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5 Things I Learned in 5 Years of Parenting
I cannot believe my baby girl is turning 5 this week! It feels like just yesterday I was experiencing parenthood for the first time, from morning sickness, to childbirth, to toddler tantrums. I can’t say whether the last five years have flown by or lasted forever. Maybe that old adage is true “the days are long but the years are short.” But in these past five years, I’ve learned so much about myself, marriage, and parenthood. Some are things I heard my own parents say but couldn’t appreciate until I lived the experiences myself, some are things I’ve learned on my own, while some are silly and others are profound.…
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My Little Cloister
The cloister of Carmel is called by Claire Dwyer, author of This Present Paradise, “an inheritance of silence and solitude and perpetual prayer” and is one of many paths to holiness. Great saints and Doctors of the Church have arisen from this tradition. St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, and the somewhat lesser known St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, to name a few. Family life is very different. And though many great saints have arisen from the tradition of silence and solitude, many great saints have arisen also from the great tradition of noise and chaos, of love and laughter, otherwise known as…
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My Domestic Church: Catholic Culture at Home
“The world is thy ship and not thy home.”-St. Therese of Lisieux These words are a stark reminder from a saint who knew this message all too well. Therese lost her beloved mother to cancer at the age of four. She lived knowing four of her siblings never made it past childhood or infancy. Finally, she watched her father lose his faculties to dementia after suffering a stroke. All from the confines of her cloister. “The world is thy ship and not thy home.” In other words, we are pilgrims, travelers, sojourners in a strange land. We are passing through to our heavenly home, don’t get too comfortable! In many ways,…
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My Domestic Church: Taking Your Children to Adoration
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 Take my children to adoration? Take my kids to sit in church? In silence? And pray? Are you kidding me?! Nope! Taking your children to adoration probably feels like a daunting task. However, Eucharistic Adoration is such a great gift to give to our children and something we shouldn’t avoid because it’s hard. Some time ago, I went to adoration and a grandmother came in with who I presumed to be her grandson, probably around 7 years old and full of energy. I had seen them…