He Is Risen!

"Just as the sun’s rays in springtime cause the buds on the branches of the trees to sprout and open up, so the radiance that streams forth from Christ’s resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope, to every expectation, wish and plan." -Pope Benedict XVI Easter Message

What a beautiful Easter celebration we had this year! If only we had the ability to be in many places at once so we could have spent the holiday with everyone we love, it would have been the perfect day. (Liam, we were thinking of you!! But we'll see you really soon!) I know I'm a week late on posting these pictures, but time just got away from me. I hope they were worth the wait!

The kids woke up and got dressed as soon as they scarfed down breakfast- then outside we all tumbled for an Easter basket hunt! Louie was a sight to see when he discovered the contents of his Easter eggs; I don't think we could have pried them from his hands as he opened one after another, stuffing his face with jelly beans and M&M's.

Max quickly located his basket in the top of his jungle gym. I think we could have left the two of them alone with their spoils for the rest of the day and they would have been perfectly happy. But the fun was just beginning!

After the hunt, we made our way down to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where the kids were greeted by Grandparents, Great Grandparents, more sweets and an Easter Egg hunt! They had a great time hunting down their eggs in the backyard while we basked in the sun on a gorgeous April day.

Then the rest of the family began to show up and we feasted until we were absolutely stuffed. Do you want the menu? I thought so.

Roast Turkey
Glazed Ham
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Scalloped Corn
Green Beans
Walnut Craisin Salad
Dinner Rolls
(did I forget anything?)

And for dessert: Strawberry Cheesecake and Apple Pie! (I didn't even get to the apple pie, I was so over-full... but nothing can keep me away from a cheesecake!)

While we digested, we played various games- Buck Euchre for some, Telephone Pictionary for others, Couch Basketball for the rest (ever played that one? It involves sitting on the couch and watching basketball on TV. Very strenuous.)

As the food/sugar comas began to set in, people started to clear out and head home to nap. The kids were wired and going strong, but I could barely keep my eyes open. We were the last to leave, and thankfully the boys' sugar buzz wore off by the time we got home so we could all crash for the night.

Happy Easter to all! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Anticipation

Do you know the legend of the first Easter Egg? The story goes that after the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene went to the Roman Emperor to proclaim the risen Christ. She brought an egg as a symbol of the resurrection: the hard outer shell gives way to new life within, just as the stone in front of the tomb gave way to Jesus risen from the dead.


The emperor regarded her as a fool and said, "No more could a person rise from the dead than that egg you are holding could turn red." At that moment, the egg in Mary's hand turned red!


On Saturday, we celebrated the Easter Vigil with egg dying and Chinese takeout with my parents. Max had a great time coloring eggs, especially plopping them into the cups of colored water... we had a few casualties because of his overenthusiasm, but overall he was very careful.


The Easter Vigil Mass didn't start until 8:00, so our plan was to bring Louie in his jammies so that he could sleep through it. Ha ha. The kid never closed his eyes, but even though he was exhausted, he was in a good mood and quiet for the nearly three hours we were there. Thank you Lord! And thank you, Mom, for carrying him around for a good chunk of the service- he's no light load!


The Mass began with the lighting of the new fire and the procession with the Easter candle. Paul took Max outside to watch the fire being lit, and he got to carry his very own lit candle into church. I watched for them to come into the church, waiting, waiting, until finally- the very last ones to enter- they came walking slowly down the aisle. The sight nearly took my breath away! My little baby boy suddenly looked all grown up in his suit, in a state of total concentration that I've never seen before. He carried the candle to our pew and got to light the candles of Grandma and Grandpa before being relieved of his burden. I think he was proud and terrified to be holding actual fire! (I was nothing but proud of him)



Grandpa spent most of Mass with Max, bouncing between the potty, the gathering area, and the pew, but I found out afterward that he sat Max down for each of the readings and tried to explain it in words he would understand. The reading that peaked Max's interest the most? Pharaoh's chariots being drowned in the Red Sea. "What's a chariot? Is it like a boat? Does it fly? Who rides a chariot? Does it swim? Is it like a horse?" Kudos to Grandpa for fielding those questions!

We all left feeling tired but joyful. Alleluia, Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed.

Max at Mass, Lenten Edition

The triduum liturgies are the most solemn of the Church year, and they all have plenty of long stretches of silence. Very prayerful and beautiful, unless you have two children under four who don't yet have the word "silence" in their list of vocabulary words. Then these solemn liturgies become one long exercise in patience and humility (at least, they can be... not sure I succeeded)

Max had some major volume issues at the Holy Thursday Mass. Thankfully, most of his outbursts were not severely embarrassing, but of course he chose the best (i.e. quietest) times of Mass to express himself... But I'll get to those details later.

Lucian was just one big squirm ball. I ended up taking him out of church during the Gospel, and he spent the rest of the Liturgy of the Word literally running from end to end of the gathering space. "Yeah, Mom," he seemed to be saying to me, "You bring me to a two-hour Mass that doesn't even start until 7:00, and you expected things to be different?" No, no... I just hoped...

In the middle of the homily, I suddenly saw Paul carrying a very unhappy Max out of the chuch for a timeout. He hauled him around the corner to a bench, then came back to try to hear part of Fr. Creagan's message. Suddenly, the hallway lights started flicking on and off. Hmm, wonder who that could be? So Max got moved to a bench even farther down the hallway, out of reach of all light switches.

But pretty soon, a little girl went walking down the hallway (probably to the bathroom or something else harmless) and Paul saw Max start to talk to her. As he got closer, he could hear our poor, tortured son saying, "Help me. Help..me. Help...me." Oh. my. goodness.

After awhile, we all ended up back in the church- Lucian had settled down, and Max was ready to give it another shot. Still a little unclear about the meaning of "Whisper", Max set about making friends with the people in the pews surrounding us. "Are you sort of nice?" he asked to the man directly behind him. Thankfully, the man answered in the affirmative. We don't want any sort of mean people around us during church, now do we?

Then during the Sign of Peace, Max took it upon himself to shake hands with everyone in his reach and proclaim a loud "Peace be WITH YOU!" to each of them, followed at the end by a resounding "Peace, PEACE to EVERYONE!!" That one drew some chuckles.

At this point, we were nearing the end of the Mass, when everything is quiet and there is a procession to carry the Eucharist to the chapel. Paul preempted some possible Lucian issues during the silent moments and decided to bring him out until the end of Mass, so I stayed with Max and did the best I could...

As I explained to him that the procession was to bring Jesus to the chapel, Max thought for a moment and asked, "Is Fr. Creagan Jesus?" Well, no, not exactly... I attempted to explain that Jesus was in the "Holy Bread" (Max's term for the consecrated Hosts) that we receive at Communion. "No, Fr. Creagan IS Jesus!" he argued, to the amusement of the poor souls trying to pray around us. I left it at that and decided we would discuss more later.


As the procession left the church, Max started to get very wiggly. He tried to escape a few times, and I barely got my hands on him to keep him in the pew. He took a break from wiggling long enough to tell me emphatically, "I want to go to the dance party!" Then there was no stopping him, so I gathered all of our jackets, Mass bag, purse, baby bottle, blankie, and hightailed it after him before he could get too far away. He beelined it directly to the chapel and I managed to catch him just before he ran in and began his own dance party right in front of Jesus, three priests, a deacon, the entire choir, and half of the congregation.

Whew.

The rest of the Triduum liturgies were much, MUCH easier than Holy Thursday, and Easter was absolutely wonderful. But I'll have to save those stories for another day. For now, I'll leave you giggling and sighing about how glad you are that it wasn't YOU at Holy Thursday Mass with my sons.

Lord Have Mercy

My friend Angela at Cahill Chaos took this beautiful photo on Palm Sunday, and I just had to share it with everyone. Today is Good Friday, the day that we remember the death of our Lord... and I don't really have any profound words to share that couldn't be summmed up with one look at this picture.

On Palm Sunday, we celebrated the return of Jesus into Jerusalem. He was greeted by crowds of cheering people who lay palm branches on his path. He was treated like a king. Less than a week later, that same crowd was calling for His execution.

I know that when we got home from Palm Sunday Mass, I stuck our palms behind the crucifix in our bedroom like I do every year. But it wasn't until seeing this picture that I was struck by the juxtaposition of these two symbols. In one glance, I can see the entirety of Holy Week: how quick we are to throw down our palms and take up the cry, "Crucify Him!"

But the Lord knows our weakness and loves us just the same. Our God is merciful.

I am so thankful.

Today begins the Divine Mercy Novena; if anyone would like to join me in praying it, the daily prayers can be found many places including here. It concludes on Divine Mercy Sunday, May 1... also the day of Pope John Paul II's beatification!

Have a blessed, prayerful Good Friday.

Spring Cleaning

Lent: a time to clean up my interior mess...

Holy Week is here, and I look back and wonder... where has Lent gone? Usually I feel as though the season of Lent drags on and on, and I spend my time waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel. Don't get me wrong, I really do love Lent- it's a time to reflect on God's work in my life, and how well (or poorly) I've been responding to Him. It's a time to join our tiny little sacrifices to Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross in hopes that we can understand even in the smallest way what a great Gift our Savior is.

But to be honest, I generally spend less time meditating on the Cross and more time meditating on how many days are left until I can eat my chocolate again. I think that's what was different about this year. In addition to the usual "giving something up", I decided to make it a point to take some serious steps to kick my prayer life into gear. And through these whirlwind forty days, I've been getting hit over the head with three different themes again and again and again and again.

The first is humility. Book club women, you can probably guess where this one came from! There is not a page in St. Teresa's Interior Castle that doesn't deal with the virtue of humility. Literally everything hinges on the understanding that without God, we can do nothing. Really, nothing. St. Teresa doesn't mince words when it comes to this one, and as hard as it is to hear, it's true that nothing good I've ever done has come from my own power.

The second is penance. I have been reminded that even though everything is in God's hands, He still welcomes my small gifts, my small sacrifices, whatever I am able to offer Him. Every time I take a hard situation and offer the hardship as a gift to Him, He takes it and multiplies it a trillion-fold and pours it right back out onto us. I should be welcoming every little injustice, every sideways glance, every papercut as an opportunity to suffer with Christ Crucified for the sake of the world.

The third, and my favorite to think about, is mercy. I said before that I am learning that without God I can do nothing. But the important counterpoint is that with God I can do EVERYTHING! Not just some things or most things, but EVERYTHING. Because of His great mercy, we have become His daughters and sons- all we have to do is say "yes" every day to the gift He offers us.

So this week is Holy Week already, but instead of thinking about Lent coming to an end- back to the daily grind- I have decided to take my Lenten resolutions into the Easter season and beyond. I don't know if the clarity I have right now will last, but I'm planning to keep the windows of my soul squeaky-clean as long as I can!

Word Up, week 2

This week's word was found in the book of Numbers. When Paul and I were reading the Office of Readings a few weeks back, I got the giggles because of the sheer number of times this word was repeated. Try to say it ten times fast and see if you can keep a straight face.

Reconnoiter

(rē-kə-ˈnȯi-tər) v. To engage in a preliminary survey to gain information.

"The LORD said to Moses, 'Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites' ... In sending them to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, Moses said to them, 'Go up here in the Negeb...' So they went up and reconnoitered the land... After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned..."

As with last time, I challenge you to use this word in conversation this week. Good luck!

Out of the mouths...

A few days ago, I decided to switch up our normal music routine and treat Max's ears to a little culture. I flipped through my old CD case, and into the CD player went Andrea Boccelli. I hadn't listened to those songs in years, and I was so enjoying his beautiful tenor voice singing Vivere and Con te Partiro. But apparently Max had a different opinion.

"Mommy, I want some different music," he said.

"But Max, this is great music! Why do you want me to change it??"

"Because I'm feeling song-sick." Huh. That's a new one.



~~~~~~~

Often when I need to tell Max that it's time to leave somewhere fun, I like to give him a three-minute warning. That way, he's not blindsided when we have to head home from Grandma and Grandpa's house, or the library, or the park. He has time to process the transition that's about to take place. All well and good in theory. However, after three minutes, he usually is still not ready to go. He is starting to come out of his awful tantrum phase (thank goodness), but instead of throwing himself on the ground when we need to leave, he has started to try to outwit me.

"Three minutes are NOT up!" he says with confidence. "Three minutes are still DOWN!"

And I hear him thinking, just try to argue with THAT logic, Mom!



~~~~~~~

As a three-year-old, it's really hard to not get your way. You don't ever completely understand why, and for some reason whatever your parents say holds more weight than your best arguments. I think that's how Max envisions our conversations sometimes; he knows he can't win, but he wants something so badly that it almost goes beyond words.

In those situations, as we calmly explain to him why he can't have a third dessert or why he has to put his jammies on for bedtime, his angry response has lately been, "DON'T say anything! Stop talking!!"

Apparently, the words that are coming out of his parents' mouths are so horrifying to him that the only possible way to right the situation is if we cease speaking altogether.

I think I'll try that next time I don't like what someone is saying to me. Watch out, it could be you!