Apple Thoughts

We have a 50+ year-old apple tree in our backyard that we are pretty excited about. When we got our house 3 years ago, it was HUGE and produced tons and tons of apples without us having to do anything to it. Perfect. 

However, as we've been living here longer and learning about how to take care of our fruit trees, we realized that this apple tree, though it gave tons of apples, needed care. The apples had worms and spots. The lower (reachable) ones were completely shaded by the higher (even with huge ladders, unreachable) ones, making our harvested apples small and kind of gimpy. The tree itself had so many branches that they were chocking each other out and shading each other so there was a ton of moss... 

So last winter we trimmed out tree. And by trimmed, I mean my husband and his chainsaw climbed up a 40-foot tree, and came back down a 25-foot tree. We thinned out branches and rubbed off moss. We changed the entire shape of it, and then stood back and prayed we hadn't killed it. 

Then, this summer brought fruit. Beautiful fruit. The apples have almost no worms and are nearly twice the size they used to be. Even their color is more vibrant. 

The other day I was sitting, nursing my baby and watching my kids play, and looking at my tree. And I realized that I'm a lot like it. Christ says you can judge something by it's fruits - and my life definitely has fruit - I'm doing my normal Catholic thing. Going to Mass on Sundays, and even helping out when I can. I don't rob banks, and haven't pushed over an old person in YEARS. But I don't prune. I don't get to the confessional. And I need to. I was made for it. We all are. 

My fruit can be better. My love can be better if I take the proper care. I'm sure if I started going to confession regularly (once a month) my life wouldn't change drastically. I wouldn't come come home and announce the whole family's moving to a third world country to do mission work; just like my apple tree will never become a pineapple no matter how much it's trimmed. But I'll be a better wife. A better mom and friend. My love will become sweeter and more vibrant. Like my apples.

Month of Mary

Just a little food for thought before May is over...
The following is taken from the May 2012 Magnificat and is by Heather King:

"At the cross her station keeping/ Stood the mournful Mother weeping/ Close to Jesus at the last." Thus runs the thirteenth-century Latin hymn known as the Stabat Mater: "The mother was standing."

Still standing.  Through giving birth in a stable: still standing.  Through a prophecy that her heart would be pieced by a sword: still standing.  Through watching from the foot of the cross as her Son was totured to death: still standing.  In the three to fifteen years she purportedly lived after Christ died: still standing, still believing, still finding joy and meaning.

Mary, who probably couldn't read but who took care of the baby and cooked the meals, is our greatest saint.  To be a mother is to stretch yourself as far as you can possibly go.  It is to say, There! That is everything I have; that is my blood, my heart, my bone marrow.  And it is then to be called to give in yet a different way, a different direction.  Just when the mother wants to rest, she is called to more openness of heart, more self-emptying, more patience, more work, more letting go, more love....

Mary knew better than anyone, next to Christ himself, the suffering of the cross.  For a mother to witness the brutal execution of an innocent Son- the fruit of her deepest procreative urge, the object of her most profound self-giving- is perhaps the most excruciating form of suffering a woman can endure.  A mother would die for her child, Mary watched her child die for her.

"Mary was the Mother Incarnate and her sacrifice was quite simply the complete acceptance of that which happened to her Son, which meant the death of every shred of possessiveness,"  writes Dante scholar Helen M. Luke.

The death of possessiveness; the birth of God.  "My soul doth magnify the Lord," Mary sang, heavy with child, as she journeyed to visit her cousin Elizabeth in "the hill country."  What simplicity.  What confidence.  What humility.  What purity-for in order to magnify God, you have to become transparent yourself. 

We are all so afraid of falling through the cracks, of being forgotten, of aging, of dying.  But if you don't want to be forgotten, we learn from Mary, value your soul more than success or riches or fame.  Serve Christ instead of yourself.  Become a model of creative suffering, patient endurance, and the erotic urge channeled, contained, and focused into a white-hot flame.

For purity endures. It is Mary who is venerated throughout the world, from the lowest places to the highest, not Cleopatra.  It is Mary to whom we pray the rosary, not Marilyn Monroe.  It is Mary we appeal to for help, for comfort, for solace, for understanding, not Salome.

Every follower of Christ spends a long "December"- maybe many Decembers - in a stable.  But May means to burst, with Mary, ever Virgin, into our fullest, most fecund flower.--

St. Joan of Arc

I was reading the March edition of Columbia (the Knights of Columbus magazine) and one of the articles was on 3 saints of war: St. Martin of Tours, St. Joan of Arc and well, I don't remember the third...I found St. Joan of Arc so interesting and brave putting all her trust in God and taking charge of the French army. When deciding on who to write about for the martyrs week she seems like a great choice.... Born in 1412 Joan was a peasant girl from the eastern part of France. When she was about 12 years old she was in a field when she had a vision. St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret appeared to her several times. At first the visions were general and not personal but then when she was 16 years old the saints appeared to her and told her to go to King Charles and help him reconquer his kingdom. The Hundred Years War was going on at the time and the English were trying to take over France. Joan went to the king and the king granted her permission to go with a small army and fight. Many people opposed the kings' decision of letting a girl into the army but Joan knew she had to fight for her country and for God. She took her army and raised the seige of Orleans on May 8, 1429. Throughout the next year she and her army enjoyed many more victories for France. King Charles was able to go into Rheims and be crowned with Joan by his side. But the war was not over yet and in May of 1430 while trying to recapture Compiegne, she was captured by Burgundians and sold to the English when King Charles and the French didn't come save her. Joan was put on trial and by refusing to retract her statements that it was the saints of God who commanded her to do what she did, she was condemned to death and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 at the age of nineteen. What a strong, faithful woman she was! Putting all her trust in God to do His Will and to win back her country. I am definitely going to start praying to St. Joan of Arc now for her protection and strength to stand up for Christ in my everyday life. To live for Him as she did and to teach my 3 sons to do the same. I have my own little army-in-training right now! St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France. Her feast day is May 30th. St. Joan of Arc, pray for us!

Great Talks

So - one beautiful baby and one crazy but fun Thanksgiving/Christmas Season later... I'm finally making time to write again.

Among many other New Year's Resolutions... I've trying to educate myself more in my faith. It's funny, because I've studied the faith a lot, A LOT A LOT (half a year on the interworkings of the Holy Trinity anybody?) and yet it's been hitting me how much I don't know. How much is known about our faith and has been studied... How much love people have poured into learning about our God, and His plan for us... Amazing. Tangent.

Anyway - my husband found a website that has really great talks about all kinds of subjects about the faith. I've listened to a couple of the talks, and recommend them highly.

Warning though: If you decide to download the talks (which they are totally ok with) it's a little funky, you have to right click, blah, blah, blah. Make sure to read the FAQs and it tells you how to do it.

But DO it. It's completely worth it.