seasons

Last Week’s Writing: Lots of Mary

May 13, 2012 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

Here’s your linky-roundup of my other writing from the last week:

“Sharing Mary” at New Evanglizers

Sometimes, it’s far easier for me to talk about my faith than it is to live my faith.

Take Mary, for example.

I have a huge and ever-growing devotion to the Blessed Mother, and I’ve even written quite a bit about her. Most weeks, at my blog, I do a whole post about her or inspired by her.

So you might have the (false) impression that my kids know all about Mary. You might assume (wrongly) that my family prays the rosary. You might (mistakenly) think we do all sorts of Marian things in May every year.

Truth is, this year is the first time I’ve actually set up a May altar.

Join me there.

Tech Talk at CatholicMom.com: A Great Rosary App

Without my iPad, my prayer life is vastly different. For one thing, I lose my prayer book.

I added the Rosary HD app from ESB Solutions to my essential apps folder just last week. At $2.99, it’s a bargain. Take it fromsomeone who continues to search for the perfect rosary app.

(No such thing, sorry to say, but this one’s definitely a keeper!)

Let me walk you through Rosary HD and tell you what I love about it.

Read it all.

Review of Great Resources for Kids at CatholicMom.com

Excuse me if I sound a little hurried in this review. My seven-year-old returns from school soon and when she sees this pile, I’m going to lose them all. There’s no way my four-year-old will remain oblivious when her older sister shows interest.

And how could they NOT be interested in the beautiful books Pauline has sent to me for review? I’m still debating if I want to share them…

Read the rest for three great new titles from Pauline.

Celebrating May with Flowers

I’ve been Catholic long enough to know better.

I’m surrounded by blooming flowers: on the side of the road, in various flowerbeds, in the yard.

And I have young kids.

So what’s my excuse for not having a May altar of some sort before now?

Read the rest at Columbus Catholic Women.

Blog Talk at Catholic Writers Guild Blog

There’s something appealing about a good picture with a good blog post. I started using images as a matter of course when I noticed some of my favorite bloggers doing it.

It’s like a challenge, sometimes, finding the picture that expresses the post. Sometimes it’s a way of sending another message in the post.

In the rest of the post, I share my favorite free photo and image sources and a few tips for image use.

Two Little Words, Much Appreciated

It was a strange-looking envelope, made even more so by the fact that no one in the house has a birthday in early May.

Who could be sending a card?

Read the rest at Amazing Catechists.

Filed Under: blogging, Inspired by the Virgin Mary, writing Tagged With: Amazing Catechists, apps, blogging, Books, Catholic Writers Guild, CatholicMom.com, children's books, Columbus Catholic Women, New Evangelizers, podcasts, Reviews, seasons, Virgin Mary, writing

The Month of Moms and Mary

May 7, 2012 By Sarah Reinhard 2 Comments

A Mary Moment Monday post

In all the years I have been enjoying the month of May, it’s been its designation as Mary’s Month that is my favorite.

There are a lot of reasons May is a great time to remember Our Blessed Mother Mary. There are lots of flowers blooming, and what kid doesn’t want to pick flowers to take to their mother? The weather’s better, and as we trounce around outdoors, it’s hard not to thank God, which is something Mary certainly approves of.

And, of course, there’s the chaos and craziness that comes with May this time of year. Back in my days of working in agriculture, it was planting time, which meant long working hours and high stress. Now that I have school-aged children in my life and my house, it means a different kind of stress.

There are school projects and fair projects, field trips and recitals, games and graduations. There are deadlines galore and the grass is practically leaping out of the earth, demanding to be mowed five minutes after you finish.

I’ve started to suspect that the real reason May is Mary’s month because every mom I know needs some divine help!

Who better than the Virgin Mary? She surely has an idea what “busy” is all about, and she’s going to lead me where I need to go and accompany with the juggling I have to do.

If I hold out my hand, I can almost feel hers grabbing mine. If I look a little closer, I think I see a smile. She chased a small boy once, after all. She tried to keep up with a group of people who didn’t stay put very often. She comforted the broken-hearted and rejoiced in the triumphs.

She still does. This month, hard as it will be, I hope you’ll join me in slowing down and smelling the flowers and maybe even enjoying a Hail Mary while you do.

This “Finding Faith in Everyday Life” column originally appeared in The Catholic Times.

Filed Under: Inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mary Moment Mondays, writing Tagged With: Catholic Times, Finding Faith in Everyday Life, flowers, Mary Moment Monday, Motherhood, seasons, Virgin Mary

Even I can do a May altar!

May 4, 2012 By Sarah Reinhard 1 Comment

Over at the Catholic Family Fun website, I have a new activity to share.

It’s so easy, even *I* have done it. For the first time ever.

It’s a May altar!

Yes, I know. With my devotion to Mary, you’d think this would be something I’ve done many times. With my love of flowers, you’d think this would be something so simple and easy, I wouldn’t even need instructions.

Well, yes, I am this pathetic. I had to write instructions first, and even I pulled it off!

Here’s the before:

And here’s the after:

Go on over for my easy-peasy instructions and encouragement!

Filed Under: family, Inspired by the Virgin Mary, writing Tagged With: Catholic Family Fun, flowers, fun stuff, seasons, spring, Virgin Mary, writing

On the Last Day of April

April 30, 2012 By Sarah Reinhard 1 Comment

A Mary Moment Monday post

A year ago, we were still living in the old farmhouse.

Now we’re in a palace.

A year ago, the boy was just starting to roll over.

You can see what he’s doing NOW…

A year ago, I didn’t have any books published. And now…

On the last day of April, as the weather warms and the breeze beckons, I can’t help but reflect on the season of life I’m in, right now, right here.

The change of seasons seems to do that to me.

Especially when the kids are changing so fast. Especially when there’s so much going on around me. Especially when things can change at any moment.

The present moment is so often lost on me.

I’m planning. I’m thinking. I’m juggling.

I have a lot going on, even if only in my own mind.

When I see Mary–by my sink,

on the walls,

in a nook–

she reminds me that the Yes I most need to say is the one I say right now.

I’m going to be learning THAT lesson until I die, I think.

Filed Under: Inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mary Moment Mondays Tagged With: Mary Moment Monday, seasons, spring, Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Lent

February 20, 2012 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

A Mary Moment Monday post

I don’t think I started really appreciating the role Mary plays in my Lenten experience until two years ago. That was the year of Mary at the Mardi Gras parade and Mary throughout my Lent (and Lent throughout my year, really).

When faced with insurmountable challenges, Mary never fails to inspire me. She doesn’t inspire me in a distant way, but in a diving-in-right-beside-me kind of way. She’s there, whether I notice her or not, just as she was beside her son through the joys and through the sorrows.

Mary’s before me this Lent, too. I don’t know why: I feel an anticipation of her presence, like she’s waiting for me in a special way.

As I usually do, I’ve made a plan for my Lent. This year, I like to think I’m braced for the inevitable failure.

But…I can’t help but wonder: am I ever really ready for failure?

That’s where Mary comes in right now. She can be a model for me of courage in the face of the unknown, trust in the midst of chaos, hope in the likelihood of darkness, laughter in the possibility of failure.

Our Lady of Lent, pray for me.

(I found this image of Our Lady of Amsterdam at MorgueFile and…wow. I just love it, don’t you?)

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Have you seen Celebrating Lent with Mary? It’s a great resource that I have been using for the last couple of years.

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Jeff Young (who you might know as The Catholic Foodie) is holding a Mardi Gras special on his website services. If you’re even remotely in the market for web design, I encourage you to act quickly…his offer’s only good through Ash Wednesday!

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And, finally, I can’t resist a reminder that tomorrow’s your last chance to enter my February book giveaway.

Filed Under: Inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mary Moment Mondays Tagged With: Faith, Lent, liturgical year, Mary Moment Monday, prayer, seasons, Virgin Mary

Valentines for Mary

February 13, 2012 By Sarah Reinhard 3 Comments

A Mary Moment Monday post

Valentine’s Day is a big deal around my house. From the time she could recognize a heart, my seven-year-old has been asking me to cut them out for her. She decorates piles of them. One year, she sent them to everyone in the family.

This year has been no different. From about January 2, she’s been cutting out hearts, drawing hearts, decorating hearts, and thinking of Valentine’s Day.

She’s been talking about who’s in her class and who else gets Valentines. She’s been planning and drawing and thinking and talking.

I used to be cynical about Valentine’s Day, but my daughter has changed my heart. Her enthusiasm has warmed me to a holiday that used to make me roll my eyes.

Here, in the longest short month of the year, we have a reprieve of the gray days and the gloom around us. We have candy unbounded, colorful hearts, and the reminder to love.

From my children, I see what God has in mind for love. They are unconditional and open with their love. They don’t hesitate to give everyone a paper heart with sparkles and special embellishments. It doesn’t even have to be Valentine’s Day: they are this way all year long!

On Valentine’s Day, I have a special reason to stop and pause, to remember what it means to be excited about this feast day.

How much must God love me, that he not only blessed me with these children, but also with the many other people who grace my life with moments of joy and sharing? How often do I really express my love to those people who hold my heart?

Looking to Mary, I see an example of love, the complete picture. She had eros with God, and she also had agape. She’s the model for me of what my Valentines should contain this year.

And the Valentine I can give her is to abandon myself more completely to her heart. If I let go, she’ll lead me right to him.

Filed Under: Inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mary Moment Mondays Tagged With: Mary Moment Monday, seasons, Virgin Mary

Light a Candle

December 19, 2011 By Sarah Reinhard 1 Comment

A Mary Moment Monday post

I can’t pretend that I’ve been really easy to be around lately. I’m pretty impressed that my husband still smiles at me, my mother-in-law will still speak with me, and that my children still seem okay with my presence. Then again, all of that assumes that they are as grinchy and selfish as I am, and they are not.

I’ve been whiny. I’ve been grumpy. I’ve been impossible.

Why has this Advent seemed so much harder than any other? Why has Christmas seemed like a looming impossibility to me? Why, why, WHY?

I have nothing to complain about: NOTHING. Not. A. Thing.

I have suspected, in fact, that the decrease in the twelve-month-old’s nursing and my past experience with depression might be kicking me into some weird thing.

As we dive into the last week of Advent–an Advent where I’ve been blessed by other people’s stories of how my work has blessed them, an Advent where I have found myself to be very blessed (though unable to feel so)–I find myself turning where I always turn when I don’t know where else to turn.

I’m struggling and teary and confused.

She knows.

And she points me, yet again, to the one place I can turn for comfort. She reminds me that the candles I’m lighting lead to the birth of her Son. She smiles gently at me and I feel like maybe peace is possible within my inner turmoil.

Those candles can burn within me, if I let them. They can burn away the doubts I have, the fears I harbor, the unexplained anxiety I hate. In those candles is the symbole of hope that awaits each of us on Christmas Day: God became man. It’s so unlikely, really. He didn’t just use words; he touched us and became one of us.

And maybe all I can hope for for Christmas is the continued pull of my heart closer to his through the guidance of his mother.

credit for grumpy old guy

credit for Advent wreath