Starry Sky Ranch

Into the Midst

"For while gentle silence enveloped all things and night in its swift course was now half gone, Thy All-powerful Word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of a land that was doomed."

Wisdom 18:14-15

 

These words made me actually catch my breath and continue to occupy my imagination.

To think, even now the Lord is so eager to draw very near and fill up the cold recesses of our hearts, even if they hold much the same as what filled that barn so long ago.

To think, He can make dark caves shine with Light. Furthermore, He longs to do so. 

Make room for Him. 

4 Steps that Lead to Peace

 

 MY CHILD, I will teach you now the way of peace and true liberty:

 

Seek, child, to do the will of others rather than your own.

Always choose to have less rather than more.

Look always for the last place and seek to be beneath all others.

Always wish and pray that the will of God be fully carried out in you.

 

Behold, such will enter into the realm of peace and rest.

Imitation of Christ, ch 23

 

The 24 Days

"What's the surprise for the first day of December?"

It wasn't completely a surprise because each year it's an advent calendar, but it's partly a surprise because it's always a new one.

Advent means coming and it's the four weeks that lead up to Christmas. Mother and Daddy read serious things in the evening, and talk about them, a book called The Four Last Things, for instance."

 - The 24 Days Before Christmas

The wind is blowing outside reinforcing the inward turning of the season. Everyday the girls and I read a little about a different advent practice and the symbolism attached to each. We do some work on the tree. (It is many days project here.) Social media has been quieted. We do a little something each day to direct our focus. Even still, there is the nagging, "You're falling behind...you forgot to....the deadline for..."  Some of that is absolutely true. Adding seasonal tasks to an already challenging to-do list of classes and extracurriculars and keeping slow moving teens moving along is not exactly conducive to  meditative contemplation.  We can establish little checkpoints throughout the day though to anchor our hearts:

some seasonal read aloud after morning prayer

reciting the St Andrew Novena at noon

lighting the advent wreath at dinner

A little something every day to take our thoughts captive. 

 

resources for you and your children:

Family Advent Customs

Advent Journal (printable)

 

Reminder  St Nicholas Day is Sunday.  It is time to print coloring pages and gather treats for the shoes. 

A Mother's Worry

 

Years ago a friend gifted me a wonderful novena booklet called Sacred Motherhood by M. Kley from the Schoenstatt Center which had prayers for each month of pregnancy. Remembering how inspiring it was to me then, I pulled it out to share with young friends expecting babies this year. While perusing the reflections I came across a wonderful meditation which is perhaps much more relevant to mothers of older children. I found it quite encouraging.

Things we somehow did not know about St Catherine Laboure before today:

Her first name, before religious life, was Zoe. I am not sure I have ever heard of a Zoe before recent times and this intrigues me now. 

She not only cared for the aged and infirm, but she was in charge of the poultry for the order. 

Those who knew her commented that she was "rather insignificant", "matter-of-fact and unexcitable", "cold, almost apathetic"

This is no doubt due to "the precautions she had taken to keep herself unknown."

I have a deep devotion to the Miraculous Medal. My story is deeply tied up with hers. For reasons too plentiful and diverse to list here, I became disillusioned with the Church of my youth which was barely hanging on and largely run by poorly formed lay people. I began to venture more deeply into my mother's new age resources.

By the time I was a young mother I had also seen a multitude of problems there and was no closer to finding answers I so desperately sought. Through a library story hour program we met Catholic homeschool families and eventually landed at a catechism program offered at an old downtown church in the city we lived in then. An older man would stop by some class days and sold old Catholic books for a quarter or fifty cents. An avid reader, I scooped several up and began to explore these new ideas. Suddenly there were answers coming together.

He approached me one Saturday morning and said, "If I bring something for you and your son would you wear it?  It's free!" Free being my love language I said, "Sure?" The next week he brought two very bulky Miraculous Medal necklaces and placed one over my head and one over my son's.  Six weeks later I was in the confessional for the first time in many years.  The rest, as they say, is history. Or rather it is an ever-unfolding story complete with more plot twists than I ever expected. I was back though.  The journey began there.  This is where I mark a definite starting point.  

I am forever grateful to a humble sister who spent her whole life serving and performing tasks the rest of the world would find lowly at best. She was the only one in her large family who was not given benefit of education, due to her mother's early death and the responsibilities which fell to her afterwards. She didn't wow her contemporaries as evidenced by the "rather insignificant" comment.  I imagine her now cleaning her coop much as I do. In quiet conversation with God as she went about the very unglamorous tasks required in caring for folks who cannot care for themselves. "Matter of fact" suggests to me that she put one foot in front of the other. In another place it relates that her life is "notable for her devotion to profound silence."

profound silence

farm work

physical care of the infirm

 St Catherine Laboure, pray for us. 

Butler's Lives biography here

redeemed

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,

Because by Thy Holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world. 

- Stations of the Cross

(top: Charles Bridge, Prague  

bottom: outdoor stations, Germany)

a day of small things

 

 "Who hath despised the day of small things?" 

"...rejoice."  Zechariah 4:10

 

breakfast book - 30's novel picked up at the antique store

calendar stickers

pilgrimage

This story began long before our feet touched the cobblestones in Prague.  In fact my earnest prayers to the Infant, many years ago, were some of the first for which I recall receiving distinct and immediate answers.  Still it was many years before I really understood the whole concept of contemplating our Lord as a mere babe. Maybe I am still uncovering more layers to this mystery and its application to my life, which is also vulnerable and fragile and every bit as dependent on Providence and mercy as was the Infant in the manger.  

This is the ultimate paradox - the Saviour became weak, helpless.  He entered the world swaddled immobile and left it bound securely to a tree and later swathed tightly in linen again.  This is not the sort of hero people were expecting.  It still isn't.   

"my power is made perfect in weakness..." 2 Cor 12:9

This is something we do well to consider.  

"...Let us then also follow the magi, let us separate ourselves from our barbarian customs, and make our distance therefrom great, that we may see Christ, since they too, had they not been far from their own country, would have missed seeing Him. Let us depart from the things of earth. For so the wise men, while they were in Persia, saw but the star, but after they had departed from Persia, they beheld the Sun of Righteousness. Or rather, they would not have seen so much as the star, unless they had readily risen up from thence.

Let us then also rise up; though all men be troubled, let us run to the house of the young Child;

though kings, though nations, though tyrants interrupt this our path, let not our desire pass away. For so shall we thoroughly repel all the dangers that beset us. Since these too, except they had seen the young Child, would not have escaped their danger from the king. Before seeing the young Child, fears and dangers and troubles pressed upon them from every side; but after the adoration, it is calm and security; and no longer a star but an angel receives them, having become priests from the act of adoration; for we see that they offered gifts also. Do thou therefore likewise leave the Jewish people, the troubled city, the blood-thirsty tyrant, the pomp of the world, and hasten to Bethlehem, where is the house of the spiritual Bread. For though thou be a shepherd, and come hither, thou wilt behold the young Child in an inn: though thou be a king, and approach not here, thy purple robe will profit thee nothing; though thou be one of the wise men, this will be no hindrance to thee; only let thy coming be to honor and adore, not to spurn the Son of God; only do this with trembling and joy..." -  St. John Chrysostom (ca. A.D. 347-407)

Our desire, likewise, did not pass away and our first stop in Prague was to the Church of Our Lady of Victory to kneel and pray "with trembling and joy."  

So very much has happened in the weeks since our pilgrimage I haven't really known where to begin to explain it all. Life is changing very quickly once again, though I have come to expect that.  When God acts in my life it is decisive and dramatic very often. So it has been.  

Symbolic of the change has been the final closing of the sale of the ranch last month. It all happened during these weeks before and after our trip.  I say it is symbolic because my life 'before' was so tied to that place that even this blog and my photography work bear its name.  Truly a new chapter has begun.   

I can't do justice to all have carried in my heart so I will just leave you to the pictures.

 

 

 

 Of course, she was here.  Of course. My ever present companion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I am happy here I really am.  But a big puffy, sniffly, pour-your-whole-heart-out mess by then)

 

 

A Story of the Infant Jesus of Prague

Infant of Prague prayers and history

new every morning

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.    They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.   Lamentations 3:22-23

 

One of the biggest surprises I have had in the past several months has been a growing fascination with the Old Testament.  I will admit it did not draw me in regularly for many years.  It was Allen's audio bible study app that started it all.  He is a man of schedules and goal setting and the whole idea of this reading all planned out appealed to him especially.  He listens to his chapters on his own and then reads to us after the rosary.  More often than not I am so caught up in what we hear I grab my bible after to read the sections before and after.

 It's been a blessing.

Every morning. 

Bread of Heaven

This is the sixth time we have buttoned up a little man for his First Communion Day. This year was Brendan's year and he has so looked forward to this day.  

He was so sincere throughout the mass.  Father gave a special homily in English for Brendan, who was so rapt with attention he was nodding yes throughout the whole thing.  Father doesn't do an English sermon very often.  He took it from The Sermons of St. John Vianney. (which is now in my Amazon shopping cart!)  I know this because he showed me his copy of the book afterwards with all the notes and Brendan's name penciled in here and there.  Our boy is forever to be remembered when he thumbs through his volume and I can't tell you how that endeared me to the man.  

We took no pictures during the service.  As a priest once said, "It is a holy moment, not a Kodak moment."  But we made up for that after. <g>  We giggle when we look at the pictures now because dear Mr. Sherner (r) looks so stern.  But don't let that fool you.  It is like those old tintype pictures.  As soon as the camera fired he was all smiles!  In fact he swapped places with me and set up and took pictures of us.  Another of those cultural things we are just now understanding. 

The other parishioners were every bit as kind.  When all the pictures were done and we stepped outside there they all were.  All of them, waiting, with gifts and hearty handshakes for Brendan.  

Have I mentioned how much B enjoys journaling?  He just thinks it is so cool to write down whatever he is thinking about or telling what he has done.  He often just sits and doodles.  I found this page below and had to smile. Salvation history from a 7 year old's point of view.  So him.  Don't worry.  We've assured him all is well now.  "I know," he said, quite satisfied with the whole explanation.  

He still likes to make pictures and write about them.  I wonder where he gets that from....