FYI

For any of you who are still lurking around here...I decided to change to lilyofthefather.wordpress.com . I really do not intend to keep changing my blog every two months - but I have found that wordpress has better searching capabilities than blogger, as well as "feedback" features that I missed from here on xanga. God bless and Mary keep you all!

+AMDG+
Lisa

I think I am switching

I am going to try blogger and see how it works for me. Here is the new link: http://lilyofthefather.blogspot.com/

Please come for a visit!

Society...independence...God.

This morning I was reading an article on MrsCatherine's blog, written by her husband. It was quite thought provoking, and sent my thoughts in this direction...

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Society is built on trust. We entrust little parts of ourselves to others, and create a dependence on them; this complementation is what we know as the basis of society.

The problem with modern society is that we have created such an immense dependence on other people, that we are slowly becoming helpless. We are losing our independence by giving away so much of what we could do, simply because we dislike or think that we will dislike doing it. We no longer have the pursuit of excellence in life skills – but rather devote our undivided attention to making everything so easy that you barely have to lift a finger. When I worked at Culvers, we literally had to teach people how to sweep a floor – they had no idea what a broom was for!

Something I have learned is that the more an effort costs, the more God is going to reward you. God has given us the amazing capability to “rise to the occasion”, and give us strength to do things that we never would have believed possible. It is frightening to see our society denying our right to use this God-given strength.

As our world seeks pleasure rather than the Source of pleasures, it is ruining itself. It seems as though we are picking the blossoms off of the tree, and then wondering why the tree never bears fruit! We grab things from the outside, taking momentary delight in them – and yet never seek the true source from whence it comes. Some seek money, some seek power, some seek bodily gratification, some seek comfort, some seek laziness, and all become slaves to pleasure.

This past Lent, I was inwardly struggling to be able look at the Cross and see Christ’s love and sorrow completely intermingled. To be able to see Love and sorrow entirely as one, and not the sorrow as a painful “side effect”. God has granted me the grace of finally acquiring this to a certain extent…and viewing it as an invitation to live the Way of the Cross in my everyday life. Yes, I enjoy certain pleasures as much as anyone – but I have come to see that by offering up the washing of dishes and picking up toys, I have become freer to love my family, in particular, my siblings. If I offer up these little things as a gift of love, I have a greater ability to drop the grumblings against the mess caused by having so many people in one house, and be even perhaps thankful for them; they are what shows the many persons [read: souls] that our home is blessed with.

I am not saying by any far stretch that I have completely achieved this perfect harmony. I have just noticed the natural joy when I am able to fulfill my little, simple strivings towards this direction…the joy that can only come from the Cross.

Perhaps I have rambled a little from my original idea, although perhaps not. Trust, dependence, independence, love, sorrow, hardship, harmony…all these lead to the perfect building of society, but as we are imperfect human beings, a perfect society can not be built in this world. The mystery of the interminglement of joy and sorrow is not one that we can understand with our small minds.

In order to preserve our independence, we must recognize our dependence, first and foremost, on God. After all, He was the creator of our free will! We must recognize true freedom as the ability to choose good; we must be educated to help ourselves in basic matters. Is it really too difficult to choose perfection in washing dishes, cleaning the house, learning to cook, learning basic sewing skills, etc.?

I challenge you to make the choice one day to wash and dry the dishes by hand (with soap and water!), rather than just rinsing and putting them in the dishwasher. I challenge you to sweep the floors, rather than just using a vacuum to quickly clean up a pile of crumbs. I challenge you to make the decision to stay home and make a meal rather than just quickly grabbing some “fast food”. I challenge you to sew on your own buttons. Pay careful attention to your attitude when you do these things: do not do them because you “have to”, but in full mind that you have chosen to do so to practice using your free will – and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that God gives you. These are the little exercises that make you strong enough to climb the mountain of perfection and joy.

This is a very good article on women in combat...my thoughts exactly, except that they are formulated better.

Please pray for me, as I am having difficulties with my decisions again.  It seems that whenever I am getting the closest to actually making a firm decision about something, I start getting a knot in my stomach, and I don't know what to do. Talking about it is one thing, actually getting the knot to go away is quite another.

On a happier note, today was absolutely beautiful outside! I was outside for a couple of hours...walking, taking pictures, singing, just soaking in the sun and air. I must be allergic to something out there, though - my eyes are very sore now.

Tomorrow I am going to Schoenstatt! Hopefully I will get the chance to just sit in the shrine for awhile. I am going for a meeting, but my parents also have an afternoon of reflection that they were planning on going to, so I am sure we will carpool...which means that Dad will drive. If gas was not so expensive, I would drive separately just to insure the extra time - but conservation is the key when you are trying to save money.

I trust your might, your kindness, Mother dear; I do believe that you are always near. Schoenstatt's great queen, O Mother Mild, I blindly trust in you and in your Child.

You know the way for me, you know the time. Into your hands, I trustingly place mine. Your plan is perfect, born of perfect love...you know the way for me, that is enough.

"The greatest care is to be endlessly carefree." -Fr. Joseph Kentenich

This has been a wonderful weekend!

The weather is absolutely beautiful outside! It is sunny with a soft breeze and temperatures in the 70's...birds chirping, everything is green or turning green...the picture of a perfect spring day.

This whole weekend has been very quiet and relaxing. Friday evening I got home just as my parents were leaving, and Simon (14) was the only other person here at home. He did things by himself pretty much all evening, and when Peter (16) got home, they finished watching a movie and went to bed early! I got the night to myself, a GREAT rarity. I used the opportunity to experiment with recording some songs on the computer, among other things. Yesterday they both left before I got up at 6am, and so I had the entire morning before work. I fed the chickens (I forgot how much fun that is!!!), walked around outside, read, recorded some more songs, and got ready for work. After work I cleaned a little, did laundry, did dishes, and organized my room and desk, watched part of "Ma & Pa Kettle On the Farm", read some more, talked to my sister (in ND), chatted online, said my prayers, and still managed to get to sleep by 11:20pm. It might not sound so relaxing, after all...but it was satisfying.

This morning I got up at 6am again, to get ready for Holy Mass. We went to the 7:30am liturgy, and shortly after we got home, my brothers left...so yet again, I have the house to myself. I fed the chickens, played around on the guitar a little, am listening to music, and am contemplating making something for breakfast. I guess what is taking me so long is cutting down the recipe for pancakes...I am not hungry enough to eat the large batch that I normally make for our whole family! LOL

Sometime this afternoon I will go visit with my grandparents and bring the kids home, and then my peaceful domain will disappear again - instead of quiet pleasures, I will have noisy ones. Something tells me that David will still be on his continuous talking kick, and Mary is still going to want to play games with me and sit on my lap, and Christopher will want to go to Mass with me, and Anna Rose is going to assist David in talking my ear off. Such are the joys and trials of a large family...and I wouldn't change it for the world.