Christ is Risen

Happy Easter everyone!!!! Today at mass we learned a little bit about why we color Easter eggs and I wanted to share it with you.

Mary Magdalene was a wealthy woman, called a disciple of Christ, and was the first person to whom Christ appeared the morning after his resurrection. She worked to spread the gospel after his ascension to Heaven, and through her influence, obtained an invitation to the dinner table of Tiberius Caesar in Rome. Illustrating to Caesar that Christ had risen from the dead, she picked up an egg from the table. The egg had long been a symbol for rebirth. Caesar laughed at her claiming that a person rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand changing color. Before he finished speaking, the egg turned a bright red.

A variation of this story found mainly in Greece says that Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary placed a basket of eggs at the foot of the cross where they were painted with the blood of Christ. She then took these blood red eggs to Tiberius Caesar as an illustration of the gospel. The eggs were passed among believers with the giver saying, “Christ is risen,” and the receiver responding, “He is risen indeed.”

Sacrifice

Ahh having cheese enchiladas, it's not a big sacrifice for me but for my 2 teenagers it sure is. They are used to having a little chicken of beef in their enchiladas, but not today. Today we give up meat as an outward sign of our faith and the least we could do.  

Water

Hidden at the foot of my daughter's bed under blankets one would think I'd find dirty clothes, shoes or even lost homework but at the foot of my daughter's bed what did I find? A bunch of empty water bottles!?!? She had so many that they were even rolling under her bed. It's so refreshing (no pun intended) as a mom to know that my daughter's vice is water. A source of LIFE. Now to get her to but them in the recycling    

Penitential

So far all of this Lenten season I have the same phrase repeating in my ear: ONLY THE PENITENT MAN WILL PASS, ONLY THE PENITENT MAN, ONLY THE PENITENT MAN. Thanks Indiana for reminding me that I have to KNEEL BEFORE GOD and ask for FORGIVENESS and to FORGIVE.

If seeing Indiana know that we should KNEEL and be HUMBLE before GOD then maybe seeing that even Pope Francis goes to confession.

Gift

Life as we know can get a little out of control, we have so much on our plates these days. I know for me it's a wonder that I ever get some one on one time with the kids. I was blessed these past 2 days to spend some time with my son (my daughter is off on a 13 college tour with her high school).  After he came home from a weekend of camping we had about 3 hours to relax before we went to Sunday night Mass. We normally don't go to Sunday night Mass so when we showed up 15 minutes late I felt awful. Good thing we still had 15 minutes to go to the other Catholic church in our area. We made it just in time.

Today we spent the day kind of doing our own thing. I had to do my weekly menu and other fun housework, My son was going to mow the lawn but decided to sleep in and relax in his room. He said he's do the yard at 5. I thought for sure he was going to try and brush it off for another day but 5 o'clock rolled around and sure enough he got up and started the yard. The dog and I went and got the mail and then hung out outside for awhile but then went inside so we wouldn't get in my son's way.
Now my son could have done the bare minimum but he didn't. Instead he got out the weed-whacker and then he pulled out the rake (that's his sister's job).  The pride I felt. Well you could just imagine. Most teenagers don't like doing their own work yet alone volunteer to do their sibling's work. I went outside and told him I was going to take him out to dinner. His first question was, was it in the budget.  I told him it was, we had the best dinner from Panda Express and had an even better time together.

Solitude

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I know a lot of people celebrate this day by drinking GREEN beer but here we had left over BBQ pork chops and the only thing that screamed that it was St. Patrick's Day was the extra GREEN Key Lime cake my daughter made. 

To say that she likes to bake in SOLITUDE is an understatement. 1) She LOVES to bake and gets upset if we even try- it's her thing and I love that she likes to do it. 2) She also only bakes with nobody in the kitchen or even in the living room for that matter. To take this picture I had to be 10 feet away and then promise to leave as soon as it was taken. 

 

Alone with her tunes and a mixer, making a cake she won't even eat because she doesn't like Key Lime. She is truly an amazing young lady. Giving without asking what's in it for me. Oh and since she thought the Key Lime wasn't GREEN enough she added more GREEN food coloring for us. 

  Ahh and the mess left behind. Good thing she as dishes tonight after her homework is done .

Adore

Today the kids and I had a great day out and about. We started the day with Mass and being challenged to have a better relationship with Our Lord by making sure we go to Mass EVERY Sunday and Holy Days of Obligations and if we can Daily Mass. Growing up we were raised already believing that Sundays were Holy Days of Obligation and there wasn't any excuse not to go. After I got married I got very lazy and we always came up an excuse as why we couldn't go; now there are no more excuses. The kids and I will be going to mass every Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation. 

Canon 1246
1. Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church. Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension and the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Holy Mary Mother of God and her Immaculate Conception and Assumption, Saint Joseph, the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and finally, All Saints.

In addition to Sunday, the days to be observed as holy days of obligation in the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America, in conformity with canon 1246, are as follows:

1) January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
2) Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, the solemnity of the Ascension
3) August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the  Blessed Virgin Mary
4) November 1, the solemnity of All Saints
5) December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
6) December 25, the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ 

We also met up my my son's Godmother and her little girl. It was so good to see them, We hadn't seen them for a couple of years now and it was good to reconnect with them. My son then bought himself an ipod. He's been saving up for it a years now. When we got home his sister invited him in her room so she could help him with all the apps. It was so cool to hear them talking and laughing. I ADORE these two.