I began my morning the way I begin most of my mornings now, praying the Rosary. Today is Monday, which means we pray my favorite mysteries today-The Joyful Mysteries. Mondays are usually a rough day mentally because it means that a new work week has begun; my husband works with a small group of people and can still go into work instead of work from home, and the weekend seems far away. With the quarantine still in effect, it makes the days seem longer as we have no where to go and instead stay inside most of the day because we have not had nice weather where I live. However, we get to start out the week praying The Joyful Mysteries, and that helps put things in a more positive perspective. As I reflect on all the mysteries throughout the Rosary, we come to the last one, Finding Jesus in the Temple. Mary and Joseph thought that they had lost the Son of God for three days, and were filled with worry. They finally found him in the temple and rejoiced when they saw him. The fruit of this mystery is the joy in finding Jesus.
Kids are great examples for finding joy in Jesus every day. My siblings and I were fortunate enough to be raised Catholic. I remember when we were younger that my brother wanted to be a priest when he grew up (as he got older, this changed. He’s now working on becoming an airline pilot!). We would all gather together and hold mass at our house. My brother was the priest, my older sister was in charge of the readings, with my younger sister helping her, and I was usually in charge of the music. I remember one day my mom invited our neighbors over for our mass. When it came time to pass out the collection basket, my brother was confused why no one had put any real money in it (we were also typical kids trying to find ways to make money too- haha!).
We all attended Catholic school for most of our school years, so faith was always a part of our education. Lent in particular was a special time for us because in addition to going to mass weekly, we were able to attend the Stations of the Cross every Friday too. Afterwards it was the end of the school day and we all went home. Because they held the Stations at the end of the day, a lot of parents, including our Mom, were able to attend and just pick up the kids right after. On Good Friday, sometimes our Mom would try to take us to Stations of the Cross at church at 3 PM. If we couldn’t make it, then I remember my siblings and I would all gather together at 3 PM, the time that Jesus died on the cross, and have our own religious ceremony, where one of us would read the crucifixion story from one of the gospels, and some of us would write our own reflections, or choose a song to sing. It’s such a fond memory that I have of all of us sharing our faith together as a family.
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| These are the Resurrection Eggs we would do together every year! More pictures are at the bottom. |
The Saturday before Easter is usually the day that my siblings and I would do the Resurrection eggs. My mom was a Sunday school teacher one year and got those eggs for her class. She kept them afterwards and it became a tradition for all of us to do them together. What they are is a carton of 12 Easter eggs, filled with a symbol from the Story of the Crucifixion. We each would choose a few eggs and pass around the book with the reflection for each symbol, and it would tell the story of the Crucifixion. It was a great activity and when my kids are a little older I would like to continue the tradition with them.
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| We are looking forward to Easter and Spring! |
It is such a blessing for me to see my own kids find joy in Jesus every day! We keep our Nativity out all year, and before the kids go to bed, they say goodnight to baby Jesus, and then walk over to the cross by our stairs and ask to give Jesus on the cross a kiss goodnight. We pray with them every night and are working on teaching them the sign of the cross. So far, Rebecca says AMEN! and Gabriel says “Father, Son, Amen!”- we’ll get the Holy Spirit in there soon :).
With all of the uncertainty today and the quarantine due to COVID-19, it can be easy to feel on edge and focus on the negatives. However, we have been given a blessing to be stranded in the desert, so to speak, with Jesus. We may be isolated from each other, and our routines may be disrupted, but our goal as Catholics is to find Jesus in life with us no matter where we are. He has given us the gift to really be present with Him in the desert this Lent and we should take this opportunity to grow. As I reflected on the mysteries this morning, and on the memories of growing up in my faith with my siblings around Easter, I felt hope that by Easter this year, the Church will be open and we will have mass. I am supposed to go visit my family for Easter this year. I don’t know if that will happen or not, but I choose to remain hopeful that it will. I am trying to find the joy in my day by finding Jesus present around me, such as when I see my kids kiss Jesus goodnight, or feel His presence when I pray to Him or pray the Rosary every morning.
It may be hard to find some quiet time now with so many people stuck at home, but take a few moments every day and try to find how God is present in your lives. I feel so blessed to have the technology that we have to be able to still watch mass as home when we aren’t able to go in person, or to be able to still communicate with others instead of being in total isolation.
Today is a day to be grateful for our blessings, have hope for the future, and remember that God is present with us every day. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
~Michelle
