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Friday, November 9, 2007

A Mother's Rule of Life - Chapter 1

There is the story of the preacher in the flood. The water was up to the top of the church steps when a National Guard truck came by. "Get in, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose and flooded the church. The preacher climbed up on the roof. Two boys came by in a John boat."Get in, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose higher, and the preacher climbed up on the steeple. A helicopter came by and dropped a sling."Grab the sling, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose even higher, and the preacher drowned. In heaven, he said, "Lord, I had such trust in you. Why did you let me drown."And the Lord said, "Dummy! I sent you a deuce-and-a-half, a john boat and a helicopter!!"




I Reached the Breaking Point

With the arrival of a new baby and after four years of homeschooling Holly Pierlot was trying to find a way to balance and order her life. First she looked to the "world" .... "Maybe if I just went back to work" she thought. She demanded to her husband that they send their children to public school. Thankfully her husband asked her to pray and think about it for one week. As she prayed and read scripture she came across Matt. 14: 14-21 "14When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, "This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" 17They said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." 18And He said, "Bring them here to Me." 19Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, 20and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. 21There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children" She felt like a light bulb had gone off, she had found her answer, "Jesus was telling me to give him my five loaves and two fish, my insignificant efforts, and he would bless them, and the needs of my family would be met." but she still was struggling with her efforts.

After attending a home school conference where she was to speak, she learned about the Managers of Their Homes, MOTH, system of home management, (this is actually the same system, with Fly Lady stuff added in, that I try to follow but I wanted to make it more Catholic.) Holly felt that schedules were very limiting but she did like the idea of scheduling each person for individually. Again she resisted the idea.

Once again she was faced with chaos in her home and she reasoned that God is a God of order so she would try a schedule "schedules might be limiting.....but disorder is more limiting". She assessed what needed to be done for her home and children and implemented a beginning schedule. It was a success on the first day. At prayer that evening she came to realize that Jesus ".....had to have efforts to bless. I had to do all in my power to fulfill my obligations. I had to give a full five loaves and two fish- not three loaves, not two loaves. I had to apply all of me to the task and mission I was called to be and do, not haphazardly, but fully, methodically, completely. Jesus was asking for the dedication of my entire self to my vocation."

She felt that God was calling her to analyze her whole life, her vocation. Jesus was calling her to set up a Rule of Life, "...nothing short of a complete and proper ordering of every aspect of my life."

In the next chapters we will see where this ordering of her life lead her and how it can help us with our lives.


"Work as though everything depends on you, Pray as though everything depends on God."

St. Ignatius of Loyola

13 comments:

Tracy said...

Awesome!! I think her idea can be used in so many ways in my life, even though I don't homeschool, I do find that my time spent with my kids is total chaos and thus, time wasted and then we all end up feeling overwhelmed.

Erika S. said...

I also feel that this book will benefit me even though I do not homeschool either. I see it as a way to organize my time to make the most of it for God.

Tracy said...

Erika, that is exactly what I would like to do, make the most of my day for God!

~Bren~ said...

Let me first comment by saying I do NOT read Candy's blog. I did read her blog several times as I heard it was a great source for homemaking but once I saw the "controversy" she drew with her posts, I stopped visiting. I am glad to see that Elena recognizes that Candy did not invent the Home Management Binder. When I saw the boycott I was afraid you believed that, but then I noticed a link on your sidebar...enough of that. I am not a Catholic, though I am a christian..which links us as sisters. Yes, I believe Catholics are Godly people. I also believe there will be as many Catholics as any other "church" in heaven as I do not belive God see religion. He looks at the heart....I am not here to debate any of that...it is my personal belief. What I want to say is that I was shocked that you have a blog named Candyland. Can I ask why? Is this not feeding the offense? I stopped visiting her blog based on my spirit telling me, "this is not godly". I think you ladies are truly trying to stand up for what is right and defend your faith. Good for you. I back you 100%, but maybe if you do not visit her blog...I just think this blog will give her more attention and feed the hatred. Just my humble opinion...no correction intended. I will not continue to read this blog, (I found you through a comment on another blog) just like I do not read Candy's, but I did enjoy your own personal blog and hope I will be welcome there. In God's love, ~Bren~

Elena LaVictoire said...

Hi Bren, thanks for commenting.

This blog was set up because Candy would not allow me to comment on any of her posts. Additionally, she also lied about the things I said. So in the interest of fair record keeping, I started this blog. Candyland is a popular board game - we were playing a game of sorts. It seemed to fit.

Also since Candy was not letting any of us correct errors or defend our faith against the lies and falsehoods she put up, I wanted to be sure that I had a title that was memorable and would be sure to turn up in search engines so that people could see the other side of the story. Mission accomplished.

Candy's going to get the attention that she is going to get. I'm sure that with this blog her hits went way up. Ours sure did. I don't think there is anything that I can say or do that will influence what she wants to say about Catholics, but I think ignoring her is not the best step. She has a lot of young women who don't apparently know much about the Catholic church swallowing what she feeds them. I think in this particular case, for educational purposes, it's better to stay proactive.

I hope you come back Bren. I think this book study is going to be very interesting and it certainly offers an alternative to Candy's "Home management" system and procedures.

Elena LaVictoire said...

Bren, I note that you do have Candy's blog on your blog roll. What's up with that?

~Bren~ said...

My blog roll is old. I do need to update it. My name is also on her sidebar for the HMB. I have not read her blog since the first Catholic bashing post I read. I have no reason to lie. Again I am not here to correct you...just wondered as it seems your own blog and the way you live your life would be enough to counter her accusations. I did not know about this blog until I read today where you had went to all those who commented on one of her posts...it just seemed crazy and I really do not think it is a game I would want to play. Scripture says God will deal very harshly with those who speak against God's anointed ministers of the gospel (priests included), so I stay away from her blog and I will from here too. I do not see you doing that, but I have no reason to visit here as I do not read her blog. Therefore I do not need to be set straight. I feel badly that you have been so offended and hope you know not all non-catholic christians feel it is ok to do this to your faith. If you feel you need to respond to this, you can do it on my e-mail (on my profile). I do not want anything Candy related on my comments on my own blog. Again, I think you answered my question...thanks.

Erika S. said...

I wonder how commenting to people who made comments on Candy's blog seems "crazy". I find that remark offensive. I went to peoples blogs and asked them to visit here to see what Catholics really believe. I do not find that crazy at all. When someone posts a comment on a blog they are opening themselves up for public disscussion. If they can not stand the heat they should stay out of the kitchen!

Elena LaVictoire said...

You're welcome Bren.

I still wonder though how can you say you don't agree with Candy, you won't read her blog, but you have her on your blog roll. Doesn't make sense to me and it's not THAT hard to update.

Elena LaVictoire said...

it just seemed crazy and I really do not think it is a game

I agree Erika, I don't see how it is "crazy" either. It's no crazier I suppose then coming here weeks later to chastise us about it.

~Bren~ said...

Oh my gosh, you guys are mean! I am not chastising anyone...I think you are very defensive and I was not talking about whatever Erika was...this was a totally different case where you guys even apologized to the person...I have never commented to Candy on her bashing post (I only read one) as I could tell she was very hard to it and would not be open to anyone elses opinion. When I popped in here, I saw what I thought was some very tender hearted women who are just really offended by someone. And GEEZ I never use my blogroll as I use the feeds but she will be removed today..
No one here was called crazy...an idea was crazy in my opinion. It is hard to "hear" tone in a written comment and please know there was never a tone of sarcasim, nor inuendo in my "speeech". Hatred is contagious if you ask me! I am leaving here feeling very confused. Please forget I was here...forgive any statement I made as it was totally misunderstood.

Elena LaVictoire said...

Bren, I don't think we are mean at all. But it does appear that you came over her to challenge us for this blog and for commenting on other blogs. Which is fine. We can take a challenge and I hope we answered your questions.

I'm sure you can understand our challenge to you about the blog roll. Blog rolls do give the sense of endorsement. Since you say you don't endorse Candy's blog, it does seem wise to delete it from your roll.

Anyway, no offense taken and you don't need to apologize. You are welcome here or on my other blog any time.

Erika S. said...

Bren- I am sorry if I came across as mean. I guess my pride was getting in the way. I am very sorry that you feel the way you do. I hope nothing but the best for you.

Pax Christi,
Erika