Slow Advent: Day 11 - Consecrated Life

This Advent, quite intentionally, our community has been preparing for Marian Consecration. Yesterday, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Nativity House community and 7 other friends from our parish entrusted ourselves to Jesus through Mary. The journey was remarkable. I learned so much about our Mama Mary and her desire to bring all of her children to her Son. 

I learned about many not-coincidences of sweet, sweet Mama Mary popping up at various moments through out my life. It all started when my parents made the choice to have me baptized not at our home parish, but at Our Lady of Guadalupe downtown Houston for no other reason than they could fit us in sooner. She has always been right here next to me! What a tremendous comfort and blessing. Some day I will write a book. 

***

from the collect  for the liturgy of Our Lady of Guadalupe

O God, Father of mercies, who placed your people under the singular protection of your Son's most holy Mother, grant that all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, may seek with ever more lively faith the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and of peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 ***

Slow Advent: Day 4 - Feast of St. Nikolas

The Feast of St Nikolas

The day we found out that we were pregnant was December 6, 2006 - eleven whole years ago. It was after more than a year of hoping for an addition to our family. I was convinced that the date of this discovery being the feast o St. Nikolas was not a coincidence. He is after all the patron of children. Why wouldn't he bring the good news of pregnancy to a hopeful couple?

***

Nikolas, Bishop of Myra, was a man of the people. In order to care for his people in many ways - protecting the dignity of young women, vying for the innocent, feeding the hungry - he had to know them well enough to know their needs. He life with his flock as the Good Shepherd does. he knew them by name, he knew their ares and worries. Nikolas relied on the Holy Spirit to work in him so as to be the person he was meant to be.

O God, hep us follow the example of Nikolas, 

who loved the poor, weak, and the young, 

giving what he had to those who had little.

May we too walk in the way that leads to life: 

loving you with all our heart, 

and our neighbors as ourselves, 

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

Amen

 This full article can be found @The Visitation

Slow Advent: Day 3

During Advent I always check the day's first reading from daily mass. Today's first reading is one of my all time favorite prophecies!

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;The calf and the young lion shall browse together,with a little child to guide them.The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,together their young shall rest;the lion shall eat hay like the ox.The baby shall play by the cobra's den,and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,as water covers the sea.

~Isaiah 11  

It just so happened that today was a very challenging day of unrest and escalation. What a gift of hope knowing the the vision and plan of our God is one of seemlingly impossible peace: between a wolf and a lamb, a child and a serpent, a cow and a bear.

Also today in accompanying the children in the atrium of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd we heard from the angel Gabriel. He said to the pondering Mary, "for nothing is impossible for God."

Praise God for tremendous messages of hope!

The work of a child in the atrium, 

as she ponders God's promise of light

Slow Advent: Day 2

Slow Advent! That's why I am starting on day 2!

Taking time in the midst of the chaos to focus on the simple things that really matter.

Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

That he may instruct us in his ways,

and we may walk in his paths.

Isaiah 2: 1-5

Taking time today to let Him instruct me in his ways. Even in the chaos of some last minute changes for events at work today, a hospitalized coworker, a pile of to-dos that is never finished. Taking some deep breaths, finding the few minutes in the day to ponder His gifts: A slow morning, yoga, a long walk with Izzy, connecting with my Grandma (Grandpa passed away in Oct.)

Walking with Izzy in our favorite field!

We walked all the way down the the creek at the end of the street! Glorious!

 Working from home with my Advent wreath to set the tone