to Give

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Four years ago (almost to the day) Barbara Curtis and I crossed paths, quite literally. She was at Loudoun Hospital while her husband Tripp was recovering from surgery. I was there with a baby in the NICU. Barbara had just come into the Church and she told me how she longed to bring its traditions alive in her home for her children. Hers was a family in crisis then--Tripp's healing was complicated; their finances were burdensome; they had just lost their home. After I arrived home with my new baby, I wrote to you all and told you about Barbara. I asked you then to help her to celebrate Advent. And help you did! You volunteered to send care packages to the Curtis family, packages full of faith! You sent Advent in boxes from all over the country. 

I wish I were here to ask for Advent boxes today. I'm not. I'm here with a very heavy heart to share a little of the Curtis family's pain. Barbara suffered a massive stroke yesterday. Her condition is grave. Barbara is not conscious and will not regain consciousness. We grieve.

Because this is a very real community, as soon as you heard, you wanted to help. To give. And, like me, you felt a bit helpless. We pray together for Barbara, and Tripp, and all twelve children. We want to do something more.

Before she was stricken, Barbara was struggling with a huge challenge. She had just learned she was unable to re-enroll Maddy at Catholic University for the spring semester because the family had not been able to make adequate payments for tuition. In order register, Maddy has to raise $5000. Barbara was working so hard to make that happen! In her words, 

Please let them know what a serious student Maddy is, how serious a future Maddy has in opera.

Even as a freshman, she was cast in the fall opera with a solo part and in the spring opera.  This fall she also has a background part, and in the spring she has the fifth lead in Gounoud's Romeo and Juliet.  This is incredible for someone her age (19).  

I know it was a stretch for us to send her here, but the education she is receiving is so solid and she adores Catholic University...  

When I called financial aid and asked about emergency funds, they said money is very tight. ...I know someday  CUA  will be so proud to have nurtured Maddy.

Believe me, this isn't just a stage mother or anyone starry-eyed.  I have 12 kids and that gives me a lot of objectivity. Some of my kids are gifted.  But Maddy not only had the greatest gift, she has worked so hard! And she is so filled with joy. It reminds me of Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, when he says " When I run, I feel his pleasure."

Also, Maddy lives very simply, buying her clothes at thrift stores and getting around on Metro. She sold her car when she left for her senior year for spending money.  

Yes, I would so appreciate your prayers and any other way you can help.  Thank you.

Barbara is not the starry-eyed type. Barbara knows how formidable the task of raising a family like hers is and she is faithful to that task, grateful for that great joy. Please let's help her! As Tripp and the family gather, can we let them know that this is a true community of faith? Can we show them how far Barbara has reached and how much we, too, love her children?  Can we please send Maddy back to school in the spring, so that part of her world is safe and sound and there for her? Please wrap your arms and your hearts and your prayers around this family now. And, then, please take a moment to send the link on so someone else can be blessed with the opportunity to give.

Barbara Curtis Mommylife Memorial Fund

PO Box 682 Lovettsville, VA 20180-0682

 

Election Novena

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Four years ago, I spent most of the election season on bedrest. I read way too many political blogs and watched way too many talking heads. It was an election about which I felt deeply. And, so, I wrote about it. I'm pretty sure I offended some people. This time around, I've not blogged politics at all. I've watched with certain sense of proud bemusement as Patrick, in particular, has become a politico. I remember fondly an internship on Capitol Hill at his age. But (with exception of Twitter parties during debates--can't help myself) I've not gone there this time. There is so much other chaos in my life just now that I'd prefer to opt out of election drama online.

Last weekend, my pastor offered a powerful homily and he gave me pause. He unequivocably said we have to speak up. All week, I've prayed about how to do that.

Let's just pray. From now until election day, let's just pray.  

O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord,
Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.

We thank you for the privilege
Of being able to organize ourselves politically
And of knowing that political loyalty
Does not have to mean disloyalty to you.

We thank you for your law,
Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged 
And recognized as higher than any human law.

We thank you for the opportunity that this election 
year puts before us,
To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote,
But to influence countless others to vote,
And to vote correctly.

Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened.
Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation,
Their response to you requires that they be politically active.

Awaken your people to know that they are 
not called to be a sect fleeing the world
But rather a community of faith renewing the world.

Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer 
Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth;
That the same eyes that read your Word
Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot,
And that they do not cease to be Christians
When they enter the voting booth.

Awaken your people to a commitment to justice
To the sanctity of marriage and the family,
To the dignity of each individual human life,
And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin,
And not one moment later.

Lord, we rejoice today
That we are citizens of your kingdom.

May that make us all the more committed
To being faithful citizens on earth.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Archbishop Chaput on the election.

And here's a small smile. Patrick and Mary Beth have been in charge of civics lessons for the preschool set;-)


Lord, Hear Our Prayer

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The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-filled people pray for one another.

Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.

How about this idea? What if I pop in here every weekend, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?

{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.}

Gospel 

Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
Think 
"As far as I am concerned the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved. The greatest suffering is also having no one, forgetting what an intimate, truly human relationship is, not knowing what it means to be loved, not having a family or friends." ~Mother Theresa
Pray
Open my eyes, Jesus. Help me to see the lonely, unwanted and unloved in my world. Don't let me brush him aside. Don't let me be impatient. Help me stretch as You did, towards the unnoticed.
Act
Despite the grandness of His mission, despite the vast,infinite scope of His majesty, Jesus was a detail guy. He noticed. He attended to the least of these with purposeful dignity. Square your shoulders, Mama. Open your eyes. Who are the least in your midst? What are the details? Bring peace, order, and dignity to those people and places. Heal hearts and leave no one feeling unnoticed or unloved.

I'm subduing; that's what I'm doing

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And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

I didn't blog yesterday. I got up early, started to read, and the painters arrived. Half an hour before the agreed-upon 8:00 start time. From there, it was a day of not-so-controlled chaos. I also apologize for being absent from the combox. I assure you I read each and every comment and I am so, so grateful for you all!  Columbus Day is a big tournament weekend for soccer families. I had boys to drop off and boys to gather into my home for sleepovers before Saturday morning sendoffs. Kari's birthday fondue was scheduled for yesterday so that she could share it with Stephen's best friend, Jack. How cute is that? She wanted Jack at her birthday:-). The painting is all happening out of order and at one point yesterday, as my three-year-old stood crying and tinkled on the floor, I recognized that access to every single bathroom was blocked. (There you go folks: I just posted a potty complaint. There's a first for everything.) Anyway, blogging slipped my mind entirely.

Throughout the day, I carried on a sometimes phone/sometimes text conversation with a dear and trusted friend. We were trying hard--amidst the interruption of two households and 16 children--to make sense of what the mission is for moms in the suburbs of America. We never finished the conversation.

So this morning, I was pretty much amazed at the God timing of this quote from The Mission of Motherhood, where Sally shares about the building of their Colorado home:

The interior of the home--architecture, paint, and fixtures--would not only suit our tastes but also fit the needs of our large family, with a spacious kitchen, wide-open and well-lit rooms, and low-maintenance wall and floor surfaces that could stand up to the tromping of four children, their friends, and their pets...All these plans took awhile to come to fruition. Turning raw land into a home required years of saving our money and investing our hard labor. But gradually, under our watchful eyes, it became something useful, beautiful, and suited to our specific needs. It is also, we hope, through the raising of our children and an ongoing ministry of hospitality, instrumental in bringing about God's kingdom on earth. Sally Clarkson--The Mission of Motherhood

Since March 15, 2012, I have prayed a very specific prayer every day. I've asked God to help me to make my home a beautiful witness to the living of God's will in our family's life. Every day, I've called to mind the vision of Mary, merciful and sweet, making a home for Jesus. I beg God to let me make a home for Him here, too.

It hasn't been too pretty here the last few days, both interiorly or outwardly. I'm trying mightily and failing miserably. There have been lots of rants about ungrateful children and their mother-teacher who has utterly failed at inculcating grateful stewardship. Some of those rants I've actually voiced aloud. Also, there has been that tension, with me since reading so many social justice books. How can we spend money on this home when people wake up in unsafe huts with mud floors every day?

That tension is mine to live in for now. It is so easy for me to berate myself, to look at every ding in the wall, every pile of mess found behind furniture that hasn't moved in years, every dusty blind, and see my failures. It is so easy to go back to that place where I was two summers ago and lament time wasted and lessons unlearned. But God won't let me go there. He's made very sure of it, today especially. We thought we'd blessed some people with work as we undertook this renovation project. Turns out they're blessing us back.

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My home is filled with strangers. They are bringing to life a vision similar to the one that Sally shared. We are providing for them a job and money to take home to their families. One thing I hadn't counted on though, is the young man who wears his rosary every day and his friend, the really good ceiling painter, who smiles as he works. Smiles. Ten hours  a day. What we got for the price of a painter is a witness--a witness to hard work, to finding joy in even the most tedious of jobs, to gratitude for the chance to do a good job and so to gain another job. And a T-shirt that reminds me I've been absolved.   God + Grace. I'm going to just go with that thought.

"The Hebrew word for subdue implies making something subject to your authority. It means being responsible for making it useful and beautiful, caring for it rather than exploiting it." Sally Clarkson--The Mission of Motherhood

We have such a vision for this home--a vision for hospitality and shelter and education of children and familiy and ministry. That vision and the work that it will take to bring it to fruition is under my authority. It's my mission.

Are you thinking about the mission of motherhood, too? I'm going to join The Nester for 31 Days. I'm going to host a 31 day "retreat"here  to remind myself (and anyone who wants to come along) of the mission of motherhood and matrimony. If you want to do your own 31 Days on anything you choose, head here and join! If you want to retreat from the noise of the 'net for a month and focus your own sweet home and family, grab a “Remind Myself of the Mission” button and curl up with a candle, your Bible, and this good book! Let me know your thoughts below. We can help each other hear His mission. You can add a Remind Myself button by cutting and pasting the code below.

31 days Misson

 

Click here for the whole series.