Tomorrow

Tomorrow, my sweet girl, it will be Palm Sunday.  Mass will begin with the blessing of palms, and a procession.  You will be fascinated.  You love processions.


After that, Mass will begin, and in a few minutes it will be time for the reading of the Gospel.  You will hear the story of the Passion for the very first time.  It will be read three more times this week:  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday; the Passion narrative will be read once from each of the four Gospels this week.  It's a long story and you'll probably get impatient.  I'll take you to the back of the church and walk back and forth, but because we are in Passiontide, all the images will be covered in purple and there won't be much to look at.


This story, which you will hear for the first time tomorrow, is the reason there is a crucifix in each of the main rooms in our home.  Listen well, my girl; this is the center of our Faith.

Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth by Marco Palmezzano.
Image from Wikimedia commons.

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 12)

I'm short on time today, so I'm going to share with you my seven favorite posts of the last week.

1.  The Reasonably Clean Bathroom.  After we get moved into our new place over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to get a handle on this and establish a routine that works.

2.  Everything you'll ever need to know about makeup.  As a non-makeup-wearer, and having never been happy with the results of my attempts at applying makeup, I found this very interesting.  I was inspired to add moisturizer to my grocery list.

3.  Handcrafted Candy for Easter.  Jessica's candies turned out beautiful.  Maybe someday I'll try my hand and candy-making.


4.  Yarn Along.  I love this hat.  I'm currently knitting mittens (which has required learning to do about half a dozen things I've never tried before), but maybe next I'll try my hand at a hat.


5.  Bluebells in the Rain.  Such beautiful pictures.


6.  {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}.  Good idea.  After we are settled, I'll join in.


7.  Like Mother Like Daughter.  So cute!


Have a great weekend.
7 Quick Takes is hosted at Conversion Diary.

Yarn Along

I've been knitting washcloths the last few weeks, and since I've already talked about my Lenten reading, which is about all the reading I've been doing, here are two of the baby's favorite books.  She's currently learning how to open books and turn the pages.

Visit small things for more Yarn Along posts.

Courage: Daniel

Expect the Lord, do manfully:  and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.  The Lord is my light and my salvation:  whom shall I fear?
                                Introit from Tuesday in Passion Week

In the book of Daniel, in the story of Bel and the dragon, of which the last part is read in today's Mass, Daniel, out of zeal for the truth and love of God does what is right and good to destroy the worship of two false gods of the Babylonians.  I like to think Daniel would have the wisdom to know that the people would not take kindly to having their gods destroyed, and that he was aware that he did this at some risk to himself; therefore his actions show a certain amount of courage.

Our God is omnipotent and will not be outdone in generosity.  Not only did God shut the mouths of the lions (who went hungry for six days while not eating Daniel -- poor lions), but He also sent Habacuc to bring Daniel dinner.

When we step out in courage to serve God, our actions do not go unrewarded.  Sometimes that reward is not immediate, but our God is just and generous and has the power to bless beyond our expectations.

From today's Mass

I was particularly struck by a passage from one of the prayers from today's Mass:

     "...O Lord, ... in kindness turn our wills towards Thee, even though they resist Thee."


Give me grace, Lord, to cooperate with grace.

Moses Striking the Rock by Pieter de Grebber
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Although Moses was commanded to speak to the rock, he struck it twice, thus turning his will away from God.  As punishment, Moses did not enter the promised land.

7Quick Takes (vol. 11)

1.  I just notice that this will be my one hundredth post.  Yay!

2.  My baby loves books.  I set her down next to a box full of toys, and instead of playing with the toys she crawls right over to the bookshelf to go pull books off the shelf and look at them.

3.  On a related note, she's also learning to turn the pages so that she can look at what's inside her board books and not just the pictures on the covers.  This often leads to frustration because she hasn't yet figured out that they only open one direction, so many of her attempts to open books simply result in the book flipping over.

4.  Also, not satisfied with simply looking at her board books on the bottom shelf, she pulls up to look at the books on the top shelf (which are wedged in very tightly to prevent her pulling them off and chewing on them).

5.  The garbage truck just woke the same sweet baby from her nap after only 45 minutes.  Alas, I was not able to get her to go back to sleep.  I'm praying to her guardian angel for some help with another nap later.  I'd prefer not to have an exhausted baby to take care of all afternoon and evening.

6.  I'm finding my Lenten reading so helpful and interesting that I'm thinking about continuing it as a more permanent habit.  I particularly like to arrive at Sunday Mass having already read the Gospel of the day and some sermons from the Church Fathers on the passage.  I find it helps me to focus on the liturgy even if I'm busy trying to keep an active baby relatively quiet.

7.  Tomorrow is Passion Sunday!  Easter is two weeks away!

Courage: Susanna

Today the lesson at Mass was the story of Susanna.

One of my fears is of humiliation and the bad opinion of others; I have the fault of human respect.  I would be happier without it, and, ironically, less likely to embarrass myself.  Conquering human respect requires courage:  a lively faith and trust in God.  Susanna illustrates this.  She preferred to appear to commit sin rather than to actually commit sin.  Since under the law the word of two witnesses was sufficient to condemn one to death, the accusation of the two elders would seem inescapable.  The whole people, presumably including her husband, seem to believe the worst of Susanna.  She would certainly have expected as much when she chose to refuse the sinful advances of the two elders in the orchard and accept their accusations.  Yet Susanna had courage and refused to consent to sin against God and her husband.

This courage does not go unrewarded.  Having committed herself to this course of action, and in danger of being put to death, Susanna prays to God, and God provides the young man, Daniel.  Susanna is exonerated and the two old men are condemned when Daniel catches them in their lie.

Courage is trusting in God's providence.  I can have courage to do what is right because God will provide what is necessary;  either He will rescue me when I am in trouble, or He will reward my sacrifice in Heaven.

Susanna im Bade by Albrecht Altdorfer
image from Wikimedia Commons

Small Steps Together