Happy Feast Day, Peter!

There were quite a few posts I intended to write after Peter was born, but never got around to it. One of which was how he got his name. Today is a fitting day to write about it because it just so happens to be his feast day!

A year ago, on August 1st, Andrew and I were up one night discussing baby names. We were pretty set on "Peter" as a first name, but weren't quite settled on a middle name. There were a few names in the running, however one stood out to us that night: "Julian" - after St. Peter Julian Eymard.

St. Peter lived in the 1800s and was a French contemporary to St. Jean Vianney (John's namesake and patron). Supposedly, the two Saints even met each other! We really like the idea of our two boys having patrons that were "friends." For us, this is a symbol of our hope and prayer that our boys will grow up in loving friendship with each other.

St. Jean Vianney and St. Peter Julian Eymard

St. Peter is also the founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, which promotes adoration and Eucharistic devotion. We pray that our Peter will also have a deep devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and always remain faithful to Christ.

So that night, we went to bed quite content with the name "Peter Julian." The next day we were chatting while Andrew was at work and talking about the name we chose. We were curious about when his feast day was, so I looked it up. It was THAT day! We couldn't believe that we had chosen his name the day before his feast day, which was actually the day he died, in 1868. That was confirmation for us!

St. Peter Julian Eymard ~ Pray for us!

Lenten Beginnings

Yesterday was the beginning of the season of Lent. Andrew asked me if I was excited... "yes?" I replied. It didn't sound convincing. I guess Lent is always hard because it forces me to examine my life in light of who I am meant to be. What is off in my life? How can I be a better mother, wife, and daughter of God? These are challenging questions. It's easy to lose track during the rest of the year and develop bad habits. This is why Lent is so necessary!

In college, I was in a group of people who were pretty hardcore in their sacrifices. Some slept on wooden boards, ate only liquid foods, gave up sarcasm, makeup, or looking in mirrors. One year I tried giving up electricity. My parameters were I never turned lights on, I took cold showers, washed my clothes in cold water, washed dishes by hand. It was kind of fun... for about a week! Then it became pretty challenging - especially taking cold showers! Finally someone knocked some sense into me: Why are you doing this? How will this sacrifice bring you closer to Christ? These questions made me realize that I might be doing it for the wrong reasons. Namely, to get a taste of the romanticized olden-days that I've so often longed for in my youth.

Now I am more careful about choosing my sacrifices and examining my motives. This year I have on my heart to focus on being a better wife and mother through prayer and spending quality time with my family. I've been reading the 10 Habits of Happy Mothers and it's giving me a lot to think about and at least one good idea for Lent. Which is calling at least one friend once a week, or better yet, going to visit with a friend. This will help me to reach out socially and connect with people I care about.

This sounds silly, but one struggle I have is getting dressed in the morning. This really impacts my day in a bad way. I feel like I am so busy taking care of everyone else, that I don't take care of myself. It doesn't feel good to stay in pajamas all day! I'm sure all the stay-at-home-moms out there with little kids can relate! During Lent, I am going to work on this by getting dressed before 9am.

As a family, we are going to give up TV. This should free up some time in the evening for more blogging! =) Andrew pointed out to me that I took a month off between January and my post yesterday. Ooops.

Another sacrifice I am going to do is to clean one part of the house each day that will likely go unnoticed. Shhhh - don't tell Andrew! I think this will help me to pay more attention to the little things around the house and clean without seeking praise. At Mothers' Group someone mentioned saying "Hail Marys" while scrubbing the toilet! HA! Maybe I can incorporate that into my cleaning too!

Happy Lent to you all!

Our Newest Catholic!

Peter was baptized on November 13th. We had a great weekend - full of time with family, friends, and God's grace though Peter's first sacrament!

Shortly after he was born, a good friend of ours gave Peter a holy medal that contains a relic from his patron - St. Peter Julain Eymard! I pinned the medal to his shirt and he wore it during his baptism.

May you cling to Our Lord all the days of your life, Peter! Welcome Home!

Easter!

Our busy Holy Saturday was followed by an even busier Easter Sunday! We got all spruced up for the 7:30am Mass. It was a wonderful celebration of Christ's Resurrection and Father Lappe's Homily was great!

We came home and told John that there was something special hidden for him. He found his Easter basket in the net of his new basketball hoop! He was very excited about it, even though he is not smiling in the pictures...

We changed clothes and loaded up my parents' car. Then we drove to Edmonds for our annual Launceford family brunch at the Pancake Haus (a tradition that has going for over 15 years!). We forgot John's bib at home, so it was a challenge keeping him clean while eating pancakes smothered in strawberries and whipped cream! Then we all headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house for more visiting and an egg hunt for John. The big kids hid the eggs for him and we all enjoyed watching John's innocent pleasure and excitement in finding the eggs.

After that we headed up to my other Aunt and Uncle's house in Mukilteo (on my dad's side of the family). John fell asleep right as we got there, so we left him in the car to finish his nap (that we were worried would never happen!). We had a nice visit with them and John woke up eventually and got to play with his 2nd cousin, Alice.

The next stop was at my brother's house in Seattle for dinner. On our way down I-5, a couple miles before our exit, I looked over to the car next to us and thought the driver looked familiar. He was looking at me too and I quickly realized that he was Father Qui-Thac - the priest who celebrated our wedding! Andrew called him and invited him to join us for dinner. He was on his way to Lacey for a retreat and accepted our offer! =) So we had a great dinner with our family, Fr. Qui-Thac, and our friend Andrew, who lives with my brother. We are still so amazed that we noticed Father on the freeway, and just in time to invite him for dinner! It was Divinely arranged! And thank you to Aaron for cooking a great meal!

We had such a great visit over dinner that we lost track of time and didn't leave until 9:30pm - which means John had another late night. But other than that, I thought our Easter was perfect!

Christmas 2010

Christmas morning was pretty magical. It was neat seeing John's excitement, though he definitely was not expecting all the gifts and treats. We got up early and went to the 8:15am Mass. We had to wake John up because he usually sleeps in until 9am (I know, I am one lucky mama!). The first video below is of John after we got him dressed for Mass. He wasn't sure what to make of all the presents under the tree.

After Mass we opened our gifts to each other and then went upstairs to be with my parents, brother, and grandpa. One of the best moments of the day was when we walked into my parent's house. Andrew and I were greeting my brother and mom, but John ran past us. He made a mad dash for the tree and fell half way there, only to quickly rise to his feet to continue his sprint. We thought he was just excited to see more presents, but he had his eye on a gift that was not wrapped. My parents got him a Strider bike! He grabbed the bike and swung his leg over the seat - as if he's known how to ride a bike his whole life. It was the cutest thing! His raw joy and excitement was contagious to all of us.

We all opened gifts to each other, ate yummy food, and played games together. Christmas was very special this year because we had an honored guest with us - my grandpa. He lives in Oregon, so I do not get to see him much. It was quite a treat to celebrate with him. He is known for his ability to recite long poems from memory, so listening to his recitations added to the perfection of our Christmas day this year.  

 

 

 

Advent & Christmas Crafts

My goal is to do a few crafts each year so that a lot of our Christmas decorations will eventually be homemade. This year I made a tree skirt that was inspired by this pattern.

I also made a stocking for John.

I made a few batches of cookies and attended a cookie exchange. I really think cookie exchanges are the best way to get a great variety of treats with the least amount of effort! John even joined in my cookie decorating efforts! I got the idea from Life as a Mom. She suggested using pastry brushes, but I didn't have any so I used baby spoons. I think brushes would have worked better - I had to help John a lot! Mom St.Hilaire told me that she used to have her kids paint the cookies before they were baked with an egg yolk mixture, which looks neat when baked. I think I will try that next year!

We did not have an Advent wreath last year or for most of this year. I ordered one from Bronners, but it didn't come until the 4th week of Advent. To tide us over, I drew a wreath on the chalk board in our kitchen and added a flame each week. We also hung the cards that we received around the boarder:

Thanksgiving 2010

We had quite an eventful Thanksgiving week! We decided to leave pretty early on Wednesday to head for Bellingham. There was still snow on the ground from Monday, but it seemed pretty safe. We didn't want to drive in the evening for fear of the road getting icy. We were blessed to have left early because once we got to Lynnwood Andrew noticed that our car was in the red zone on our temperature gauge. We found a mechanic that could look at our car, but not until Friday. So we toyed with the idea of leaving our car and renting a car for a couple of days. As it turned out, once we got to the mechanics, Andrew asked if they were sure they couldn't squeeze us in that day. The man said he would see what he could do. We waited for about an hour, not sure if they were even working on it. Sure enough, they were able to fix it and we were on our merry way again...

Until we drove another 50 miles or so. Andrew noticed that the car was getting hot again. We made it safely to Bellingham and decided to take the car in again on Friday.

Thanksgiving day was SO wonderful! We woke up to a flurry of snow falling from the sky with about 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I love the feeling of being stuck at home when I have no where to go!

I provided the mashed potatoes, as I have for 3 years in a row, and they were very yummy! (I'm a sucker for good mashed potatoes). Mom St.Hilaire cooked a feast! Jenna brought the green beans. It was a very delightful dinner, with exceptional company!

Thanksgiving dinner

There was a crazy rain and wind storm on Thursday night. When we woke up, there was hardly a trace of snow on the ground! On Friday we took the car in again. They told us it wasn't going to be finished until Monday. We were supposed to leave on Saturday morning because I had a baby shower to go to back home. I was very sad to have to miss the shower, but it was nice to have a couple of extra days with Andrew's family! I was also able to catch up with a few friends.

Dinner on Friday night (second round of Thanksgiving dinner!)

Grandma let John play in her kitchen drawers! =)

While we were there we watched the movie Karol: A Man Who Became Pope. It was so inspirational and I highly recommend it. I was worried that the actor playing Karol would not be good enough to play the role, but I was quite impressed by him. Watching this movie made me think about what really matters in life: our relationship with God! It was appropriate to watch for Thanksgiving, because it reminded me of how thankful I am to be part of such a wonderful Church!

We picked up the car on Monday and headed home... only to see that the engine was still getting hot. =( We're not sure what to do now.

Train of Thought

Last Sunday at Mass, in the short time between the consecration of the bread and the consecration of the wine, I had this train of thought:

The smell of a woman in front of me reminded me of a lady I took care of when I worked at the Courtyard (dementia care facility) --- which made me think of dementia and I wondered who is the youngest person to ever suffer from dementia --- which made me wonder if I will ever get it --- which made me wonder if you could have symptoms of dementia for being overly tired (because I was feeling tired) --- which reminded me of a movie that Andrew and I watched part of (but turned it off because it was pretty bad) called The Machinist with Christian Bale. (It is a creepy movie about a man who suffers from insomnia and has not slept in over a year) --- and I wondered if it is even possible to go a year without sleeping --- then a gory scene from the movie began replaying in my mind where there is an accident at a factory and a man's arm gets stuck in a machine and is torn off and his severed limb is shown spinning around and around on the machine (Ick!)

So there I was grimacing to myself, when I was drawn out of my mind by the words, "Do this in memory of me." (and then the bells rang) Then I began internally reprimanding myself for thinking about such a horrible scene during the consecration! Not being aware of the path that led me to this thought, I wondered - why was I even thinking about that movie? And then I traced back my thoughts to see how I got from listening to the consecration of the bread to replaying that gory scene from The Machinist. And it all began with a smell... It's amazing how something as simple as a smell can trigger such a quick chain reaction in our minds! I say "our" because I hope I'm not the only one who has this problem! =)

I think that Satan really manipulates and tempts us with these little distractions. This might be a great failing for a lot of the "good" people out in the world. Outwardly, a person could look very good and holy, while internally they let their minds trail off. It is so easy to be distracted and turned away from Our Lord in our minds. And this is a problem that no one has to know about. We can hide this disconnect from everyone, even those closest to us. There is no one to hold us accountable because this is a problem people don't really talk about much, other than saying "I get distracted."

I don't think people realize how dangerous distractions are. The vessel for our prayers is our thoughts, for even the vocal prayers we say originate from our minds. So if our minds are easily distracted, then prayer probably comes as a difficulty (at least, I know this is true for me!). I'm not sure how I can concretely work on controlling my train of thought; I welcome any advice! I hope that eventually I can keep my thoughts centered on God and on good things. I hope that someday I will be united to God throughout the whole day, by being vigilant regarding what thoughts I allow myself to dwell on, making sure that they are always pleasing to Him.

Inspiring Catholics to Vote 2010

Check out this great video that my friend, Becky Jordan, made - a must see for all you Catholics out there. Please pass it on!

St. Maximilian Kolbe Novena Begins Today!

I'm posting for Star of the Sea today:

"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." ~ St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe's (1894-1941) feast day is coming up on August 14th. That means that the novena invoking his intercession begins today!

Here are some ways you can celebrate his feast day on the 14th:

Read more...

Celebrating St. Jean Vianney's Feast Day

I'm blogging for Star of the Sea today:

"I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the cross than serving the world and its pleasures." ~ St. Jean Marie Vianney

Tomorrow, August 4th, is the feast day of St. Jean Vianney - patron for parish priests. We named our son after this great Saint, so we hold him dear to our hearts.  Here are some ways that you can celebrate his holy life with your family:

Read more...

e5 Men

I'm blogging for the parish today:

I went to college at Western Washington University from 2003-2005. I followed my older brother there and from him I learned about the "Shalom Center" - which is now called the Newman Center - it was the Catholic Campus Ministry for the university. It was a vibrant community of young Catholics who were passionate about their rich faith.

During my first year, I went with a group of Catholics to see Fr. Corapi in Vancouver. Ironically enough, we happened to stay the night in the youth center of Fr. Lappe's old parish in Camas. On this weekend I learned a lot. Fr. Corapi was amazing - but what resonated with me the most was getting to know the fellow Catholics I traveled with - particularly the men. On the first night, before we went to bed, the men decided they wanted to pray for all the women in our group. So they formed a circle and faced outward, while the women made a larger circle around them and faced inward. The women rotated around and each man prayed for us individually. Each man poured out his heart in whispered prayers for our purity and our holiness.

Read more...

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 17

Hosted at Conversion Diary

1. Learning about generosity: I just began passing on some of John's clothes to friends with baby boys. I was going to save them all for (hopefully) future sons, but I changed my mind under the influence of some generous friends from church who are who are constantly giving us hand-me-downs for John. I asked them if they wanted me to give them back when John outgrew them and they said "No, just pass them on..."! I was so amazed by their generosity and it made me reconsider my stance on hording all of John's clothes. God has really provided for us with John. I am so thankful for this and I decided that I want to be a conduit of God's generosity to our other friends - so I am passing the clothes on. I know that if we are blessed with another son in the future, God will still provide for us. Note: I did keep some clothes that were sentimental to me - hey, I'm not that good! =)

2. Baby Kisses: I mentioned in a previous post that John has begun to intentionally give kisses. I must say - his kisses are the best! We ask him to give us a kiss and tap on our cheek, then he will lean in with his slobbery mouth gaping open and plant a big kiss on our cheeks. It is precious! Sometimes he doesn't want to give us a kiss - but you can tell that he knows what we are talking about.

3. Mission Impossible: This week has been very busy for us. On Monday and Wednesday I helped out a friend who is the PE teacher at Star of the Sea. We taught the students a game called "Mission Impossible." The students were divided into teams and their mission was to get from one side of the gym to the other - without touching the ground. There were mats spread throughout the gym, jump ropes, laundry baskets, Styrofoam noodles, poly spots, and scooters. With those tools, they worked as a team to get everyone across. If someone touched the ground, they had to go back to the beginning and their team had to figure out how to go back and retrieve them.

It was a lot of fun! We modified it a little for each grade, so it was a challenge for everyone. It made me miss teaching and being with all those kids - but boy did I miss my little Johnny by the end of the day! He was watched both days by some friends and he did really well! That was the longest I've been away from him!

4. Fresh Veggies, here we come! A couple of weekends ago, my parents and I cleared out a space in our yard for a garden. I bought some seeds a few days ago, so soon we will be planting them and eating fresh salads! I can't wait!

5. Cool Blog: For all you Catholic moms out there, a friend recommend this great blog to me called Catholic Icing. It has super fun ideas for celebrating feast days in the home. I am so excited for John to be interested in this stuff!

6. Beatles Question: If your name was Magill and you called your self "Lil" - why would other people call you Nancy??? It just doesn't make sense to me...

7. Happy Birthday, Mom! Today is my wonderful Mother's birthday. She is down in Oregon right now, but we really wish we could be with her! Love you, Mom!

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 16

Hosted at Conversion Diary

1. Night weening (This may be a "long" quick take): I haven't slept through the night for over ten months now... John still wakes up two, sometimes three or four, times each night to nurse. Each nursing session wouldn't really end. John would just fall asleep while suckling for who knows how long (I would fall asleep too). Needless to say, John has still been sleeping in our bed during the night. As of late, it has been getting a little crowded in our bed and John is becoming a wiggler. So Andrew and I decided it was time for John to be weened to his own bed to stop all this night nursing. We have a twin mattress on the floor next to my side of the bed and that's where John has been taking his naps. Now our goal is to have him spend his nights there as well! Boy has it been a long week! I think we just completed night #4 of the weening process (it's all a hazy, sleepy blur...). Two nights ago, I got close to no sleep. Even when John was asleep, I was up worrying about him (hey, give me a break, I have been sleeping right next to him his whole life!) or thinking about silly random things.

On to the good news: Last night John went to bed at 8pm and he did not nurse until 6am. That's ten hours!!! This is a huge FIRST for him! He did wake up for his regular nursing times but he is learning to go back to sleep with just some snuggles from Mommy. He still wasn't in his bed the whole night, but I see this as a step in the right direction! I am determined, no matter how much sleep I lose, that John will be in his own bed, and he won't need to be pacifying himself on me the whole night.

2. Fun with a box: Yesterday, my mom came in to watch John while I did some clean up around the house (Thank you, Mom!!) We received some hand-me-downs in this diaper box - which turned in the perfect car for John! He and Grandma had fun driving it all around the house:



3. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! Andrew's dad's birthday is today (and it is the feast day of his namesake - St. Joseph)! My New Years resolution was to send birthday cards to our close family members, but I have already failed on a couple. We missed sending out Jenna's card in January (sorry!), and now I have no time left to send Dad's card; though, I have been thinking about it all week (see #1 as my excuse for being absent minded!).

Dad, we love you and we hope you have a wonderful day! I will be praying for you this weekend (see # 7) and we can't wait to see you next weekend!

4. Fun with friends: John and I have been going on play dates with a mommy/son pair, Emily and James. John and James are only three months apart (James is older), so it is pretty fun to get the boys together. We are planning on going to the city pool every other week and the library on the alternate weeks. It's been great getting out and doing fun stuff with John and our friends! Last week we went to the pool. James had a blast - he was splashing all over the place! John had his legs wrapped around me like a koala bear and was shivering the whole time... maybe I shouldn't make his nighttime bath so jacuzzi-like!

5. Soup supper and conversion story: John and I helped host the soup supper at our church on Wednesday night. While we were there a couple from our parish gave their "witness talk" (testimony) to everyone there, as part of the Catholics Come Home campaign. They are both recent converts to the Catholic faith from Protestantism. The wife spoke about how they embraced the Church's teaching against contraception. She said that she was impressed to learn that before the 1930s, all Christian churches were against the use of contraception and that the Catholic Church is the sole remaining Church who has stayed firm in this teaching. At the time of their conversion, they already had four children and she felt like she couldn't handle any more. She prayed to Our Lord, telling Him that she couldn't handle more children - emotionally and physically. She felt God answer her prayer by saying "I know, but I can." She cried... I cried. It was beautiful! How true it is that in our humanity we can feel so overwhelmed and burdened, but if we place all our hope and trust in God, He will help us through any challenge we may face. Today, they have been blessed with six children and they are open to God's will in planning their family.

6. Pizza cutter (multi-use): Our pizza cutter has become my new best friend. When cutting up bite sized finger foods for John, using the pizza cutter is so quick and effortless! Right now he enjoys eating pieces of cheese, bread, carrots, and pancakes. I love not having to spend money on those expensive, made-for-baby finger foods!

7. Silent retreat: Today at 1:30pm, John and I will be heading down to Beaverton, OR for a silent retreat. It will be at Our Lady of Peace retreat center. I have been there several times and I am really looking forward to a weekend of contemplation. The last time we went, John was only about an inch big and he was nestled inside me, so he may be more of a distraction this time. Let's be honest... I'll be lucky if I get any contemplation or silence in this weekend!! But I am sure God will bless me for my effort to have some exclusive time with Him.

Come Home

Last week, I took John to the library for the first time. It was pretty fun. He got some board books and I picked up a few cook books (my weakness).

One of the books John got was Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. I remembered reading this book when I was a little girl. The basic plot of the book is that the little bunny is trying to find ways of leaving his mother, but she always seeks him out. For example, he says he will be a rock on a mountain, and she says that she will be a mountain climber and climb to where he is.


As a child, I never understood why the little bunny would ever want to leave his mom. Now I understand that this book is about the childhood quest for autonomy and the consistency of a mother's love through that process. When I was reading it to John before his nap today, I also found the content in this book could a metaphor for our relationship with God.

I think we all "run away" from God in our lives - some farther than others. But just like the mother in this book, Our Lord is always seeking to have a relationship with us. We are never very far from Him, even though it may feel that way.

"I will be a bird and fly away from you," said the little bunny.

The Seattle Archdiocese has taken on the Catholics Come Home campaign during Lent this year. The aim of the campaign is to reach out to Catholics, primarily via commercials on TV, who are not coming to Church anymore (who have "run away") and to invite them to take another look at the Church. Whatever the reason is for leaving, the Catholic Church wants everyone to know that they are always welcome to come back home.

"I will be a tree that you come home to," said his mother.

The Catholics Come Home website has a lot of answers to common questions that people have concerning what the Church teaches and how to "come home."

The following is my favorite one of the commercials that will be aired on major TV stations in the Seattle area:

Missionaries of Charity

Our friend Andrew will be traveling to India to serve with the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns founded by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He will be there until July, and will be blogging about his experience (link below). Please keep him, the Missionaries of Charity, and those they serve in your prayers.

what He takes away, i give away

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 7

Hosted at Conversion Diary

1. I have been meaning to work out a system of organizing John's clothes. It is challenging when he is always growing. It makes me appreciate that I have stopped growing ...for the most part ;)... and don't need new clothes all the time! Anyway, I found an inventory sheet on the internet and modified it to fit our needs. Today I have been going through ALL the clothes we have for John and categorizing them on this inventory sheet. This will help me to know what we have and don't have and when I go shopping I will know what his needs are. After I put everything on the inventory and sort it all, I will put them in boxes labeled with the size. We are hoping to have many little boys; this system will make it easier to access the clothes down the road.

2. John is big enough to fit in his car:



3. Did you notice the pictures we finally have on our wall from my post about Labor Day?

4. I am trying this new thing where I keep the kitchen clean. It is hard. I love cooking and baking. Cleaning... not so much! But I have been thinking lately about how I feel when the kitchen is messy - like I have a huge burden on my shoulders. I just know that I am generally a happier person when the kitchen is clean. I thought that moving into our new apartment with a very large kitchen would help. On the contrary, I have found that it is worse because if I make a mess I can just move to a clean area of the counter and make another mess. Finally, when all the counter space is messy, I break down and clean the whole thing. It would be a lot easier if I cleaned as I cooked. This week I realized that another reason I need to keep the kitchen clean is it is my JOB! That is part of my job as wife and mother. So wish me luck and keep me in your prayers as I endeavor to keep the kitchen in order. I'm on day 3 of having a clean kitchen...

5.Right now John is laying in bed - post nap - and talking. He does this frequently. He will wake up and begin making all sorts of happy noises. I sure wish I felt that way when I wake up!

6. I started brushing John's teeth. He really likes it! I'm trying to develop healthy habits for him, so we do it every day!

7. On Tuesday, September 8th, the Church celebrated the Blessed Virgin Mary's birthday! I made cupcakes and decorated them with blue frosting (it's a Marian color) and put Marian symbols on them. It was fun, but it will be even more fun when John is old enough to do this stuff with me. I am so excited to teach him all about the beauty of our faith!

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

From Three to Get Married, by Fulton J. Sheen:

The Church reminds poor mortals with their weak bodies to keep their eyes on heaven, for there are two human bodies there: the Body of our Lord through His Ascension, and the body of the Blessed Mother through her Assumption. On the fifteenth of August, each year, the Church commemorates the taking up of the holy body and soul of Mary into Paradise, where she was crowned as Queen of Angels and Saints. The Church does not teach that Mary did not die, but only that her body did not suffer corruption. If our Lord did not disdain to take on the sufferings of life to purify them, and the pang of death in order to conquer it, He would not dispense His own Mother from them. If He, the new Adam, would drink the chalice of sufferings, she, the new Eve, must have a share in them. But though she died, her body was not corrupted but assumed into heaven. The primal penalty of sin was the dissolution of the body: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return" (Gen. 3:19). But if corruption was the penal consequence of original sin, it follows that she who was preserved from original sin should also be preserved from its penalty, namely, corruption. Quite apart from the ancient Christian tradition concerning her Assumption, it hardly seems fitting that she, who gave the world Him Who conquered death, should herself be completely under its heel. Should not He Who, by His own Divine power, rose from the dead, use that same power to preserve His Mother from the grave, so that His Resurrection and Ascension should have their counterpart in a lower level in the Assumption of His Blessed Mother?

She was the flesh-girt garden of the new Adam, and it is unthinkable that the heavenly Gardener, once He had gathered His human life from her as a garden, should suffer it to be overrun by dust. The chalice that contains the Blood of Christ does not become a profane cup when once the wine of life is drunk. Only holy hands may touch it. There is no reason to believe that, once He conquered sin by His Resurrection and ascended to the glory at the right hand of the Father, He could forget the one who had given Him a human nature. A son remembers his mother even more in triumph than in battle. He spoke to her in the battle of Calvary; then He should not forget to call her to himself in the triumph of His Ascension. He Who received the hospitality of this spiritual Bethlehem would not be an ungrateful Host. As the homes in which great men were born are preserved for posterity, so His Home (which she is) would be preserved for eternity. If the innkeeper had only given shelter to that maid on Christmas night, history would never have forgotten his name.

It is incredible then that she who housed Him should not have immortality, not of name only, but of body and soul. If He Who conquered death ascended into Heaven to be a mediator between God and man, then should not she, who received the high summons to share in His Redemption, be near Him now in Heaven, to mediate between His power and our needs, as she did at Cana? Certainly she who begot Him Who empties all sepulchers should not herself be one of its first inhabitants. Corruption ought not touch her who begot our incorruptibility, nor should she whose virginity He preserved in motherhood be now a virgin body despoiled and ravished by death. Eve, our first mother, lent her ear to the tempting Satan and justly was returned again to dust, but Mary, our new Mother, who lent her ear to the Holy Spirit, could not be the prey of the self-same dust.

A church once consecrated may not be delivered over to profane use, nor shall the temple of the living God be profaned by the dust. Die indeed she ought, for she should have no other law than that to which her Son was subject; but corrupted she should not be, for she gave birth to Him Who broke the jaws of death. For a member of the human race, death was normal. Clothed with the power of God, dissolution would be abnormal. There are only two empty tombs in all the world: the tomb where the Resurrection and the Life was buried for three days, and the tomb where the Mother of the Resurrection and the Life was laid when she fell asleep in the love of the Lord. Mary's empty tomb was to woman what Christ's empty tomb was to man, with this difference: that only through His power was her tomb made empty.