Now is the Time to Start the Big Push

My dad would say that whenever I complained about how much I had to do.   Today, I woke up discouraged.  I have a list of things to do that is fifteen plus items long. It is full of hard to do tedious errands that will require thought, care and time.

Instead, I am writing.  

This is the last week of Lent.  It is time to take stock.   Even if you haven't done anything or have blown Lent, forgotten your resolutions, now is the time to start the big push.

You can make this Lent the beginning of a deeper faith life if you do  any of the following.  This week.  It's not a formula.  It's a call.  It's the means by which God acts.  You look at the list.  Something in it tugs.   Follow that tug.  Don't be afraid. It is the Holy Spirit, trying to bring you deeper and deeper in.  

1) Go to the stations of the cross.  Let your mind dwell on the why of it.

2) Go to confession.  Masstimes.org is a great place to find one nearby. Or call, make an appointment.

3) Go to Holy Thursday mass.  Yes. It's long.  It's worth it.

4) Fast on Good Friday.

5) Pray the rosary.

6) Go to adoration, spend an hour.  There is a church near you that holds 24-7 adoration.  Find it.

7) Read the scripture readings for the week or listen to them via podcast.  Laudate is a great app if you have a smart phone and want to listen in the car.

8) Perform one of the Corporal Acts of Mercy:
         a) Feed the hungry
         b) Give drink to the thirsty
         c) Shelter the Homeless
         d) Visit the sick
         e) Visit the Prisoners
         f) Bury the Dead.
Pope Francis is an exceptional example of someone trying with all he has to do the acts of mercy almost every day.

9) Perform one of the Spiritual Acts of Mercy:
         a) Counseling the Doubtful
         b) Instructing the Ignorant
         c) Admonishing the Sinner
         d) Comforting the Sorrowful
         e) Forgiving Injuries
         f) bearing wrongs patiently
         g) Praying for the deceased.

10) Invite someone who does not go to mass, to come with you.

11) Offer a mass for someone.

12) Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet..

13) Go to the Church at 3 o'clock on Friday.

14) Pray the Prayer of Abandonment every day this week.

15) Give alms.

    I finished writing the list and realized, I'd created a possible to do list of more than 15 things, all of which take time, but which are in no way tedious.   Oddly enough, adding that extra thing to the list, made it feel lighter.  

So pick one.  Then, tackle the rest of whatever you have to do.  As you might surmise, blogging will very likely be light this week, owing to Holy Week, but now is the time to start the big push.
 

7 Quick Takes

1.   We got to Friday and somehow, I'm surprised.   I also didn't link up to Small Success Thursday --because yesterday was so very busy.   So here's the link to go count your blessings over at Catholicmom.com! 

Sorry it's a day after the fact. 

 

2.  Helen news!   I got a review over at Catholic Fiction.com!  I submitted her back in September.  You can go read it here.  

3.  Next week is the Gaithersburg Book Festival.  I wish I were presenting, but I'll be volunteering for my kids' school at a booth, which will probably (but not assuredly) prevent me from spending too much money on books!

4.  This weekend, my daughter is receiving her first communion.  I've been through now six of these with my children, and they are always special, but this one, she already has such a love of Jesus, it is breath taking and heart squeezing.   So offer a prayer for her as she prepares. 

5.  My son is confirmed next week.  Confirmation is my very favorite sacrament.  Keep him in your prayers as well. 

6.  Next week, we also gear into high exams for my two teens, followed by graduation the following week for one, and exams for my younger adolescents.  We will exhale in June.  

7.  Penelope is doing well, I've been writing on her every day this week, or reading about her, or researching.  I'm taking an online course on Scrivener and it's really helping me to understand this writer's software, it's also making me look at my WIP --work in progress, more often, so it has the double effect of generating more words.  

Here's a sniff: 

“Are you going to chose one of them my queen?” Erika noted the pearl pendant and emerald and gold earrings on her night stand.

“Eurydamas and Peisander at least make a pretense of courting me and not the throne.” Penelope answered. Her face reddened. Erika, seeing her mistress’s embarrassment left the room.

Looking at the jewelry, Penelope sighed. For three years, she’d kept all 108 men dancing, and not one of her servants understood her reasons. She reminded herself they had to be equally unsure of her intent, in order to maintain the facade. Was she perpetually faithful, or perpetually fickle? The men had to believe both, in order to pursue her, and think they had the slightest chance. Her life, like the jewels in the earrings, held many facets, not all of which could be seen at once, only the ones she let catch light.

She put on the pendant for a moment to consider it, and then took it off, wearing such a thing would be too much of a signal of favoritism. She placed both gifts back in her box of trinkets, polished her favorite blue stone silver ring, and placing it on her ring finger, steadied herself for another day of holding all of the court, all of Ithaca, all the world she knew, together, all while hoping somehow, the next day, things would be better.

She walked into the dining room, Men were asleep in their chairs, some drunk on the floor, others missing from the room were probably stealing a few hours with servants willing to serve more than wine and bread. She took the moment to work tiny mischief, and threw open the curtains from the walls, revealing the cutaways her husband created to allow for more light. She rang a bell to signal to the morning staff to assemble and begin clean up, part of which included sweeping out those left over from the evenings repast.

She saw these men for who they were. She scrolled through each of their faces. Agelaus, weak in mind and heart but not body, Amphimedon, ambitious with no prospects and no loyalty either, Amphinomus, decent but dull, Antinous, malicious in every way, rather like keeping a poisonous serpent as a pet. You couldn’t release it, it might return out of habit, and it might bite you just the same if you didn’t. Ctesippus, crude and cruel. Demoptolemus covetous and envious, Elatus, too young and stupid, clinging to where all the men were, not realizing so few of them acted as actual men, Euryades, lazy but desiring a life of luxury. Euryachus, like oil, she didn’t trust him. Eurynomus, the ignoble brother of Antiphus, he lacked his brother’s courage to go serve Ithaca in the fight. She went through them all, she knew them all, it was a tedious business all of these men, none of them moved her mind, body and heart, none of them touched all. Odysseus had. Odysseus still did.

But it had been a long 20 years.

7 Quick Takes Friday ...on Saturday

1.  This week school started.  I didn't realize how tired I was from school starting until I went to bed Friday night...at 10...and slept...until 8....then napped once I'd had breakfast.   It's a good thing next week is short, we'll ease back into this full throttle schedule. 

2. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to.  There are pools to swim in, berries to pick, beaches to walk on, ice cream to eat, just so much more summer that shouldn't just be packed up into a box and stuffed in the  basement until Memorial day weekend. 

3.  It's no secret, I hate homework.  It's like the equivalent of laundry in the school world. It's never finished, it never ends and no one is ever grateful, they only notice if it's done poorly or not done at all.   End of rant  1.  

4.  Laundry, like homework; expected, constant, time consuming soul sucking, theoretically necessary and tedious. When is Spring break from the laundry? I want to know.  End of rant 2

5.  The ice machine of our refrigerator broke. It leaks such that I had to pay a repairman to properly break the ice machine so it would stop leaking.  Breaking it properly didn't stop the machine from leaking, it just changed where the ice machine was making the ice.  I now have to use a hammer to smash the ice to keep it from leaking onto my floor and then clear out the ice which causes the floor to once again, get very wet.  The dryer is also not working, which makes it very hard to get wet clothes dry, a problem when you've banged up the ice and cleaned it up, and your clothing is no longer dry as a result.  My life right now is measured in irony. 

6.  Sometimes I forget things.  I write stories so often, some of them get lost.  One of them even got published and I forgot all about it until the book showed up in my mailbox.  Big Hearted by Patti Armstrong and Theresa Thomas is a collection of stories by families that could safely be categorized as larger than average.  There's a piece in the book about our travels down to Texas for my brother's wedding last year.  I think our story acts as a lighter fare, a sorbet before some of the meatier stories, to refresh the reader before heavier things are served.

7.  Yesterday, I went to confession and mass.  I'd been getting my daughter ready for school when she announced to me, "Today we are going to mass to learn how to behave at mass. My teacher is taking us.  You will come won't you?"  It's hard to resist such an invitation.  I didn't. 

Against my better judgment, I took Paul (age 4) and Anna (2) with me to the 9 o'clock.  Each of them had eaten. Each of them had two toys.  The players were a car, an elephant, a sabre tooth tiger and a horse.  At my church, there is a cinder block wall in the back that serves as the cry room for squirmy toddlers.  Parents look through the not quite see through glass and listen to the priest through the speaker and there is a kneeler right against the brick wall.  On each side of the wall is an opening to the rest of the church. 

People like me who show up without a stroller (dumb I know but it was wet from having been taken out of the car the day before to be able to load the car with laundry and thus subjected to the rain), spend mass praying neither child makes a run for it down the aisle.   They didn't.  However, within five seconds, my son had baptized the elephant and the car and dropped both behind the kneeler.  I couldn't reach them.  He sobbed.  It was growing loud.

Looking around, I spied a green umbrella someone had left in the back of the church.  I fished the toys out of the pit behind the kneeler during the homily hoping the woman with her beautifully behaved daughter weren't too appalled by my behavior or my children's.  Stupidly I gave the toys back to my son.  I grabbed the car before it returned to the pit but missed the elephant.  I decided to wait on fishing until after mass.  My son then went to get a book to drop in the perfect slot pit so my son's elephant could continue to follow along the mass even if the mother was now hopelessly distracted. 

The well behaved kid came over to me at the sign of peace and told me my son's toy was trapped.  The usher moved the kneeler and I quickly recaptured the elephant.  However in the meantime, my son fished the car out of my purse and it took the pachyderm's place.  Discouraged, I left the hot wheel for some other mom's lucky kid. 

By the end of mass, my children were reasonably placid so I figured, why not go for broke and grab an opportunity for grace.  Alas, there was a line that filled quickly both in front and behind me.  I'm sure some of the people thought I was being pious as I kneeled to hold onto both children.  It was more to get a better grip on them and avoid being pulled over by either. 

The sacrament itself proved tricky as my son kept trying to throw back the curtain.  At one point, his feet were sticking out as he was lying down facing the ceiling. It looked like a murder scene from an Agatha Christie movie complete with the screaming which I felt slightly grateful for, as they drowned out anyone else hearing my sins.   I told the priest, today God needed a laugh so He said, "Let's try Sherry."  He laughed.

Grace always comes with laughter, willful cooperation for me is always marked by humor.  Next time I decide to go to a daily mass, we're going toyless.  Besides, I can always just go fish out the green truck behind the pew.  

Thankful on Thursday for Small Victories

On Thursday, we celebrate the dust-bunny victories that escape accolades by the rest of the world, but even I feel like I'm pushing it a bit this time around.

1) Last week was my husband's birthday and Thanksgiving. We celebrated all weekend and that included card games, touch football and a serious two hour set of rock-band. We played hard.

2) We picked up the photo Christmas cards. I now can start mailing them. It's the first time we've done a picture card in a very long time.

3) I filled out the financial aid form for Catholic Schools. (It's the mental equivalent of a half marathon).

4) Taking all the kids who can to the sacrament of Reconciliation this evening, Dinner at McDonalds.

5) Working on the very small victory of not overspending.

6) Got teenager to apply to two high schools over the weekend.

7) Found some good gifts through a catalog for nephews and nieces.

If God is Laughing, You're in Deep Trouble

Once is just a happenstance...

Friday, it was an early dismissal. The forecast was for scattered showers and a gorgeous afternoon. The one sheet of pure monsoon occurred while trying to load four children into the van for pick up. My pants were wet from my ankles to my knees.

Twice is coincidence...

Today I wanted to go to confession and so I loaded the van, drove to the church and when we got out to load the stroller so I could then push the kids across the parking lot to the building wherein the sacrament of Reconcililation was being held, the momentary but completely drenching rains came again. I was moderately damp the rest of the day as a result.

Three times and it's getting personal.

It hasn't happened yet but I wanted to try and head off the possibilities by letting the Almighty know, I'm paying attention.