We are enjoying our summer weeks around here. It has been a bit tempestuous, and in Kansas, that can mean the storms are rather outrageous!  🌪️ But there is always a rainbow at the end of every storm, isn’t there? Here is Emma, our granddaughter, enjoying the sight of one from the top of their house.

Kansas clouds and sunsets are something to be admired!

Our grotto is always a focal point for our prayers in the evening. We may sit there for the family rosary or do a bit of reading in front of it. It is a lovely place to say your evening prayers, with the solar lights providing some warmth and illumination.

Taking a walk, a golf cart ride, or doing a procession before potluck around our little grottos that are dotted in a field close to home is a reflection of the type of thing that was done more in days gone by. We must bring that back, mustn’t we?

St. Francis:

St. Pio:

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom:

St. Joseph:

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom at night:

Do you ever find yourself longing for the slower, simpler rhythms that seemed so common in earlier generations?

There are a few things in my life recently made me want to slow down and drink in each moment.

Raising a big family, there will always be a steady flow of goodbyes and changes. Children leave the nest as they find their vocation. Grandchildren get married. Potlucks change…the children grow and move on. 

The thing a mother and grandmother can’t help noticing is how each change leaves its own little space behind. A chair is empty, a familiar voice is missed, a helper is no longer close at hand, or a child who once ran through the house is suddenly grown and busy with a life of his own.

And yet, this is as it should be. We raise them, love them, teach them, and then, little by little, God asks us to open our hands. The family circle changes, but it does not disappear. It widens. It stretches. It takes on new forms.

Thus, my reason for slowing down and being present.

This morning, during my spiritual reading, I came across a reflection on St. John the Baptist. John had been alone most of his life doing the will of God. Then his disciples joined him and he had friends…Friends who walked and talked with him. John was not alone anymore.

Then when Our Lord began His public ministry, John’s beloved disciples left him to follow Jesus. What struck me was the Baptist’s beautiful detachment. He loved his friends dearly, yet he willingly let them go because he knew God was calling them elsewhere.

It made me think of motherhood. Our children are never truly ours. They belong first to God, and often His plans lead them down paths that take them away from us. That can be difficult, but it is also beautiful.

So while we look forward to each chapter in our lives, I find myself grateful for this one: the family rosaries, the potlucks, the golf cart rides, and the conversations that fill ordinary days.

Perhaps that is one of the gifts hidden within life’s changes. They remind us to pay attention, to stop rushing, and to be fully present to the blessings God has placed before us today.

For now, the summer evenings continue. The grotto lights come on, families gather, prayers are said, and somewhere in the distance another Kansas storm is probably brewing. And I am trying, more than ever, to enjoy each moment while it is here.

See Gallery Below.

They are pictures of just some of the doings around here.  Some of the pictures show the families taking part in a pilgrimage where they walked 32 miles and camped two nights. A beautiful, fruitful (and painful) time! The rest of the pictures…the beauty of ordinary days!

The great St. Bernard wrote in his rule that whenever the monastic bell rang, the monks were to drop what they were doing and go to whatever they were being called to.
In our homes, our monastic bell is all the many things beckoning at us throughout the day…the diapers to be changed, the dishes that need doing, the laundry that needs to be done, etc.
We respond to these things right away, even though we many not want to, remembering that these duties are the very things that will make us holy.

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When my children were young I loved to read to them stories, poems and nursery rhymes! They knew those rhymes inside and out and it was such a happy pastime! I did yearn, at times, for little ditties that had more meaning…….So I decided to write a book myself for the generation after me….especially thinking of my grandchildren, but for all Catholic children everywhere!

These books give us some lovely rhymes that can, and should, be committed to heart by your children. Not only will they provide all the benefits of reading and memorizing, but they will supply some simple reflections that will turn those little minds to what is most important in their life….their Catholic Faith…. Available here.

SALES!

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A Prayerbook of Favorite Litanies ~ Available here.

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