Edith Stein on "extraordinary women"

A few weeks ago I emerged from one of my favorite places of prayer, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, with a new book under my arm: "Essays on Woman," by Edith Stein. The German Jewish philosopher-turned-Carmelite, is also known to the world as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, whose fruitful life ended in martyrdom at the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

In the church’s cool underground chapels I had been pondering the call to sainthood, a call that of late had been plummeting through the chasms of my stubborn, quick-to-speak and slow-to-hear personality, snagging on the sharp edges of my anger and my fear, and getting mired in the muck of my self-indulgence and self-pity... read the rest here, at Catholic Womanhood.

The Grace of Survival

[Happy Easter, everyone! Somehow this got backlogged and I never knew it was up at Phases....here it is, better late than never, in any case.]

Be calm, infinitely calm, both in soul and in body. Do not attempt too much, but what you do, do well and gently. Quality first, but good quality. Follow grace in souls; take its step.
~Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart

As the New Year began, my husband headed out of town for four days–he was off on a yearly silent retreat– while I stayed home with our two sons, ages three and one. I was just barely on the recovery end of an exhausting few weeks of whole-family illness. I knew that if I set unreasonable goals for our home-on-our-own-days, I would end up being an impatient, uncharitable, and downright unpleasant mommy. So I decided to keep things simple. While my husband was gone I planned to accomplish... nothing. The bar of cleanliness, order, and efficiency would be lowered to the level of basic survival... Read the rest here!

Deciphering Gabriel

Intense, physical, squirmy, imaginative, verbal, sweet, boyish, and loud: my three-year-old son is all these and more. He is my first baby-turned-child, the first little person I am accompanying on the complicated journey of figuring out how to dwell in the world. Gabriel barrels through each stage of growth like a snowplow, strewing in jumbled heaps everything I thought I knew about both him and myself. When he was just over a year old... (Read the rest here!)

Sacrificial Giving

My little ones and I made a weekday odyssey into downtown Washington, D.C. today. Highlights included my three-year-old crowing “ALL ABOARD!” in the mostly-quiet commuter train, my one-year-old nearly crawling into an indoor fountain in the art museum, and a perfect-for-little-boys exhibit featuring lots of armor and swords. The day also gave us all an unplanned lesson in sacrificial giving.

Just before entering the museum, I paused to rummage around for something in the bottom of the stroller. While we were stopped, an older woman approached us. (Read the rest here...)

Hidden at Home

He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and age and favor before God and man. ~Luke 2:51-52

These sparse words, found after Mary and Joseph retrieve the young Jesus from teaching in the Temple, encompass about 20 years of Jesus' life. When I stop to ponder them, they are astounding. Jesus, God among us, was a “stay-at-home son” for most of his life.

Being a “stay-at-home mom” is a relatively new thing for me. I've only been home full time for about two years. My former life involved spending twenty-plus years out of the home, receiving a formal education, much of which never mentioned what one does when one is “at home”, or, for that matter, that there is any value whatsoever in “home”...

Read the rest here!

The Weight of Memory

The contrast was striking. Surrounded by packing paper and cardboard boxes, I sat on the floor of our bedroom closet filling boxes upon boxes with photo albums, baby books, yearbooks, scrapbooks, journals, and other memorabilia type items -- all from my side of the closet. I then turned to my husband's side of the closet and packed exactly one quarter of a moving box with one photo album, one shoebox of photos, and a small box of memorabilia. I felt a slight pang of guilt when I saw the difference between "my side" and "his side." My husband often encourages our family to get rid of the unneeded stuff hanging around our house and here I was with a huge pile of things that had no clear use, other than to help me remember.


Read the rest here...

On living simply (part 2 of 3)

In the last post I wrote about my family's challenge to “live simply.” We strive towards simplicity for two main reasons: first, to be good stewards of what God has given us and second, to make more space in our lives and quiet in our souls for loving and serving God and those around us. Lately, I've been pondering this phrase from Isaiah 55: “Why spend your money for what is not bread—your wages for what fails to satisfy?” Although this passage deals directly with money, it draws my thoughts towards another precious commodity—time.

Read the rest at Phases of Womanhood!

On living simply (Part 1 of 3)

A friend recently asked us (my husband and me) for tips on how to “live simply.” I laughed, because any life that involves children is endlessly complex, and at the moment we have two under the age of three. I also laughed because it often feels like we are so far from living up to our ideals. But it is true that we have thought long and hard about how–and why–we should keep our lives simple.

We strive for simplicity for two basic reasons: Click here to read the rest!

(I know there hasn't been much action here lately, but I've been busy working on these couple posts for Phases of Womanhood!)

New Mom, New Prayer

In theory, setting the alarm to get up before anyone else in the house would be good for me. In my pre-mommy days, I would do my best prayer, meditation, and planning in the quiet, hopeful stillness of the new morning. But in this baby-and-toddler season of my life, setting an alarm would mean getting up earlier-than-early! I just can’t seem to bring myself to do it.

To remedy my alarm-setting reluctance, God has sent me my son Peter, now five months old...

(Read the rest of my e-publishing debut here, and check out this excellent new website started by some enterprising Catholic women in the DC area!)