Random Updates

It has been so busy around here that I have found it difficult to sit down and blog, so I figured I would just give a bunch of random updates to get all caught up...


Our house situation:
We would love some extra prayers this week as we are going to make a counter offer on a house that we really, really like.  It is the first house that both my husband and I have been equally excited about.  It has a great floor-plan for our family with a large recreation room in the basement, master bedroom on the main floor, and the boys' bedrooms upstairs.  But the best part is how it is nestled in the mountains with 7 acres of beautiful trees and boulders and space for 5 active boys to explore the great outdoors of Montana.  It even has a tiny man-made pond with a gentle waterfall that I think would make a lovely Mary grotto!  :)  But, we are trying to remain detached and simply trust in God's will.  This particular house has been a bit of a roller-coaster for us...  We discovered it about 7 weeks ago and made an offer immediately.  However, we came to find out that the couple who owns the house has recently divorced, which meant that lawyers had to get involved and more complications than we ever imagined.  It took them 7 weeks to make a counter-offer, and they barely budged on the price.  So, we are trying one more time this week to make another offer to meet somewhere in the middle of their counter offer and our first offer.  And then we place it in God's hands, trusting that He will protect us from a poor decision or bless us with the house if it would be the right house for our family to grow in holiness, peace, and joy.  Please pray for us...for God's will, and for peace no matter what the outcome.  "Jesus, we trust in You!"

Hunting Season Recap: 
Hunting season ended a couple of weeks ago here in Montana.  It embarrasses me to admit how hard hunting season is for me...every...single...year. You see, I'm a sensitive animal lover at heart, and I selfishly would rather my husband and boys had other nature-loving hobbies that the whole family could do together which don't involve killing anything.  :}  I half-jokingly told Paul that he duped me when we got married...  He wasn't a hunter then.  He was a hiker, a kayaker, a rock-climber, an outdoor enthusiast---which really turned me on.  I truly thought I was marrying John Denver, but it turns out I married Daniel Boone instead!  :)  And I'm sure Paul thought he married a less sensitive, more practical woman like my mom who was a hunter herself and still butchers 6 or more deer a year for my dad.  So now what?  Now I guess Paul and I keep on trying to love each other for who we are, we learn to compromise some of our dreams and make new dreams together.  And as for my part, I know I need to pray for extra graces to handle hunting season with peace in my heart and simply be grateful for the blessings that it brings.  Here are just a few of the things I was thankful for this hunting season:

•  my husband bonding with his boys and getting lots of exercise in the gorgeous wilderness
• 3 successful hunts this season--Paul, Joseph, and Michael each got a buck
• a freezer full of deer meat (especially the jerky sticks and breakfast sausage)
• a husband who is patient with me and a God who is full of mercy when I fail at being the hunting cheerleader that I should be
• the opportunity for Paul and I to practice unconditional love, to practice sacrificing some of our own selfish desires for the sake of the other

Celebrating Feast Days:
One of the best parts about being Catholic (aside from the Sacraments) is all the feast days of saints that we get to celebrate!  It's like a constant party for us Catholics!  :)  Last week was a beautiful Feast Day in honor of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception--the day she was conceived without sin the in the womb of her mother, St. Anne (FYI:  it's NOT when Jesus was conceived immaculately in Mary's womb, which many people mistakenly think).  Many Protestants (and some Catholics) shake their heads and wonder how we could possibly believe that Mary never sinned, but if you ponder theology long enough, it sure makes sense to me that God would create Mary without sin in order for the fully-human part of Jesus (which came from Mary) to be unstained with original sin.  I certainly am no theologian, but the more I read about Mary, the more in awe I am of what a beautiful and important role she plays in salvation history, more important than any of us (theologian or not) can ever comprehend this side of heaven.  But even at the most simple level, which I think both Catholics and Protestants can agree on, Mary's role in history is a beautiful reminder that God always uses those who are the most humble and docile to His will to do the greatest things in the world.  Therefore, as Christians we don't need to wear ourselves out trying to be perfect or to do big, amazing feats for the Kingdom, for it is the little souls with hearts full of childlike trust and love who delight the Heavenly Father the most.  What a consolation for me, for I feel like a toddler who is constantly falling and failing, constantly depending on the Heavenly Father's mercy and His strong hands to carry me because I'm so weak!  :)

Anyway, back to Mary...  I love Mary a lot and I am so indebted to her for sharing her graces with me and untying countless knots in my life, so I wanted to find a way to celebrate this Feast in a special way, aside from going to Mass of course.  But the best I could come up with was some Immaculate Conception cookies...simple sugar cookies shaped into white hearts to represent her sinless heart full of love for us.  Whatever happened to the creativity I used to have when I only had one or two kids???  I guess it was passed to my children through the placenta or something!  :}  But I hope that the Blessed Mother was pleased with these simple cookies made with a whole lot of love and devotion and gratitude towards her for all these years of taking the tenderest care of my soul, gently pointing me (and all of her children) to the tender Heart of Jesus.

Other Stuff:
Last but not least, Isaiah has still been doing terrific with potty training!  Which is not really a big deal...and yet it is (you mothers out there know what I mean).  Yes, I look at my days which are filled with mundane tasks, like wiping bottoms, cooking another pot of mac and cheese, folding another load of laundry, and picking up plastic toys, but I try desperately to transform those mundane moments into prayer, praise, and thanksgiving for all the blessings God has given me:  sweet children (with adorable bums) to love and be loved by, a husband who provides so well for our family that we have plenty of clothes to wash, food to eat, and toys to clean up, and the blessings could go on for infinity...and so I will just keep on counting!

Amazing Facts and Miracles about Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe Fact Page

• Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Saint Juan Diego on December 9, 10 and 12, 1531.
• The image is proven not to be painted by human hands; no natural or animal mineral colorings, or paint, are found on it
• The image has remained intact with all its original vibrancy for 475 years. The natural life span of a cloak made with fiber from the gave or maguey plant is only about 30 years.
• The image is a pictograph which could be read and understood by the Aztec Indians.
• On her rose garment is a topographical map of the location of her apparition.
• Our Lady appears as a beautiful young Indian maiden and Queen.
• She is wearing a blue-green mantle (the color worn by royalty) covered with stars.
• The stars signify she comes from heaven – the Queen of Heaven. The constellations are in the exact position as appeared before dawn on the morning of December 12, 1531.
• Her robe is colored rose or pale red and covered with Aztec flowers, symbolic of an Aztec princess.
• In the center of her robe, overlying her womb, is a four petal quincunx flower in the shape of a cross which is the sign of the Divine and the center of the cosmic order to the Aztec. The Virgin’s Baby, Jesus, is Divine and the new center of the universe.
• Her hands are joined in prayer and, therefore, she is not God but clearly there is one greater than she and she points her finger to the cross on her brooch.
• Her fur cuffs symbolize royalty.
• She wears a black maternity band signifying she is with Child.
• A black cross is on the brooch around her neck. This signifies she is a follower of the God of the Spanish Missionaries, Jesus Christ who died on the cross for all.
• She stands in front of the sun. The sun symbolizes the greatest Aztec god – Huitzilopochtli. She announces the God who is greater than their sun god.
• She stands on the moon. The crescent moon symbolized the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent moon god. She has clearly crushed and defeated him.
• The image depicts Revelation 12:1:  a woman clothed with the sun with the moon at her feet
• An angel with eagle’s wings supports the Mother of God. The eagle was the “bird of the sun.” Here the eagle is the servant of the Virgin. She holds her mantle in one hand and robe with the other, signifying the Son she bears is from both heaven and earth.
• To date the image cannot be explained by science.
• The image on the tilma was able to do what up to that time the missionaries were not able to do significantly. Namely, clearly explain Christianity to the Indian people. The proof is in the fact that after the apparitions, eight million natives of Mexico converted to Catholicism from 1531 to 1538.
• A doctor once heard a heartbeat coming from the image using a stethascope over the womb area.
• The eyes of the image have the refractory characteristics of human eyes, and they miraculously reflect the image of the witnesses present at its unveiling, including Juan Diego and the bishop

I also found this article by the modern-day Catholic "prophet" Charlie Johnston very interesting, especially how the actual title "Guadalupe" is actually a mispronunciation of the Aztec word that Juan Diego used to refer to Our Lady---"Coatlallope"---which literally means "she who crushes the serpent."  How fitting!

In 1531, the poor peasant, St. Juan Diego, was visited by Our Lady several times on Tepeyac Hill, near what is now Mexico City. Most of the missionaries in the Americas were well-intended, but they had utterly failed to convert the Aztec Indians. The average Aztec was caught between a rock and a grinding stone. Their indigenous faith, the cult of Quexlcoatl (the infamous feathered serpent) required constant human sacrifice. The pyramids always ran red with human blood. The Spanish and Portuguese explorers frequently enslaved native peoples. The problem was so bad that, in 1430, Pope Eugene VII had made enslaving a native of the Canary Islands a matter of excommunication. In 1537, Pope Paul III explicitly extended the punishment to the enslaving of American Indians, as well.

The Aztec culture had long prophesied of a woman who would free them from the bloody requirements of Quexlcoatl. When Juan Diego tried to report the messages of Our Lady to his bishop, the bishop quite reasonably demanded some proof. On his last visit to Our Lady, a bunch of wild roses were blooming at the hilltop out of season. Our Lady told Juan Diego to gather them up in his tilma (an apron made of cactus fibers, commonly worn by working peasants) and take the flowers to the bishop. When he dropped them from his apron in front of the bishop, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on his apron. (Interestingly, tilmas rot, usually within 20 years – and never last more than 40. Diego’s tilma, with the image of Our Lady on it, still stands in the cathedral in Mexico City, vibrant almost 500 years later). The titles of Our Lady are always related to where she appeared or to what her primary role in that appearance is. Diego explained to the bishop that this woman was, in Aztec "Coatlallope", which roughly translated means “she who crushes the serpent.” The bishop, however, mistakenly heard the name of the European Spanish City, Guadalupe, rather than the Aztec phrase, which is how the title came about.  

The miraculous image spoke simultaneously to two cultures. I could go into detail on what it meant to the Aztecs, but suffice it to say it was recognized as the deliverance from the bloody cult of Quexlcoatl. Within a decade, 10 million Indians converted and the Cult of Quexlcoatl was consigned to the ash heap of history. When the missionaries failed, Our Lady came herself and accomplished the conversion to the worship of her Son, Jesus--the Christ. In today's culture, our little efforts to re-convert Europe and to convert Islam may fail, but so long as we hold fast to Our Lady’s mantle, she will prevail.  (excerpt from Charlie Johnston's blog:  https://charliej373.wordpress.com/

Lastly, our family celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe by making these simple and delicious rose-shaped cinnamon rolls.  I think I will start making these on every Marian Feast Day, and even the Feast Days of St. Therese and St. Elizabeth of Hungary :) If you want the recipe, I found it at the Catholic Cuisine website:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2015/07/st-elizabeth-rose-bread.html

Our Lady of Guadalupe, 

Pray for us all!