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H/T: My Aussie friend, CC. (Thanks, Cecilia, this is just the info I needed to see!)

Are there such things as coincidences?

I was looking for a picture of a ring that answered the description of the one Our Lord gave to St. Catherine, and this was the closest I could find:
This is the ring Gabriel found out in the dirt today. None of us has ever seen it before.

Cool, huh? Gives us a prop to discuss the day's feast, anyway...

The Ring

We have what we can call ordinary and extraordinary saints that make up the ranks of the Church Triumphant. The ordinary ones are the ones we can identify with, the ones that seemed to share our plight on earth, yet rise above it in holy but "earthbound" ways. These are the wonderful, somehow comforting saints not known for their miracles ~ saints like St. Maria Goretti , St. Francis de Sales, and St. Therese of Lisieux.

Then there are the extraordinary saints, ones that rise above the earthly in magnificent ways. Their examples go beyond piety to raise our minds to heaven; we see the power of God through them. These are the amazing saints known for their miracles, saints like St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Martin dePorres, and St. Catherine of Siena .


Today is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena, definitely an extraordinary saint.

She is one of the great and most unique souls celebrated by the Church: a Third Order Dominican, a writer of superb merit, a hermit, a mystic, a stigmatist, a civil and religious reformer, an incorruptible after her death, a saint known for wonders and miracles... The amazing story of her life is the stuff of legends. But the thing I always remember about St. Catherine of Siena is the ring.

You might remember that St. Catherine is one of the saints most highly favored in that she was one of the few who shared a mystic espousal to Our Lord ~ and when Our Lord took her for His bride, he gave her a beautiful ring.

Blessed Raymond of Capua, her confessor, documented that on the day of the espousal, St. Catherine was abstaining from the pre-Lenten feasting going on around her and was alone in her room "seeking through prayer and fasting the face of her eternal Bridegroom" when Our Lord appeared and said:

"Since for love of Me you have forsaken vanities and despised the pleasure of the flesh and fastened all the delights of your heart on Me, now, when the rest of the household are feasting and enjoying themselves, I have determined to celebrate the wedding feast of your soul and to espouse you to Me in faith as I promised."

Before He had finished speaking, His most glorious Virgin Mother appeared with the most blessed St. John the Evangelist, the glorious Apostle Paul, St. Dominic, the founder of the order, and the prophet David with his harp. While David played sweet strains on the harp, the Mother of God tood Catherine's hand in her own most holy hand and, presenting her to her Son, courteously asked Him to marry her to Himself in faith. The Son of God, graciously agreeing, held out a gold ring with four pearls set in a circle and a wonderful diamond in the middle, and with His most holy right hand He slipped it onto the virgin's second finger saying, "There! I marry you to Me in faith, to Me, your Creator and Saviour. Keep this faith unspotted until you come to Me in Heaven and celebrate the marriage that has no end."

OK, what do you say? Imagine being given away by the Blessed Mother, while King St. David plays the harp and St. Dominic and St. John look on. Picture Our Lady holding St. Catherine's hand, as Our Lord gently slips the ring on St. Catherine's finger. Wow.

The whole scene is unbelievably beautiful and miraculous, but, most touching to me, and most memorable (maybe because I'm just a very visual person) is St. Catherine's memento of the event ~ her wedding ring. Blessed Raymond tells us that, though the ring was invisible to everyone else, St. Catherine could always see it. What an an amazing, very personal reminder of Christ's love for her!

What an amazing reminder for us, too, though. In the ceremony of this mystical marriage, we see how much value Our Lord placed in the complete sacrifice St. Catherine made of her soul to Him, but we also get to see His complete understanding and sympathy for our earthly sensibilities. Our Lord surely didn't need to give St. Catherine a ring; she would have appreciated and understood their espousal without it. But Christ understands our human hearts. He knows how to touch us, and He knows how important visual symbols are for us. And a woman who has just been married really needs a wedding ring.

The wisdom of the Church, His wisdom, has always understood the power of symbols. This is part of the power and instruction of the liturgy and the sacraments, their value to us in their visual meaning. I love how the color of the vestments is an immediate hint about the feast or season, for instance. If you walk into church and see purple vestments, you think: penitential; if you walk in and the vestments are white, you think: must be a feast of Our Lady today! We can think of a sacrament and come up with an immediate image to go with it: Baptism - water, Holy Communion - Bread and Wine; Matrimony - a ring, and so forth...

But, I especailly love the symbolism of wedding rings.

* They are very often gold, because it is a precious metal valued for its purity and rareness in the symbolism of the Church. Did you know that the cup of all chalices used in holy Mass must be made of either gold or silver, but that the interior of the cup must be gold ? So gold has an association with gravity and sanctity. A golden wedding ring was also a promise of a new son-in-law to a loving father that he had the means to provide for his new wife.

* Another important symbol of a ring is its shape, a circle, the universal symbol for eternity.

* A wedding ring came to be worn on the third finger of the left hand to recognize the vena amori or vein of love, which was traditionally believed to have a direct path from the third finger to the heart, thus signifying a connection between life and love.

* Another old tradition connects the third finger with the Blessed Trinity. In medievel England, the bridegroom would slip the ring on each finger during the wedding ceremony, saying: In the name of the Father (on the index finger), the Son (on the middle finger), and the Holy Ghost (landing on the ring finger).

I think any faithful woman would agree that her wedding ring makes a circuit between herself, her husband, and God ~ a circle that passes through her heart. Christ understood the human importance of the symbol when He slipped the ring on St. Catherine's finger, and it was important to Him because He loved St. Catherine.

I look at my wedding ring when I think of St. Catherine and remember this all encompassing love: me for my husband, him for me, and God's love for us both. It's all right there. My wedding ring is not mystical in itself, but its meaning is. My calling is not as extraordinary as St. Catherine's, but it's just as important in God's scheme. And though I've not come remotely close to perfecting my love for Christ as St. Catherine did, He loves me just as He loves her. And His plan for me is all in the ring.

In my station, it's all about unity in marriage and commitment to the duties of wife and mother. And it's all wound up with saving souls ~ maybe on a small scale compared to St. Catherine, whose life affected thousands ~ but it's all of eternal importance, just the same.

For St. Catherine of Siena, the ring said it all, and it does for me, too.

St. Catherine, pray for us!

Saints With and From Large Families

Because it's the feast St. Catherine of Siena, the twenty-third of twenty-four children, I'm posting the saints we've collected (so far) who are the happy members or parents of highly blessed families ~ families containing five or more children.

Here's our list. Please let us know who needs to be added!

Queen St. Margaret of Scotland, the mother of eight children
St. Therese of Lisieux, the ninth child
St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother was the eleventh of thirteen children
St. Thomas Aquinas was the sixth son of the noble Aquino family
Gianna Beretta Molla was the 10th of 13 children, mother of 4, the last of whom she died to save (Thanks, MM)
Pope St. Piux X was the second of eleven children in the Sarto family
Queen St. Clotilda bore five children
St. Catherine of Genoa was the youngest of five children
Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the third of ten children (Thanks, Rachel)
St. Bridget of Sweden was the mother of eight children
St. Hedwig was one of eight children and the mother of seven
St. Charles Borromeo was the third of six children
St. Thomas More was the father of four children, but also had a stepdaughter and two wards, plus several other students whom he mentored
St. Bernadette of Lourdes, one of six named children (Thanks, Squelly)
St. Leonides, a martyr of the third century, was the father of seven sons
St. Louis de Montfort was one of eighteen children
St. Joan of Arc was one of five siblings
St. Francis de Sales was the oldest of six brothers
*St. Casimir of Poland -- the third of thirteen children (added 5-24-11)

As Promised: The Fairy House

Anna goes out every morning these days to check for eggs in the henhouse and fairies in the fairy house. No kiddin'.

Here's Anna's baby, with room, she tells me "for about a thousand fairies." She built her fairy house when the weather first started to clear this spring. Then William knocked it down. Durn that little brother! But Gabey's a good architect; he rebuilt the brick part and everyone pitched in to reshingle it with bark.

Now it's all ready for guests.

(shshshs... A secret door...)

Double decker fairy bunks with fresh grass mattresses .

The dining room, complete with rock stools and a little rock bowl of juniper berries.Anna, putting a lady bug in because "fairies have lady bugs for pets, you know."

If you were a fairy, wouldn't you move in?

What we're doing today...

Diggin' in the perennial beds
Where we've been pleased to find
Lots of little gardeners,
Hidden most of the time:
While we work the garden top
They work below
digging, turning, composting,
Helping things grow.

Check out the little gardener William's holding:


Most people call them worms,
But we like William's name for them better.
We've got lots of Wiggly Digglies 'round here.
The children have a Wiggly Diggly rescue center. I've been moving a brick border in our side yard and whenever I pick up a brick and unearth a Wiggly Diggly the Littles swoop in to rescue it and bury it next to Anna's fairy house (something I've been remiss in not getting pics of yet! I'll get on that... )
Addendum:
Here's a conversation I had with Anna a few minutes ago.
Anna: So worms are good guys?
Me: Yep.
Anna: How about rolie polies?
Me: Gee, I'm not sure, Anna. Neither good guys or bad guys, I imagine.
Anna: Well, worms are good guys and bad guys. (She says this with a certain authority that is so purely Anna.)
Me: (I think, "Sheesh, kiddo, this is what we've been talking about practically all morning. Why do you always have to contradict me?")
I say: I think worms really are good guys, Anna...
Anna: Well, not to a bug that worms eat, Mommy!
Me: I stand corrected.
Addendum to the Addendum
The above conversation begged the question: What do Wiggly Digglies eat, anyway?
Here's the answer we found on WikiAnswers:

Worms have tiny mouths and will take extremely small bits out of things like bacteria, fungi and protozoa. They love organic matter such as plants, fruit, compost heaps of cut grass, potato peelings and decaying animals. When the food is too large for their mouths they moisten it to make it soft and suck it in. Worms of course have no teeth and the "gizzard" does all the work. The grains of sand or soil will be ingested in with the food along with moisture (much like birds and chickens) and a grinding process occurs. When the food leaves the worm's gizzard is goes into the intestine and is dissolved and absorbed into the worm's blood which also keeps the worms moist and strong.
And:
You cannot cut their head off or cut them in the middle and they will grow into two worms. Cutting of any vital organs will kill them. However, if you cut the tail off a worm (not advisable) then they will grow another one. Worms are essential in gardens because they keep the soil soft and full of nutrients which are good for your plants. When it rains hard worms will surface to the top of the soil and although just in theory it could be there are chemicals that go into the earth or there isn't enough oxygen so they surface. Worms mainly eat dirt and leaves. Sand and soil also help.

So, it sounds like the only "bugs" that might think worms are bad guys are protozoa.
Enough about worms now.

How did GKC know about this back in 1917?

"Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." -

G.K. Chesterton

The New Name, Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays, 1917

* If you haven't had your coffee yet and need a jolt to wake up, take a look at this list of what Obama accomplished in just his first 100 days in office. Or go here to see how Karl Rove thinks he's done.

In Honor of St. Louis de Montfort

Devoted servant of the Blessed Mother,

inspired author of Total Consecration to Mary

On his feastday

St. Louis de Montfort,

Pray for us!

In Honor of St. Paul of the Cross

Founder of the Passionist Order

On his feastday

St. Paul of the Cross,

Pray for us!

Life is a Quadratic Equation

The Problem:

I grew up in the suburbs, an indoor girl, a reader, a doodler. The extent of my gardening knowlege reached to the far side of my grandmother's garden ~ and the only real expertise I gleaned there was a quick eye for the the spiders and caterpillars I helped pick off before Mommom washed and cooked up a batch of collards for us.

Our family had a couple of cats and a couple of dogs through the years, and I pig-sat our classroom guinea pig in the fourth grade. But that was the extent of my dealings with critters before we moved out to the country and started collecting a furry menagerie. A thing which we did because we had a quiver full of children that we wanted to keep busy. And, boy, did we keep them busy. We got the big boys started on the farm project and they took off with it ~ while I kept house, home, new babies and schoolbooks together, swept up around the edges, and grumbled a good part of the time.

'Cause, see, the problem is: I'm really a lazy city girl masquerading as a farm girl.

These ten-odd years in the country, sweeping up hay and scraping hog manure off of the boys' boots has not been my idea of nirvana. I learned early on (like the first week out here) that "homesteading" is not the idyllic life I might have imagined reading the Little House books. It's hard, it's gritty, and it's unrelenting. And, in all honesty, I never have liked the physical reality of it. I don't like the sweat, you know. I don't like the dirt. I don't even really like eastern Colorado. My favorite exercise is swinging in a hammock. With a glass of ice tea. And a book. In the shade.

=sigh=

I haven't had much time for the hammock thing, though, with this, that, and another thing through the years. But I've had plenty of time for whining jags. I admit it, but I'm not proud of it.

I've gone through phases these last ten years where all the "don't likes" of my life were like gremlins meeting me around every corner: mocking me through windows always dusty from the prairie wind, snorting at me through ancient plumbing, kicking at me through the mountains of tumbleweeds piled on the fences. They rode on my shoulders; they put their hands over my eyes and their fingers in my ears. They've been the chief instigators of my ongoing attitude problem. It's been real easy to find things not to like.

But I've hit upon a solution, of sorts:

There always is one. (You find that out as you go along, don't you? When we say there isn't a solution it's because we don't like the one we know is there, or we don't like the work we have to do to get to one. ) And recently I found my solution ~ or at least a reason ~ for my chronic dissatisfaction. Of all things, I recognized the mote in my own eye when I was lecturing Michelle about how important it is to get through Algebra, whether one likes it or not.

"It's hard," I told her, "and it may seem pointless to us, but, that is what makes it character building. We dont' have to aspire to being a mathmetician to benefit from the discipline and hard work needed to conquer a quadratic equation," I said. "Like a lot of things, it's all about the journey of math. If all we ever do is practice simple addition, or just hang out in the playground all day (seriously, Michelle...), it won't ever profit us a thing; our minds won't grow, our horizons won't expand. We have to climb the math hill to develop brain muscle. If you go after Algebra with the right attitude, with that in mind, you might find out it's not so terrible. You might find out that you're actually pretty good at it. You might even find out that you enjoy it."

Well, Algebra for Michelle is the farm for me. It's always been a hill to climb, a dusty dirt road to travel. It's a type of life that doesn't necessarily come naturally to me. I have to work at it: I have to struggle against my own laziness and inclination to whine. But, I've had the feeling more and more lately that the farm has been more than our attempt to keep our many growing children busy and challenged. It was meant for me, too ~ though I've never had the sense to think of it that way. God knew that I needed the physical, mental, and spiritual challenge of this life at least as much as my children have needed it. He's been giving me weights to build muscle all this time and I've been whining and lolly-gagging. I tried to get away from the farm, and because He is so good (not because I deserved it), He gave me a two-year vacation (when we got to live on the western slope of Colorado), but then He sent me right back. Back to the farm. Back to work.

It's His plan for perfecting our particular family, and now I understand that He means for me to perfect myself through it, too.

So here I am. We have the garden started, and just got the chickens going this past week. A dairy goat is likely on its way the end of this week. We've been drying apples (we got on sale), and looking at goat milk soap recipes. I'm dragging my eyes away from the life I thought I wanted (that nice, new, modern house with a small yard in the suburbs), and zeroing in on the meadowlark perched on my garden gate.

It's not like I won't have any relapses, but I'm trying to be focused, to be grateful for this life and the benefit that comes with sweat, mud, hay, and manure. I've done the work before, but now I want to build the muscle. Hopefully I'll be able to get into the swing again, the right swing.

And it'll only be a hammock if all my work is done first.

(Most of the time, anyway...)

* Sidenote: Michelle's not into quadratic equations yet; she's just finishing algebra I. The spectre of quadratic equations made a natural juxtaposition for me, because they're a nightmare from my own highschool experience... Shell and I share a common dread of math, I'm afraid.

Was there a westerly wind at your house this morning?

That would have been Colorado sighing ~ when we all woke up this morning, looked out the window, and saw this:

The Weather With William

Cloudy Day

Thunderstorm

The Blessings Yesterday

On the Feast of St. Mark

These blessings are performed in an official capacity by the Church, but it's also a nice family custom, one that literally "brings home" the importance of formally asking God's intercession in our daily lives, for the success of our endeavors and the safety of our homes. We all felt very safe here on our little farm when we had finished!

The Blessing of Crosses to be Placed in Fields and Vineyards

(Usually said on May 3rd, on the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross ~ But we decided to add it to our Greater Litany blessings. We placed four crosses made from pickets in the four corners of our "close in" acreage.)

Almighty, everlasting God, Father of goodness and consolation, in virtue of the bitter suffering of Thy Sole-Begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, endured for us sinners on the wood of the Cross, bless these crosses which Thy Faithful will erect in their vineyards, fields, and gardens. Protect the land where they are placed from hail, tornado, storm, and every assault of the enemy, so that their fruits ripened to the harvest may be gathered to Thy honor by those who place their hope in the holy Cross of thy Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who livest and reigneth with Thee eternally.
Amen.

Blessing of Pasture, Meadows, and Fields

(To be prayed sometime before the cattle are put on pasture for the summer. )

O God, through whom every good thing has its beginning, and through whom it is improved and increased; grant, we beseech Thee, to us who cry to Thee, that this work, which we are beginning for the praise of Thy name, may be happily brought to completion through the never-failing gift of Thy fatherly wisdom. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Blessing of the Sprouting Seed

(We all especially loved this sweet little prayer, and, in light of where we live, put special emphasis on the the word "soft"...)

Bless this sprouting seed, strengthen it in the gentle movement of soft winds, refresh it with the dew of heaven, and let it grow to full maturity for the good of body and soul.

Amen.

Processing while praying the Litany of the Saints.

Blessing of a Farm

(We like this prayer, especially, too; I hope to incorporate it into our daily prayers.)

Bless, O Lord Almighty God, this house (and/or farm). May health and purity, goodness and meekness, and every virtue reign here. May all those who dwell here be filled with faithfulness to Thy law and with thanksgiving to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. May this blessing remain on this house (and/or farm) and all who dwell here. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessing of All Domestic Animals

(Chickens, in this case...)

Lord God King of heaven and earth, Thou the Word of the Father by Whom all creatures were given us for our support: look down, we beseech Thee, on our lowliness. As Thou has given us these animals to assist us in our labor and needs, so mayest Thou in Thy great goodness and mercy bless them from above, guard and preserve them; and, while Thou givest Thy servants temporal benefits, mayest Thou grant us Thy continual grace, so that we may praise Thy holy name with thanksgiving.

Amen.

Blessing of a Stable

Blessing of a Stable O Lord, Almighty God, who didst decree that Thy only- begotten Son, our Redeemer, should be born in a stable and laid in a manger between an ox and an ass, bless, we beseech Thee, this stable and preserve it from every deceit and snare of the devil that horses and cattle within it may be healthy and secure from all harm. And if "the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib," grant that Thy servants, whom Thou hast made to Thy own image and hast placed only a little lower than the angels may not be like unreasoning animals; that they may not be like the horse and the mule that have no understanding, but that they may acknowledge Thee, the one true God, the Author of all good, and that Thy servants may persevere in Thy service. Grant that Thy servants may always give thanks to Thee for the gifts they have received from Thee; and make them worthy to receive ever greater benefits. Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Greater Litanies

On the Feast of St. Mark...

...we remember one of the great evangelists (one of my husband's patron saints!), but this day in the liturgical year is set apart from the others to take care of other business, as well.

As explained in The Liturgical Year, the Church breaks for a moment today from the joy of the Easter Season to offer prayers of reparation: the vestments return for a moment to the violet of Lent, the Mass of the Stations (the Rogation Mass) is offered, and the Faithful process outside the church, while singing the Litany of the Saints. This tradition of the Church goes back to before the time of St. Gregory the Great.

It seems a little incongruous, maybe, to throw a wet blanket on Eastertide with a day of penance like this one, but I think, as always, the Church has a good thought here. Sort of the flip side of Laetare Sunday (when the Church brings out the pink vestments and incorporates a spirit of joy in the middle of a penitential season). It's like taking a little time during a period of plenty and ease to clean out the cellar and take stock of our stores. We should never be presumptuous or forgetful, even in our joy.

But, we don't take long in our backward (or maybe I should say inward) look on this feast day, as the Church turns our faces forward to the hope of spring. Today is crop blessing day!

In lieu of a traditional blessing, since we're not able to have the Greater Litanies celebrated in our parish today, we'll be heading out to the garden this afternoon to say the Litany of the Saints and bless our crops ourselves. Catholic Culture has a wonderful description of how a family can do this!

Go figure; it looks like we may have rain for our blessing, though. The children were just saying it always rains on the Feast of St. Mark.

Which makes me think that's just part of the blessing...

A Monkey Tale

In which Lester, the stuffed monkey, has an adventure and Gabey learns not to stand under trees and throw his toys in the air.

All's well that ends well.

Time to start...

... a novena to St. Joseph in order to end on his feastday, May 1st!
(Can you believe April is this close to being over already?)

Lots of things to commend to dear St. Joseph's hands these days. I'm remembering my husband, whose labor all these years has sustained our family so well ~ and I'm asking St. Joseph for his continued aid for my husband in the coming storms. And for my own improved industriousness and efficiency...

(Can you ask for too many things on the coattails of one novena, I wonder?)

Because I also want to ask prayers for St. Joseph's powerful intercession for the Universal Church.

And a word for all the Josephs in our life
(That's you, Paul, Gabe, and Grandpa!)...

St. Joseph, Patron of Workers

(Feast – May 1)

O GLORIOUS ST. JOSEPH,

Model of all who are devoted to toil,

Obtain for me the grace to toil

In the spirit of penance,

In order thereby to atone

For my many sins;

To toil conscientiously,

Putting devotion to duty

Before my own inclinations;

To labor with thankfulness and joy,

Deeming it an honor

To employ and to develop by my labor

The gifts I have received from Almighty God;

To work with order,

Peace, moderation and patience,

Without ever shrinking

From weariness and difficulties;

To work, above all,

With a pure intention

And with detachment from ourselves,

Having always before my eyes

The hour of death

And the accounting

Which I must then render

Of time ill-spent,

Of talents unemployed,

Of good undone

And of empty pride in success,

Which is so fatal to the work of God.

All for Jesus,

All through Mary,

All in imitation of you,

O Patriarch Joseph!

This shall be my motto

In life and in death.

Amen.

H/T: Esther, whom I sincerely thank for the reminder!