Good Intentions

Good Intentions

Let your intentions in the fulfillment of your duties be so pure that you reject from your actions every other object but the glory of God and the salvation of souls. -St. Angela Merici

— from Sisterhood of Saints

I just had to share this quote from Minute Meditations! This is going to be my guiding mantra from now on. Let us commit these words to our minds and embed them in our hearts. Our journey is to be happy on earth so we can be happy in heaven. Our joy is in the Lord. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. 11:30). Nothing else matters. No doubt, criticism, unkindness, or ill treatment from others can get in the way of fulfilling our parental vocation. Here is the impenetrable armor. Here is your sword. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. This is our all.

 St. Anne with Mary

As St. Anne taught our Blessed Mother, so I teach my daughter...

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANNE

O glorious St. Anne, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.

Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

A Wildly Rewarding Life

The best way to become a saint is to live life to the fullest—to have an Eternally fulfilling and wildly rewarding life here on earth, doing the things you are most passionate about and doing them in a way that brings satisfaction and true joy to you and those around you, while also bringing glory to God.

— from Answer Your Call


I get these "minute meditations" in my inbox every day, and this one really struck me. The reason I feel called to unschooling and the Charlotte Mason method, I think, is the desire to live a passionate life. If our homeschooling methods do not bring us and our children joy, they are the wrong methods. Maybe not for someone else, but for us. Can you even imagine having a "wildly rewarding" life?  What would it look like?

In 1990 I traveled to Paris, France with my parents. I had dinner one night in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral. My dad had toured the inside on a day that I went to a museum. He was blown away by its beauty and described it in such detail that I have always felt like I saw it myself. Maybe one day I will.

  
Sacre Coeur, Paris, France