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Sheen on motherhood

18 Feb 2010 by Sharon

My friend Lauren lent me copy of “America’s Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen,” by Thomas C. Reeves. In it, Reeves is talking about Sheen’s mother and he quotes  a passage from Sheen’s Way to Inner Peace:

The best influences in life are undeliberate, unconscious; when no one is watching, or when reaction to the good deed was never sought. Such is the long-range influence of a mother in a home; fulfilling of daily duties with love and a spirit of self-sacrifice leaves an imprint on children that deepens with the years.”

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Rest In Peace, Fr. Zimmer

15 Feb 2010 by Adam

Fr. ZimmerFr. Thomas Zimmer passed away Saturday morning. Father was the pastor of my little hometown parish during my youth. I received my first Holy Eucharist from his hands and served at mass with him for many years. Ever summer he would load the altar servers in a bus and treat us to a game at Wrigley Field. Sundays I would receive catechesis from him. He never spoke down to us and always challenged our understanding. Father made it possible for me to attend World Youth Day in 1993. I never would have experienced this life changing event outside his generosity.

Father was a joyful man. He loved life and the priesthood and it showed. Unfortunately he never lived to see his beloved Cubs make it to the World Series. I imagine his time in purgatory will be short.

Grant him eternal rest O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him.

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Nap time Love

05 Feb 2010 by Sharon

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Oprah hosts Dominican Sisters -Feb 9th

03 Feb 2010 by Sharon

From Sister Joseph Andrew of the Sisters of Mary:

Please keep this in your prayers — but on Feb. 9th, our 13th
anniversary as a community, we will be on the “Oprah Winfrey Show”!!
They were out here yesterday filming and 4 Sisters will be flown to
Chicago for the filming to be completed Thursday.  So…if you
wish….you might decide to tune in on Feb. 9th — and to PRAY that GOD
will be able to use these efforts, too, for His Greater Honor and Glory.

God bless us all….counting on your prayers, please!
in Jesus, Mary, and all our saints,
Sister!!

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Baseball Player Pursues Call To Priesthood

26 Jan 2010 by Adam

Amazing story. Grant Desme was on his way to a successful Major League Baseball career but turned it down to pursue the priesthood. I’ve seen the argument that he is throwing away his God-given talent. I don’t buy it. Friends, this is a clear demonstration of the importance of vocation before profession. Fulfill the former and the latter will fall in place. I would not be a bit surprised if Grant finds a way to use his gifts in his ministerial future to help those in need. I know of one priest who did.

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26 Fairmont Avenue

06 Jan 2010 by Sharon

If you’ve seen our children’s book collection and record of library withdraws, you know that we’re big fans of Tomie dePaola. We love how he incorporates his Catholic faith in so many of his books. Our friend, Teresa, told me that he wrote a series of chapter books for young readers about his life growing up. The first book is titled, 26 Fairmont Avenue. I loved it. Therese loved it and Adam was a big fan too! It wasn’t too long, and it took us 2 days to finish (it would have taken only 1 day but alas it was Therese’s bedtime).

You know you’ll get a good laugh when he talks about how his non-Catholic neighbor who was afraid of storms would come to their house so his mom could sprinkle her with holy water whenever the weather took a turn for the worse. My favorite part was he was looking through his great-grandma’s room for candy and mistook the laxatives for chocolate candies (that he and his great-grandma finished a package of)!

Give it a read; it’ll put a smile on your face!

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Devotional Stories for Little Folks

08 Dec 2009 by Sharon

My friend, Teresa, introduced us to a fabulous set of books published by Catholic Heritage Curriculum called Devotional Stories for Little Folks and Devotional Stories for Little Folks Too.

We really love the books. I’ve been reading to Therese (and the others when they’ll listen) these collection of stories of the Peterson family and how they live and learn about the Catholic faith in their daily lives. Each story (only 5-7 pages longs) ends with some scripture and questions for discussion.  Often after a reading, I dictate or Therese will copy the scripture quote from the book. And this has become one of her favorite school works.

What I love about this family is that their kids do and ask the same things our kids do and ask. For example, the last story was about Greg (4) who went down into the kitchen and ate all the left over chocolate cake–unfortunately cutting his hands with a very big knife (which he used because it was a really big cake).  How timely since, Fulton and Gianna helped themselves to a box of 25 mini candy canes on Sunday morning while Therese and I were at 7:30 a.m. Mass (collecting signatures for a petition)  and Adam was still fast asleep. Adam walked into Fulton’s quiet room to find the two with a pair of scissors, 20 empty wrappers, and faces smeared with red candy cane coloring!

Mrs. Peterson is my hero and role model. She is perhaps the most patient woman on the planet–something I aspire to! And she always says the right thing to her kids–another thing I aspire to. AND the kids get it–because it’s perfect book land! It’s probably the best parenting book I’ve read and it’s not a parenting book.

The last thing I find pretty cool is that this family has a blend of biological and adopted children. The first book has the Petersons adopting a little girl. The second book opens with the Peterson fostering a baby who later is adopted by another family. So if you’re looking for a nice book for a God child or niece/nephew. You might consider this book.

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Santa Claus or St. Nicholas?

02 Dec 2009 by Sharon

Advent is upon us!

Sunday, I pulled out the Jesse Tree ornaments I painted last year along with our Advent wreath and stockings. Those are the only decorations that go up for a while until the Christmas tree as some point. Then Monday rolls around and Therese and Fulton are writing letters to Santa with a list of things they want.

hmmm.

We’re not sure where they got this idea. It was certainly not from us. Adam and I don’ t do Santa Claus. I know it’s a touchy subject and some readers probably think we’re only a hair shy of being scrooges. We’re not trying to take the “fun” out of the season. But we’ve been very careful the last few years about guiding the kids in what Advent and Christmas is really about– preparing our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ not only as the babe in the manger, but as the living God who nourishes us at every Mass. Secondly, we don’t want to lie to the kids about a Santa who brings them stuff.

St. Nicholas (not Santa Claus) has his place in the liturgy, on December 6, we celebrate his feast day with great joy! That is the day we open up our stockings. (I got the idea from my dear friend Misty that PJ’s make a great stocking suffer. So a couple of months ago, I got some nice cozy PJ’s for all the kids.)  It’s also around the time we make a fresh batch of bags of food for the homeless. And we make a run driving around to deliver the bags to  feed those that don’t have food and to teach the kids that St. Nicholas was a saint with a generous heart who gave to others and that is what we are called to do as well. The past couple of years  we’ve also taken the time to drive out to Burnet to Main Street Bethlehem to stay close to the reason for the season.

So how did we respond to their letters to Santa? Well, we talked with the kids about who Santa Clause really is…St. Nicholas. And what it means to be a Saint (ie. a holy man up in heaven now)…and how we talk to people in heaven (prayer)…and we should be like St. Nicholas and give to those who don’t have…and gifts and blessings that the children get are from Jesus and HE works through mom and dad and other friends in our lives.

When people come up to the kids and bring up Santa, I  simply say, “Right, we celebrate St. Nicholas on his feast day, Dec 6. We celebrate Jesus’ birthday on Christmas.”

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Baptized in Christ

18 Nov 2009 by Sharon

Our dear sweet Cecilia Rose was baptized this past Saturday. Adam’s mom and Fr. Tim flew down from Indiana for the big day when all her sins would be wiped clean and she would become a child of God and a sister in Christ! At the end of the Mass, Fr. Tim consecrated her to our Blessed Mother as he has done with all the children.

We had many friends and family join us. Brad and Misty Cey and family came from Houston to give us the honor of serving as Cecilia’s Godparents. Thank you all! You made the day such a blessing.

Here are some of the highlights (photographed by the talented Misty Gretencord (thank you!) and our neighbor, Chris).

Her God mother, Misty, made her a beautiful baptismal gown (her talents never cease to amaze me) and a friend from church, Bunny, knitted her little white booties for the day.

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Pre-baptism distractions…

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The kids were captivated with Grandma’s iphone!

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Even though they always have been, now the Ceys are ‘officially’ part of the family!

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Grandma with her 5 Texan grandchildren!

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Little Grace discovering God makes babies smaller than her.

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…and after the long day, Cecilia was quite pooped!

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Feast Day Fun

02 Oct 2009 by Sharon

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Therese and our little Therese’s nameday. Grandma saved the day in all our chaos. She took Therese on a mission for the family.  At dinner we prayed over Therese and listened to the Little Flower song that our dear friend in heaven, Sheri Davis gave us before she passed away. Therese and Grandma bought helium filled balloons. After dinner we each tied our prayer requests to the Little Flower to the balloons and let them go up to Heaven. The kids really enjoyed it and it was something I think we all needed and appreciated. Thanks Grandma!

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