A Reflection for Christmas

Sleeping Child

All creation ached to see the Word when He leapt down,

When God eternal, visibly, cast off his heavenly crown.

In the cold of night He came, as starlight blazed and filled the skies,

He left that place beneath her heart, and looked into her eyes.

Her fiat's Fruit, her yes's Son, her blessed womb had borne,

Yet death's dark shadow lingered close, as swaddling clothes were shorn.

For as the humble came to set themselves beneath His gaze,

She knew not all who sought Him out would offer joyful praise.

Could she see through tears of joy and mingled sorrow twain?

Divested from her womb, she now must lay him down again?

But to evince and show to all her perfect love of God, 

She laid her Son thus shrouded by for shepherds, kings, to laud.

But when his eyes grew heavy, and He knew an infant's rest,

She kissed his head and gently held her son against her breast.

In sorrow hence she'll hold Him thus when all is reconciled,

But joy pierced first His mother's heart, held by her sleeping Child.

~May the Child Jesus always find in your heart a welcome place to rest. 

Merry Christmas and God Bless,

Mandie DeVries, Director of Religious Education

The Original Bonus Baby

It is always interesting when children eavesdrop on adult conversations. You never know what ideas they get in their heads when they think they know what you're talking about, but they really don't.

Recently, our family had a lovely visit from a parishioner who brought us a meal to celebrate the birth of our baby boy, David. She enjoyed holding him and telling stories of her family. As usual, my older girls gathered round to listen in, and put their oar in whenever they could find a space.

We were talking about how much more you appreciate the little babies when you are older. I had my first baby 13 years ago and with the huge learning curve for the first one and toddlers to distract me for the other four, this is my first baby that I have really been able to enjoy from the start!

Adorable pic of David taken by Emily Perry at Emily Perry Images

When our guest shared about how blessed their family has been by "bonus babies," our 8-year-old piped in wanted to know what a bonus baby was.

"Well," I began, carefully, "when a couple thinks that they aren't going to have any more children, then God blesses them with one, people call that a bonus baby."

"Oh," she said, "like your friend Mary?"

I explained to our guest that after miscarrying her second child, my friend Mary was told that she had less than a 1% chance of having children again, but after being anointed with Lourdes water at a healing mass, she WAS blessed with another child, and is now expecting her 6th!

"That's one way to look at it, but that isn't exactly what people mean," I told Leah. "Usually a "bonus baby" is a blessing a couple receives when they are older and don't expect to have more children."

"Ooooooh!" She said, as the lightbulb went off in her head. "Like Abraham and Sarah when they had Isaac!"

We all laughed and concurred that she got the concept this time. "Yes," I told her, "I think Isaac must have been the original bonus baby!"

The Best Thing I Ever Did

About 11 years ago, someone invited me to take a class on how to teach preschool religion. I had an almost-preschooler and a new baby. The cost was a bit steep at $375, but everyone spoke so highly of this 8-day course, I decided to go for it. After a few days in the course, I was more than intrigued by the formation - I was hooked! That was when I realized that this was only Part ONE of the Level I course, and that the following summer would be another 8 days and another $375! But it was too late. I was already sold. Eleven years later I will still tell you it is the best thing I did for my faith, my parenting, and maybe my life!

Not everyone begins formation for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd as blindly as I did. I showed up the first day unaware that this was more like a college course than a workshop. Even if it was more educational than I forsaw, it was also far more of a spiritual investment than I expected.

Ever since that summer in 2004, I have been telling everyone I knew to give some time to be formed in CGS, and if they can manage it, to get trained in all three levels (270 hours!) In the years since I was trained, things have changed quite a bit in our area. The biggest change is that we have local trainers, and the cost and format of the trainings have been streamlined.

About 2 years ago, with much prayer and trepidation, I began the discernment process of working to become a formation leader for Level I of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. It was about 6 weeks ago that I received my recognition as a formation leader from the National Association. I have long desired to open this opportunity to adults who are not quite ready to make the commitment to be catechists, but who have been hearing of the spiritual fruit that is coming from these incredible formation courses and want to come and see!

I am thrilled to announce that as part of our Adult Faith offerings at All Saints, we will be offering a national Level I course (serving 3-6 year old children) beginning in January for a parishioner rate of $60 for the whole course! (Out of parish participants will pay $300 for all 90 hours).

For more information about CGS, this course, or to register, check out our parish website: www.dmallsaints.org/cgs or our blog at allsaintscgs.blogspot.com. Class size is limited to the first 15 participants (and it is my secret hope that many of them will be MEN). I hope to see you on the first day, January 16th!

What's Left

Our family has had a pretty good string of mornings lately where we have had some good breakfast Bible time. When our family routine works out, we'll eat breafast together and read the daily readings for Mass that day.

When our children were younger, we would just read the Gospel of the day, but now we will go through the day's readings with me reading the first reading and psalm, a (usually) lovely rendition of the Alleluia verse led by our 4 and 8 year olds, and Dad reading the Gospel. Then we'll often go around the table and just say one word or phrase that stuck out to us. Most of the time, it ends there and we finish up our breakfast, but sometimes something amazing happens.

In last week's readings, Jesus was being especially tough on the Pharisees. After reading about how that generation would be "charged with the blood of all the prophets from the foundation of the world..." there was a heavy silence at the table. Our oldest stated honestly, "I don't think that Jesus sounded very merciful to the Pharisees."

Matt and I exchanged glances and were about to join in the conversation, when our 8 year old surprised us by jumping to Jesus' defense.

"I think he was merciful," she offered between bites of cereal, "but they rejected his mercy. Then, all that was left was his justice."

We were speechless, and honestly, there wasn't much else to say anyway. I thought a lot that day and in the days that followed about how important it is to accept God's mercy in my life (and to offer it to others). I definitely don't want what's left over!

Such wisdom "from the mouths of babes" was also a humbling example of how God the Father speaks to his children through the living Word. It was a poignant reminder to my husband and I of just how important it is to our family to give God the firstfruits of our day in reflection, and not just what's left at the end!

Prayer Table in the Home

Prominent in every Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium is a corner where the children gather (and sometimes go alone) for quiet and prayer. As I was talking with veteran parents in our program this year about how CGS has affected their family, several parents told me that the biggest change for them has been the addition of a prayer table in their home.

What is a prayer table?

Inez, our parish housekeeper, often shares stories of her mother and grandmothers who would have a small table that was always decorated with religious items like rosaries, a bible, pretty flowers, and even beautiful wrapping paper that was saved from birthdays or Christmas. She told me how her grandmother made it a priority to always have enough "candle money" to keep a vigil candle there.

The prayer table in the atrium is a lot like this, yet simpler, so that the young child can prepare it on his or her own. On a shelf or in a basket next to a low table, we have 4 different colored cloths (purple, green, red, and white)--one for each liturgical season. The child will make sure that the prayer table cloth matches the color he or she sees Father wearing at Mass.

There is also a bible stand, a beautiful, yet small, bible (to which the children show tender and awed reverence), a small candle, and a few options for little statues that the child may place.  There is also a basket of prayer cards with simple (for the youngest children) and then more complex prayers and psalms written on them (at home we have many saint cards and holy cards, too). There are also options for beautiful art and often the table will be decorated by the children with flowers.

One parent in particular told me how her 5 year old son will bring her to the prayer table in their home throughout the day, just to offer quick prayers for people he loves. Having a holy place prepared in our homes is a great reminder of the sacred that is all around us, and more importantly it is a call to prayer!

Prayer Cloths Available!

Shepherd's Staff is the regional board that serves Catechesis of the Good Shepherd catechists in Iowa, and they have put together this beautiful collection of prayer cloths for the atrium and for home! BONUS: proceeds from the sale of the cloths helps to provide scholarships for CGS trainings!

The cloths are $30 with shipping, but to save on shipping, we have a dozen or so sets available at All Saints for $25. First come, first served! If there is high demand, we'll put in another order.

Rule #1

In our house, we have a short list of rules. Some are silly like Rule #3: "Don't sit in Mom's camp chair" and some sound silly, but really are serious like Rule #5: "Don't melt on a rainy day."

Rule #1 was established a while ago, but I didn't realize how important this rule would be for our family when I made it. What is Rule #1?

Two words: Keep Calm.

When you live in a house with as many girls in it as I do, it is important to have proper rules in place to limit drama. It is worth almost any effort to avoid the "freakout snowball" whence everyone in the house melts to pieces over something that is relatively trivial, say, a missing hairbrush when we running are late. Hence: The Rules.

Yet, while I knew Rule #1 was a practical necessity, I did not realize how much it was also a spiritually-practical necessity until reading a small but life-changing book called Searching For and Maintaining Peace by Father Jacques Philippe. It seems every new section explored new reasons why maintaining a calmness of spirit, or seeking always to hold on to that peace that passes understanding, is the #1 Rule in the spiritual life.

I've been at this spiritual life thing since I was baptized several decades ago. I have to admit I was really taken aback to realize that I missed this rather key point: The quest for peace should take precedence over every other spiritual pursuit (including virtue building or building a strong prayer life). Yet Father Philippe's arguments for seeking peace as the first goal of the spiritual life were rock solid:

1. God is the God of Peace, not of turmoil.
2. God can't work in your soul if you don't let Him.

In short: if we want God to act, we have to simmer down and actually let Him take control.

So whether we are dealing with small things like missing hairbrushes, silly things like someone sitting in our favorite chair, or big things like facing a terrible enemy in a difficult situation, we must not be so foolish as to face our difficulties alone and handle it with our own feeble power.

We must always remember Rule #1:

"It would be well to keep this in mind, because, quite often in the daily unfolding of our Christian life it happens that we fight the wrong battle...We fight on a terrain where the devil subtly drags us and can vanquish us, instead of fighting on the real battlefield..."

"The believer, throughout the entire battle, whatever the degree of violence, will strive to maintain peace of heart in order to allow the God of Armies to fight for him." Fr. Jacques Philippe

Nemo Dat, Quo Non Habet

Last weekend, several parish catechists and a few tag-alongs joined in a retreat at Conception Abbey in Missouri celebrating the completion of our 10th year of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at All Saints.

The theme of the retreat which was facilitated by the very talented Katie Patrizio was "Mercy: The Message of the Catechist." Katie closed the retreat with reflections on this question:

"Which is the most important thing: to love or to be loved?"

She ventured a guess that many of us would consider it a much more noble thing to love than to be loved. I remembered, for example, the famous Franciscan prayer and song where I pray to never seek "to be loved" so much "as to love with all my soul..."

Yet her reflection grew much, much deeper. When it comes to our fellow travellers, our children, our spouse, our friends, our enemies--this sentiment of loving first holds. We must seek not their love, but to love. Or as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said, "Where you do not find love, put in love, and you will draw out love!"

But if your own tank is empty, where are you going to get the gas to fill up someone else?

Katie suggested that when frustration comes our way and we find ourselves unable to love, it is because we are laying hold to love in the wrong order. We think that we must love first in order to be lovable. We think we must be well in order to go to the physician (see Mark 2:17).

She proposed that it is far more important for we humans to know deeply we are loved than to love. In fact, when Jesus gives the commandment to love, he does so only in reference to his own love for us: "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34) It is impossible for us to do all God asks of us, if we don't live and experience and trust in that merciful love each day.

It is probably the greatest trick that the devil ever pulled off to make the core proclamation of the Gospel - that God loves you - sound like a platitude. 

So many complaints about catechesis over the past 50 years center around the fact that we traded in the "real" catechesis for the fluffy "you are special" and "God loves you" catechesis, and yet, this is the most fundamental and important truth.

Pope Francis entreats us: "On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: ‘Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.’" (#164 Joy of the Gospel).

If we are looking for reasons of the failure of catechesis, I would say that the finger should not be pointed so much at the lack of moral formation (how well we love others), but of a failure in initial evangelization (how deeply we understand that we are loved). No moral formation (parenesis) will ever be successful without a firm grounding in this first and always primary proclamation (kerygma) which gives us joy!

This proclamation of mercy should be not only on the lips of priests and catechists, but of each and every one of us. Yet before these words can be truly sounded, they must echo deep in our own hearts. We must know deeply that we ourselves are loved in a radical, unconditional way. As my dear friend Tom always says, "Nemo dat, quo non habet."

In plain English, "You can't give it, if you don't got it!"