Feast of St. Vincent de Paul (2nd post for today)

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul. He was born into a poor family in the late 1500s. While a young priest, he was captured by pirates & sold into slavery. After two years, he converted his last master & was set free.

Throughout the rest of his life, he became a trusted advisor to French royalty & was dedicated to helping the poor. He helped them find jobs, food, & clothing. He founded the Daughters of Charity, who helped gather money & nurse the sick. He also helped in building homes for those who were sick, aged, & abandoned.

This past Sunday, I stayed home from church because I had a splitting headache & The Saint was also not feeling great. While home, I decided to watch Monsieur Vincent, a 1947 movie about St. Vincent de Paul's work w/ the poor & the struggles he faced in trying to bring the poor & royalty together.

During one scene, he was conferring w/ a group of society's ladies who felt he was causing more trouble. In their minds, he caused more poor people to come to Paris & in turn, caused more crime & problems. He had found a baby outside a church, left to die, & none of the women were willing to take the child in because he had been born in sin.

Monsieur Vincent replied, "When God wants someone to die to pay for sin, He sends His Son."

Despite their shame, they continued to refuse helping him & were very judgmental towards the poor. They tried to encourage him to stop all his work w/ the poor because it was causing problems in their society & going against the judges of the day. I LOVE his response to them:

"When I appear in front of my only Judge, do you think I'll tell Him, 'I witnessed crimes but didn't want to interfere and get in trouble with the local institutions and the judges who allow those crimes."

Now, I don't know for sure if St. Vincent de Paul actually said the above mentioned quotes, but they are still powerful to me.

To the day he died, at the age of 84, he continued to work for the poor & felt that he'd never done enough in his life. As one can see to this day, his work continues through The St. Vincent de Paul Society. Just two weekends ago, our parish had a truck in the parking lot for parishioners to leave their donations of clothing, household items, toiletries, & more.

There will always be poor among us. It is our Christian duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves, no matter what our status may be in life. If everyone did just a little bit, think of how big that assistance would be.

St. Vincent, patron of all charitable associations and father of those who are in misery, come to our assistance. Obtain from Our Lord help for the poor, relief for the infirm, consolation for the afflicted, protection for the abandoned, a spirit of generosity for the rich, grace of conversion for sinners, zeal for priests, peace for the Church, tranquility and order for all nations, and salvation for them all. May we be united in the life to come, by your intercession, and experience joy, gladness, and everlasting happiness. Amen.

Mother's Pride

The day after the earthquake in Haiti, Casinodad & I decided that we would send some of our money to help out. Sure we had this money set aside for some other things, but this relief effort is much more important. The next morning, I was telling the munchkins what happened & what we were planning to do. The Prophet went to get his bank, dumped it all onto the kitchen table, & gave every last penny to me for Haiti. Then he, The Archangel, & The Princess decided to give some of their Christmas money...$20 from each of them. When I asked if they were sure they wanted to give that much, they were firm in their decisions. They've also been making sure that we include the people of Haiti & all those joining in the rescue efforts in our prayers each night.

Small Successes

Oops! I can't believe I forgot to participate in "Small Successes" last week! We were busy, plus Casinodad had last Thursday off (when he has to work on a Saturday, he gets the Thursday before off). So here goes for the past two weeks...

1) I mowed the lawn for Casinodad. He wasn't going to do it until Thursday, but it was looking pretty overgrown on Monday. The Saint was taking a longer nap, school was done, & it was a beautiful day. I probably looked silly at first - I hadn't mowed the lawn in almost two years due to The Saint's pregnancy. At first, I couldn't find the spark plug attachment then I couldn't find the button to prime it. But, alas, I found all & the mowing got done!

2) Last Friday was a beautiful day! After school was done, I packed the munchkins into the car, stopped at Taco Bell, & we headed to a local park. We had a great time! After eating, I let them play on the playground. The Saint tried the baby swings for the first time & loved them. Then we took a nature walk around the lake & saw frogs, dragonflies, fish, & a turtle.

3) The munchkins & I, along w/ my Small Church Community, took a trip to a center run by a Franciscan sister. It's only about an hour away, but they are so poor in that area. She takes in donations & distributes them to the local people. We try to go down there at least twice a year, then in Dec. we send financial support down to her for Christmas meals & gifts for kids. (This is the same place I've mentioned in past posts that our church donates to in January.)

Check out www.faithandfamilylive.com to view other Small Successes. What a wonderful way to share & show support of others!

Small Successes

Here's what I've been successful about this past week:


1) Along w/ another lady from my church, we coordinated a donation drive for a center run by a Franciscan Sister about an hour away from us. About 6 1/2 years ago, this Sister came to our church & gave a talk about the center & the poor people she serves. It really hit me hard & I talked to a dear lady from my church about it. Since then, we have organized a drive through our church in January. Parishioners donate clothing, food, household items, toys, & books. Last year, we asked for new shoes. That went over so well, that this year, we decided to ask for new socks & underwear. Due to inclement weather in January, we went on Valentine's Day this year. This was our biggest year - we had about 18 vehicles fully loaded to caravan to the center. The Prophet told me on the way down that Valentine's Day was the perfect day to go - "a gift of love for the poor people of xxx County." Here is a picture of the sorting area at the center after we delivered our stuff. This is just over half of what we took there.



2) For the past month or so, I've had a large storage tub in the basement full of clean laundry. I finally took it upstairs & put all the clothes away. Hmmm...I knew The Saint had more sleep sacks!


3) I went for my physical on Monday. They called yesterday w/ the blood work results & everything was right as it should be (except Vitamin D levels - that test takes a little longer, so I don't have those results yet). I was expecting my triglycerides to be high. I was on medication for them before this last pregnancy, but obviously had to stop. Thankfully, they've stayed down! Even w/ insurance, the medication wasn't exactly cheap.


So, what are your Small Successes for the past week. Hop over to http://www.faithandfamilylive.com/ to share yours & check out more!

The Prophet's Gift

Last Friday, Casinodad took the day off work so that he & I could spend the day together. The Archangel & The Princess went to my parents' house for the day & The Prophet went to Casinodad's parents'. His mom was going to bring The Prophet home around 9pm, but called my cell phone about 7 saying they'd need to bring him home early because Casinodad's sister was ill & they were going to take her to the ER. We were still at my parents' so we just left & picked him up since their house was on our way home.

Earlier that day, we had stopped at a tent sale on the way to my parents' house & each of the munchkins picked out a small toy. The Prophet picked out some weird looking robot type toy that lit up & shook when the button was pressed. He loved that toy & talked about it all morning. That night when we picked him up, he said that he had given it to his aunt because she didn't feel well. He said that he told his grandma that giving was his gift from God. We were so proud of him & called my parents right away to share the story with them.

Sunday morning, as we were getting ready for church, my mom called & asked if my dad could use that story in his homily that day. (For those of you who don't know - my dad has been the deacon at our church for over 25 years.) His gift of giving fit right in w/ the readings for the Feast of the Body & Blood of Christ. I asked The Prophet & he said sure.

At Mass later, he was beaming from ear to ear when Grandpa shared his story. The Archangel looked up at me & said, "That's about The Prophet, isn't it? Will he tell a story about me too?" I said I was sure he would sometime. Well sure enough, he ended his homily with the story of The Prophet giving his tooth fairy money to his brother because The Archangel hadn't lost any teeth yet.

Peace, munchesmom

Of Kindness & Compassion

Our Small Church Community has a large jar that we put out doing our gatherings. In it, we place any pocket change or extra money that we happen to have on hand. We've done this for a little over a year, but had not decided what to do with the money we've collected. Well, a couple months ago, we decided to send that money to a center run by a Franciscan sister in a poor county not too far from us. Twice a year we drive down there to donate clothing, toiletries, etc. They do not take those donations in November & December because they are focusing on purchases of food & gifts for children during the holidays.

This morning, I mentioned to the munchkins that our group had saved over $300 in our jar & I was going to get the rest of our family's donations added to it. All three of them gathered their piggy banks & gave some to help out. The Archangel & The Princess gave me a small handful each. The Prophet dumped all his money onto the kitchen table & proceeded to give me 4 1/2 handfuls of his change, almost half of his money. I told him that he didn't have to give that much if he didn't want to. He told me, "But I want to. They need it more than I do." I am so proud of his compassion for those children less fortunate.

Peace, Munchesmom