September 13, 2012
September 13, 2012
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The Things We Do for Love: “Chopped”!

When you’ve been married for more than a decade, it’s easy to fall into a bit of a routine: He nods off around 9 o’clock while I “channel surf” until I land on a decent movie or one of my cooking shows. My current favorite is “Chopped.” Each week four professional cooks vie for $10,000 prize money by creating culinary magic from a basket full of unlikely ingredients, creating first an appetizer (from grape jelly beans, conch, purple potatoes and kale), main dish (tofu, rabbit tenderloin, raddicchio, and Sambucca), and dessert (pumpernicle, lichi fruit, quail eggs, and corn nuts). Thirty minutes, starting NOW. In each […]
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April 23, 2011
April 23, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: What Now? (Day 40)

Okay, for the final time . . . begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. Holy Saturday has special significance for me:  It is the day I was welcomed into the Church after nearly a year of studying and contemplating whether I should become Catholic. On that Easter Vigil afternoon in 1994, dressed in a beautiful white gown and red sash, I lit my candle and walked steadily into the sanctuary.  In the weeks leading up to that moment, I’d had spiritual “cold feet.” It would have been much easier to simply walk away — and if I had done so, I was confident that my friends and family would […]
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April 22, 2011
April 22, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: Zzzzzz…. (Day 39)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. “Why do they call it ‘Good Friday’?” my nine-year-old wanted to know.  It was a fair question, why we should commemorate the day of the Lord’s death, calling it “good”? Many other adjectives spring to mind: “merciful” … “sad” … “dark” … “deadly.” And yet, the Church calls it “good,” for without Good Friday, there is no Easter. Without the heartache of the Cross, we would never experience the victory of Resurrection. On today, the next-to-last day of the Challenge, we come to the last letter of the alphabet, “Zzzzzzzz.”  It recalls the rest that is such an essential part of […]
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April 21, 2011
April 21, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: Yes! (Day 38)

  Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment.    A few weeks ago, on March 25, we celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation, when the    Blessed Virgin Mary gave her assent to God’s plan, by which she was to become the Theotokos . . . the God Bearer.  Her “yes” set a series of events in motion that would change the whole human story, making us not just friends but children of God. Today we celebrate a “yes” of a very different kind:  The moment when the Son of God gave his yes — freely and without equivocation — to God’s redemptive plan. It was the […]
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April 20, 2011
April 20, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: X-amination of Conscience (Day 37)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. The other day I came across this “Examination of Conscience for Married Couples” by Father Thomas Weinandy.  If you have not yet been to confession this Lent, why not take this opportunity to prepare yourself … and to make arrangements to go? The sacrament of reconciliation does not need to be an onerous chore; it is a bath for the soul that helps us to enter wholeheartedly into the celebration that is Easter. Just as there is no Easter without a Good Friday, so there is no healing without an acknowledgement that we need to be healed. Today’s Challenge:  […]
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April 19, 2011
April 19, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: Wisdom (Day 36)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. Lin Yutang, author and inventor of the Chinese typewriter Today’s Challenge:  Time to take personal inventory:  Are there any areas of your life in which the good has become the enemy of the best?  What “non-essentials” do you need to eliminate in order to make room for that which is of ultimate importance? Today’s Prayer:  Create in me a heart of generous wisdom, O God.
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April 18, 2011
April 18, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: Wealth (Day 35)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. “A man’s wealth is measured by what he doesn’t need.” Henry David Thoreau   This past summer, Craig’s parents sent the four of us to Mackinac Island for the Grand Hotel’s spectacular July 4th Extravaganza. It was an unbelievably generous gift, from the suite overlooking the lake and pool to the nonstop food and entertainment packed into every minute of the day. Some of the entertainment we provided ourselves: We hadn’t been on the island an hour when Chris and his friend Jacob tested the efficiency of the hotel security staff (followed by the local constabulary), who searched for the boys for […]
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April 17, 2011
April 17, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: Palm Sunday

   Happy Palm Sunday!  On this final Lenten Sunday as we head into Holy Week, let me congratulate you on making it this far in the Challenge. With each passing day as we abandon ourselves more fully to our vocations as Christian wives, God takes up residence in the spaces left as we abandon old habits and seek to establish loving virtues, to strengthen our marriages in perfect love. In honor of Palm Sunday, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite hymns, written by my confirmation namesake, Amy Carmichael (whose biography A Chance to Die, by Elisabeth Elliot, is one of my all-time favorite books), […]
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April 16, 2011
April 16, 2011
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40-Day Challenge: Welcome (Day 34)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment.  Every morning, we welcome in the day with something akin to a whimper and a squabble, the unfortunate combination of one morning person in a house with three night owls. On weekends, Christopher chatters and prances around the breakfast table as the rest of us glare balefully from behind our teacups and breakfast cereal. “Christopher, have you walked the dog yet? And have you taken your medicine?” Please, just make it stop. I had about 5.2 seconds of REM sleep last night . . . Weekdays at Chez Saxton follow a fairly predictable schedule. At 6:30, Christopher bounces out of bed, […]
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