Celebrating Love Throughout the Year

"Excuse me, but is that your book?" Debbie asked me as we were filing out the door after Mass this morning. She had spotted the Valentine's gift I had given to my husband this year. It's by "the Cooking Priest", an award winning cook and television host who uses the occasion of dinner time to bring families closer together.

There is a wonderful You Tube clip that shows Fr. Leo in action and will give you an idea of how wonderful his ministry to families is. It is available on his website called "Grace Before Meals."

If you've seen Fr. Leo on TV before, then you'll be glad to know that, even better, he is coming to Raleigh on March 10-12, 2013. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is hosting him for their Lenten Mission, open to everyone at no charge, from 7-8:30 PM each night to share his philosophy of family togetherness as presented in his book "Grace Before Meals."

The book I gave to Jim is Fr. Leo's second one called, "Spicing Up Married Life" which he wrote in honor of his parents' 50th wedding anniversary. After hearing about this book, I checked local bookstores and amazon.com, but couldn't find it anywhere. I was able to order it directly from his website.

The idea behind his book is that we should celebrate our marriages not just annually, but at least every month on our special date throughout the year. And he offers recipes, reflections, and conversation starters to help couples do just that. Tonight Jim and I are going to follow the first chapter since it is the 26th, the monthly anniversary of our wedding date more than twenty-four years ago. To that end, I've read the chapter, shopped for the ingredients for the first meal, made arrangements for our son to eat on his own ("Mom, why don't you get me some more of that baked potato and cheddar soup and you and dad eat on your own?"), and planned to set up a special table in front of the fireplace to enjoy our "date night" together.

"Kids at high school have been celebrating their monthly dating anniversaries since the beginning of time," our son Connor advised us. "It's probably because they never know how long their relationships will last."

Well, we can take it from the experts on romantic love. And pray that with God's love in the center, our love will last our whole lives through.

Art & Spirit Retreat at Avila

My mother and I have been getting together for a date each month to do something fun together.  This time we attended an "Art & Spirit" weekend at a favorite retreat house of mine called Avila in Durham, NC.  My mom is a painter and I am a spiritual companion, so we thought we'd meet half way and do something that was a little bit familiar and a little bit risky for each of us at the same time! 

There happened to be five mother/daughter pairs on this retreat for thirty or so people from all walks of life, faith backgrounds, and artistic abilities!  We were greeted by our two enthusiastic and artistic fascilitators who led us through a variety of art forms to help us express our thoughts about God and about our inner selves.  We used extemporaneous speaking, poetry writing, collage-making, painting, story telling, closed-eye drawing and song.  And to all of this merriment, God added his own display right outside our workshop windows: thick, wet, giant snowflakes that fell all day long!

At the closing session we had to share a piece of our artwork with the group and tell what it revealed about ourselves.  My mom said that she was impressed by how conceptual everyone's artwork was and wondered how she might incorporate more of herself into her still life water colors.  Below is her self-portrait to which she added the words: "Take a flying leap!"

As for me, I enjoyed setting aside my usual left-brained activities in favor of indulging my creative side, which seems to have been arrested in development since I was the age of five.  Although it was difficult to become inspired with ideas for the projects, I eagerly dove into my self-portrait by gluing tissue-paper flowers all over it. When I proudly displayed it to my mom, she laughed and said that my kindergarten teacher used to have us making things out of it all of the time!  And then she added that she never did like that stuff :)   Luckily with art, as with many things in life, it's not as much about the results as it is about having fun in the process.



Adventures in the Spiritual Life this Lent

I was having coffee with my friend Suzanne this morning, when she suggested that I dust off my blog this Lent.

"What? You mean I might not have to give up sugar and could just write about the things I'm doing instead?" I secretly connived.

That sounded like a pretty good idea to me. And though I didn't know whether anyone would be interested in reading it, I thought that I could at least offer it to God as my Lenten sacrifice and then see where it goes from there.

In the past few years I have tried to do something less predictable when Ash Wednesday rolls around. One year I had the brilliant idea to give up saying "No" for the forty days leading up to Easter. It was truly an adventure to do that, and while my family didn't suspect a thing for several weeks, it all came crashing down at the end. I don't think I'll ever do that one again now that I've seen up close and in person why discernment is a good and necessary thing!

To kick off Lent in Veritas (our 11th and 12th grade youth group at St. Mary Magadalene Catholic Church) last Sunday, we decided to show "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson. If you've never seen it, the movie is a very graphic and powerful depiction of the last hours of Christ's life. To prepare for the event, I watched the movie at home three times last weekend. First I decided the movie was too bloody to show in its entirety. Then I heard from our youth minister Liz that there is a "Re-Cut" version that tones down some of the more difficult scenes by using different camera angles and music that is less intense. So I ordered "The Definitive Edition" of the movie on Amazon and watched it again. While the movie seemed a little less shocking, I was surprised that the director kept the worst scenes intact. Then I realized that the DVD I ordered actually contains both the first edition of the movie and the re-cut version on the same disc! So, I had watched the first edition, but had become a little bit desensitized to it after one showing! Next I watched the re-cut treatment of the more objectionable scenes and found that while they were indeed toned down, you could still get the full effect of what was happening even though the camera may have moved from the action to the faces of those watching it. Still too intense to show in full to our teens, I thought. So we ended up showing the re-cut version for the first 60 minutes, ending in the middle of the scourging when Mary the mother of Christ comforts Mary Magdalene.

So, I thought I'd pass that along if anyone else is interested in seeing The Passion of the Christ this Lent. It is a powerful way to better understand just how much God loves us and wants to set us free...free from the things that distance us from Him and His PASSIONATE LOVE for us!