Today is the memorial for St. Marianne Cope, one of my Top 20 favorite saints. It might be because she was one of 10 children as am I. Her family emigrated from Germany to make their home in Utica, New York while I grew up about 3 hours from there.

But, I know it is also because she came to the help and aid of one of my Top 10 saints, St. Damien of Molokai. Having married a Matthew Damian and having my own Damian Joseph, along with a Dad whose parents emigrated from Belgium; he has a very special place in my life.

St. Marianne was well-loved in the Syracuse area where in 1870 (1870!!!) she was made head administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital (remember that little fact the next time someone tells you the Church doesn’t appreciate women, we had women hospital administrators in 1870.)

However, she willingly left that role when her order was asked to help with the lepers of Molokai. She said, “I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen ones, whose privilege it will be to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders….” She willingly went to do good for God without knowing what the future might hold.

Oh, that I could create a heart that went willingly to see helping others as a privilege. If I could awake each morning and say as she did making the prayer more personal for my situation:

“I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen ones, whose privilege it will be to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of my husband and my children.”

Oh, how hard that will be. Too many days, I would be more eager to go help lepers than my own family. But, I have not been called to Molokai but to Elkton. I have not been asked to help the lepers beyond my prayers. I am a wife and mother whose vocation is fused as one with the sacrament of marriage. I have my mission, though on too many days the thought of Hawaii makes me yearn for a different life. But that is not the life I was called to.

Today’s gospel, Mark 3:31-35 tells me as much:

……”But he said to them in reply,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”

So, tonight I’ll will make myself content with thoughts of warm breezes, perhaps a listen to Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole’s version of Somewhere over the Rainbow or watch Lilo and Stitch with my kids and renew my commitment to going good for God by doing good for my family. I know St. Marianne Cope will approve.

 

 

Join us on January 19, 2018 in Washington DC as Little Flowers Girls’ Club, Blue Knights Boys’ Club and Their Families MARCH FOR LIFE!

If you are interested in Marching with your group or family under the Little Flower banner, please meet us at the corner of 15th and Constitution Ave in the SE corner of the Eclipse (see map below) between noon and 1 pm. Look for these great Little Flowers posters (above) or the Little Flowers Banner led by the Kenney Family of Louisville, KY. (Backup location is at the base of the Washington Monument). If you are having trouble meeting up, please call Lorrie at 502-396-3824.

 

Don’t forget to look at the requirements for earning your St. Gianna Molla Pro-life badge whether you plan to march or not!

In September of 1993, a group of moms and daughters came together for the first Little Flowers Girls’ Club meeting in the front room of a row house in Baltimore City. Rachel Watkins, mother of several of those daughters, had sponsored the new girls’ club after taking Fr. Lasances’ book “The Catholic Girls’ Guide” and adapting it under the patronage of St. Therese, the Little Flower. Soon, other moms wanted clubs in their area and through a Catholic homeschool network, these clubs started sprouting up throughout the United States and Canada.

 

The first “Leader’s Guide” was merely photocopied pages stapled together. Around 1997, Behold Publications, then a family-owned cottage industry known as Ecce Homo Press, asked to publish the program along with the Catholic boy’s program, the Blue Knights Boys’ Club.

The clubs grew almost as large of the Watkins and Stromberg families, who raised and homeschool 21 children between them while producing and distributing the program materials. Tens of thousands of girls and boys have found faith and friendship over the years through these programs.

 

Help us celebrate 25 years of Little Flowers Girls’ Club by designing a badge to commemorate the year! All club members are welcome to design a badge! Please make sure badge designs are submitted on the official form found here:

https://www.beholdpublications.com/wordpress1/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/silverjubilee.pdf

The poinsettias are gone from my church, the candles have returned to their usual spots on the altar and Fr. is wearing green. So, despite the snow on the ground which always reminds me of Advent and Christmas season, we are in Ordinary Time.

This first arrival of ordinary time is when I like to change up my prayer routine. I love learning new prayers that I can recall when my own words fail me, I enjoy discovering the history behind the great treasury of prayers our faith provides and I also can get bored easily.

Two prayers I discovered from the back of my parish’s missalette have found a place in my daily prayer rotation:

MORNING OFFERING:

Most Holy and Adorable Trinity, one God in three Persons, I firmly believe that You are here present; I adore You with the most profound humility; I praise You and give You thanks with all my heart for the favors You have bestowed on me. Your Goodness has brought me safely to the beginning of this day. Behold, O Lord, I offer You my whole being and in particular all my thoughts, words and actions, together with such crosses and contradictions as I may meet with in the course of this day. Give them, O Lord, Your blessing; may Your divine Love animate them and may they tend to the greater honor and glory of Your Sovereign Majesty. Amen.

and

GOD’S BLESSING OF ONE’S DAILY WORK:

O Lord, my God,
Creator and Ruler of the universe,
it is Your Will that human beings accept the duty of work.
May the work I do bring growth in this life to me
and those I love and help to extend the Kingdom of Christ.
Give all persons work that draws them to You
and to each other in cheerful service.
I unite all my work with the Sacrifice of Jesus
in the Mass that it may be pleasing to You and give You
glory.
I beg Your Blessing upon all my efforts.
With Saint Joseph as my example and guide,
help me to do the work You have asked
and come to the reward You have prepared.

I can’t share any history of these prayers however, Catholic.org has both of these accompanied by lovely videos at their site if you want to take a listen.

The part of the morning offering that really rings in my heart is “together with such crosses and contradictions as I may meet with in the course of this day” – crosses and contradictions! Aren’t those a guarantee in everyone’s life?

The prayer goes on to ask God to give them His BLESSING! A blessing from God for each cross, bump or hiccup I encounter throughout the day gives me real encouragement and strength. I hope it does the same for you.

 

 

 

 

 

The arrival of ordinary time has me re-thinking my resolutions. Yes, I am one of those people who usually makes a grocery list of resolutions of what I would like to change up, change out or include in my 2018 plans. In years past, my list has been over 2 dozen items and sometimes only 2-3. This year was I very ambitious and, as usual, by the arrival of ordinary time, today, I’ve come back to reality and realized what is actually possible.

One item that remains on every list, every year, on both the unrealistic list and actually do-able one, is to read more. This keeps out from under my laptop, away from a computer screen or TV and actually learning something new or traveling somewhere new in my own imagination. Throughout the year, I’ll flip back and forth between books for my younger ones, YA books for my older ones and books just for me.

This year, the first one I picked is for me – just me – and I’m reading Matthew Kelly’s, Resisting Happiness.

Matthew Kelly might be a familiar name to you, or you may know of his work with Dynamic Catholic. The first book I ever read of his was Rediscover Catholicism which was a wonderful book to recharge my soul’s cradle Catholic battery.

But, I’ve resisted reading Happiness specifically because I’ve always considered myself a bit of a Pollyanna – always joyful, always happy. But, in truth, this isn’t true. I’m prone to discouragement and struggle just like anyone else. While my default emotion tends more to joy than sadness, life can wear down even the most joyful person. And, I’ve very happy to say I’m finding real encouragement in Matthew’s easy to read and uplifting book.

Perhaps you want to consider getting one of his books (you can get them ‘free’ by only paying a shipping charge of $5.95, not bad at all considering the cost of most books can be over $10).

However, if the cost is a burden to you, see if your local library has a partnership with Hoopla which allows you to digitally download this book (and many, many others) on your tablets, computers, etc. using just your library card!

 

 

Sorry for the late evening post but I was out enjoying the day with friends and family but I did want to pass along a quote from Pope Francis’ speech today and I can’t think of a more succinct way to remember today’s feast:

““Some stars may be bright, but do not point the way. So it is with success, money, career, honors and pleasures, when these become our lives,” the pope said, adding that path won’t ensure peace and joy.” Pope on Epiphany

With these thoughts, may I also pass along to you the same small prayer we say as we bless our children, even our oldest, when they head off to bed. Either Matt or I will trace a small cross on their forehead, give them a kiss and say, “May the saints and angels give your good dreams, good night!”

“A rose by any other name is still a rose..”

Act II, Scene II, Romeo and Juliet, Wm. Shakespeare

 

This famous scene has Juliet asking Romeo if his is willing to cast aside his name, being a Montague for her love; “O, be some other name!”

Romeo agrees, “I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.”

What is in a name? More than we sometimes realize.

Today we honor the wonderful name of Jesus, a name that brings us forgiveness for our wrongs (Acts 10:43), physical healing (Acts 3:6 and 16) and blessings (Matt 5). His name sends demons fleeing (Luke 10:17), and is a prayer unto itself as author Peter Kreeft will tell us:

Jesus – The Shortest, Simplest Prayer

On this feast day we are told,

“..So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”, Phil. 2:10-11

We can bring about a simple act of adoration if we begin to bow our heads at His Holy Name, wether in church or at Wal-Mart; when it said as a prayer but especially as a curse. What small difference might be made if we just bow our heads every time we hear His name and ask our children to do the same? Might it spark a change, begin a revolution or pass unnoticed? It doesn’t matter really but we have done our part to remember that His name above all others has brought salvation to the world.

What A Beautiful Name It is…Hillsong United

 

 

 

My love for the devotional, The Magnificat, is well-known. For today’s reading of Luke 1:26-38, we are giving a reflection from Caryll Houselander, who tells us:

“For every mother the knowledge of God is the essential preparation for motherhood: to know him as a tender but infinitely powerful Father; then to pray for the descent of the Spirit, for the divine ray that illumines natural love and bestows all the qualities of the Spirit’s indwelling presence, which are the basic necessities in bringing up a child.”

Now this wisdom comes from a woman who never married, and did not have children of her own; but her words ring with such truth. Under the protection of a loving Father, along with all the Holy Spirit gives us through both gifts and fruits, we have all we need to be great parents – as long as we open the gifts and take part in the fruits!

Those fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, (CCC 1832).

The gifts are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (CCC 1285).

As we enter in these last days before the arrival of the greatest gift we ever received, perhaps we could ask the Baby Jesus to renew in us these fruits and gifts to help us be better parents in 2018!

 

Mary said,

“Listen, and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son; do not be troubled or weighted down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?”

Of course, we think we need so much; especially this time of year when our list for gifts might go on and on.

But, today we can pause to remember that having Mary remember us, wrapped in her mantle, we need little else.

Check out here for A thorough re-telling of the story

Have a blessed feast day!