Is your home a castle?

It's so funny.... I often come across couples who are procrastinating getting married, or procrastinating having children because they are saving to buy a house... or something... And I can't help but thinking they have it all backwards. God has given you a GIFT in your fiancee. God has given you a GIFT with your fertility. Why in the world want to delay getting married? Why would you want to delay having children? If you view them as a gift from God, wouldn't you want to embrace those spiritual gifts as a priority? I will never forget relishing in the grace that helped me see that my newborn daughter did not care about the size of my house, whether I owned it or not, all she cared about was having mommy hold her, feed her and love her! We rented for the first FIVE years in our marriage. We had both of our children in a rented house! Why do couples think that they have to have it ALL right away? There is no security except for God's mercy, His providence and care! A real castle is a home filled with love and tenderness, not equity and stuff. In fact, the stuff, and yes the BIG house CAN be a distraction to family life.

Retreat in the City

Before becoming a mom, I would go, quite regularly, on organized retreats, Catholic conferences or attend prayer groups on a regular night. 

But since having my children and dealing with my husband's travel schedule and my kids sports schedule and my own work schedule, 
I have had to become a little more creative in getting my Catholic spirituality nourished. 

I am not exactly sure when, but somewhere along the way, I started creating my own retreats, based on my own timetable , right in the middle of the city and my family life. 

I found that communing with God, doesn't really require a cabin in the woods, a long drive to a distant city or even a remote retreat center. I have found a way to retreat, right in my own neighborhood. These monthly retreats are incredibly convenient and besides that, the price is right. And guess what, graces really do abound.

I often hear women say they want to become more spiritual, so I thought sharing how I spend my retreat days might spark a little interest -- and intrigue other women to do the same, especially women who might not be able to get away from home.

CONFESSION & MASS on a WEEKDAY

My retreat day usually starts with a visit to my spiritual director for both spiritual direction and the sacrament of reconciliation. From that visit some type of theme usually does develop. This past visit my spiritual director asked me some thought provoking questions. One of them really got me thinking....

"Where does your self value come from?" 

He also asked me to reflect on the history of my relationship with God. Often, right after my meeting, I go to a near by park, a beautiful park and scribble notes from our meeting in my journal. It's not unusual for me to walk by the lake and pray the rosary and do the penance he recommended immediately after I have met with him. 

With my heart full of graces and inspirations, I head out to noon mass or if the Holy Spirit calls, I may go to mass at the airport at 1pm instead. It's not unusual for the Holy Spirit to give me a very specific instruction during mass. I was inspired to write a blog post entitled, Retreat in the City, immediately after mass. The title itself, an inspiration.

LUNCH

After all of this spiritual work, I stop for lunch and reflect on the inspirations and graces God has given me. 

I have loved having lunch on my own ever since I can remember!

This particular lunch I fell upon a magazine that is the bomb! I absolutely love it! very inspirational -- Where Women Create is a real joy and it focused my attention on my work and how God has given me all sorts of signal graces which have changed the course of my professional work... 

This particular issue is jam packed with women who have now challenged me NOT to be satisfied with what I have done so far...   but to keep seeking His Will and stretching myself for Him, through Him and with Him. 

Often times, when we look to women in our immediate surroundings, we may find women who are disgruntled with their work, don't expect much of themselves, or women who just don't believe in miracles and that God wants to work through them to touch other lives -- so, finding inspiration in other women who have listened to the promptings in their own hearts and followed their intuition to lead a creative life -- is something I love doing...

DOING SOMETHING THAT YOU LOVE

Whenever I have delivered seminars, I have often asked participants,

"What do you
 LOVE 
to do?" 

And then I coaxed or coached participants into actually dedicating some time to doing it. I am a big believer that if you love doing something, you are bringing more LOVE into the world. So, if you love baking bake, if you love dancing dance, if you love painting paint.

My retreat days, often include giving myself the permission to follow an inner surge to do something I love or something creative. This particular afternoon, I gave myself permission to take at least a dozen photographs of a couple of buildings that have always intrigued me. I gave myself permission to go and stare at them from different angles. I allowed myself to ask myself, why I liked them, how they affected me and just to stare at them.

It's funny, I stared at them from different angles, different places and just immersed myself in them. I have been wanting to do this for such a very long time, but I was always in a hurry to somewhere else.

Somewhere else, besides where God was calling me to, somewhere else besides the present moment, somewhere else besides relishing in the sun, the sky and the beauty and richness of living in the city I live in.

After awhile, it dawned on me, that there was a connection between the inspiration to write a Retreat in the City and the photographs. I hadn't planned it. It just ended up that way....

RESUMING DUTIES

On my retreat days, I give myself permission,

not to do housework, 
not to make dinner from scratch....   

I do go about fulfilling my duties -- but I try to stream line them by either cooking ahead of time, or cleaning in advance, so I can create a day in my life where I pay most of my attention to Him. 

I know it may sound selfish, but a reassuring thought is that many go away on retreats for several days and I doing this once a month as a way to refocus my efforts to discern His Will.

This particular day, I popped into the house served dinner, talking much less than I usually do which was in itself a miracle and then I left for the 24 hour chapel which is moments away from home.

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

I am really blessed because I live 15 minutes away from three different Eucharistic Adoration Chapels. Isn't it marvelous how Jesus Christ Himself, makes Himself available to us 24/7? My retreat this time round ended with a Holy Hour. I will never forget the year where the Holy Spirit prompted me to do nine holy hours in nine consecutive days to help me map out what God wanted me to do the following year!  

I pray that you too will start the habit of a monthly day of retreat! This particular month, I was treated to some beautiful flowers and so far -- I have been able to keep them! 

I would love to hear about your retreat adventures and about the marvelous things that God is doing in your life!

Give HER the flowers!

There was a time when, I was under a lot of pressure as a mom of two young children. My husband traveled often. After reading a magazine article about the importance of pampering yourself... I went out and bought myself a bouquet of flowers....

After putting the groceries away... I remembered that I had forgotten the flowers in the trunk... 

So, I got to the trunk of my car... got the flowers... and there was this young mom pushing a stroller coming towards me. I didn't know her... but I heard this voice in my head,

 "Give HER the flowers!"

I argued with it -- tried to rationalized it... I stood there as she approached me (I could see her from afar) arguing with myself... 

I heard the command several times, 

"Give HER the flowers!" 

Finally I conceded, I figured, an act of kindness, couldn't be wrong. So, right when she was passing my car... 

I handed them to her saying, 

"Something just tells me I should give these flowers to you." She was stunned, she burst out crying, she was off work, taking care of her child because she had just miscarried and was trying to destress type thing. 

I hugged her.... never saw her again... but I was equally astounded.

Praise God, for the power of the Holy Spirit!