that I had, ironically, checked out a few years ago and forgotten about.   I found a lovely Catholic blog post by a mother of five who was sharing her thoughts on said home school curriculum.  I did not find out any information about a painting or about Mary being known as Mother Most Admirable. 
    The name and the painting remained in the back of my mind as I went about my very busy week, that included last minute school preparations, and a lot of worry and prayer over our rapidly approaching new school year.   Sunday evening, with only hours left before the kids and I would dive head first into another year of home schooling, I was checking my e-mail and thinking again about how much I needed supernatural help to successfully and peacefully handle another year of home schooling a houseful.  I decided to try one more time to find out more about Mater Admirabilis.  This time I stuck with English, since my spelling is more reliable in my native tongue, and searched for “Mother Most Admirable“.  Already my prayers for supernatural intervention were being answered.  I found what I was looking for. 
    At www.traditioninaction.org/religious/a006rp.htm the story of the Mater Admirabilis fresco, housed in a convent in Rome, spoke right to me, as if Mary was personally whispering it in my ear.   The miracle of the painting itself, the beauty of the peaceful image of Mary surrounded by symbols of all her work and responsibilities, the writer’s personal experiences and reflections-- all of it were God’s perfect answer to my insecurities and fears.  Of course, I know that God has entrusted me with the blessing of my children and that it was He who called me to home school them but I have been so unsure, even with His gentle reassurances (read more here), about my ability to actually do it.  I knew He would not leave me alone in this endeavor and yet I worried.  But in the miraculous image of the Mater Admirabilis, I knew Jesus was entrusting me to the care of His beautiful mother.  And as I gazed at the image on the website I immediately felt her peace within me.  I knew she would be the patron for me, for my children, for our home and our school.  I knew she would be with us through this year and all the years to come, watching over me and my children and helping me to face my work and responsibilities with the same peace and serenity she has.  Right away, I started praying, “Mother Most Admirable, pray for us“.  I repeated those words as I went to sleep, and when I opened my eyes in the morning.  I  shared the story with the kids as we started our first day of school and I showed them the picture, which I am now searching for a nice copy of to hang on the wall of our class room. 
    It may not seem exactly miraculous, but we had a great first day, and the kids are actually excited about the plans I’ve made for the year.  So, I now have a patron for my blog, a new devotion to Mary Most Admirable, and a peace about the upcoming school year that is surely supernatural.