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Getting Ready for Advent
Hello all, just jumping in here with a friendly reminder that Advent is upon us! As a mom of a biggish family, I thought I would share my #1 tip for making Advent a little bit more prayerful and a little less cray-cray. Drumroll please…..my life changing advice is try to get all your Christmas shopping done before Advent begins…seriously it can completely transform your Advent experience! I know that this may seem like a little thing, but believe me, it makes a big difference. All of that thought and effort early means the kids are not obsessing over gifts and you are not obsessing over gifts and you have…
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Being Great in the Little Things
This week we celebrated the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, a Saint our family has always felt close to over the years. Once upon a time, we even took a pilgrimage to Melaka, Malaysia, so we could visit his original burial site and walk the streets he walked on his way to the East. Not easy to get to, but let me tell you that in a predominantly Muslim country, the influence of St. Francis Xavier filled Melaka with a Catholic Spirit that is still alive and well today. Honestly, when you walk those streets, you know one thing: men and women who say “yes” to God leave a lasting…
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Bringing the Heart to the Home At Christmas
The phrase, “the woman is the heart of the home” may result in very different reactions, depending upon the circles you find yourself in. Some women find the title offensive and belittling — while others are totally on board with it, and can’t figure out what all the fuss is about. The truth is that our culture seems to value things like “heart” and “home-making” very little in comparison with job titles and worldly success. It tells us a lot about how out-of-whack our priorities have become, but I totally understand the struggle to make peace with a term like “heart of the home” in the career-driven culture that surrounds…
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Advent: The Light Shines in the Darkness
“The Light Shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5 For us, Advent begins in darkness — not a complete and utter darkness –but a palpable one. I love the poetry and symbolism that fills our Catholic faith, and Advent is in many ways one of the more poetic times of the liturgical year. During Advent, the themes of light and darkness are front and center, and if you take the time to meditate upon those things, you are meant to find yourself changed at the end of the 4 weeks time. Slowly darkness fades as more candles are lit on the Advent wreath with…
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Let’s Talk About: Getting Ready for Christmas
I am not trying to freak anybody out, but Christmas is less than two weeks away. Now how did that happen?! It is coming fast! On Sunday, we will finally get our tree up and decorated — because Gaudete Sunday, people. Gaudete is Latin for “Rejoice” and it is the perfect time to raise the tree and decorate the house and to be reminded why we have been trying to sacrifice in the first place. Advent is a gift to people like you and me — people who live in a world that is always trying to frantically push the next thing we MUST.BE.DOING and NOW! It’s a way to…
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Here’s to Hoping Advent Scares the Heck Out of You — At Least a Little Bit
Advent is soon upon us. Are you ready? I must say I had planned to write a nice post on ways to live out an intentional Advent, but then this tweet from Cardinal Dolan popped up in my feed and it got me thinking. It began “I’m sorry for the frightening readings at the end of the Church year, but they are meant to make us think about the end of time…” Let me say up front that I really like Cardinal Dolan, and I think his heart is in the right place, but I honestly feel that we shouldn’t apologize for the frightening readings this time of year. In…
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Letting Go of “Perfect”
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”. This quote by Voltaire seems to be thrown around quite a bit as of late. The truth be known, Voltaire was actually rather anti-religion in his sentiment, but I’m guessing that if this mother of six kids sat down with Voltaire, the youngest of five, there would be much we could agree upon when it comes to perfectionism. Just the other day, I was reminded of the changes that have happened in my life in my own battle against perfectionism. I was in the middle of cleaning windows (one of my Advent resolutions) and came upon this scene: The old me…
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7 Ways to Live a More Intentional Advent
Advent is upon us. This year, it happens to be the shortest Advent we can possibly have — with the 4th Sunday of Advent also being Christmas Eve — so it’s more important than ever to be intentional about living out Advent. Trying to live a more intentional Advent can help us to keep the really important things a priority and to let go of the small things which don’t really matter in the end. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make Christmas special for the people around us, am I right? So it’s time to take a step back and ask ourselves what this season is really…
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Let’s Get Hygge With It
Okay, first a disclaimer: I didn’t sleep last night — at all — babies just being babies. Whoever came up with the phrase “I slept like a baby” clearly didn’t have any. Anyhow, I’m currently at the slap-happy stage of my day and will most likely crash mid-post, so please don’t hold it against me if this is the worst post you’ve ever read, okay? We are just 2 days away from Christmas — can you believe it? It’s been a challenging Advent, but a fitting one. I’ve actually seen the blessings amidst the chaos and challenges — and I know that is a grace from God. But I’m…
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Advent Has Me Like…
Wow, Advent has been like a mini Lent — exactly what the Church says it’s supposed to be — but I don’t really like to suffer and be inconvenienced so it has been a time of stretching. We’re not talking a pleasant yoga-type-stretching — it’s been more of a medieval being-stretched-on-a-rack type of stretching — not pleasant. 🙁 And just when I thought we were over the hump of little sufferings and inconveniences and making way for Christmas, we found ourselves in the midst of another entirely unexpected kind-of-big drama this week. We’re still in the midst of it and it’s sad for a whole bunch of reasons — but I’ll leave…
