Venerable Conchita, our model of wife and mother

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2006/11/13
Encouragement
Dear ARCH-Angels
I wanted to share with you a reflection I read yesterday that brought my heart and tired spirit great strength and encouragement.

"For each of us, salvation means no more and no less than taking up daily the same cross of Christ, accepting each day what it brings as the will of God, offering back to God each morning all the joys, works, and sufferings of that day. But those are abstract words. What it means, in practice, is spelled out as always by the poor old body. It means getting up each morning and going to bed exhausted. It means the routine not the spectacular. It can mean drudgery, pain, putting aside pleasures, happiness, or the love the human heart craves until another time, so that what is necessary at the moment can be done. It means working for others, touching the lives of others through the medium of the body." - Father Walter J. Ciszek,  Magnificat, November, p. 113

 As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach and our to-do-list gets longer let us stay focused on the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Let us continue to see our routine daily tasks of motherhood as our means to holiness. Let us draw great strength from reflecting on the Holy Family during Advent. God bless each of you! Your witness of holiness is a constant encouragement to me. Thank you!

 In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,  Lourdes  

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Sympathy

Dear ARCH-Angel Mothers,  Sharing A Mother's Heart met this Saturday and like always we were all inspired in so many ways. I feel that our Blessed Mother has been using this mother's group to form our hearts. She has been little- by- little revealing to us what our vocation of motherhood truly is. She is slowly forming each of our hearts to resemble Hers, so that we can be lights in the world; revealing to the world what true motherhood looks like. Since it is difficult for many of you to attend the group, I would like to share with you some of our inspirations and thoughts. The topic we discussed this month was SYMPATHY.

Sally Clarkson writes, "Christ's sacrifice on the cross is such a clear picture in my mind of what it means to be a sympathetic mother. In the same way that Jesus gave up his rights to die for me, I need to give up my rights to serve my children. I need to nail my personal agenda to the cross so I can really see what my children need at any point in my day. I need to give up my tendency to "lord it over" them just to control them so I can accomplish my own desires. Then I need to humble myself so I can reach into my children's hearts without bumping into my own selfish needs and expectations. Then maybe I can be a servant to them with a heart that can sympathize with them as children. When I enter their world, then I can minister to them. If I want to be a picture of Jesus to them, he has already sketched an outline for me." (Seasons Of A Mother's Heart, p.113)

 Sally Clarkson says, "Sympathy is simply the willingness to understand and validate your child's thoughts and feelings". Mother Adela, foundress of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, taught me this summer that we must treat the hearts of our children with great love and sympathy. Gently picking them up when they are feeling discouraged, consoling them when their scared and insecure, gently guiding them when their going astray, taking the time to wipe their tears when their feeling scared and misunderstood, always being for them an oasis of love ,compassion, and sympathy. As we grow in our vocation as holy mothers and we become this oasis for our children and husbands, we will also be an oasis for the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, consoling Them and loving Them through the hearts of our husbands and children. We spoke Saturday that sometimes when are children are whining or complaining they don't need our criticism, but what they need is our sympathy. Through our motherly discussion our Blessed Mother opened my heart to understand what my son, Nicholas, has been feeling. His two older teenage brothers have been rejecting him and he doesn't want to be with the "little brothers" so he has been feeling rejected and insecure, and whining a lot. What my Nicky needs more than any thing else is my sympathy. Let us each unite our hearts this month asking Jesus and Mary to mold our motherly hearts, making them meek, humble, and especially sympathetic. Let us also pray that the Hearts of Jesus and Mary grant us the wisdom to know the hearts of each of our children so we can discern when we need to be firm in disciplining and when we need to be sympathetic.  I encourage each of you to read "Seasons Of A Mother's Heart" by Sally Clarkson since our Blessed Mother is using this resource to mold our hearts similar to Hers. Let us all reflect the beauty of holy motherhood to the dark world were living in!

Your servant and friend in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,  Lourdes

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 2006/11/18  Sharing A Mother's Heart

My dear friends, I just got home from this months "Sharing A Mother's Heart" and I wanted to share with you what the Holy Spirit revealed to us and what Our Blessed Mother taught us this month. Sally Clarkson writes in "Seasons of a Mother's Heart", "If homeschooling is indeed God's will for our lives, then it is good, acceptable, and perfect (Romans 12:1,2). Homeschooling should be a blessing to us, not an unbearable burden. If it is such a burden, then perhaps we have required things of ourselves that the Lord never asked us to do. Perhaps the standards we are trying to follow are not God's standards, but man's. Perhaps we are living by formula than by faith."

These sentences brought to my mind what the Lord has been placing so strong in my heart since the beginning of this school year. Homeschooling is not something we came up with, it was begun in the Heart of God. Homeschooling is God's desire for families of our time. It is a movement of the Holy Spirit. Yes, when we give our fiat to this calling we are accepting an added cross. Yes, our homeschooling way of life has many difficulties and challenges. But God's desire for us is to be happy and joyful in our vocation.

 I was in total awe how the Holy Spirit confirmed something very important to all of us today. A week ago I began to feel a prompting to pick up the book, "The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood". When I shared the book with the group, the majority of the mothers that had read this book years ago were also feeling the prompting to read this book again. We realized that our Blessed Mother is calling ALL the mothers of ARCH-Angels to read this book!

"The Apostolate Of Holy Motherhood" is about the messages given to a young mother of three children in 1987. All the messages are concerning motherhood. In the group today we read this message, "Mothers, teach your children to be kind to one another. The important lessons are learned at home. Do not expect others to teach your children. This is your responsibility and should be your joy. The world has taken the joy out of parenting. This is an error. Discipline is necessary, but so is joy. Love your children. Many children are suffering from lack of love. This is a tragedy. They are made to feel as burdens. Their parents should beg God for forgiveness, for he who leads the little ones astray will be held to account for it. Love and cherish your children. They are great gifts from God. Follow the example of the Holy Family who lived in humility and love, deferring to one another." (p.8)

 Our Lady appears many times in her messages crying because of the terrible condition the family is in. I feel so strongly in my heart that God desires to restore the family through homeschooling. It is not to say that homeschooling is the only way to restore families, but God has chosen this path for many families because of the severity of the attack on families. Therefore, we must cooperate with God in this mission He has entrusted to us. We can no longer see homeschooling as a means to just educating our children, but as the means to forming a holy family.

 After 16 years of living the homeschooling way of life I see that it has been my heart that has been changed the most in my family. Little-by-little Jesus and Mary have been forming me and teaching me the way of holy motherhood, and the Two Hearts are doing this work also in each of your hearts. In order for the family to be restored motherhood and fatherhood have to be restored. > > Forgive me if I have written way to much, but I wanted all of you to be part of what we experienced today. What I have shared is only a little bit of what we discussed today. I desire that each of you feel the encouragement, enthusiasm, and grace the Holy Spirit is pouring upon us! > > If you are not experiencing the joy of motherhood, the joy of homeschooling pray to our Blessed Mother this month to reveal to you why. Do not allow satan to isolate you, remain connected with our group, for the Holy Spirit is using the fellowship of our mothers and fathers to combat satan's attacks.

 The book, "The Apostolate Of Holy Motherhood" is sold at the St. Louis bookstore. I bought extra books, if you would like one just let me know. May each of our lives, as we grow in holy motherhood,become a precious flower for our Lord, who suffered so much for us. God bless each of you. Your friend, united in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Lourdes 

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