The Need for Divine Mercy

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday my friends!  Today is one of my favorite days for many reasons, but it's EXTRA special today because it's Divine Mercy Sunday during the YEAR of Mercy.  Big big things are happening I know it....boy do we need it!  Actually St. John Paul II says, "There is nothing more that the world needs today than Divine Mercy".  Can I get an Amen!!!

For those who aren't familiar with Divine Mercy Sunday, let me explain it using the words Jesus revealed to St. Faustina:

"Tell the whole world about my inconceivable mercy, I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, especially for poor sinners.  On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open.  I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy.  The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.  On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.  Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet.  My mercy is so grate that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.  Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy.  Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity." + Diary of St. Faustina, 699

What's the big deal?  Why is Divine Mercy so important? It's so important because Divine Mercy is the heart of the Gospel.  It is when God, who is love itself, expresses His tender love to poor sinners.  He loves the unloved, He forgives the unforgivable. He sees our brokenness and yearns for us to come to Him so that he can pour out his love and mercy on us. 

“The Lord never tires of forgiving, never! It is we who tire of asking for his forgiveness.”

— Pope Francis

God is so good.   NO sin is too big for God.  I beg you to run to Him. He will receive you with open arms and a joyful heart that you did.  Fr. Michael Gaitely explains this in his book 33 Days to Merciful Love better than I ever could: "It's the Good News that God doesn't love us because we're so good but because He's so good, that he loves us not because we deserve it but because we desperately need it....God isn't attracted to our gifts, virtues, and talents, but rather, to our weakness brokenness and sin.  And that is the very definition of mercy." 

If we first accept the Lord and allow Him into the darkness of our hearts, then there is no end to what He can do through us.  Of course, we must be very sorry for our sins, but as long as we keep on trying, He can move mountains.

Embrace his mercy!

Our goal for the year of Mercy is to always ask for His mercy, be merciful to others, and completely trust in the power of divine mercy.  It's not too late to begin something special for the Year of Mercy.  Here are a few ideas our family has adopted to help fully embrace this gift of a year:

Write A Letter - I try (but often fail) at fully incorporating the spiritual and corporal works of mercy in my life.  There are so many people who are lonely and need a friend, who are hungry and need food, who are sick and need healing.  Where do you start? This website has a compiled list of ideas of how to fulfill the corporal works of mercy.  Up for something different?  One idea is to write a letter (or e-mail) to an inmate in prison telling them you are praying for them. Most of us aren't able to physically go to a prison to talk and pray with inmates, so this is a way for us to do just that. You can visit here to chose which inmate you want to send your letter to. 

The 3:00 Hour - Set an alarm on your phone to help you observe the 3 o'clock hour, the hour that Our Lord died for our sins. The best way to do this is to pray the Stations of the Cross if you have time, but you can also say a chaplet, pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, or spend some time adoring Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. If you only have a few moments to spare, quietly recall the Lord's passion and pray this prayer:

You expired, O Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls
and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.  O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You.

Pray (especially when you don't want to) - Pray the chaplet of divine mercy any chance you get. It only takes 7 minutes to pray! You could pray it walking to and from class, first thing in the morning, or when you are doing a task you really don't want to do.  My favorite time to pray it is when I nurse Pier in the middle of the night.  That way, I'm uniting the sacrifice of sleepily getting up out of my warm bed to Christ's passion in a tangible way by reciting the chaplet.

Adopt a Soul - Pick someone -- it can be a relative, a friend, a soul in purgatory, or a stranger -- and pray for them often.  Any time you do something difficult, pray for that specific person you "adopted" all year long that he or she will be willing to receive the mercy Christ so desperately wants to give them.   When sacrifices are made for the sake of someone else, they don't seem that hard anymore!

Take a Drive - I invite you to forgo listening to that Billboard Hot 100 radio in your car for something that benefits your soul.  An audio book, a Lighthouse Catholic CD of the month, or listening to the rosary//divine mercy chaplet are all good ways to do this! You don't realize how much time you waste driving and that could be time well spent doing something that can pull you to closer to Jesus. 

Make a Consecration to Divine Mercy (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) -  There is a reason there are so many exclamation points after this one.  Do yourself a favor and buy this book by Fr. Michael Gaitely.  It is a gentle guide to the depths of Christ's Divine Mercy through the lens of St. Therese of Lisieux (you see why I love this book so much!).  He connects Therese's Little Way to Divine Mercy in such a profound way that I would do it a great disservice if I attempted to summarize.  Buy the book and pick a day to make your consecration! 

I hope you take advantage of this sacred day and receive all the mercy you can! I'll leave you with this prayer:

Jesus, thank you for your profound merciful love.  Help us to receive how deeply you love mankind.  Give us the grace to love you as you deserve to be love.  We praise you and bless your name always.  Amen.

Annnd because this little guy teaches me a lot about mercy, here's a picture from today of Pier being cute.  It was a beautiful glorious day!

pier's first easter

Happy Easter friends! Today is full of JOY!  Easter is one of my favorite days of the year, and much like Christmas, there's a certain giddiness that takes over when sharing holidays with little ones.  Especially when that holiday is so central to our faith! It's days like today that we miss our friends and family the most, but we had the best day celebrating as our little family of three.

We began the day by dressing Pier in his Easter best and giving him his first Easter basket! 

I think he liked the basket more than the toys ;)

Then we headed to mass to celebrate one of the most sacred liturgies we get to experience as Catholics.  And it's exciting to say Alleluia for the first time in weeks!!!

We were graced with the most BEEEAUTIFUL weather today -- which was much appreciated after an Indiana winter!  It was a perfect 75 degree spring day filled with birds chirping and flowers blooming.  These are just a few flowers in my yard right now!

We planned it so in between nap times we could eat at our favorite place for a nice Easter dinner.  Brad and I actually ate there last year for Easter as well, so we think it will be an Indiana tradition from here on out.  This year we had a very active boy who loved eating the menu and walking around the farm looking at the cows!  I mean, they even had baby chicks you could pet. 

I hope you had a peaceful day celebrating with those you hold dear.  Thanks be to God for giving us this gift!

month 9

9 MONTHS!!!!! My little man is 9 months old today!  Look at that blonde hair! Those rubber band wrists! The squishy tummy!  I could eat him up. It's been a crayyyzay few weeks, so let's begin....

First off, we survived his first illness! It was just a cold and a double ear infection, but it was enough sicky-ness to put us out of commission for a solid two weeks.  Let's just say it was a lot of this: 

And he absolutely refused to take his antibiotics until I figured out I could sneakily mix it in his food (first time mom remember) so our evenings looked a lot like this:

Crazy sicky psycho child of mine.

Because he was sick half the month, I'm a little limited on the number of cute smiley photos but here's an update anyway for those missing this little monkey!

Well maybe I got more smiley photos than I thought ha!

Pier is pretty much obsessed with our cat.  He giggles every time she comes next to him!  It's the sweetest thing.  I thinkkkk Gertie actually is warming up to him because she tries to snuggle despite his fumble attempts to eat her tail.  She sneaks into his room when I'm not looking, and she jumps in his crib when I come get him from his naps!  The best of buds these two...
 

I think we have a crawler now!  I say "think" because I'm not entirely certain how he gets from one end of the room to another....He's not rocking or getting up on his hands, but for some strange reason lifts up one side of his body (kinda like a whale) and rolls a bit until he's where he wants to be.  In typical boy fashion, he has decided that I can no longer hold him because it's much more fun to play on the ground and show off new tricks.  He can pull up on things and stand up!  Look how proud he is :)

His new talent is dumping the toy basket out and not being satisfied with ANY of it.  He's literally the most challenging kid to entertain because he gets bored within seconds (not exaggerating).  He whimpers and grunts and refuses to play with the toys we do have.  Not even the wipes work anymore!

He's definitely developing his own personality...

A few things I want to remember about this month:

• He wants to read books!  When I read to him, he tries to talk with me and looks up at me like we are having a literary discussion about the text.  His favorite is the Baby Lit Pride & Prejudice...Really.  Did I mention I love this boy?!
• He could be fussy and angry one second and then if you start singing itsy bitsy spider he'll give you the biggest smile.  I don't understand, but it works (sometimes)!
• He must sit in my lap to play.  I have to be within arms reach or he will freak out.  When I leave the room he starts to cry, even if he's playing with Brad! 
• He smiles at Pope Francis...he's been doing this for a while now and it's impossible to get on video but I don't want to forget it.  There's this large Pope Francis photo in our church and when we walk by it he just BEAMS and giggles at Papa!  Sweet innocence.

Well that's all I have this month! Glad we survived you Month 9 ;)  Oh and we're ready for spring. Not sure how much cold weather this boy can take, ya know?

40 day fashion fast | lenten lessons

Hi, remember me? The girl addicted to shopping? Well, I'm back, and I'm here to tell you I have almost survived 40 days of wearing 10 pieces of clothing.  Now with Holy Week approaching, I thought this would be a great opportunity to give those interested a little update on how my fashion fast is going.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can read about my Lenten fast here.

So, here's how it went:

Equipped with the enthusiasm that accompanies a new challenge, the first two weeks of my fast were -- dare I say it -- FUN.  I began to think that this was going to be way too easy and I needed to give up something else quick if this was going to be fruitful. 

But then week 3 hit.  The newness of it all wore off, and I realized that this decision is a true sacrifice for me. The night my husband surprised me with a fancy date night, I couldn't wait to wear one of my favorite pre-pregnancy dresses. But that didn't get to happen. And when the weather warmed up, I wanted to immediately break out all my spring worthy outfits in celebration that I survived another Indiana winter but nopppppppe that couldn't happen either.

I also started to get bored and frustrated with my limited options, and was tempted to go to the banned side of my closet to cure my fashion boredom. That's when I realized that by eliminating the excess and fasting from the convenience of an endless wardrobe was HARD.  It may seem like a silly or small sacrifice to some, but it was (and still is) a real challenge for someone as attached to clothes as I am. 

That being said, my 10 piece wardrobe has challenged me to be creative with the pieces I already own.  I wanted to document some of the ways I've done this but I'm a lazy pseudo-blogger and don't know how to do a self-timer thing on my camera... There IS still a week left of Lent so maybe there's hope that it'll happen! But probably not... 

Oh and when I said I planned to give up shopping, I meant all shopping (even the online variety).  I tried to limit my online shopping as much as I could.  I'm going to be honest though, the online shopping habit way is way harder to break than I thought it would be. I do love to window shop through my computer screen... When I'm tired, sick, or just bored it's so easy to turn on my computer and start browsing for an outfit for an upcoming event. 

I tried to keep one of my favorite prayers by St. Therese in my heart during these moments and on the days the hard things felt really hard:

“Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person.” - St. Therese of Lisieux

I still catch myself online shopping...but when I realize what I'm doing I try to walk away from my computer and say a quick prayer.  Shopping in general stirs up feelings of discontentment and I would much rather spend my time doing something more fulfilling like exercising, praying, or reading. 

One last thing:

How do fashion bloggers look so cool in pictures?! For real!!! My mom took these pictures when she was in town (thanks mom!) and I could barely keep a straight face. For every 1 normal picture there were probably like 20 of these:

Guess that's why I'm not a fashion blogger.  Anywayyy, this has been super fruitful for me so far, so much so that I'm considering adapting this post-Lent. Crazy right.

month 8

As of yesterday, I have an 8 MONTH OLD! Since when did that happen?  He's my best bud and can make me laugh like no one else can!  These days are going by fast, and I keep reminding myself to cherish each milestone and change.  Sometimes when I'm nursing him before I put him down for the night, I catch myself tearing up just staring at this sweet baby.  I am in awe of how the Lord loves me...especially knowing that He created this little person for Brad and I to help form for His kingdom.  What a gift!

He's been so snugly this month and I'm not complaining!  We'll just sit on the couch and he will grab my face and give me love bites (he thinks they're kisses) all afternoon.  He's starting to get to the point where if I'm not in view he will begin to fuss.  He's definitely a mamas boy.

He's starting to do this thing where his arms swim in the air when he's in distress.  Even if he's not talking yet, he definitely makes it known to us when he doesn't like something. It's like a squid or something and it's hilarious to watch!  Kinda hard to explain but, trust me, it's funny.

Pier also has a really intense head whip -- when you're holding him, he just cannot sit still and is constantly whipping his head back and forth all Willow Smith like.  You have to be careful because I've been in the line of fire once or twice and that head bumping is painful.

Grocery shopping is getting a little easier now that he can confidently sit in the cart.  The only thing I need to be careful of is my grocery list because if I'm not paying attention he will grab that thing and chew it to oblivion.  Then half my list is gone//bled all over and I can't read a thing.  What's that word right there... bell peppers? neon shoe tires? I'm going to go with bell peppers just to be safe.

Another weird thing -- he loves eating wipes.  Really, Pier??

Oh and we celebrated Pier's first Valentine's Day in style!  To him, it was just another day, but mama had fun! Growing up, my mom always made sure we had a sweet Valentine's Day and I definitely want to do that with my own kids, but he's still too young to do anything too celebratory right now.

In case you were wondering, he's still not sleeping through the night.  Even on a good night that boy still wakes up once or twice.  Lately he's been going through a growth spurt so the sleeping situation is pretty shaky.

Luckily, we have the cavalry in town! My mom and mother-in-law are visiting for the week and it's such a joy to see them with Pier.  They are spoiling us rotten and we are getting to spend some nice quality time together.  Indiana even graced us with a 70 degree weather day last weekend, so I got to show them around town and Pier got to go for a nice walk outdoors! 

Pier Francis we are loving these days with you!  I'm discovering that each month is bittersweet... I can't wait to watch you grow up, but at the same time, want you to stay as my sweet baby Pier forever.  That being said, bring it on, month 9!