by Mary | Dec 19, 2008 | Uncategorized
Every now and again I have asked you to pray for another Catholic writer and mom named Emilie. I link to her wonderful blog, lemmondrops, over in the left column of this blog page. Emilie has cancer, and she is now in hospice care and facing the final chapter of her life. Please go to her blog by clicking HERE and read her post, and, if you have time, follow her link to her most recent column on finding light in the darkness of Advent.
I am awed and amazed by Emilie and her faith and her will to live even while she is dying. I don’t know why it has to be this way. Why she has to leave her two young sons and her husband. Why someone who has so much to teach the rest of us would be taken so young. This is one of those things that leaves me asking the big questions. I don’t know Emilie personally. I know her only through her blog, and yet I feel connected to her and inspired by her. I don’t know how she’s managed to remain so positive throughout her incredibly difficult ordeal. She was handed something that none of us want to face and all of us fear, and yet she has done it with grace under pressure.
Tonight, when I am feeling crushed under the weight of minor problems, I think of Emilie and wonder how I can be so easily beaten down when someone else can muster up so much courage in the face of such suffering. Please pray for Emilie and her husband and children this weekend, and then go give your children a hug.
by Mary | Dec 19, 2008 | Uncategorized
OK, here’s the question of the day: Is the Christmas stocking important or irrelevant? This debate rages at our house each Christmas season. For me, the Christmas stocking is key when it comes to under-the-tree goodies. For Dennis, it’s completely unnecessary and incomprehensible. He says he didn’t get a Christmas stocking as a child, which I think might qualify as child abuse in some states. I, on the other hand, continue to get a stocking from my dad and step-mom. Granted, it doesn’t come in an actual stocking anymore; it’s in a Christmas gift bag. But my dad always hands it to me and says, “And here’s your stocking.”
In my family, the stocking was critical Christmas booty. It wasn’t filled with extravagant gifts but that didn’t take away from the excitement. Sure, you’d get toothpaste and lip balm and a new hairbrush. But you also might find a little gem in between all the practical flotsam and jetsam — a candle, scented bath soaps, a little piece of costume jewelry, or, better than anything else, some little trinket that didn’t require a lot of cash but did require a lot of thought. The stocking is where creative givers can really shine.
So, this year, in deference to a simpler Christmas and to Dennis’ family non-tradition, Dennis and I are not going to exchange stockings. I will see how I fare without one. I don’t think I’m going to like it one bit, and I have a sneaking suspicion that in a few weeks or months, when Dennis is looking for shaving cream or razors or Goo Gone or some new little gadget — like the meat tenderizer he got in his stocking last year — he, too, will come to appreciate the significance of the stocking.
I will, of course, continue to give the children Christmas stockings. They can decide once they are adults whether they believe in a stockingless Christmas or one filled to overflowing with all sorts of little doodads and goodies.
So what’s the concensus at your house: Thumbs up or thumbs down to the beloved Christmas stocking?
by Mary | Dec 18, 2008 | Uncategorized
My friend Michele forwarded an email Christmas story to me this morning. At first I didn’t have time to read it because, as usual, I was racing around with my list of things to do, but when everything came to a stand still because plans were unexpectedly delayed, I went back to the email. The story of how one family created a Christmas tradition that honors the true meaning of this beloved holiday is so worth the few minutes it will take you to read it.
Click HERE to read “For the Man Who Hated Christmas.” Get some tissues. And thanks, Michele, for making me stop and think for a minute.
by Mary | Dec 17, 2008 | Advent
So last Thursday the kids were sent home from school at noon because of an ice storm. Up until 30 minutes ago, they were STILL here. That’s almost a week off — and not because the weather continued to be bad but because National Grid did not return power to our school until last night. Then, this morning, in a cruel twist, we had a two-hour snow delay to boot. It’s been some week, and we were among the lucky, lucky few who did not lose power in our town. I don’t know how we managed to slip through those cracks, but what a blessing. So many families we know had no power for five days. No heat, no lights, flooding basements, spoiling food. It got to the point where I felt bad telling people that we hadn’t lost power. (more…)
by Mary | Dec 14, 2008 | Advent
It’s the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday. Rejoice! I am, as I always say, a “stickler” for the third Sunday, the rose Sunday, of Advent. I think it comes from the fact that so many people expect the rose Sunday to come up fourth, as the grand finale, not realizing that it is instead a reminder to us that Christmas is getting close and we’d better hop to it with the spiritual preparations.
When Noah was young he learned — incorrectly — at both children’s liturgy and faith formation class that the rose candle was lighted on the fourth week of Advent. It drove me crazy, especially when he refused to believe me when I explained he’d been given inaccurate information. Not long after, we pulled him out of faith formation and put him in Catholic school, which might seem like a rather dramatic move, but this week, when our pastor asked the congregation if anyone knew what the pink candle signified, and Noah, who is almost 12, responded, “joy,” and then explained that the purple candles signified repentance, I was feeling pretty content. Sure, he’d heard it from me over and over, but he’d also just re-learned it in school and I think that’s what made the biggest impression. (more…)
