St John of the Cross

Today, we celebrate the life of st John of the Cross.  Imagine living a life of poverty from the earliest age...having no father...wandering the streets homeless with your mother...and in spite of it all, have the gift to see the beauty and love in all the things around you!  This is the life of St John of the Cross and that was before he reached adulthood!  The story gets even better than that when he enters into the life of a monk.  Here is his story continued:

"After John joined the Carmelite order, Saint Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to its life of prayer. But many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John's own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell six feet by ten feet and beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell.

"After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window using a rope made of strips of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to civilization. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns. From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God's love."

What an amazing holy man of God!  We can learn so much from his life.  It is so easy to complain and be negative in what we consider hardships.  God calls us to find the beauty in all that we have around us.  This is a lesson I need to remind myself...today I am going to try to list all the beautiful things in my day, especially when the day gets difficult.

And, today was one of those days when life got difficult!  I happened to open up the news right after the shootings in the Connecticut elementary school.  I was horrified at the thought that someone would shoot such innocent children.  And in such a time we pray...for us it was easy to find consolation in the following prayer that a friend of mine shared:


Holy Innocents, you died before you were old enough to know what life means, pray for all children who die young that God may gather them into His loving arms.
Holy Innocents, you were killed because one man was filled with hatred, pray for those who hate that God may touch their hearts and fill them with love.
Holy Innocents, you experienced a violent death, pray for all who are affected by violence that they may find peace and love.
Holy Innocents, your parents grieved for you with deep and lasting sorrow, pray for all parents who have lost young children that God may wrap a warm blanket of comfort around them.
Holy Innocents, those around you certainly felt helpless to prevent your deaths, pray for all who feel helpless in their circumstances that they may cling to God for courage and hope.
Holy Innocents, you who are now in Heaven, pray for all of us that one day we may join you there to bask in God's love forever.
Amen.

It was hard to get back on track after this happened, but for the sake of my own children we continued with our day.  Henry added a lamp to our nativity scene today...so fitting in the midst of this darkness we just felt in our nation.  "See that the crib has sufficient light. Be neat and orderly about your person; keep everything in its place in your room. Jesus, be the life and light of our souls. Amen"

We then read the Bible devotion from Matthew with Jesus once again speaking to the crowd about the hypocrisy that is seen in those who do not understand the ways of God.  Yet, he says, "wisdom is vindicated by her works."  We need not worry about what others think when we are following God's will.  The plan of action will bear fruits abundantly.

This message carry through in our Jesse Tree ornaments as Isaiah is called to speak for God...first being touched by the hot ember to his lips in a dream...he must go forth and deliver the Word of God. (Isaiah 9)


We then completed our day of school...finishing the quarter for the older boys!  Sean and Henry had a great science experiment to show the effects of acceleration and velocity (notice Zaira in the middle of it all!).  Edward is holding out for another round tomorrow but we are all hoping it will go quickly now that he has made it through long division!

We also had our last Math Counts until after the New Year.  We decided to have another fun activity...this time it was with geometric solids.  I found some geometric nets to print off from a website and had these ready along with some wooden solids.  We reviewed the names of the different shapes.  I thought it was funny because Brendan decided he would teach the group at this point as he already knew all the names of the geometric solids!  He was so cute and I do wish I had thought to video his instruction!  Then we discussed what a net is to a mathematician.  Finally, we put together our own cardboard solids from the nets printed!  What I did not tell everyone was that we were going to add a fun volume lesson into the mix as well!

I had marshmallows to fill the geometric solids they made.  I had everyone guess how many marshmallows fit in a given solid...they wrote their guess down and then tried to fill the solid.  By the time we were half way through, Henry had decided he would try using a volume formula to try to make a more educated guess...I think he figured out that there was going to a prize for the one who estimated the closest to the correct number!  It was a great transition into discussing the formulas for all geometric solids.  This lesson turned out better than I thought...I love it when everything comes together like that!

Now...remember that puzzle we 'started' on the first day of Advent...well let's just say that our Advent puzzle had been put on the wayside as we tried to complete our schoolwork.  This afternoon, Sean got off to a better start by almost completing the outer edges!  Once the others saw it coming together , they joined in as well.  We should be able to work on it more now...in hopes that we complete it in time for Christmas!

We did check out our pumpkin again today...it does not appear to have changed much in the last couple of days but who knows what is happening on the inside!  Only time will tell.  All I know is that it is pretty gross even without a lot of change in appearance!

We read some more of Jesus of Nazareth.  Because there are two separate accounts of Jesus' birth some theologians want to believe that the Gospel writers were trying to fit their accounts to prophesy...however Ratzinger assures us that the two accounts are only written to share two different sides of the story...both are accurate for what they were trying to bring forth to those who read their Gospel.

It would be like us telling the police what happened at the scene of a crime...we would all have different points of view and possibly different reasons to be witnesses...Matthew and Luke tell their account to emphasize the theology that they were called to spread to the world.

Looking back at the events of the day, I think we all pent a little more time appreciating each other.  I took pictures of the children doing the ordinary things of the day.  Yes, even more than I already do!  Like, Zaira playing peek-a-boo with Sean with the sofa cover.  She loves playing this game and I just love watching her discover new ways to engage others to play it with her.  She has these boys wrapped around her finger...as they will stop everything to make her smile!




We got the younger boys to sleep and then a fun project began for Sean and Henry.  We got a big package in the mail today for Zaira!  She has been really struggling with the desire to be more mobile as she watches her brothers have so much fun around her.  We decided to find an activity center for her to play with...and we found the perfect match for her.  Unfortunately it came in a gazillion pieces!  The boys were able to get it together (and even read the directions to assure me that it was all put together correctly!).  She woke up just in time to try it out!  I am sure this will get a lot of use in the next year or so as it grows with the child into the toddler years.