Raising Saints

WOW! What an incredible and special vocation we have. As I was yelling at my wonderful child who made an innocent mistake making dinner because she didn't listen and obey me, I heard God say "You are raising saints!" I had to stop and realize that my screaming at her would not get her to Heaven. So I calmly explained the mistake and reemphasized that she needed to obey me, even when she didn't agree or understand. Why is it so hard for them to obey and why do we lose our patience so easily? Because there are ones who don't want us to become saints and so they are waiting for the perfect moment to attack. They can't come in however unless we let them in. So don't let your guards down, even for a moment. Pray in those moments to your angel, and let him help you battle. We can't do it alone.

We don't have a choice with our children. They are ours for only a little while and we are completely responsible. What an awe inspiring thought to realize. After this realization, I have come to find patience easier. I have come to love these souls that have been chosen just for me. How blessed are we that we have received these gifts and how many people miss out on all of this because they don't truly understand. You were chosen by Him for these souls. Why were we chosen, because we were open to His will. I have been able, in the last few days, to come to this understanding and realize that they truly were created in His image, and so was I and I better act like it. The only way to be His image is to be truly present with Him each day, all day. The way to do that is through prayer. Pray often and be fruitful. Spend time listening to Him through your children. It's amazing how well we can hear Him when it comes through our children. Love them for who they are and love you for who you are.

Pray for all of the people out there who aren't open to life and who don't realize these gifts. Pray that they come to fully understand before it's too late.

Prayer...

So for the last few weeks, months, whatever...I have been feeling like I have been praying inadequately. Not so much that I don't spend time in prayer. Throughout each day I offer up all my prayers as the days go by, but I haven't been spending enough prayer time just listening. Because of this, and the craziness of my life lately, I felt called to get "order" back into my home and spend more time with just He and I. That would be great if that were His plan as well. I spent all weekend rereading A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot. First things first are to get your prayer life scheduled and one for your children. Well I got right to it and was doing wonderfully working around the schedule and then my father had to have surgery. We brought him home from the hospital and my children collapsed into their beds and fell right to sleep and I thought, for a brief second, "oh no, they didn't say good night prayers." Then it hit me. My whole day had been in prayer. I was the one there sacrificing all to be there for my mother and father. My children had given up their mother for the day so that I could be there to love and support my parents. What an incredible lesson for us to all learn. So even though I didn't get to say my "prayers," I was in prayer all day. By living the life He has called me to and by saying yes when He asks. My wants have been to be alone with Him, but He is obviously saving that for another time. Once again calling me to self abandonment. What peace I had that night going to bed and surprisingly enough, I had time to be alone with Him. Even if it was brief as I fell off to sleep.

Pray where you are, don't wait for it to be the right time. Right now IS the right time. It doesn't have to be formal or ornate. Just spend time with Him where you are, wherever that may be. God bless!!

Finding what you need in the Eucharist

All of us who are still in shock are wondering "What now?" We need to have faith! When we question something in life, we can find ALL the answers we need in one place here on earth. It is THE place where Heaven joins us all lowly and brings us the ONLY thing we truly need. So go to Him when you are weary and week. Go to Him for nourishment and support. Go to Him whenever you can, just Go to Him. He sits there waiting for us daily and is so happy to see us come. Our priest today at Holy Mass was a visiting priest and he made such an honest thought of him as a child. He said he worked so hard to earn money for a pair of pants that he wanted, but would he have ever worked so hard to get to mass? Why is it that we take the greatest gift ever given for granted? What would we do without it? What if we run out of priests because we don't want to give up the thought of grandchildren, or because we wouldn't want our son to give up so much in life?

Find the gift that is the Eucharist and go, go, go! Spend time with Christ as often as you can. Pray with Him, plead with Him, thank Him for all you have. For without Him it wouldn't be yours!!!

While reading about Mother Angelica and the amazing journey she went through to build EWTN, I read about how she would sit in adoration and ask for the conversion of all those souls driving by the church. Many people would stop, not knowing why. They would just come in and say "something made me pull in here." What an amazing power He has when we are willing to listen!

Now, I also need to spend more time with Him, so these thoughts are as much for me as for anyone else who is reading this. Peace be with you all and may you find it in the Eucharist!

Suffering with Christ

Our country elected a new president tonight and although history has been made and "change" is inevitable I am so disheartened by the news. The president that has been chosen does not see the true value of life. How sad it is that we live in the greatest country in the world who founded itself on God's love, and now we have steered so far from His love that we can ignore this painstakingly brunt force of evil. When will people see how much harm we are doing when we say it's okay to make the other "issues" more important than life. Life which was created to be good. Everything He creates is good! He doesn't make mistakes and with that being said, He is allowing this. He must have reasons that I cannot understand and it is my faith that is helping me to be at peace with what He has allowed to happen. All the prayers, sacrifices and fasting that we all did (and continue to do) were all still heard and answered, just maybe not the answer we wanted it to be.

We are all called to suffer with Christ. How many of us are under attack when we finally say yes to something He has called us to for awhile. He never gives up on us. What we have to realize is that His plan is not something we are to understand. We are all called to give Him our "self-abandonment." I have finished reading a book (finally) that a friend gave me called Saints and Other Powerful Women in the Church by Bob and Penny Lord. What I realized about each of these women is that they all had "ideas" of what God's plan was for their lives and they fought hard for it, but it truly wasn't part of His plan at all. Some of them even needed clear signs sent straight from Heaven to realize that the self abandonment was what they needed. St. Therese, to whom I credit this blog (among other beautiful gifts in my life) received the message from a baby Jesus on a boat in her room after meeting with the Pope. She fought so long and hard to join the monastary, but it wasn't part of His plan until she realized the self abandonment.

Once her Spiritual Director told her "I forbid you in the the name of God to quesiton your state of soul. The Devil is laughting heartily. I protest against this willful distrust. Believe, come what may, that God loves you!" Please know that your struggling is just a way for you to join in this self abandonment. To join fully with Him on the cross. Know that if He has called you to this journey then He will get you through it and if you just keep in mind that it might not be for us to understand, yet, it will bring us closer to joining Him fully in Heaven. Find courage in all that He asks of us, because there is a reason. Try not to get in His way, but let Him be your yoke and you just follow along peacefully. It's amazing what can be done when we step out of the way and let Him lead us.

Please continue to pray for our country and our new president so that he may come to fully appreciate the value of life and lead our country to become a civilization of life and not death!

The Magic of...

We just returned from a wonderful whirlwind of a trip to Disney World. Now my childhood memories of Disney are magical, wonderful memories. My children's memories will be magical and wonderful as well. However, the whole time there I felt a constant tugging of wanting more. I had to constantly stop and thank God for all that I had. I should have just felt so wonderful just being there. Not wanting to be picked to be in the "special seating, or whatever." Why aren't we ever satisfied with what God has given to us? Why do we always want what someone else has? We are constantly fighting our "self." For those of you that have read The King of the Golden City you are familiar with "self" and how we need to form that self so that we can say no to it and not let it ruin our every day. How many of the families I saw were teaching their children just the opposite and giving them all that they asked for. What we need to be teaching our children is how to form themselves to not always get what they want, but to not want for things as well. It is a hard lesson for us as adults as well. It was when I finally stopped wanting and made a conscious effort to give no more mind to the temptations that my family was awarded a "move to the front of the line" pass.

We must turn to God in prayer each day and ask for help in being content with all the blessings He has in store for us. Enjoy the struggles as well as the easy times, for they are all filled with roses from Heaven!

Beginning on Monday the 27th several leaders of the Catholic Church are asking us to pray the Rosary nightly (some are even saying at 9:00 PM) for the upcoming election so that our country will elect the people who believe that EVERY life is worth living. Please pray for our country and that God will hear us all on our knees begging for His help for us all! Join all of us in prayer just as the apostles prayed for 9 days while waiting for Christ.

The Coolest Thing...

Today one of the coolest things happened. My son who is 81/2 months old did not want to come to me and let his daddy leave. It wasn't as if he was just playing around. He actually had such a grip that I had to pry away his fingers from his father's shirt. Now, go back about a year and a half ago. When we found out that we were going to have another child, my husband being the wonderful provider that he is, was a little concerned as to how we were going to be able to "do it." (to say the least) We have three daughters and when we are pregnant, we never find out what sex our baby is. So needless to say we always have as many hospital staff in the room as possible because everyone is as excited as we are to find out the surprise. I have to say that with this birth you could hear the cheering down the halls I'm sure because out popped a beautiful bouncing baby boy! All the months of my husband's doubts seemed to just melt away at the sight of this incredible gift. Now back to today. The fact that my son would not let go and kept screaming when my husband was trying to give him back to me has made my husband the happiest dad on earth!!! I couldn't have been happier with the fact that this little creature has so much love for his father and his father has so much happiness from that. Imagine when we stop to show God our love for him and fight not to let go, how happy that makes Him. Things are always getting in the way of our grip on our Father, don't let go. It took my husband all that he had to give up this moment so he could go coach soccer. What an incredible gift our family received today with just this one instant.

Daily Roses...

I have just come home from a mom's night out with my home school support group. We were all there to get help and ideas on what to do with our toddlers while schooling the older children. One mom in particular was really needing our advice and while I listened to everyone discuss their lives, I realized that the place for us to find most of our roses, is in our daily lives. One mom said that at the end of the night part of her examination of conscience is to go through her mind and think of one special thing that each child did that day. How many of us go through each day and are so preoccupied with what is on our list that we miss all the roses that God is sending us. What a wonderful idea to stop at the end of each day and count all the blessings that have been sent to us that day. What an even better idea to stop and take the time to thank God for each one and to let Him know that we do it all for His Glory. For without Him, we are nothing.
I have been called to start this blog for sometime. I have a different blog for my family, but I feel this one is to be about so much more than updates and pictures. This is to help all who read it to find the roses that God is sending their way. The reason I chose the roses is because I was sent roses the one time I asked Him to send me a sign. Not just any sign mind you, but a VERY specific sign. When we were discerning homeschooling, I wasn't sure it was part of God's plan for our lives. I prayed a novena to St. Therese and asked for roses to be sent my way as an answer to know we were making the right decision. I boldly asked for white if our children were to stay in school and red if we were to begin homeschooling. I finished my novena on Sat. and foolishly spent the day looking for roses. Of course I found none. Sunday morning after mass I was sharing my confusion with a very dear friend. On Monday afternoon, I realized I had a message from my friend from Sunday. I called back to see what she needed and she asked if I had seen her blouse. I did not remember her sweater. She then told me that it was covered in roses and she had gone back at the last minute to change into it before coming to Mass. I had not told her about the color of the roses, so I anxiously asked her what color they were. Of course to my excitement she told me they were red and the whole blouse was covered in them. The next morning as I was praying I thanked God for sending me the sign and then realized that He sent my friend Theresa with the blouse! How blind are we and how much do we miss while we are busy with our daily distractions. Remember that we all have one goal in this life and it is to make it to Heaven. Pray for me on my journey and I will be praying for all of you. May God bless you with many roses and may you see each one!