The View from my Kitchen Sink

A slightly wider view

Good Friday

“So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross,to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.”
– John 19:17-18

Be with Christ today. Stand beside the cross and unite your sufferings with His. Compare your wounds with His and see that they are small, but give them to Him anyway. Compare your strength to His and see that you are weak, but give yourself to Him anyway. Walk with Him, bleed with Him, die with Him today.

image from Fisheaters.com
Read more about Good Friday at CatholicCulture.org

For Katie before Her First Communion: The Good Shepherd and World Communion

I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I would lay down my life for my sheep.

The Good Shepherd is present to us in a different sheepfold. Just as this statue show us He is present as a Shepherd, the cup and the plate remind us that he is truly present in the bread and the wine.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I wonder who the sheep are...

~~

Since we are the sheep, I am going to  replace the sheep with US.

We are all gathered before the table and the Good Shepherd is there. Where do we do this?

Since we know that the Good Shepherd is present in the bread and wine I can take the statue away now.

In this setting there is a way that we receive the Good Shepherd into our own body. This is called holy communion.The priest brings us Jesus. He is the Eucharist.

Eucharist means Thanksgiving.

We are grateful for this great gift.

My Formerly Small Success

This week, I have but one small success for Danielle's round up. She used to be very, very small. When we brought her home from the hospital, she was 4 pounds-something-ounces. I drove. Mary Beth sat in the backseat to watch sweet Sarah Anne's every breath. She tells me she was terrified. Me too. What kind of crazy woman drives herself home from the hospital after a c-section that was preceded by a hemorrhage? What kind of crazy woman does that with a newly-released NICU baby?  Me. I do. I wanted my baby home in my arms, with no wires or alarms or even very kind nurses between us. And when they said she could go, I didn't wait to take her home.

I held her close for weeks. She couldn't see us. I admit now that it made me sad. Her eyes didn't really look back when I gazed on her for hours and hours. I watched as people had babies right around her due date. I cried a bit when they started posting about smiles. She had reflux and she wheezed. We sat up and rocked and rocked. I waited for her gaze. I waited for her smile. I waited for her to be real. To be who I knew she was.

And I organized my life around her. This left much of the rest of my life looking more than a little disorganized. This left me grasping at times for measures of success. In my former life--before bedrest, before the miracle of Sarah Anne, before my husband taught me a huge lesson in love--I thought that success was measured in large part by the tangibles: things like well-ordered homes, sticking to the workout routine, finishing the planned lessons by June, and cooking and eating three nutritious meals a day.We struggled through the winter. My family was rocked in the last year like never before. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and we are stronger this spring. My former me often met the new me in the middle of the night and they had rousing arguments. The new me always won, at least in action. The baby always won.

I'd whine about the house. I'd whine about my weight. I'd whine about my lesson plans.I'd whine about the lack of time to answer all the mail in my inbox. But at the end of every day, Mike would look into my eyes and ask if I'd have it any other way. Would I relinquish the Kangaroo attachment lifestyle that I was so sure was what Sarah needed in order to do the million things that were calling for my attention in the housekeeping realm? Would I wean this baby so that my body would (hopefully) return to normal proportions? Would I hand her off time and time again so that all the externals of my life were in perfect order?

No.

 I'd rather die than hand her off.I could not, cannot bring myself to do that.This is how God gets me to cooperate with His grace.

Yesterday, I took Sarah Anne to the doctor for her monthly check up. He positively beamed through the whole visit. The baby who wasn't even on the chart when she was born six weeks early, is now in the 63rd percentile for weight and the 75th for height. Dr. C called her name and she turned to look at him. He moved around the room and her beautiful blue-green-gray eyes danced after him. He smiled at her and she smiled those dear dimples right back at him.

By the grace of God, she is a perfect, round, healthy baby. I played my small part in that big success.

Holy Thursday

             

“Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’”
– John 13:9


Call on Christ today — the same Christ who broke bread, passed the cup, and washed the feet of His disciples. Feel his healing hands. Open your heart and let Him in. Let Him feed you. Let Him quench your thirst. Let Him wash you clean.

image from Fisheaters.com
Read more about Holy Thursday at CatholicCulture.org