No, you didn't misread that, I missed last week. It was such a crazy week that I didn't manage to do any blogging. Then all this week, I kept thinking of doing it and posting it late, but it just didn't happen.
20. Did you attend Stations of the Cross this Lent? Yes, actually, Dominic and I have been twice. Our Parish does a Friday evening Mass at 5:30, then a soup supper, then Stations of the Cross. I tried meeting Jason there at 6pm after he went to Mass with the boys the first week, but Christopher was really not having it. That was just too much a change of routine for him. So instead now the boys and I meet Jason there after he goes to Mass, and Dominic and I stay for the soup supper and the Stations. It's been really great; I'm not sure how much is seeping in for Dominic, but I've been noticing that he picks things up without my actually forcing it on him. I don't make him stand and kneel at appropriate times, but I do make sure he is quiet.
21. How has your prayer life changed this Lent? Well, it hasn't much, honestly. I'm making an effort to say my daily prayers, but I wouldn't say I'm winning at that necessarily. I have noticed that we are doing better with our family Rosary, so that is a blessing. We do two decades with the boys, and then Jason and I finish. We are finally in a really good routine with that and the boys expect it in the evening. We have changed our homeschooling with Dominic to Seton, and I've noticed that since there is more a focus on the faith life in his lessons, I'm getting more Bible reading in, and I'm saying more prayers with Dominic. Just last week, we had to discuss sin and confession, and being sorry for our sins and we added a new simple act of contrition to his night time prayers and he has taken to it very well. The book suggested a slightly truncated Act of Contrition similar to what you say after confession, but I knew Dominic would never be able to remember that so I made one up. "Dear God, I'm sorry for my sins, please help me to be a good boy." It's really adorable to hear him say it and I think he's proud of it, because if you start to say it with him he'll say "no, just Dominic" or "my turn".
Go check out Beth Anne's post to see other Lenten posts and those other people who didn't slack last week! I know I'm going to!!
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Friday, March 4, 2016
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Our Father-Breaking Down the Prayer for This Mom
Yesterday in my post I mentioned that I've been struggling spiritually with our struggle to get pregnant. It has been very hard on me. I keep wondering if maybe God is telling me that I need to be a better parent to the children I have before we will be blessed again. Then I tell myself that I'm working hard to better my mothering skills everyday and it is a struggle, but I don't think I'm struggling than any other mother that I know.
The thing is, thinking about it so much is really hurting me. The more I wonder "why" the more I hurt. It's hard to let that go, to not think about it, but I know that I need to. This month I'm taking a different strategy. Every time my mind wanders to all those things that have to come together for a baby to be conceived, I'm saying an Our Father. I knew that I wanted to say a prayer when I was struggling, but in all honesty I would not have thought about the Our Father. Often when someone asks for prayers for an intention, I will throw up a Hail Mary right in that moment so that I don't forget later to say a specific prayer; so when I was telling Jason about my plan to say a prayer I thought I'd say Hail Mary instead of Our Fatherly. But, for some reason it struck me that the Our Father was the perfect prayer to say in this instance.
I'm going to break down parts of the Our Father, and why I think it applies to what I'm going through right now. I've heard homilies, and read posts about breaking down the Our Father before, and they are much deeper than I think I will be able to be. But, this is coming from my heart, and it applies to me.
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name
I need to call out to God as my Father. His love is greater for me than any love I've experienced, and I need to remember that.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
Ahem... I'd say that this is my biggest struggle. I constantly pray for the Lord's will, but oftentimes what I mean is "please let Your will be the same as mine". He is the creator, and He knows better than I do.
On earth as it is in Heaven
We are here to know and love God so that we can be with Him. His will is that we come to Him; that doesn't change because we are down here for this short time.
Give us this day our daily bread
We are asking for what we need to get through this day. And He gives it to us. We receive the graces we need to get through the struggles, the moments of this day. Right now we're dealing with Christopher and his needs; him being nonverbal is a real struggle in the house and I am constantly asking for the grace to get through this struggle. Maybe asking for more children is more than our daily bread. Maybe right now a family of four is important because a baby is demanding of attention that Christopher needs. I don't know, but I DO know that God will give me my daily bread. He gives me what I need. Every day.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
I mentioned yesterday that I had an amazing experience at confession this weekend. Really that's an understatement; every single time I go to confession it is an amazing experience. Receiving God's forgiveness is a blessing that has no comparison.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
It is always a temptation to think that I know better than God. That my plans are what is important and God should be giving me what I want. And when it doesn't happen, it's easy to be tempted that God is punishing me. For the record, on a logical level, I know that isn't true; but in an emotional moment it is hard to remember that.
Amen
To me that's it, saying Amen is giving it to God.
I don't know why I felt like I should put this in writing. Maybe just to have a place to remind myself; somewhere that I could come back to and look at what I am doing and why. Not getting pregnant when you want to grow your family is a struggle, I know that people have much harder struggles than I do and I know that we are blessed. Really, I am so blessed to have an amazing husband and two wonderful, happy boys.
The thing is, thinking about it so much is really hurting me. The more I wonder "why" the more I hurt. It's hard to let that go, to not think about it, but I know that I need to. This month I'm taking a different strategy. Every time my mind wanders to all those things that have to come together for a baby to be conceived, I'm saying an Our Father. I knew that I wanted to say a prayer when I was struggling, but in all honesty I would not have thought about the Our Father. Often when someone asks for prayers for an intention, I will throw up a Hail Mary right in that moment so that I don't forget later to say a specific prayer; so when I was telling Jason about my plan to say a prayer I thought I'd say Hail Mary instead of Our Fatherly. But, for some reason it struck me that the Our Father was the perfect prayer to say in this instance.
I'm going to break down parts of the Our Father, and why I think it applies to what I'm going through right now. I've heard homilies, and read posts about breaking down the Our Father before, and they are much deeper than I think I will be able to be. But, this is coming from my heart, and it applies to me.
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name
I need to call out to God as my Father. His love is greater for me than any love I've experienced, and I need to remember that.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
Ahem... I'd say that this is my biggest struggle. I constantly pray for the Lord's will, but oftentimes what I mean is "please let Your will be the same as mine". He is the creator, and He knows better than I do.
On earth as it is in Heaven
We are here to know and love God so that we can be with Him. His will is that we come to Him; that doesn't change because we are down here for this short time.
Give us this day our daily bread
We are asking for what we need to get through this day. And He gives it to us. We receive the graces we need to get through the struggles, the moments of this day. Right now we're dealing with Christopher and his needs; him being nonverbal is a real struggle in the house and I am constantly asking for the grace to get through this struggle. Maybe asking for more children is more than our daily bread. Maybe right now a family of four is important because a baby is demanding of attention that Christopher needs. I don't know, but I DO know that God will give me my daily bread. He gives me what I need. Every day.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
I mentioned yesterday that I had an amazing experience at confession this weekend. Really that's an understatement; every single time I go to confession it is an amazing experience. Receiving God's forgiveness is a blessing that has no comparison.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
It is always a temptation to think that I know better than God. That my plans are what is important and God should be giving me what I want. And when it doesn't happen, it's easy to be tempted that God is punishing me. For the record, on a logical level, I know that isn't true; but in an emotional moment it is hard to remember that.
Amen
To me that's it, saying Amen is giving it to God.
I don't know why I felt like I should put this in writing. Maybe just to have a place to remind myself; somewhere that I could come back to and look at what I am doing and why. Not getting pregnant when you want to grow your family is a struggle, I know that people have much harder struggles than I do and I know that we are blessed. Really, I am so blessed to have an amazing husband and two wonderful, happy boys.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Spiritual Dusk
I was trying to find a way to verbalize how I feel about my spiritual life right now. I don't feel like it is a "dark night" but I definitely feel like I am not living up to my spiritual potential. If Jason has to go to work early or I can't get myself to wake up in the morning, I find that I am struggling to just get my morning prayers said. I know that he is the spiritual head of household, but that's kind of ridiculous. ;-)
When I try to make the time with a calendar reminder for us to pray the Rosary together as a family in the evening, something comes up and it gets moved back until the night is over and I am praying the Rosary until I fall asleep. Not only do we not pray together as a family, but I'm not getting the most out of the praying that I do on my own.
I sat down with the boys this morning and tried to go over the sign of the cross and some other prayers from this book. Dominic flipped out and didn't want anything to do with it. He's kind of been doing this with any kind of reading, but I'm feeling a bit guilty that I don't focus our day enough on the spiritual. We pray before meals and we talk about Jesus and Mary but I just feel like we could be doing so much more.
Sorry for this rambling, word-vomit type of post. I just needed to get my thoughts out there so that hopefully I can organize myself a bit better. Suggestions for integrating more spirituality into our day would be greatly appreciated. :)
When I try to make the time with a calendar reminder for us to pray the Rosary together as a family in the evening, something comes up and it gets moved back until the night is over and I am praying the Rosary until I fall asleep. Not only do we not pray together as a family, but I'm not getting the most out of the praying that I do on my own.
I sat down with the boys this morning and tried to go over the sign of the cross and some other prayers from this book. Dominic flipped out and didn't want anything to do with it. He's kind of been doing this with any kind of reading, but I'm feeling a bit guilty that I don't focus our day enough on the spiritual. We pray before meals and we talk about Jesus and Mary but I just feel like we could be doing so much more.
Sorry for this rambling, word-vomit type of post. I just needed to get my thoughts out there so that hopefully I can organize myself a bit better. Suggestions for integrating more spirituality into our day would be greatly appreciated. :)
Monday, September 13, 2010
A Lesson in Being Thankful
This weekend we spent getting back into our routine; it has been rocked to the core with the little one. We managed to go to Confession on Saturday as it had been a L O N G time since we'd been. We also managed to say all of our prayers together as a family. That is a big accomplishment that brings us closer.
It's funny how you can get so caught up in life, and the things that you are doing, or dealing with,that you forget to take pleasure in the moments and be thankful for what you do have. Making sure we say our daily prayers really ensures that we are taking some time to thank God for the blessings in our lives; making sure we pray together gives us one more blessing to be thankful for.
So, today's post is about being thankful for the blessings in my life that happen every day, sometimes simultaneously with the difficult things. I'm thankful for my amazing husband who leads our family in every way, most especially is our Spiritual Head of Household. I'm thankful for our little kumquat (even though he hasn't figured out that he can sleep longer than 2 hours at night). I'm thankful that Jason has a job that he can depend on (even though he has to be on call and is sometimes called away from home or has to work late).
What are you thankful for?
It's funny how you can get so caught up in life, and the things that you are doing, or dealing with,that you forget to take pleasure in the moments and be thankful for what you do have. Making sure we say our daily prayers really ensures that we are taking some time to thank God for the blessings in our lives; making sure we pray together gives us one more blessing to be thankful for.
So, today's post is about being thankful for the blessings in my life that happen every day, sometimes simultaneously with the difficult things. I'm thankful for my amazing husband who leads our family in every way, most especially is our Spiritual Head of Household. I'm thankful for our little kumquat (even though he hasn't figured out that he can sleep longer than 2 hours at night). I'm thankful that Jason has a job that he can depend on (even though he has to be on call and is sometimes called away from home or has to work late).
What are you thankful for?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)