At Considerable Cost

The final Sunday of Advent turned out to be such a special one for me.   I chose to drive past our home parish to attend 5:30 mass at a chapel owned by another parish as part of its school complex.   It was once the building for a large Baptist congregation.   The Catholic parish bought the building when the Baptist church built a bigger building.   It has since been decorated, blessed, and dedicated for Catholic worship. There's something about this chapel to which I strongly relate.   Maybe because it, too, has been reborn for a Catholic life and purpose.   It still holds remnants of its Protestant, or non-Catholic, past.   The Crucifix hangs in what seems a striking blue frame to some.   To the knowing eye, the crucifix hangs above what once served as the baptistry, the pool where baptisms as public signs of accepting Christ, not sacraments of regeneration, occurred.    The baptistry is now framed by the crucifix, a symbol and t...

 I really enjoy making wreaths.   I was inspired this year by a trip to downtown Bryan after Thanksgiving with a friend.   We saw some beautiful southern-style decorations and I set about making much-needed new wreaths for our front door and above our mantle. Front Door Wreath First, can we just take a moment to appreciate the beauty of a red door at Christmas?! This is a real wreath, but it didn't make it until Christmas.   We get some intense morning sun on the front of our house.   It makes the paint on the door slightly tacky to the touch and sometimes you can barely grasp the hot door handle.  So, a week before Christmas, I transferred all the pieces to an artificial wreath.   It will make next year a little easier!   I used artificial red roses that were expensive, so beginning in October, I went once a week to Michael's and picked up a stem with one of my 40% off coupons.   I cut the stems apart so I could spread the blooms ...

My latest post is up at CatholicMom.com: By the time this is posted, my family and I will hopefully be settled in, snug and happy, in our home on Christmas Day.    While our family is still trying to find our way through our Advent observance, we have made some progress when it comes to celebrating a Catholic Christmas. To read more :  http://catholicmom.com/2012/12/27/the-twelve-days-of-christmas-and-beyond/

Hand-carved table-top nativity scenes, life-sized nativities, Christmas trees aglow, the wonder of children's faces: they are all images brought to mind during this holy season and I love them all.   When I think about the image that stays with me, that links my childhood to adulthood and never fails to prompt contemplation, it is an unlikely scene that stands out from the rest.    Growing up in Louisiana, I saw extreme poverty in rural areas.   On the farm next to ours, there lived an elderly man who was called, "Preacher."   He worked on the farm and his small home was just beyond our fence.   People passing by would probably refer to his home as a shack and as technical definitions go, they would not be incorrect.   There was one main room which had at its center a free-standing wood stove.   There was no air conditioning in the summertime and Preacher spent most of his spare time on his tiny front porch rather than indoors. Such...

As I wrote earlier , my Advent was not what I planned.   I spent the first three weeks only leaving the house to drop the girls off at school and then to pick them up in the afternoon.   I did my Christmas shopping only a few days before Christmas.   I was able to really rest and recover from pneumonia and the other health issues I've dealt with this year. We couldn't find the Advent wreath, so the arrangement in the picture above was our family's Advent centerpiece.   Mary, pregnant with Hope incarnate and Joseph guiding them on their way to Bethlehem.    A single candle to inspire and remind us of the anticipation of Christ.   And beautiful flowers: a get-well gift from a friend. It was a season of blessing: rest and quiet, though forced, that I needed.   Less busy-ness and lessons in what is important and necessary.   I didn't get to make homemade treats for teachers because I was too tired, but gift cards and other store-bought ...

This is not the Advent I planned.   Not that I'd planned an elaborate one, mind you, but I did expect to begin the season with evening mass (it's just so lovely during Advent to leave mass in the dark) and then each night, hang one ornament on our Jesse tree, light the candle on the Advent wreath, and pray the accompanying prayers and scriptures. The season began Sunday, in Urgent Care, with a two-hour wait.   The day before Thanksgiving, my youngest daughter and I went to Urgent Care, where we were diagnosed with sinus infections.   We were both put on a round of Amoxicillin.   She gradually got better. But I really didn't recover.   The sinus pressure, headaches, and post-nasal drip continued.   Last week, I started running fever and getting chills.   Then came the cough, which although it never reminded me for the fifth time to take out the trash or put my shoes away, still qualified as being of the nagging variety.  So, I did what I was supp...

My mama had issues with Christmas and those issues affected me and helped me develop my own issues with Christmas.   For me, memories of Christmas and Mama can never be separated.    It was our special time to plan and execute our decorating schemes and in each other, we found that other person who could truly appreciate the beauty and efforts of our finished work.   It was a magical time and Christmas day was the only day my dad ever let there be a real break from work; not even Easter had that distinction in our home.   After my brother Greg was born, Christmas was a stressful time for Mama.   With Daddy still in graduate school and medical bills, there was not enough for the extras of Christmas.   She felt terribly guilty about that.   Then she felt guilty that my sister was able to enjoy her gifts while Greg wasn't able to respond to most of his toys.   Then she felt guilty about feelin...

It's hard to believe that we are only a few weeks away from the season of Advent, the time of waiting and preparing for the birth of Christ.   In addition to the traditional Advent wreath , several years ago, our family began the Advent tradition of the Jesse Tree.   The Jesse Tree, named after Jesse, the father of David, traces the story of salvation history from Adam and Eve to Jesus.   A new ornament is added each day during the season of Advent and the family shares the scripture story illustrated by that ornament. I have enjoyed watching Joey lead our family in the nightly scripture study.   The children love helping put up each new ornament and listening to its story.    There are many options for a Jesse Tree.   I made ours out of a piece of  white felt and purple ribbon.  I like the way this option shows the ornaments in chronological order.   I think that our children will remember these orna...