"When we had our children, our ideas changed somewhat. Thenceforward we lived only for them; they made all our happiness and we would never have found it save in them. In fact, nothing any longer cost us anything; the world was no longer a burden to us. As for me, my children were my great compensation, so that I wished to have many in order to bring them up for Heaven" -- Saint Zelie Martin, mother of St. Therese of Lisieux, canonized October 18, 2015 along with her husband St. Louis Martin.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Loved this

http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2013/11/november-silence.html


I'm going to try to re-read this one, probably every day between now and Christmas.  It occurred to me at some point that I do not have Christmas presents wrapped and ready to go, even though I do have a baby "wrapped" and ready to go!  I'm going to have a newborn as I prepare for the Christmas season...Christmas for 8 children...it usually entails a good deal of thought and, honestly, purchasing.

But this year? I wonder what would happen if I just sort of didn't.  Didn't purchase, anyway.  There could be baking. The kids would love to get in on that! There will be some gifts under the tree.  But, I want to protect myself from the whirlwind of endless sales and deals and, on the home front, the lists of requests.  I think I will think hard about a special gift or two, go with that, and leave it at that.

The corners can be filled in with firelight and candles, song and prayer.  And cookies.

But I will have a new baby to be loving, and I want my Advent to be filled in joyful anticipation of the coming of that other Baby we are called to welcome and love.  I don't want to lose the joy of nativity, my own, and the one that took place 2000 years ago. Those brief and fleeting moments when a newborn is new.  I don't want to miss it. Not my own baby, not that other Baby either.  I think Elizabeth's post is a very important one for me during this moment in my life.

So, I share the link.

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