What a beautiful meditation and reflection this morning from Divine Intimacy #324.
I have been battling the voices of the evil one in my ear. That I am not good enough, not doing enough, failing my children, etc. The depth of my prayer recently has been crying out the name of Jesus, each morning and all day. And usually in frustration at the end of the night.
I am frustrated with the mundaneness of my life. Especially as the sun becomes less and the confinement to home becomes greater.
Life update: I am homeschooling a 6th grader, 4th graded and Kindergartener. My special needs 2nd grader is currently in public school and my 3 & 4 year old boys are bussed to preschool every day. Homeschooling is a beautiful thing and I love the peace of homeschool, but family life is always tricky. It is a constant struggle to keep the busyness at bay.
Satan finds us most easily in the busyness. God finds us in our peace.
This morning I carved out some quiet time.
Jesus’s life was 33 years. We know his story in the beginning, a few moments from his childhood and then the last 3 years are where we learn the most from Him. But those last three years would not have been possible without the thirty years that preceded them. Our Church would not be possible if it weren’t for the hidden life. Evangelization and missionary works could not exist without an army of prayer behind those works.
Family life is often the hidden life. While we may interact with others in our time of busyness, this is the time we are called to be quiet, in a matter of speaking. Anyone who has been to my house knows it is anything but quiet in the real meaning of the word.
After children, I have mostly stopped blogging. I have recently given up Facebook as I found that hate grows too big there. My interactions are mostly those of face to face encounters. Which, I have learned harshly this past year, are oh so necessary.
90% or greater of my time is spent at home with my children. And here lies the hidden life of the family. Our family has a nightly rosary devotion, which started as a New Years resolution two years ago. This is a powerful tool and such a bringer or peace to our lives. I have a praying husband, which is so evident in the love and acts of service my husband provides.
It is much more difficult to do a self analysis, but to say, I am constantly striving to accomplish my own prayer, amidst the teaching of prayer and scripture and forgiveness and mercy that happens in a daily basis in our family life.
I love the challenge to think of this time as the hidden life. This time of prayer and sacrifice that will make possible fruitfulness and evangelization in ways I cannot see or know. God bless those mamas, papas and families living their hidden life. Jesus, we trust in you.
