A Bits and Pieces Mary Monday

December 7, 2009 By 19 Comments

It’s hard for me to have a favorite apparition of Mary – as I went from marveling at the “basic Mary” (Mother of God, I suppose) when I first became Catholic, to hearing the different titles and stories associated with different areas, I found myself finding something special – something to relate with – in each one.

I don’t remember when I first learned about Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Maybe it was when I became pregnant with my oldest daughter that it clicked that this image of Mary is pregnant.  Maybe it was when our parish became home to one of a handful of images that had been touched to the original tilma of Juan Diego that I realized how this depiction of Mary seemed to look at me, to reach out to me, to embrace my fears and struggles.

Guadalupe shirt BlackWhiteIn honor of her feast day on Saturday, Becky, of the great new Cafe Press shop The Whole Wide Room, has offered to give away one of her Our Lady of Guadalupe shirts.  This is a shirt that’s been on my wish list since I first saw it (and I think, working in a parish office, that I could wear it to work, don’t you?).   You get to pick the color of the sleeves, the size, the shipping address.

You have until Saturday night to leave a comment here, and then we’ll pick a random winner.

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Share your favorite Marian apparition and/or title in the comments, while you’re there in the combox. I’m working on my writing schedules for next year, and I’d love to write about something YOU are interested in learning more about.

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I’d be remiss not to mention last week’s Catholic Moments podcast, where I share about Mary’s title “Cause of Our Joy” and Lisa shares great information about the great-looking new movie The 13th Day, which is about the Marian apparitions in Fatima, Portugal.

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This week is a heavily Marian week…tomorrow is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and I’m reflecting on that over at Today’s Catholic Woman and at CatholicMom.com.  They’re very different approaches to the title, and I hope they will help you, especially if, like me, you find yourself floundering a bit with this concept and title.

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With that, I encourage you to leave a comment to win one of Becky’s lovely shirts and enjoy this week of Mary!

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Thankful for Mary

November 29, 2009 By 4 Comments

The Thankful Train is still chugging away in my neighborhood, in part because I was too sick on Thanksgiving — or on the day after — to cook.

I’m thankful, today, for the turkey that tasted delightful, along with all the sides served on my pretty green china, and for a day, quiet and full, in which to clean all the dishes and cupboards touched by what my mother-in-law calls “mouse dirt.”  (In the last 36 hours, my Nutcracker Prince has protected me from TEN of the little buggers, and my helpful MIL shared a stomach-wrenching statistic earlier today: where there’s one caught, there are ten in the nest.  *scream*)

I’m thankful for Advent, and I’m thankful for doing better at not hating Christmas.

I’m thankful for Mary.  Yes, I really am.  And you can hear all about it in this week’s (or, rather, last week‘s) Mary Moment.

I’m thankful for a few minutes — Sunday or no — to blog.

And, most of all, I’m thankful for this day six years ago, the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent that year, when I walked down an aisle in a white dress, holding my dad’s arm and watching my strong, tall Prince Charming’s face, both of us worried about flower girls who hadn’t made it (turns out they were fine, just fine, though devastated at missing their spotlight).  (And I’m thankful for the post I wrote last year, which I just stumbled upon, started sniffling as I reread it, and think I will print out for him…)

Filed Under: Mary Moment Segments, podcasts, Thankful Things, writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Hodge Podge

November 21, 2009 By 2 Comments

Today’s a big game day if you’re a Buckeyes fan.  We play The Team Up North.
OSB VS MIW
And you know what?  I’m really out of it this year, not really caring about football.  I’m struggling to keep up with my life, balancing a few balls in the air, and failing to remember when it’s Saturday and I need to have my game day face on.

When I listened to the interview this week on Catholic Moments, I realized that there’s a name for what I’m suffering, and it’s adultitis.  I’m going to have to learn more about that, I think (and it sounds as though the learning will be a fun adventure).  In that episode, my Mary Moment is a reflection on the wedding at Cana as I explore a bit about Mary’s title Mother of Divine Providence.  (You can read more about that title at my column a few weeks ago at Today’s Catholic Woman.)

So I’m battling being a bad fan and adultitis, but, in the midst of that knowledge (there’s always next year for being a better fan, right?), I have been talking pet challenges and Thanksgiving traditions (or lack of) with a few of my heroes good friends on the Faith & Family Live Cast.  That was such a great way to start my day.  We all had a cuppa and I hung up feeling as I always do when I’m around the ladies who make the Faith & Family Live community such an oasis for me: refreshed, renewed, ready.

And my latest column is up over at CatholicMom.com: Salon Reflections.  This is a sort of tribute to my mother-in-law, inspired by some comments I overheard at the beauty salon.

Now I must go and attend to my day.  Here’s hoping your game day (if that’s what this Saturday is to you) and your weekend are full of blessings.  :)

Filed Under: Mary Moment Segments, podcasts, writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Mary Linking

November 12, 2009 By 1 Comment

mary50My four-year-old finds beauty in everything.  Maybe that’s just one of the many reasons I’m inspired by her all the time.  Maybe she’s the reason I write so much about Mary.  She was born on a pretty important Marian feast, after all.  (On the other hand, maybe she was born on a major Marian feast to get my attention.  Or…well, I’ll spare you.  I could do this theorizing all day.)

This week, I find myself, once again, using the example of my four-year-old to relate to Mary, this time under her title Our Lady of Liesse.  (Never fear; though I examine my continually evolving relationship with this old farmhouse we live in, I don’t mention stinging insects.  Much.)

I also examine Mary’s influence on my prayer life this week in my Mary Moment segment of Catholic Moments.  If you’re expecting to hear how great I am at prayer, how much success I experience, and/or tips to be more like me, then stay away.  There is none of that.  I’m all about struggling and asking for help this week.  Maybe the quote I share will inspire you to ask for Mary’s help too.

Now, with that, I’m off to other Thursday ventures.  (I guess, if I was feeling clever, I could count those as two small successes, but I’m not feeling very clever this morning.)

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Looking for me?

November 6, 2009 By 3 Comments

I’m taking the weekend “off” and I may not be around here.  (Or maybe I will.  Who knows?)

But, since you’re here and looking for me, check these out:

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Queen of Saints and Rosary Failures

October 29, 2009 By 2 Comments

This week, I’m geeking out on Mary with the Queen of All Saints and rosary failures.

On the one hand, we have my beautiful daughters, one who’s a spitting image of a younger me and one who’s a spitting image of my husband (who is quite the handsome fellow!).  When people tell me, quite infrequently, that they see my husband in the daughter who looks like me, I’m overjoyed.

Because what I want for my daughters is for them to be like their Daddy.  I want them to have his quiet faith, his surefire certainty, his courage to do what’s right.  I want them to be able to stay silent when that’s what’s needed.

Oh, I know I have good traits, and my husband could probably tell you the ways he hopes the girls take after me.

But this week, reflecting on Mary’s title Queen of All Saints, I couldn’t help but think about how she must want me to be just like her Spouse, the Holy Spirit.  Does she smile ear to ear when someone compliments me on my devotion (compliments I can only point back to the Holy Spirit and God’s grace at work in my life), knowing that I’m getting closer to her Son?  Though Mary knows my failures — and there are many! — she also sees my attempts.  My kids don’t try to look like their dad, but I hope someday they try to act like him.  And that’s just the example Mary sets for me as Queen of All Saints.

Speaking of failures — did I mention there were many? — here we are at the end of the Month of the Rosary.

SIGH.

Sometimes failures are a lesson.  And sometimes I’m measuring the wrong thing.  Maybe that’s what has happened this month, a month when I was going to write all sorts of beautiful reflections and tips about the rosary, encouraging others and hoping to inspire a love it in them.

Silly me.  How could I forget that I’m not the one driving?

I didn’t do anything special this month with the rosary.  Oh, there’s the Month of the Rosary giveaway at CatholicMom.com (have you entered yet?) and I have read and started The Rosary Workout (and I’m giving a copy away — leave a comment before the 31st!).  Those things don’t really count, though…not for what I’m talking about.  Did I pray my daily rosary with deeper devotion or better attention?  For that matter, did I work to share the devotion with my family, with those other people who live in the same house?  What about my attitude and that ongoing resolution to be more like Mary?

Nope.

It’s possible I’m being too hard on myself.  I bet I’m not alone, though.  If you find yourself at the end of October, glad that the rosary hounding will stop at last, let me offer you some encouragement in this week’s Mary Moment.  Now I need to go and believe the words of encouragement in my own life!  :)

Filed Under: Inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mary Moment Segments, podcasts, writing Tagged With: , , , ,

This and That

October 10, 2009 By 1 Comment

The end-of-week linkage:

The story of grace on a Friday:

storm-clouds-oly1739_blogMy mood matched the gray weather outside.  I found myself yelling at the dog and the kids.  Things weren’t going well, in my head or during my day.

Sometimes, when this happens, I’m fortunate enough to have a friend or family member who I can pop in on, and my extroverted tendencies will pull me out of my funk.  But on that gloomy Friday, my only hope was the grocery store.

I rounded the kids up with a promise of going to McDonald’s and eating inside.  It got them moving, but once the car was moving, I promptly forgot the eating inside part of the deal.  As I pulled into the drive-thru, my four-year-old called from the back, “Hey!  You said we could eat inside!”

It sounded like a good idea in the house, but faced with the parking lot and the image of frowning faces and hyper kids and…well, you get the idea.

But I had promised.  And she was excited.

I sighed a big sigh and found a parking spot.

There was a line inside, and it looked like we were going to get Mean Grouchy Person as our cashier.  A woman with a boy who looked about four offered to let me go first, but I declined.  “No, you were here.  Really.  We’re in no hurry.  Thanks, though.”  My kids were being good, but I could feel that my hold on the storm inside me was slight, bound to slip at any moment.

And that’s when it happened.  It was just a little thing, hardly worth mentioning.

The tall man in the immaculate suit held out his hand and said, “Your turn,” letting me go next with a graciousness that I hope to someday emulate.  Then, after the juggling act of holding the almost-two-year-old while carrying the tray and getting drinks, I found myself in front of him again.  As I put the lid on my iced tea, I said something about being in his way, and he replied, “You’re doing a great job, Mom.”

That’s all.  Just a few words of encouragement from a stranger in a nice suit at our small town McDonald’s.

Later, as I was trying to keep the toddler seated and the four-year-old eating (she had chosen a seat right beside that mom with the young boy, and had a dialogue going), an older woman, who had been eyeing us, came over and smiled at me.  “You have such beautiful children,” she said.

Sitting by that other young mom, who I ended up exchanging phone numbers with (shock!), I couldn’t help but feel the Hand of God.  It wasn’t a bolt of lightening or a sign in the sky, but it was encouragement at a point when I really needed it.

And for that, I’m grateful.

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