Susan B. Anthony List

I came across this group today (ironically enough in an article in a woman's magazine that was trying to work against them.) The Susan B. Anthony List is working to increase the number of Pro-Life women in Congress. Unfortunately, so many people feel that in order to be a feminist, you need to be Pro-Choice. All I can think of in response to that is the famous quotation "How sad it is to need to kill a baby in order to live the life you choose."

In any case, this group is seriously underfunded and no where near as influential as that other "list" group, which shall remain nameless because I don't want to give them any publicity, that works to keep Pro-Life candidates out of office. Hopefully, in time, that tide will change in our favor.

Dappled Things

"Dappled Things" is a great new literary magazine featuring the works of young (18 - 35 years old) Catholic writers and artists. Check out the current issue at:

http://www.dappledthings.org/current.html

Prayer of St. Francis

Today (October 4) is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a twelfth century saint known for his life of radical poverty and his work to rebuild the Church. He was also well-known for his love of animals. He is the patron saint of the environment.

Here is his prayer for peace, something that we so desperately need in our world. I invite you to spend some time with these words, and imagine what life might be like if we all lived life according to them.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your Peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

God's promise

I had such a rough day with David. My little Eeyore with the dark cloud hanging over his head was stressed from the time he woke up this morning at the very early hour of 5:40 a.m. He climbed into bed next to me and began his litany of complaints. Isaac was still sleeping so David and I had some quiet time before school. I eventually had him calmed down and off to school.

After school, however, his mood hadn't improved. If anything, the stress of school had made it worse. He just walked in the door, laid himself down on the floor and wailed. The rest of the day it was off and on. He'd be Ok for a little while and then something else would trigger a breakdown. By the time I had him tucked in bed tonight, I was exhausted and frustrated and at the end of my patience. I couldn't help but wonder where I had gone wrong as a parent to have David see the world as such a threat to his existance. And yet, at the same time, I know that he was born this way. Even as a tiny baby, his stress level was high.

While I was sitting outside the boys' room tonight waiting for them to go to sleep, I began reading "No Small Miracles" by Norris Burkes, a pediatric chaplain. I came across a passage that spoke directly to my tired heart:

"The mother's love reminded me of the miraculous way in which God whispers his love into the hand of each of us when we are born, placing there a promise that, no matter what, he will never let us go. And having pledged that love to us from our first breath to our last, he wraps our fingers around that promise for safekeeping."

Yes, God loves my David just as he is, and so do I. My spiritual director always tells me to trust that God has a plan for my children. I know that is true. My part in that plan is to get up every day and love my children to the best of my ability, and to trust that God is holding on to me as well.

Introducing the Rosary to a New Generation

I read recently that the Rosary fell out of favor among many Catholics after Vatican II. Thankfully, my family never got the memo. The Rosary has been part of my daily prayer life for as long as I can remember. As a child, I said one decade for each grade of school I was in, until I was ten and was old enough to say a full five decades a day. This is a tradition I am continuing with my own children.

As a teenager, my mother would wait up for me so that, even if it was midnight when I came home, we could say the Rosary together before we went to bed. The Rosary would become my daily companion, my strength when life got tough. The simple meditative prayers, and the grace that God provided through them, got me through so many challenges. At times in my life when I needed to make major decisions such as whom to marry or when life has been tinged with pain, I turned to the fifty-four day Rosary novena, a commitment to prayer which has never let me down. Over the years I have said the Rosary counting on my fingers in the middle of the night while feeding a baby and while buried under the covers on cold winter mornings. I think that I have even said it in the shower! These days, I say it first thing in the morning to get my day off to a good start.

October is the month of the Rosary with the feast of our Lady of the Rosary falling on October 7th. In the 4th grade Religious Education class I help to teach, we are introducing these young people to the Rosary. While three of the students had rosaries, none of them knew how to use one. I went out today to purchase little books for them that include how to say the Rosary, the text of the prayers, as well as beautiful illustrations of the scriptural mysteries to meditate on. We are going to have them make their own Rosaries and then have our Pastor come to class to bless them. I don't know if any of these children will develop a lifetime devotion to the Rosary as I have, but I hope that they will come to appreciate the beauty of the prayers and know that they can lean on them whenever they need to.

Feast of the Guardian Angels

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Maybe you haven't given your Guardian Angel much thought lately. Isn't it comforting to know that we have an angel right near us appointed by God to help watch over us and that our children have one, too!

I say the Guardian Angel prayer with my children each morning, but it's value still holds for us grown-ups as well:

Angel of God,
My Guardian Dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day be at our side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.

A Little Break

I've been taking a little bit of a break the past couple days. I finished this painting last night of the Elms College Chapel. I've also been working on Halloween Costumes for the kids - Isaac wants to be Cookie Monster. He has wanted to be Cookie Monster for the past two years and I wasn't able to find a reasonably priced costume so I decided to make one. When I took the boys to the fabric store to find blue fuzzy material, David caught sight of green fuzzy material and said "Look! I can be Oscar!" so now I am making two costumes! They are coming out reasonably well, however. I think the boys will look very cute when they are done. There is a Halloween Party at David's school and they are both so excited to go.

On the reading front, I have been enjoying a tome I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the library (there wasn't much in the theology / spirituality section that day) - "Old Books, Rare Friends" by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. It was written in 1997 by two elderly women who were the best of friends and shared a lifelong love of reading and books. They went into business together as rare book dealers back in the early 1940s. As someone who enjoys books and history, I am finding it fascinating. One quote cemented the fact that I had found kindred spirits in these women. Leona wrote of going to the library when she was young: "Proudly I marched off with my selection, still sniffing the musty odor of books, a smell that was somehow warm and comforting and exciting all at once and would remain with me forever."