Our Family Prays Together

The Pope is coming to DC today! Pope Francis calls our families "the domestic church" and there is something so thrilling in being a part of something little and yet still being a place where important things happen. Inside my family, human beings are born, and life is celebrated, and people learn how to pray. I do not have have a strong family rosary culture worthy of a short film on EWTN. However, I have created family culture where God is celebrated and acknowledge and sought out in hard times for help and comfort.

The thing I love most about our family prayer life is that its so "us." We read a bit of Scripture at the dinner table because that is a Carmelite tradition. (As a bonus, chewing mouths make for less interruptions.) My kids and my husband are actors. So often my kids will hear a great story and demand to act it out in the narrow confines of our dining room. Now these Bible Stories that I've loved since I was a child are forever linked with my husband and my kid's funny insights and intonations. I love that Scripture isn't a dusty history book, but a story that is inviting. "Putting yourself into the story" is a deep form of prayer. In my house, we do that action with all the silly joy of a Saturday Night Live Skit.

In the morning, my husband and I pray the Liturgy of the Hours together on little beat up folding chairs inside our dark kitchen at 5 AM.  There are a lot of places that my husband and I don't fit easily together, such as during home remodeling projects or on long car trips to the beach. Yet we fit so easily together in prayer and we had that easy connection ever since praying together at Mass on our third date in Februrary 2000. When I prayed with my husband it was amazing to think that Pope Francis was praying those same Hebrew Psalms this morning. What are the chances that I'd meet a man who would cheerfully give up sleep, even with a fitful baby in our house, in order pray the Psalms with me? God knows what I truly need better than I do.

When I think about the phrase "Our Domestic Church," I give thanks for all the great prayers that we Benjamins have prayed together. There was that time 5 years ago that I'm pretty certain we only got Teresa out of the NICU so quickly because her big sister Hannah came over to Children's Hospital and held her. To our family, church isn't a place we go. The Church is a family that we belong along with easily, regardless of whether we are having an great day or a hard one.

Thank you for all the Catholics, for all the Christians, and for all the people of good will who have shared their family life with me over the past 8 years. I celebrate all of us, in all of our unique glory. I'm happily praying for all of you when I see the Pope.

(For more reflections on the Pope's visit this week, please from members of the Catholic Women's Blogger Network please check out our "A Walk In Words With Pope Francis.")

Why I'm Taking My Small Children To See The Papal Parade

(for K.)

Honestly, It's going to be a hard work for us to see the Pope. I'm setting the alarm clock for 4:30 AM with the hope of getting my 6 kids into two different cars by 5:15 AM (because our family has outgrown the 7 passenger van with the addition of the new baby). My husband and I will both fight commuter traffic for hours and hopefully end up near our reserved parking spots at relatively similar times.

Then we'll divide the family into 2 groups of 4 on the Metro. We'll hope that each adult can keep track of 3 lively and distractable kids on and off a Metro escalator and Metro Train. Then we will walk and walk for blocks from the Metro Station to Pennsylvania Avenue. We're facing a harsh deadline of 10 AM, when the security gate comes to a full close, despite us potentially being a few feet away dealing with any number of unpredictable emergencies with small children. If we make it, our reward is to sit in an crowded, sunny venue for one hour without access to animal crackers or other brought from home snacks, because no one wants a potential of liquid nitrogen around the Pontiff.

In the end, we might not make it to see the Pope, or we might see him pass by for only the briefest second. 

Taking young children to see the Pope is one of those mental calculations that is not worth it by a mile.

However, being Catholic isn't a rational mental calculation. Being Catholic means being called to suffer, and its a laying down my life for my friends. In the end, I could probably feel as close to my Pope if I saw him wave from TV, but I know that my children will have a different experience remembering how when the Pope came to our backyard, we make a hell of an effort to greet him in person. If I'm honest, my inner 3 year old will probably react different to the Holy Father in person, than if I only see him on TV also.

In the end, I'm looking at attending the Papal Parade as a sort of pilgramage. I don't have a marked seat. I don't have a Press Pass. I don't have a guarantee of any payoff of making this trek. Yet I know it gives God glory to just make the attempt. I know it will be a good story in 10 years for my family. I also know that I'm so blessed to have a Catholic family, that whatever I can do to pray and cheer and suffer in order for more people to have access to the grace from the Sacraments that I receive without too much effort from the Eucharist, Confession, and the Sacrament of Marriage, I'm willing to do it.

Hope to see you at the Papal Parade on Wednesday too!

How I Plan On Taking My Young Kids to See the Papal Parade

1. I made a plan for where I was going to park when I got to the city. I also asked my husband to take off from work to go with us. 

2. I'm using the Washington Post Map to figure out which Metro Station to use to access the Parade Security Zone.

3. I'm using a single backpack with drinks and snacks to get us to the Parade. I'm prepared to dump our snacks before we get to the security zone. I'm hoping to get to the security zone around 9 to 9:30 AM. I'm bringing cash to use for the snacks sold within the security zone. I'm taking the ratty $13 umbrella stroller, which I don't mind if we lose, and an infant backpack. I'm not sure which will be easier to use inside a crowd.

4. After the Parade, I'm making plans to rest at the Smithsonian Museums, so we can let the majority of the crowd leave before us. I'm also prepaying our Metro card for a full round trip before we access the Metro.

5. I'm stuff the van filled with snacks, water and coffee (for the adults) on our drive home which might also happen during Rush Hour.

******

For more reports and reflections on the Pope's visit from members of the Catholic Women's Blogger Network, please visit "A Walk In Words With Pope Francis." 

Preparing My Heart to Meet A Pope

This week, I don't have a Mass Ticket or a Press Pass. I've got a reserved parking spot and a plan to be one of the crowd in a Papal Parade. In 2008, my husband and I took our 5 year old and our 3 year old to a Papal Mass with Pope Benedict inside the new National Staduim in Washington D.C. Attending that Mass was thrilling and I've talked to so many priests and religious and lay people who all felt like our Catholic Faith took off to new heights after that awesome experience.

Next week my experience with Pope Francis will be far less dramatic. On Wednesday, we hope to bring our family of 8 to be a part of a crowd of thousands to wave at Pope Francis as he drives down a public street inside the heart of Washington D.C. I found myself attending Mass today at my regular parish feeling so excited and so thankful to God. The real drama is encountering Pope Francis inside my own heart. The Pope is the Leader of the Holy Roman Church, he's also called the "Servant to the Servants of God." 

Today, I watched my parish priest celebrate the Holy Mass. Father Colin was born a United Methodist (a Protestant) like me. When I was a little girl, I used to sit in church and say the same words as contained in a Catholic Mass, "Lord we lift up our hearts to you." Yet instead of the Eucharist, the ushers served Communion by passing along Welch's Grape Juice in tiny individual serving cups to the Congregation. Now at age 40, I watched my priest put incense over the altar, and say the deep prayers of Consecration, and careful wipe out every piece of the host from the Chalice. Father's actions seemed to have a special glow today, and I gave thanks that we are both Roman Catholics now. Faith is a gift. Somehow along my spiritual journey, I started to  recognize that something deeper was happening inside the mystery of the Eucharist then I felt as a child inside my sweet, but rather simplistic, United Methodist Communion Services. To me, it's as a radical a difference as small cup of Welch's Grape Juice is to the infinite mystery of the Body & Blood of Jesus Christ.

That's how I feel about my love for our Holy Father. Pope Francis is a fun figurehead. He's lively and unpredicitable. He's beloved by the secular media and non-Catholics around the world. To me, however, Pope Francis is a direct link to St. Peter. My obedience to Pope Francis is one of the defining elements of my spiritual identity. It's a thrilling experience to welcome our Holy Father into my country and deeper into my own heart.

Next Sunday, I'll be attending the same Mass at the same small country parish in Western Maryland. I'll be battling the same crisis to keep the kids still and to keep my own heart focused on the great mystery of the Mass. I pray that I'll feel a renewed sense of purpose and a union with the Pope celebrating Mass in Philadelphia at the World Meeting of Families. I hope there will be many more people sitting in the pews next to me after the seeds of welcome, mercy and joy are sown during the 2015 Papal Visit. 

Welcome to the United States, Papa!