Can You Turn Off The Sun?

Bug and Oney were playing in their bedroom. The only light was coming from the sun shining through the window. Bug asked me if I could turn off all the lights, I told her they were off. She pointed to the window and I said that is the Sun. She then told me to go ahead and turn off the Sun.

It is funny how kids view their mom. In their eyes moms can do anything, even turn off the Sun. Mom will always be there, nothing bad can happen to mom.

I thought the same thing as a child. I saw my mom as someone who did not need rest, who did not need her own time, who was in all senses a super woman. Of course as I got older and became a mother myself I grew to know my mom as a women and a friend.

Feeling that I had a mature relationship with my mom I was surprised at my feelings of the news she gave me last week. During a doctor exam a lump was found. My mom, being the woman that she is was not going to tell me, but she needed a shoulder and I am so glad she came to me. I took her to the doctor and I was able to be with her while she had surgery. We will know the results this week.

I was surprised at my feelings because the first thing I thought was this could not be anything bad because nothing bad could happen to my mom. She is a strong super women and bad things just can not happen to her.

I had a lot of time to think about my mom and mothers in general and how the love they share with their children is indescribable. It scared me to think what the world would be like not to have my mom in it.

I thought about a mothers love and I realized that a mothers love is like a warm blanket wrapped around their children. No matter how old you get, if mom is near to you or far away, if you think about her you feel the ever present love around you. Would this blanket go away when mom left the world? Would I be left shivering in the cold? I am sure it would feel like that for a while but I firmly believe that mothers were put on this Earth to give us a tiny imperfect taste of God's love.

God is love, and the blanket I felt around me was His, even though he used my mother and her calling to help me to understand, it belongs to Him. And when the day comes that God calls my mom home I will not be in the cold because God's love is like a mothers but perfect in every way.

Things concerning my mom's health seem to be optimistic and she is doing well. Even though she is an imperfect human being and can not turn off the Sun, I will forever be grateful to her for answering the call to become a mother and to help me see the little glimpse of love God has for me and all his children.

Please pray for my mom's health and all mothers who do their best to let God shine through.

A Child's Home is a Mother's Heart

Lately I have been meeting Protestants who have converted to the Catholic Faith. They all have great stories to tell about their journey and how they came about coming to embrace the Catholic Faith as truth.

I have also noticed that these people who I have met and talked to have something in common, they have said that though they knew in their heart and soul that the Catholic Church was Christ’s Church but they all had a hard time excepting the Marian Doctrine.

For some it only took a few good books to understand a Catholic’s devotion to Our Lady. For others it took years and constant prayer.

One woman I recently met is a daughter of an ex-Catholic Protestant preacher. Right away I knew her story was going to be good. She married a Catholic man who was not devout, but he did not want to give up the Catholic faith. This woman challenged her husband to either give up the Catholic faith or “be Catholic.” Her husband took this challenge and started to learn about his faith. In the woman’s words, she said her challenge “backfired.” Her husband became devout and along the way he taught her about the faith.

This woman came to the conclusion that this was the truth and became Catholic, but she had some problems with Mary. Her husband took her to see Scott Hahn speak about Mary, and she prayed about what would be the right thing to do.

As she was at Mass she asked our Lord to help her with this and show her how to be close to our Lady. After Mass she walked outside and she said some random man walked up to her and gave her a miraculous medal, and then walked away. Well you can guess how she feels about the Blessed Mother now. I love her story because all through it you can see how God has placed husband and wife together for the sake of each other's souls. And also how our relationship with Mary is so valuable.

Her story got me thinking about my relationship with Mary. A few years ago I decided to read the Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort, and considered concentrating myself to Our Mother. During that time my prayers were much deeper than they have ever been. I really can’t explain the feeling I had as I drew closer to Our Mother, but I knew it was right. Then I had feelings of doubt. I wondered if being so close to Mary was offending Jesus. Even I, a cradle Catholic, was having trouble with Mary.

A week ago my husband told me he was going to concentrate himself to Mary, this caused me to get out my book The Secret of Mary and read it again. I also read Hail, Holy Queen by Scott Hahn, I highly recommend this book by the way. Then these Catholic converts keep crossing my path with their Mary stories.

In the book Hail, Holy Queen, Scott Hahn writes about God being a family in himself. We have the Father and the Son. But would God leave a family like that? No, God knows how important a Mother is to the family, and since God is perfect he would give us nothing less than a perfect family. That includes a Mother.

I have never felt more close to Our lord than when I kept his Mother close to me. Thanks to my husband, good books, and a handful of Protestant converts, I know how important it is to love our Mother and to accept her entirely as Jesus gave her to us.

May we be assisted, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by the worshipful intercession of Thy glorious Mother, the ever-Virgin Mary; that we, who have been enriched by her perpetual blessings, may be delivered from all dangers, and through her loving kindness made to be one heart and mind: who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.