Family – Page 19 – Daily Graces

Faces of Mercy {Plus Free Stuff!}

Published on January 30, 2016 by KateLeave a comment

During this incredible Jubilee of Mercy, especially during the upcoming season of Lent, Pope Francis is encouraging us all to recognize and engage in the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy. As a parent, sometimes we forget that our day is filled with these acts of mercy – we clothe the naked baby that is streaking out the front door, we feed the hungry spouse who worked a late shift, we instruct the ignorant child in the ways of courtesy, morality and self discipline, we comfort the afflicted teenager who is suffering their first break-up, we bury the dead when we say goodbye to our own parents or relatives.

As a mom, though my day may be filled with opportunities of mercy, sometimes I’m less than filled with a merciful spirit and temperament. Recently, through the awesome website catholicmom.com, I found out about an incredible opportunity for moms, and all people really, to help us grow in mercy.

During all of Lent there will be an online conference taking place called Catholic Conference 4 Moms. There are going to be 27 speakers presenting on topics that really spoke to me. Not only do the presentations sound great, they will be available for download whenever is convenient for you all of Lent!. Plus, by registering, you will get a digital swag bag full of online goodies and discounts.

Are you part of a mom’s group? Wouldn’t it be incredible for you ladies to be able to come together and reflect on this important topic of mercy? Or maybe you and some friends have been talking about getting together but can’t quite seem to make your plans work. Why not invite them over to your house (Lysol or Pledge wipes and scented candles work wonders!), everyone bring something to share, and watch a presentation or two? If you think that your parish would be interested, the conference has discussion packets and information about hosting the conference videos on site. These topics and presenters are dynamite and are sure to inspire you however you view them.

Here are just a few of the topics I’m excited about (I’m excited about all of them really, but here are the ones I’m really really excited about)

What the World Needs Now is Spiritual Mothers – Pat Gohn

Mercy Begins in the Womb – Jennassa Terraccino

Mercy Calls Us to Witness: Becoming a Contagious Catholic – Kimberly Hahn

In His Mercy He Has Sent Us Angels – Mike Aquilina

Mercy in Marriage – Karee and Manuel P. Santos, M.D.

Suffering, Forgiveness and Mercy: How God Can turn Evil to Good – Rachel Muha

I could keep going, each presentation looks interesting and relatable for me, how about you?

I’m very excited for this conference in more ways that one. Not only do I plan on participating, I am so happy to share that through this blog, I am officially promoting the conference as an affiliate. It is a win-win-win for everyone.

Hopefully, this blog will encourage you, my dear readers, to consider participating in this opportunity. Win!
When you (I hope) register, you will receive a $4 discount if you use my promotion code (so instead of paying $14.99 for the conference you will only pay $10.99). Win!
When you use my code, I will receive a small financial kickback from the conference as thanks for supporting them and spreading the word about the conference. Win! This money will go directly to my small ministry here on the blog and support my writing ministry. This is an easy way that you can support me at no extra cost to you and both Ben and I appreciate it immensely!

My coupon code:

Graces

For barely the price of a book, and with no shipping costs, you can have access to all of these presentations, a digital swag bag and the spiritual support of moms from around the world – yes, this is going global! As a special bonus, on February 20 the conference will have Jennifer Fulwiler presenting live at 10:30am EST and a Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3pm EST.

The conference will start on February 20 and the presentations will be available all of Lent. I hope that you are feeling inspired and are ready to dive into Lent with these presentations and reflections as your sure and steady guide.

God bless

Saint Mommy

Published on January 24, 2016January 23, 2016 by Kate1 Comment

My husband has a complicated last name. When you look at the spelling, you would think it is fairly obviously pronounced just as you would sound it out. Whenever someone does this, I usually smile and say “Sure, that’s how it goes.” It’s much easier to move on than to stop our conversation and say “Well actually, it’s pronounced absolutely nothing like it is spelled, sorry for messing up every English lesson you had growing up for a moment.” Because of this, we made the decision early on that we would give our children first names that were classic and simple to pronounce. They are going to always struggle with the last name, at least their first people will be able to get on the first try. We also have intentionally named them after saints so that no matter what, they would have a solid role model attached to them in their name.

John (age 4) is becoming more aware of the saints as holy men and women who are now in heaven with God. Not only are they with God, they can help us by praying for us and reminding us to have good behavior and morals. We have already encouraged our children to pray to their name-saint, asking for help in whatever area of the day they struggled with .

When Ben left for his last deployment, John was pretty upset Ben’s last night home. We decided while praying together that we should choose a family saint – a saint that could watch over our family while Daddy was gone and we all could pray to during our nightly prayers, no matter where in the world we are. John liked that and of course, asked if our family saint could be St. John. The next day, he figured we should add St. Rose and St. Clare too for Rosie and Clare.

This evening at dinner, Rosie (age 3) was trying to figure out the whole saint thing since we’ve been talking about it so much. “Mommy, St. John helps John make good choices and helps take care of him right?” “Yes Rosie, St. John can do that.”

“And St. Rose can help me?”

“Yes”

“And St. Clare can help Clare? Well, Clare is a baby, but St. Clare can help her someday?”

“Yes Rosie, St. Clare can help Clare.”

“And Mommy, St. Mommy will help you too! And St. Daddy will help him too! And St. Uncle Steve will help Uncle Steve!”

Oh my sweet Rosie. What a beautiful thing she came up with. While we might be a little confused about the whole name = saint thing, she is laying a beautiful foundation of understanding for the communion of saints.

Even if your given name isn’t a canonized saint, you can still adopt one (or many) as your own patrons. Patron saints are saints that you feel close to, that inspire you or challenge you. Though my name is Kathryn and there are a number of St. Catherine saints, presently I feel closest to St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Frances of Rome, and a Carmelite monk from the 1600s, Br. Lawrence.

When you ask a friend to pray for you, the saints operate in the same manner. They are dear friends who happen to be situated that much closer to God – we believe they are in heaven after all.

Reflection

Published on January 12, 2016January 11, 2016 by KateLeave a comment

I think one of the scariest things that has happened to me as a parent is hearing my voice mimicked back to me by my children. My son, who is 4, is a particularly excellent parrot. It is not uncommon to hear him shout through the house lines memorized from his favorite books, movies or TV shows. It’s especially fun to hear him tie different storylines together, weaving such complicated web that only he can decipher. Consider this recent tale:

“Rapunzel! Merida is stuck in the seaweed. We have to call the Octonauts to save her. Calling all Octonauts. Captain, we have to save Merida. On my honor as an Octonaut, we will save her. Peso! We have to figure out how to get her out. Can you do it? Yes Captain. OK, let’s go!”

It was so funny! I’m glad I was in the kitchen listening in so that he didn’t get self-conscious.

As cute and sweet as these kids can be, sometimes I wish they weren’t always listening. Like the other evening when John said that dinner “was gross.” He must have heard me me the previous day when I said that a rotten clementine was gross. Or when Rosie says “Mommy, you don’t get to talk like that. I don’t like that voice!” which she frequently hears from my husband and I when she starts to have an attitude about cleaning up the toys.

Speech may be one of the most important things that we teach our children. They learn it from us, in my experience, by listening to what adults say and how we say it. Kids are brutally honest and their speech pattern holds us accountable to our own. A child is more likely to say “please” and “thank you” if they hear these works spoken to them and around them, not just because they are told to say them.

When John was quite young, I went to a play group. There was a mom there who had a few older children and her youngest was about 1 and a half I would say. I noticed how every time she had to tell her daughter “No” she said “No thank you.” Even when we were leaving and her daughter ran into the parking lot, as her mom ran after her she was shouting “That’s a No Thank You!” I realized that this mom had trained her speech to always say “No Thank You”, modeling for her daughter a more polite speech pattern. When I retold the story to Ben, we both decided to make the same change. So, we are the “No Thank You” family. We also try to be very aware of saying “Excuse me” to the kids, trying not to interrupt them, and always saying “Please.”

As parents, we are charged with raising up our children to live, work and contribute to society. Part of being a parent is recognizing that we still have room to grow and sometimes we make mistakes. Fortunate for us, we are all children of a forgiving and merciful God, who we call Father. As His children, still learning who we are and what His will for our lives is, we can look to His example, just as our children look to us. Scripture tells us that God spoke and creation came into being. God spoke, imbuing all of the Earth with His Word. If this wasn’t example enough, God sent His Word to live among us, to be with us, to die for us, and to bring us safely home to heaven once again. When we turn our gaze, or to continue with the speech example, our ears, to the Word of God, we are better able to mimic or reflect the speech of the Father.