A Mother Nature Bedtime Story

Every night when I put my son to bed we say two prayers together: the St. Michael Prayer ("his" prayer) and another one ("my" prayer), which varies. The other night we were saying the Hail Mary and Ewan asked me:

"What's a womb?"
"The place where a baby grows in a mom's body."
"How can Jesus have a womb? He's a man."

Oh, I see the confusion. Like the difference between "Let's eat, Grandma!" and "Let's eat Grandma!" he hears the prayer as saying, "Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus!" forgetting that the entire prayer is addressed to someone else (Mary), not Jesus at all.

"In the Hail Mary prayer we are talking to Mary, Jesus' mother, so when we say "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus," we are saying "blessed is your son, Jesus."
"Oh. What does fruit of the womb mean?"
"Like a tree makes fruit. An apple tree makes an apple. Mary is like a tree and Jesus is the fruit."

Connections sparking in his 9-year-old brain...

"And God is like the rain that makes the tree grow!"
"Sure, or maybe the Holy Spirit is like the rain?" I suggest, though like all analogies, it is also imperfect and fails to fully explain divine truth.

"OK, then God the Father is the Sun."
"Yep, that makes sense."

And then he comes up with another connection.

"There's also Mother Nature," he says.
"Hmm, Mother Nature is more an idea, not a real person," I say.
"Mother Nature is real too. Mary is Mother Nature."
"Ummm...."

Just when I thought this was going well, it seems like he's got his religion and mythology mixed. I start blaming myself for every fantasy-based cartoon and movie he's ever watched.

"Mary is Mother Nature because she makes everything beautiful," he concludes.

OH!

"Wow, Ewan, that makes me really happy that you understand things that way. Not everyone does!"

Even if it is not perfectly correct theology, it is great that he is making analogies to understand the Faith for himself and sees Mary as a beautiful mother who helps make the world more beautiful too.

Winter Saints

This December cluster of saints' days, Nicholas on 12/6, Guadalupe on 12/12, Lucia on 12/13 and also Immaculate Conception on 12/8: I find it hard to feel like we've appreciated them all equally. They are so close together and two of them are Marian and only four days apart.

My dining room sideboard this year.

We have gotten pretty good about St. Nicholas day since we started the shoes tradition when the oldest was little.

This tradition started for us in German preschool. The apple, orange, chocolate, nuts, peppermint stick and a small present are exchanged for the letters to St. Nick found in their clean shoes. 

Immaculate Conception is one of my daughter's birthdays, so it has always involved both going to Mass and a birthday party for us.

Always a birthday princess.

December 8
The Immaculate Conception of Mary

Our Lady of Guadalupe, over the years, has come to mean a day to show appreciation for our local Hispanic community, honoring their devotion to Mary, participating in the festivities.

Our parish church in 2008. So pretty with the trees and roses.

St. Lucia though, the observance of this day has been eluding us, despite the many years of reading picture books written about her.

Picture Books and Kids: things I have more of than the average American woman.

I have been learning about the Ember Days for a few years now and the winter ember days are set to follow after St. Lucy. So this year, they will be Wednesday, 12/17, Friday 12/19, and Saturday, 12/20.

So far, we've never managed to get up at before dawn to serve saffron buns.
But one year we made Pillsbury orange rolls from a can. 

I am thinking of St. Lucy with her candle crown as our guide into the second half of Advent, the ember days of preparation, repentance, confession, before Gaudete Sunday.

St. Lucy and Star Boy surrounded by lazy non-sprouting lentils that were supposed to be making a nice green field of Christmas manger hay.

We are not a family of Italian, Sicilian or Scandinavian heritage, but Lucy lights the way toward Christmas for us also.

The winter sun.

The stars we bring inside.

Leading us to the manger.

Leading us to the Baby.
Gloria!