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Jesus Asks for Some Small Effort
Persuading Our Families to Love God
Turning Mother's Work into Holy Work
A Dictatorship of Relativism - Affecting Mothers?
Ask Whatever You Will, and It Shall be Done...
Children Belong to Themselves...and to God
Children Are Terribly Intuitive
Trained in the Way They Should Go...
Holiness Thru the Very Performance of Our Tasks......
Suffering and Sanctity
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Welcome to "Thoughts for Moms"
Dear Friends,
"Thoughts for Mom" is a special place to receive spiritual
sustenance related to the vocation of motherhood. Here I will post
various reflections — from popes, saints, and Catholic writers,
to my thoughts and yours — to help us better live our mission
as Moms, and to help us give our vocation the depth of meaning God
intended it to have.
Once
more, you and I both have something to share, so please join me
in adding meditations and personal insights in the comments section
under each post, or contacting me at holly@mothersruleoflife.com
with your own reflection to add.
God Bless,
Holly Pierlot
Contemplation Can Be for Moms - Mary was the First!
"The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child, they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished... As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart...
Luke 2:16-18
posted by Holly at 9:06 PM
1 comments
Evangelical Poverty for Moms (1)
"When Christ declared on the Mount of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit", He certainly did not intend to beatify an economic condition, but to exalt a spirit. To claim to reduce all His doctrine on this matter to two formulas: "happy are the poor, woe to the rich" is to misunderstand, deform and betray it... For there are bad poor men and good rich men: Christ loves the latter. He does not claim that the former are blessed. But, those destitute of goods, like the shepherds at the crib and the little people of simple and honest hearts, less encumbered, advance more rapidly towards the Kingdom; they can more easily enter the narrow gate.... God looks only for the detached and liberated heart of which He makes His Kingdom, Such is the authentic spirit of the gospel."
F.X. Ronsin, SJ; in "To Govern is to Love", trans Sis. Eugenia Logan, New York, Society of St Paul, 1958, p.189
posted by Holly at 2:59 PM
1 comments
Obedience in Marriage and Family Life
"When we speak about a wife obeying the husband, we normally think of obedience in military or political terms: the husband giving orders and the wife obeying them. But while this type of obedience may be appropriate in the army, it is ridiculous in the intimate relationship of marriage.
"The obedient wife does not wait for orders. Rather she tries to discern her husband's needs and feelings and responds in love. When she sees her husband is weary, she encourages him to rest; when she sees him agitated, she soothes him; when he is ill, she nurses and comforts him; when he is happy and elated, she shares his joy. Yet such obedience should not be confined to the wife; the husband should be obedient in the same way... Thus a good marriage is not a matter of one partner obeying the other, but of both partners obeying each other."
St John Chrysostom, in "On Living Simply", compiled by Robert Van de Weyer, Liguori - Triumph, Missouri, p72.
posted by Holly at 1:04 AM
1 comments
Simplifying Life
We all have heard of the 'back to the land' movement - people who give up lucrative careers in large cities to move to the country and rough it out on some small homestead - tilling the soil with hand-plows, planting gardens and fruit trees, free-ranging chickens, and milking their own cows. I've always been attracted to this type of life - it seems so close to nature and so simple.
But Christian simplicity has a specific aim - the intention of removing our interior busyness to make more room for God. We reduce our 'stuff' so that we don't spend all our time focusing on stuff, cleaning stuff, worrying about stuff. Having fewer material possessions actually lessens our work load - there's not so much to tidy and keep organized. Thus our hearts are recollected and more attentive to the whispers of God.
I think it also means reducing non-material stuff too - like too many interests, too many "I want to's...", too many concerns about this political event or that, and worries about whether we'll hit the sales after Christmas to get that toaster oven at half price. Are these things wrong? Of course not.
But to grow in union with God requires a reduction of our internal busyness - a letting go of the many unnecessary things we think about and desire - in order to come to an interior quiet and stillness. And this is the fruit of a mother's rule - to put all things in their place so we can focus on more important things - like God and loving our family.
posted by Holly at 11:22 PM
1 comments
What Holiness Is Not (and what it is...)
Holiness is not about having many religious feelings and spiritual consolations. It is not about being more moral than others, or more superior, and lording it over others and judging them. It is not about saying many prayers, nor doing many penances and much fasting, nor about having many religious devotions. Holiness is not about active outside involvement in some great cause.It's also not about extraordinary mystical experiences such as bilocutions, stigmata, levitations, luminescence, nor even ecstasies and visions.
But most importantly, holiness is not impossible.
So, what is holiness and what does it have to do with Moms?
posted by Holly at 2:22 PM
2 comments
Seeking Christian Perfection as Mothers (3)
"Essentially, the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity, first and foremost in the love of God, then in the love of neighbour...(St Thomas) Charity required for perfection may then be defined [as a ] charity so well established in the soul as to make us strive earnestly and constantly to avoid even the smallest sin and to do God's holy will in all things out of love for him."
Rev. Adolph Tanquerey, "The Spiritual Life", Belgium, Desclee & Company, (about 1930), p159.
posted by Holly at 4:05 PM
2 comments
Seeking Christian Perfection as Mothers (2)
"The calendar of saints includes men and women of all types and stations [who have sought and gained christian perfection]. But the religious life is more conducive to perfection than life in the world, because it concentrates definitely on this aim by means of the vows of religion and organized prayer and asceticism. Perfection demands the observance of the precepts and of such counsels as apply to one's state in life."
Donald Attwater, "A Catholic Dictionary", USA, The MacMillan Company, 1931, p399-400
So, the question is, what is it objectively about the religious state that is conducive to holiness, and what can we naturally transfer in attitude and idea to the married vocation to help us better understand the potential of our married calling?
posted by Holly at 2:24 PM
1 comments
Seeking Christian Perfection as Mothers (1)
"When a [person] loves God with his whole heart, soul and mind and strength, and his neighbour as himself for God's sake, then he is perfect... Perfection is open to all, because the full love of God is possible in any walk of life, and all are called to it... in the words of Jesus, "Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
Donald Attwater, "A Catholic Dictionary", USA, The MacMillan Company, 1931, p399
posted by Holly at 1:39 PM
1 comments
Emotions - Good Servants, Bad Masters
"My child, do not trust your present affections, for they quickly change from one to another. As long as you live, your moods will change, even though you do not will it. Sometimes you are happy, at other times sad; now you are at peace, then you are upset; at one time devout, at another spiritually dry; sometimes full of vigor, at other times sluggish; one day elated, the next day gloomy.
But those who are wise and well instructed in the spiritual life rise above these changing moods, ignoring their inner feelings... thus they can remain stable and unshaken through many changing events, always directing their intention toward Me. The purer your intention is, the greater will be your constancy in weathering these diverse storms."
Thomas A Kempis, "The Imitation of Christ", NY, Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1977, p167-168
posted by Holly at 7:54 AM
1 comments
God is an Attitude-Change Away...
"Let us take two ordinary people. One is wholly worldly, the other spiritual, yet the demands made upon them are equal. Yet the one acheives eternal happiness because he submits gladly to [God's] holy will, but the other damns himself because, given the same tasks, he undertakes them with a sullen reluctance. Their hearts are very different.
Now, you who read this...must realize that I am asking nothing extraordinary from you. All I want is for you to carry on as you are doing and endure what you have to do -- but change your attitude to all these things. And this change is simply to say "I will" to all that God asks... By this obedience we shall become one with God."
Jean-Pierre de Caussade, "Abandonment to Divine Providence", NY, Image Books: Doubleday, 1975, p34-35
posted by Holly at 9:18 AM
1 comments
The Universal Call to Holiness
"[Jesus]... proclaimed that He had come to cast a fire upon the earth and that He longed for it to burst into blaze. It was in the form of fiery tongues that the Holy Spirit of Pentecost descended upon a timorous group of men and women. Their minds and hearts having been enkindled with a burning love and ardent zeal, those who received the Spirit sparked the astonishing transformation of an unbelieving and corrupt civilization into a community of faith and love...
"So it is today: men and women in any vocation who live the revealed word as Thomas More (married man), John Vianney (diocesan priest) and Catherine of Siena (consecrated virgin) lived it , do enjoy a profound intimacy with the Lord they serve so completely and untiringly. Life-style and prayer grow or diminish together. If people today or in any age lack mystical prayer, it is not because it has been tried and found lacking. It is the Gospel that has not been tried."
Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., in "The Fire Within", San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1989, p 1 & 9
posted by Holly at 1:20 PM
1 comments
God Wants us to Fulfill Our Duties
"On one occasion, Jesus gave me to know how pleasing to Him is the soul that faithfully keeps the rule. A soul will receive a greater reward for observing the rule than for penances and great mortifications. The latter will be rewarded also if they are undertaken over and above the rule, but they will not surpass the rule"
St Faustina in her Diary
posted by Holly at 10:49 AM
2 comments
Doing All for the Love of God
"The essence of our vocation - so hidden, so humble, so glorious - is to love God passionately by loving others. God loved us first, that is what our faith is all about. We must respond to that love and love Him back! Our houses should be hospices of love and service to others.
Our vocation is to do little things well for the love of God. This means monotonous things eternally repeated. But we... [must] connect doing these little things with spiritual truths... Every task, routine or not , is of redeeming , supernatural value because we are united with Christ...
God speaks to us then in the duty of every moment. We must ask the Lord to open our eyes so that we might see deeply the need of Christ and his pain in our fellow man. Then, seeing, we arise, no matter what the time or cost, and we hasten to help, to console..."
Catherine Doherty, "The People of the Towel and the Water", NJ, Dimension Books, 1978, p18
posted by Holly at 8:14 AM
1 comments
Concupiscence & Integrity
Integrity, a gift given to Adam and Eve, is the harmonious blending of our person - our intellect knows truth, our will chooses good, our passions are controlled by reason, and our emotions follow along with happiness and meaning. A Mother's Rule would have been a piece of cake for Eve at the dawn of creation!
Concupiscence, which resulted from the fall, has the opposite effect. Our intellects are darkened, our wills are weak and tend to follow along after any whim or fancy of our passions, and our emotions can work against us. Concupiscence is not felt equally among all, but tends to be stronger in one person, weaker in another. This is why we need to be so careful about judging others - we never know what interior struggles they may in fact be undergoing. Concupiscence is why a Mother's Rule can be such a challenge...
But Christ hasn't abandoned us...
(for more, press commments...)
posted by Holly at 8:41 AM
1 comments
Mothering Trains Our Hearts
"When an old monk was asked how he could bear the noise of some shepherd boys near him, he answered: "I was at first inclined to say something to them; but I thought better of it, and said to myself, "If I cannot endure so little as this, how shall I endure greater trials when they come to me?"
"St. Francis Xavier acted in the same way on occasion, and said that we must not deceive ourselves; for whoever does not conquer himself in trifles, will not be able to do so in greater matters."
Trans from Italian by A Member of the Order of Mercy, in "A Year With the Saints", Illinois, Tan Books & Publishers, 1988, p72-73
posted by Holly at 1:53 PM
1 comments
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