Book Review: Divine Mercy for Moms

Over the Christmas season, I had the opportunity to read the book Divine Mercy for Moms, Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina by Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet.

With this year being the Year of Mercy as declared by Pope Francis, so many things seem to be divinely popping up as opportunities to practice and learn mercy. This book was one of those occurrences.  As I read this book, I felt like a wealth of information was bestowed upon me in a good way. 

As a convert, when I read books like this, I am reminded at the vastness of the Catholic faith and how much there is to learn in every single aspect of it.  It never gets old.  I had never encountered the story of St. Faustina before, and divine mercy in itself was a new concept to me other than it being something I caught in passing or glossed over.  This book did a great job recalling the life of the Saint and really taking the wisdom she shared from her life and applying it our lives today.  The authors were able to take it even one step further and take aspects from their own lives and reflect on the divine mercy in them based on St. Faustina's wisdom. 

When I was reading this book, there was a social media squabble on children at mass, and how they did or did not have a right to be there.  Spoiler alert: They do. Divine Mercy for Moms gave a great example for this case, and actually for any circumstance that we are feeling that someone else is causing us to not draw closer to God, but is a distraction.  St. Faustina as a sister would pray in the chapel with the other sisters and was positioned close to another nun that happened to make a lot of noise while she prayed.  St. Faustina thought about saying something to the other sister, but she realized by doing so she would make her conscience of something that would just cause hurt with no resolution.  Instead, St. Faustina learned to pray through the distraction, and because of it grew in grace abundantly. I loved this so much for many reasons, one being that as a mom, its so easy to get bogged down in blaming the kids and mess of life for a poor spiritual life when really we just need a change in perspective, and two it helps us to realize that we need to see others whether they be our children or just a particularly challenging person as people that are children of God and to pray for them to be aware of God's mercy just the same. 

This book presented the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and along with them gave amazing practical examples for which to carry them out.  My favorite one was to pray a chaplet of divine Mercy while making dinner for my family.  My spiritual advisor was pointing out to me the other day just how much of motherhood is doing these acts of mercy, but a lot of times we just are not aware of doing them.  Divine Mercy for Moms gave really practical ways to see this and to try to be aware of God's presence in our everyday.  The authors even went above and beyond and gave outreach examples of the works of mercy, such as handing out water bottles on a hot day to "give drink to the thirsty".  

Divine Mercy for Moms is a book that I feel like is multi-faceted, as it can be a reference book for prayers, and living out mercy, or to be a spiritual refresher or awakener in the mercy department.  It's set up to either do as a personal study but could also be a really great book for a group discussion.  All I know is that I definitely have to read this book again because as I said earlier there is just so much to it that its hard to soak it all up in one reading.  

The authors have set up a website for their book Divine Mercy for Moms. com and I recommend it as its full of great resources that were mentioned in the book but also serves as point to connect with other moms.  You can get some great ideas on how to really live out the works of mercy either from other moms or from the resource links that were mentioned in the book.  Either way its a win-win.

So I hope that you are able to use this book as a way to learn and begin to carry out mercy in your life.  You may be already be merciful in your daily walk and not even know it. But this is a a five star book in helping you to recognize God's mercy and we really all could use more of that. 

Lent

I think yesterday I voiced that I don't like Ash Wednesday, and honestly its for all the wrong reasons. But I think me saying that made me be honest with myself and realize that I am uncomfortable on this day. I struggle so much with this feeling that maybe its a lead up to some of the things I am needing to work through in this Lent in order to grow closer to Jesus.  It's funny one of the objections I got from protestants about becoming Catholic was that most Catholics they knew didn't take their faith seriously and they thought I would be stunted in my growth as a Christian.  But if there is one thing I have learned while being Catholic is that if you actually look into and follow what the church teaches it feels impossible not to grow.  There is always something to learn, and some way to grow and that is  I think because there is such a liturgical ebb and flow of things that it allows for creativity of the individual growth within.

So when I look at why I don't like Ash Wednesday, a lot of it stems from me being afraid.  Ash Wednesday is a day where we say to God that in spite of all the pains and sufferings of this life want to grow closer to Jesus.  It says that we actually want to make that step. And thats an uncomfortable place to be sometimes, because it makes us look at all our bits that we know are hindering our relationship with God.  At least it should be. I mean I used to be the kid that gave up donuts because well I honestly don't like donuts, and so it was easy to do.

But this year, I'm not giving up social media, something I normally felt like I should do.  But I think, I finally have found a place for it, so its not going away for me.  And I'm not calling out the people that did or didn't.  Either way its between you and God and I am just going to try my best to give you mercy either way.  But this year, I am realizing where I struggle most is in being okay with being me. Which in turn makes perfect sense why I struggle with Ash Wednesday so much.  Because, Ash Wednesday forces me to be blatantly Catholic and turn myself to Jesus.  And being in fear of being me is definitely an obstacle to growing closer to Jesus.

So this year, this year I am giving up saying "I'm Sorry" incessantly.  I apologize for who I am and the choices I make because I am in fear of someone disagreeing or disliking me.  It's silly when you look at it from the outside, but its a habit I've conditioned myself with and I am owning up to it.

In my praying, I'm working on really understanding forgiveness, because I think I first need to be better at letting go of my own mistakes and then also there are some key players that I need to keep working on forgiving as well. And I'm also going try and figure out more of my strengths and be more comfortable in my own two shoes.

And in my giving, I think I am just going to try and be as generous as I can be with charities, but also be more gracious in general. If I do slip up with the "I'm sorry" bit, then each time I do a charity will get a dollar. I'm expecting many slip ups because, well, I've been partaking in this habit for years!

So, its a heavy Lent, but I'm up for the challenge.  Even if I don't accomplish all these things in 40 days, I know I will at least make a little bit of progress in them.

How are you growing closer to Jesus this Lenten season?

Sick with croup?  Inventing tape ashes. :)

Beloved

"When love chooses, it chooses with a perfect sensitivity for the unique beauty of the chosen one, and it chooses without making anyone else feel excluded." -Henri Nouwen

This passage has stuck with me and I think about it often. I think about it in the context of the people I meet or how I deal with my children. I've had people wonder why someone like me would befriend someone like them. I've never really thought much of myself as a superior to someone else just because I have a doctorate. I think in getting a doctorate I actually realized how little I really know. And maybe that's why I don't struggle with that and so I'm thankful to try to always see a person for who they are.

But I'm not that awesome at it. I can definitely say some very hurtful things especially to the people I love the most. Because I know them better it's easier to find flaws and to attack rather than love. It's easier to compare instead of seeing uniqueness.

The exclusion bit of this quote really strikes at me. I remember a distinct childhood exclusion experience where in grade school the girls of the class singled out a girl each month to make her life hell. It might have been okay to be on the bullying side, but once it turned to you being bullied it was awful. It changed a lot about how I saw people and their actions after that year. I no longer cared about fitting in in the same way and honestly as awful as it was to live in thankful for that experience because it showed me what love is not.

Nouwen discusses at length in Life of the Beloved how God really created you and I uniquely. It seems so unfathomable to me at times because it seems like we as a society always want to jump on the similarities bandwagon despite what we might say. We want people to be like us, but if they were all like us what would this world be?

I've thought about this previously in the sense of vocation, and I've definitely struggled when folks choose to live out their vocation differently. I'll go ahead and say it and you can hate me for this but I would love more stay at home moms in the world. I want this probably for more selfish reasons than anything, like having other big people to talk to during the day and close by children to whom my kids could be buddies. But the reality of it is that the world doesn't work that way entirely. And funny as it is, I learn from those who do these things differently than me. It isn't loving to say that all moms need to be at home, because that's not true for all cases. It's also not right for me to exclude myself from the working crowd either just because I'm not one of them.

I guess ultimately what I'm trying to say is that this nugget of wisdom from Life of the Beloved has a lot of depth to it. Hopefully, it being stuck in my mind so much will help me to choose to love in the way that is really love and not how the culture sees it. Because as much as I learned from it, I don't ever want to relive that experience from grade school and I don't think you would either.

The Beloved: a Lenten Journey update

Couch jumping, its almost as good as a trampoline. :)

A wise friend once told me that she never wants to make a decision based out of fear.  This always challenges me, because I feel like I can fall into that fear trap.  I want everything to work out okay and sometimes it creates a failure to act.

I've been reading Henri Nouwen in my Lenten journey, and so far its been a good thing.  He thinks a bit like me, but also not.  But he asks the questions that I need to be asked and challenges the thinking that may be skewed. The Life of the Beloved is my current read, and its good.  It's helping me to see myself as loved because I struggle with that.  You wouldn't think that, me being me and all, but I do.

Hurt and fear of failure really have done a number on me, but its a good start to know that I'm the Beloved. I used to hear the youth minister say "you are a beloved child of God" to countless teens when I volunteered. It didn't hit me then though.  I'm glad he said it to all those kids because its true and they needed that seed, and so did I.

I think I am growing a bit this Lent and maybe not in the way I was intending to do so.  I've already figured out that social media really isn't the culprit to my distraction, though it can be addicting, so its good to reset the limits. Thus, I'll carry out that fast and when Lent is through I'll reevaluate my limits.  Limits are definitely a key. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out being away from social media, but I know the break is good. There are a few Twitter friends'  babies to be born that I'm anticipating finding out about their births on Sundays. The Twitter community is probably the most missed, there are some good friends on there who are an extension of my IRL friends and I miss them a bit.

I was also trying to work on trying to be more joyous in my vocation.  I think in my day job of being a SAHM, its so easy for me to be pessimistic, and point out the bad parts of the day or dwell on them which is even worse.  I'm noticing that if I'm present more, I like what I do more.  The brain calling me 20 different directions needs to shave off at least a few of those distractions and just be. It still doesn't make me like pretend play, but I can at least do some bits of it and offer it up (which is another whole blog post in its being).

I wanted to write so many things here, but I think I'll leave it at that, a Lenten update one week in. How is your Lent going? Reevaluating as well? Ready to give up? Feeling Stronger? I look forward to hearing from you.

Caught Day 2

I want to say more, but I'm not sure where to go with it.  So, I will just say the one thing that has stuck out to me today.  And that is about childlike trust in God.  I feel like I am always struggling with this.  But today the simplest example stuck out to me.  We worry as mamas about our kids doing silly things that cause them to get in harms way. One of those things is how at the top of any stairs, if I am a bit lower than Ephraim, he expects to be caught.  True childlike trust is here.  And the thing is that I am human, sometimes I can't catch him as my hands are full, and sometimes I'm not looking.  But with God, he never turns his back and he will always catch me.  And so today I am caught, by grace, by love, by God.

Lent Day 1

I am not sure that I will keep up with this each day.  I just feel inspired today with it being the first day of Lent.

So how has it started off.  Well, we didn't get to mass due to fever baby.  But I did get to carry out my Lenten sacrifices.  I think I was able not to complain today, at least I didn't do so knowingly and to add to it, a dear friend said she would help me to keep myself accountable.  Woohoo for good friendships!

I actually am feeling a little bit more blessed today and come to think of it happy.  It's odd because sometimes I feel like Lent kind of gets a bad name with doom and gloom in its sacrificial nature. However, today with what I was focusing on, I felt loved.

You know how you can read a million books or verses of the Bible that explain how little things are done in love.  And then you get into the mode of like ugh, again, I have to do this again.  Well I guess that has been me.  I think I was feeling like I was missing something bceause I am no longer PhD student Kiera.  I didn't feel purposeful.  But there is purpose in the little things, because they are done in love.  And really wants more important than that?

The other thing I did today, or maybe it was yesterday, I lack sense of time, was make a hair cut appointment for myself.  This may sound silly to ya'll but I'm just bad at taking care of myself sometimes. And this is something that needs to be done since its been 5 months since my last haircut.  So, I think I am going to find little ways that I can take care of myself better, because these I think will help me feel better about me and thus help me to feel happy as well.

Happy Ash Wednesday to ya'll.