Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Catholic Mom Amy Blair: Change of Heart About The Eucharist





This past Saturday at our Moms meeting here in Niagara Falls, NY
Amy Blair shares the story of her search 
to understand the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  
As a second grade teacher, 
Amy was expected to prepare her students for First Holy Communion.  
But ironically God was calling her to become the student.
What she learns in her own classroom changes everything.  

(Witness talk: about 30 min)

Monday, January 6, 2014

New Years Resolution ~ in ONE WORD

True confessions-

I am a New Years Resolution failure.

Every year in December I think of all these great habits I should acquire and over the Christmas break I fantasize about how once it is January I will FOR SURE go to the gym EVERY DAY (even though I never go now) and guess what? Life happens, and the resolutions don't.

I'm so grateful to my mother-in-law for telling me about a new way to make a New Years Resolution ~ just find ONE WORD. That one word is the key to improvement for the New Year in a way that will work. An example best demonstrates it:


Let's say your ONE WORD is HEALTHY.

Write your ONE WORD on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, the computer as a reminder of your ONE WORD.

Then each day, do something toward that word. If your word is healthy, maybe today it means you take a long walk.  Maybe tomorrow the schedule is crammed and you can't walk, so you have a salad for lunch instead of a Big Mac. The next day you make a vegetable soup for your family. The following day all the stars line up and you actually make it to spin class. The next day, you have a ton of errands to run, so you park your car really far from the entrance of the stores to get extra walking in. Then next day, you are at the office and you decide to take the stairs to the 6th floor.

Get it? On any day, no matter what the schedule or demands, you can do something toward your ONE WORD.

Now, let's look at a couple other potential words and suggestions on how to grow in that habit or virtue:


WELCOMING
Host a coffee at your house.
Have milk and cookies ready when the kids get home from school.
Smile at a stranger.
Help an elderly person get into church.


HOLINESS
Go to daily mass.
Pray 10 minutes in the early morning.
Read the gospel.
Love your husband.


PATIENCE
Taking a deep breath and letting the toddler do it his way, instead of doing it for him.
Taking a deep breath before I explain to the teenager for the 20th time why he can't go to a party.
Waiting in a car line and saying a prayer instead of gunning my engine.
Bearing illness joyfully instead of complaining.
Praying for the clerk in the long grocery line who probably feels all the glares from all those in front and behind you.
Cleaning the kitchen (again).

So if you want to do the ONE WORD resolution this year, please post a comment on the blog on your WORD and some ideas on how you are going to live it!