A Little of This, A Little of That

Tomorrow begins the penitential season of Lent in preparation for Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection. As Catholics, we focus on three things during this time: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We do these things to be ever more open to God’s drawing us near to Him and to continue transforming ourselves to be “light of Christ” to the world. When you attend Mass during the Lenten season, you will notice everything stripped and simplified. I often feel the need to do the same in my own life at home so as to better focus on the Lord and reflect on what is truly important in life and what is our true reality. Now with a husband and six kids and all that involves, it’s pretty tricky at times to strip away and simplify, but I always try! What doesn’t make it easier is the fact that we often add in some special activities during Lent - stations of the cross, more Daily masses, a Lenten bible study and so on. In light of life and the addition of these Lenten happenings, some things must take a back seat and/or be eliminated during this time. For me, this means very little computer time and thus, no blogging. I will only be doing an occasional check of email during Lent, but rest assured I will return to the blogging world after Easter Monday. May the Lord bless any preparations you do this Lenten season, drawing you closer to Him and giving you a joyous Easter!

on another fun, but exhausting Valentine’s Day. As usual, the kids spent the last week assembling Valentines for the family with a few bags of craft supplies we bought. I must say, they outdid themselves this year - not only in creativity, but quantity as well! They’ve come to expect Mom will do some special decorations for the day, and I did not disappoint, although I enlisted some help on Tuesday evening. I had the kids cutting our hearts while they were watching a show. Boy, when all the kids are working, we can really crank out some quantity of hearts! After they went to bed, I decorated the kitchen with heart “streamers” and made a St. Valentine centerpiece that hung from the light. It included 4 pictures: St. Valentine baptizing St. Lucilla (by Jacopo Bassano), an icon of St. Valentine, an elarged Holy Card of St. Valentine, and a more modern representation of St. Valentine. I also set out a one page story of St. Valentine to share with the kids. Of course the table wasn’t complete without flowers, candles and candy

After breakfast and clean up, we started the celebration by baking and frosting heart shaped cut out cookies. The batch makes about 5 dozen cookies. The kids almost saw the project to completion. First, the boys wandered off one by one (cookie in hand of course!) and then the girls finally asked if they could be done. That left Mom to finish frosting a dozen cookies and cleaning up. It was a special day, so I didn’t mind so much.

We ate lunch in the living room, and then the work began. We spent most of the afternoon running to the post office (to mail those Valentines!), picking up the whole house, cleaning the bathrooms and the kitchen, and taking turns keeping Thumbsucker entertained. After that, I managed to sneak in baths and haircuts for everyone but Bythebook, who is growing her hair long and didn’t want any cutting done. I forgot to mention that earlier in the day, my MIL called and wondered if she and my FIL could come over tonight for a visit. I said yes, and quickly planned what to do for dinner. Once we got all the above done, I sat the kids down, told each one how much I loved them, and gave them each a small gift. As they ran off to play with their gifts, I started a roast in the crock pot for hot beef the next day, and then I made three meatloaves (as long as I was making one anyway) so I would have two to share with friends. I didn’t have time to spruce myself up too much, but I did manage to change into a nice outfit and brush my hair! Grandma and Grandpa arrived just as I was finishing up dinner. The kids were all really wound up, since they hadn’t seen Grandma and Grandpa since Christmas. It was very loud in the house all night We had a really enjoyable visit with a meal, Valentines, conversation and cards rounding out the day. Three of the boys fell asleep, one by one, in the living room, as the night wore on, but the oldest three stayed up until Grandma and Grandpa left. We then prayed and tucked them into bed. I started to clean up just a bit while Joe was trying to write some music at the piano, but Thumbsucker woke up and wanted to be fed. I brought him out on the couch and we both fell asleep to Joe playing the piano. A nice way to end a great day. Thank you God for the blessing of family.

Keep the ingredients on hand to make this cobbler and you will never cease to amaze even drop in guests with your culinary talents and hospitality! I got this recipe several years ago off the internet somewhere, and it is so easy to make and yummy served warm with ice cream.

JOY’S EASY COBBLER

Prep: 5-8 minutes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a 9×13 pan, layer the following ingredients:

Pour and spread 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple
Layer 1 bag frozen peaches (or fruit of choice)
Pour 1 bag yellow cake mix evenly over the fruit
Layer 1 bag frozen peaches (or fruit of choice)
Sprinkle with 1/2 c. chopped pecans
Sprinkle with 1/4 c. sugar
Pour 1/4 c. melted butter all across top

Bake for 35-45 minutes (or until golden brown). Let stand
until lukewarm. Serve with ice cream.

The cobbler above is baking in my oven as I write and is made with strawberries and raspberries.

is the pleasant sight of kids tramping through the woods and playing in their snow forts.

You can’t imagine the excitement that erupted when, upon calling the time and temperature this morning to fill in our school calendar, the recording stated it was 24 degrees! Of course, this is by no means warm, but after over a week of subzero wind chills, 24 degrees seems wonderful “go outside and play” weather. Sweettooth said “Thank goodness it’s warm enough to go outside today - my potatoes are probably burned!” What? Oh, upon further clarification, sweettooth tells me she had been boiling potatoes on the stove in her fort.

While they were outside, I pulled some cookie dough from the freezer to bake some cookies, put on some water for tea, and set the table. I’m not sure paper toweling placemats, pistachios and chocolate chip cookies are considered fancy enough for afternoon tea, but the kids are happy! Mom is too, since I enjoy teatime as much as they do and wish we could get it incorporated into our everyday routine. Joe, on the other hand, is having difficulty with his boys enjoying tea so much

And just in case you’re wondering, the potatoes were a bit “icy” but not burned. Sweettooth said the stove probably shut itself off after nobody was using it for so long.

Thumbsucker happily played with tupperware lids (soaked in spit up - yuck!) on the floor while we all drank tea.

While often heard in the woods around our house, the pileated woodpecker usually remains hidden from view. Lately, however, she has decided to decimate a tree right out our front windows. Yes, I believe we will be cutting down a tree come spring! In the meantime, it has been great for the kids and I to watch her at work.

The pumpkins that we couldn’t use and tossed on the compost heap have also been going to some good use. I think the rabbits and squirrels think they are in heaven this winter! Here’s a recently eaten pumpkin that was dragged out onto the lawn. The tracks around it look suspiciously like wabbit!

Did I? If I did, you’re tagged - go post your “I’ll make you smile” pictures!

Toys come and toys go…Lincoln Logs seem to be a favorite lately. Maybe there are some toys that stand the test of time - I only wish they’d had such cool collections when I was young!

Thumbsucker is five months old today. What a joy he has been - he has brought more smiles to this house than the rest of us combined! I am continually amazed that God has given us six little lives to watch over and raise for His greater glory. A great, and oftentimes heavy, responsibility, to be sure - but what greater work could there be than to be such an instrumental part of the journey of these little immortal souls, created by and for God? Before those of you who are married make any decisions regarding having or not having children, remember you are co-creators with God in the life giving process, and any decisions you make should be in prayerful consultation with Him and His will, the Lord and Giver of Life. May God bless you, your children and your day!

The day after Thumbsucker’s birth day

Thumbsucker, 1 month

Thumbsucker, 3 months

Thumbsucker at 4 months

Five month milestone!

A few ladies and I are working through a study on prayer, and this week there was brief mention of schools of Christian spirituality. I have to admit I don’t know much about the different spiritualities, nor have I ever considered myself possibly fitting into one spirituality over another. Mention was made in our study that often a spirituality is chosen because it is suited to a certain temperament. I have done a bit of reading on temperaments, and I do know that I am melancholic. (A good book to read on this subject is The Temperament God Gave You by Art & Laraine Bennett available from Sophia Institute Press.) I’m interested in pursuing this topic more in the upcoming months to see if a certain spirituality appeals to me, but in the meantime, here’s an interesting summary of the stages of spiritual development as outlined by St. Theresa of Avila that I found here. From that article I have listed the stages below. I have not read The Interior Castle by St. Theresa of Avila, but I do know she speaks of the person as being a dwelling place for the Lord. This dwelling place has seven mansions, or in the case below, they are listed as stages. I have been asked a few times what the mansions are, and until now, had not been able to answer that question.

Stage 0: In the world

In this stage, the person is very much “in the world,” in which they have not made a commitment to God to the extent of being willing to repent, change direction, and modify their life. They may be believers, but as the Bible says even the demons believe! (James 2:19) What is lacking is the transition from being believers to becoming disciples of Jesus.

Stage 1: The Entranceway

In this stage, the person has made a firm decision for God and has repented. The word “repent” means to “change direction.” In this stage, the person has made a firm decision to orient their life to God and desires to cease offending God through serious sins. Often in this stage a person makes a general confession of their whole life up until that point, just to let go of the past and make a fresh start. It is possible that in this stage a person may continue to commit certain serious sins which, for reasons of habit or other causes, are not in fact subjective moral sins. Obviously all sin offends God, but it may take time for a person to be freed of these sins. God works at His own pace.

Stage 2: Enthusiastic discovery

In this stage, a person feels God is very present in their life. There is an active pursuit of God, undertaken with joy. Everything seems new, both spiritual things and even the ordinary things of everyday life. There is a hunger and thirst for the things of God. It is a bit like falling in love.

In this stage, the person is exploring the spiritual life. It is important to respond to this enthusiasm, helping the person to find answers to their questions, putting them in touch with new spiritual experiences (e.g. new forms of prayer, encountering groups of Christians, developing a more in-depth knowledge of the Bible, etc.) It is a mistake in this stage to dampen someone’s enthusiasm, although it may need to be channelled to spiritual things which have stood the test of time and meet general approval (e.g. the liturgy) rather than the more fantastic but questionable things (e.g. excessive focus on apparitions and private revelations).

Stage 3: Finding your place

In this stage, God is still very close, but the person is settling down a bit. Patterns of devotion develop, as the person discovers “what works best” for them (based on their temperament, etc.). A person in this stage is in touch with a stable community of Christians able to support them in their faith journey (e.g. a prayer group, a daily Mass community, etc.). Sometimes, they will develop an unofficial rule of life designed to guide them on their path.

In both stages 2 & 3 God often graces the person with special consolations: strong positive emotions, extraordinary prayer experiences (such as inner locutions, which often come when journalling), a general sense of His presence and comfort. These consolations are sometimes called divine touches, and when we receive them we can feel like we are about to burst with love.

It should be noted that in these stages there is often a strong zeal to do the work of the Lord. The motivation for this work is often rooted in the intelligence and our perception of what is true and correct (i.e. we will change the world to what it should be). This is often because a conversion is like having your eyes opened to a whole new reality - you see things differently, and better - so there is a zeal to share this new enlightenment. An example would be that in the earlier stage we try and convert someone by showing how the Gospel is true.

Stage 4: The Dark Night of the Senses

This stage has been most succinctly described by St. John of the Cross. The purpose of this state is to purify the mind of the person, and especially to purify his habits. Up until this stage, the person has still been carrying with him certain habitual sins or habitual tendencies to sin. God has tolerated these as the person has slowly strengthened in his faith and devotion, but it is now time to let go of these more habitual sins and imperfections.

Therefore, in this stage God withdraws his divine touches and the consolations that go with them. A stage of true spiritual dryness sets in. God is present, but more objectively (in the Eucharist, for example), but this presence is not felt subjectively like it once was.

Why does God do this? Up until now, a person has conquered their big sins and now has the tools to grow BUT is also often content to remain at that level, especially after having the joy of receiving the divine touches. We, therefore, need a kick in the pants to progress further to perfection.

This stage is characterized by a strong combat with venial sins, especially those that have grave matter. Our examination of conscience shifts from examining our sins to examining our sinfulness (the Seven Deadly Sins are especially useful as an examination tool). What is needed is to come to an honest appraisal of self, and a detachment from those things - even (and especially) good things - which nevertheless are part of patterns in our lives which lead us to sin.

In stage 4 there is often a cooling off of one’s ardour for doing the work of the Lord. This is because it doesn’t bring the consolations it used to - but that is just another part of this stage. This can be accompanied by feelings of guilt and doubt about whether or not one was ever really in it for the right reasons in the first place, etc. Stage 4 purifies one’s motives. In the meantime, what is most important is to remain faithful to one’s duties of state.

Stage 5: Active Holiness and Selflessness

This stage is characterized by a new zeal for the Lord’s work, but instead of being motivated by the intelligence seeking to promote truth, it is motivated by the will seeking to promote love. In this stage the person has an active love for others, born out of sacrifice (of time. of money, etc.). The person is learning to make a true gift of self, and because the energy behind this zeal is charity, God often blesses it with extraordinary fruits.

Stage 6: The Dark Night of the Soul

In the prior dark night, there was a purification of the “senses”, which means those parts of our intelligence and will related to the more physical, sensate parts of our nature. For example, our memories reside in our brain, and so the former dark night might involve healing certain memoreis. Certain sinful tendencies have a corporeal dimension (e.g. excessive drinking), and these are purified in the previous stage as well.

This “dark night” is different. In this stage, the sensible portions of our nature have largely been healed and mastered. What happens now is a new dark night, meant to purify the intelligence and the will AS SUCH, especially the will. In this stage, God withdraws his consoling presence once again, but because the person now has a certain detachment from sensible things, this dark night is felt more intensely.

The spiritual battle can be intense, often emerging as terrible (and even bizarre) temptations. This is normal: because the person is freed of attachments to even their previous “favourite” sins, the soul therefore has no “familiar territory” to go for sin. In such a situation, when temptations do come up, they can be anything, no matter how strange, bizarre, or out of character. Chief among these temptations are temptations against faith in God, but they can include anything - blasphemy, murder, sexual deviance - anything.

The solution to this Dark Night of the Soul is total rootedness in God, to the point of forgetting self. In this Dark Night, we walk by faith, hope, and love, without consolation. Ultimately, this stage is about getting rid of the last vestiges of spiritual pride in us. For this reason, passing through this stage involves growing in humility. A good spiritual director can help someone through this stage, and a person in this stage should become totally transparent to their spiritual director, describing everything that is happening (even name the temptations felt) without shame.

Because this stage involves a person in the purest elements of their free will, it is impossible to predict the outcome. God’s grace is always present, of course, but in this stage a person is in some ways most free to accept or reject that grace. The stakes are high in this stage, and people sometimes come out of it quite broken (e.g. religious persons losing their vocation), because they were, on some level, unable or unwilling (at this stage there is not much difference between these terms) to let go of the final element of their pride.

It should be noted that this stage can be provoked by extreme external events in a person’s life, such as terminal illness, or some other extreme loss. St. Therese of Lisieux experienced her Dark Night of the Soul on her deathbed. St. John of the Cross was kidnapped by his own religious brethren and kept in solitary confinement for months. The foundress of the Sisters of Ste-Anne was kicked out of her job as superior and relegated to the laundry for decades - her loss was one of dignity, and of her apostolic work that she had founded. Any such loss can provoke this Dark Night - a parent who loses a child, for example.

Stage 7: Divine Union, or Spiritual Marriage - the Burning Bush stage

In this stage we are like the Burning Bush that Moses encountered: truly ourselves, but wholly possessed by God (and yet not consumed). In this stage a person has achieved the perfect elevation of their being. In a sense they have become like Adam before the Fall - still able to sin, but with the very notion now alien to their nature. In such a stage a person is truly in the world, but not of it. The world is seen differently, as though one were constantly looking through God’s eyes. Apostolic zeal also reappears, but not like it was in stage 5. In this stage, specific works may be very small, but characterized by great love, such that just smiling at someone, or giving them a flower, might be enough to overwhelm them with consolation. Great conversions of heart often come from such seemingly small gestures.

St. John taught that someone who attained Stage 7 had no purgatory left to undergo after death, as any necessary purgation had already been accomplished on Earth. Stage 7 is just the natural flowering of this before we die; we are already in heaven, even in the body, just awaiting the beatific vision.

Question: What stage am I in?

People on the spiritual path, especially beginners, often want to know which stage they are in. In fact, while these stages are numbered in a linear way, it is possible to jump around a bit between them. What is key is not to ask “where am I today” but “where am I habitually”. And it is possible to find certain features of multiple stages at once in the life of a person, usually from the stage immediately before or immediately after their current habitual stage (but not always limited to that). The saints have taught that sometimes God “lifts us up” out of ourselves and gives us a special grace to experience a stage we normally have not attained yet (even to the point of having a tasted of Stage 7, which is often the case for people who have sudden and radical conversions in their lives - just one taste is enough to change everything). We eventually come back down, to our stable level, as we cannot even tolerate that much grace yet - we are not yet habituated to the varying degreees of God’s light. But with time, He works on us, always bringing us closer to Him at a pace and in a manner best suited to our uniqueness.

I meant to post this yesterday in honor of the Lord’s Day, but the opportunity just didn’t present itself.

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Christ Jesus, before ascending into heaven, You promised to send the Holy Spirit to your apostles and disciples. Grant that the same Spirit may perfect in our lives the work of your grace and love.

Grant us the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord that we may be filled with a loving reverence toward You;

the Spirit of Piety that we may find peace and fulfillment in the service of God while serving others;

the Spirit of Fortitude that we may bear our cross with You and, with courage, overcome the obstacles that interfere with our salvation;

the Spirit of Knowledge that we may know You and know ourselves and grow in holiness;

the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten our minds with the light of Your truth;

the Spirit of Counsel that we may choose the surest way of doing Your Will, seeking first the Kingdom;

the Spirit of Wisdom that we may aspire to the things that last forever.

Teach us to be faithful disciples and animate us in every way with Your Spirit.

Amen.
(Reproducta Co Inc., 2002)