Our Lady is a mother

This photo is of Juan Diego's tilma or apron upon which our Lady miraculously appeared. It is framed and hangs above the altar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. What strikes me as just hilarious of the miraculous story which you can read from iBrievary (from the report of Don Antonio) is that after Juan Diego had met with our Lady a few times, he found himself in a hurry on his next occasion because he was on an errand to find a priest for his ailing uncle. The story continues with: "Juan Diego set out on Tuesday, but he went around the hill and passed on the other side, toward the east, so as to arrive quickly in Mexico City and to avoid being detained by the Heavenly Lady."

Wow, me too buddy. Haven't we all tried to avoid our mothers at one time or another or those women who act like mothers in our life? Don't we dread being detained too or being taken care of when we can do it on our own? I know I do. Women have this henlike characteristic to take care of things for those they love. I despise it, but sometimes I can't avoid doing it. So it's reassuring to me that Our Lady is a nagging mother who won't stop looking out for her children even when her children don't want to have anything to do with her.

The Immaculate Conception

I was musing over today's first reading from Genesis and I found God's response to Eve striking, 'Why did you do such a thing?'.
Isn't that something? Why? First God goes to Adam, then to Eve and then to the serpent. In that whole exchange in the book of Genesis, I'm just profoundly affected by how gently he handles Eve. Juxtapose that against the address to the serpent.

Pancake Day!!!

Actually I used to hate pancakes mostly because my dad made them like EVERY Saturday and Sunday and sometime in the middle of the week. I got so sick of eating pancakes on Saturday and then being conscripted to help out with the family lawn or vegetable selling business that I just couldn't take one more pancake but after a good long pause from pancakes, my attitude has mellowed.

Monkeyboy was away at a gymnastics clinic this weekend, so we missed him and Papa on Sunday. This morning as I was lying next to the monkey trying to cajole him out of bed I asked what he wanted for breakfast....'pancakes, because we missed pancakes on Sunday'. (Pancakes are a bit of work on a Monday morning and ordinarily Papa doesn't make us pancakes on weekdays.)

However, I thought awww, how sweet. Sundays are usually a special day at our house. We have pancakes or waffles, eggs, bacon maybe or omlettes after mass and by 'we have' I mean 'Papa makes'. So off I went requesting pancakes from Papa because everyone knows Papa will make anything Mama wants. I didn't really want pancakes this morning but my kids did and that was enough for me. We had Sunday breakfast on Monday morning. It was fabulous.Thank you Papa!

And that my friends is our Marian lesson for today. We pray for Mary to help us because she is the Mother of Jesus. She has a special place in His heart and in His kingdom. When we give her our prayers, she polishes them up and presents them to Jesus in a way that is irresistible for Him to deny. He loves her so much. He indulges her and she know what to ask for, how to ask for it and will never fail in acquiring for us exactly what we need.