Today is the day of St. Martha, the patroness of this blog. This year I was organized enough to know a little beforehand, but not organized enough to do anything other than go to mass. Maybe next year I can do a giveaway on the blog, like of one of the Artes do Mosteiro statues. Would you like that?
I like how even if you are a little perfectionist or anxious like Martha (and me!), you can still serve the Lord and find peace. Here is an excerpt from today's office of readings, courtesy of divineoffice.org:
From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop
Blessed are they who deserved to receive Christ in their homes
Our Lord’s words teach us that though we labor among the many distractions of this world, we should have but one goal. For we are but travelers on a journey without as yet a fixed abode; we are on our way, not yet in our native land; we are in a state of longing, not yet of enjoyment. But let us continue on our way, and continue without sloth or respite, so that we may ultimately arrive at our destination.
Martha and Mary were sisters, related not only by blood but also by religious aspirations. They stayed close to our Lord and both served him harmoniously when he was among them. Martha welcomed him as travelers are welcomed. But in her case, the maidservant received her Lord, the invalid her Savior, the creature her Creator, to serve him bodily food while she was to be fed by the Spirit. For the Lord willed to put on the form of a slave, and under this form to be fed by his own servants, out of condescension and not out of need. For this was indeed condescension, to present himself to be fed; since he was in the flesh he would indeed be hungry and thirsty.
Thus was the Lord received as a guest who came unto his own and his own received him not; but as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God, adopting those who were servants and making them his brothers, ransoming the captives and making them his co-heirs. No one of you should say: “Blessed are they who have deserved to receive Christ into their homes!” Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says: Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers, you did to me.
But you, Martha, if I may say so, are blessed for your good service, and for your labors you seek the reward of peace. Now you are much occupied in nourishing the body, admittedly a holy one. But when you come to the heavenly homeland will you find a traveler to welcome, someone hungry to feed, or thirsty to whom you may give drink, someone ill whom you could visit, or quarreling whom you could reconcile, or dead whom you could bury?
No, there will be none of these tasks there. What you will find there is what Mary chose. There we shall not feed others, we ourselves shall be fed. Thus what Mary chose in this life will be realized there in all its fullness; she was gathering fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God. Do you wish to know what we will have there? The Lord himself tells us when he says of his servants, Amen, I say to you, he will make them recline and passing he will serve them.
This is a street sign that says "Resistance/opposition to fascism street". I am all for resisting fascism, but every street, park, square, etc. in the new town we're living in is named after something related to the 25th of April Portuguese revolution, revolutionaries or communism in general. It's a little much. Apparently we are now living in communist country, which for a God-fearing, proud-to-be an American like me, is a little scary.
Portugal is classified as around 97% Catholic from statistics, but most people agree that it's really just numbers on a paper. Because although many people are baptized and married by the Church (and that keeps dwindling), most are non-practicing or "tolerant", but don't really identify with (or know) what the Church teaches. Which isn't communism.
Anyway, I'm just going to sit tight and try my best to be kind to communists, like our ol' Pope Francis here.
We had a rough/busy weekend and couple of days. We went to a wedding up north, which included five-hour drives with a baby who hates the car and my in-laws... five people jam-packed into a five-person sports car.
Luckily, we were able to restart our family nights on Tuesdays and had our first picnic in our new neighborhood. We found a great grassy área near the river...until the sprinklers turned on. Then we found a nice table... until we realized it was under a tree full of wasps and bumble bees. Finally, we ended up on these little benches right next to the river. And we all finally had a good night of sleep.
This was a birthday present I got from my thoughtful hubby that we had seen in the store together and I had fallen in love with. It was made by those nuns I talked about in my last post, Monjas de Belém. They make beautiful artwork and their site is here.
This one is Our Lady Housekeeper. We gave her a prominent place at our entryway but things are a little messy right now at our new house. The good thing is, I don't think Our Lady minds. I really do think she used to buy/make bread, carry water and take care of baby Jesus kind of like I do with Addie... in a much holier, peaceful and joyful way of course. But maybe she didn't mind messes. Maybe she was more a Mary than a Martha.
I hope to get my house in order soon, but it's taking its time. It always seems I'm one step behind the game. Always waiting on something. So I'm trying to enjoy myself and my little family despite the things to hang up strewn all over the floor, the wrong shelves I bought for our prayer corner and am waiting to return, the showers missing shower rods and curtains, etc.
(Adelaide enjoying the view of the river Tejo)
We moved! It was an ordeal, but we made it. We still haven't hung up essential things like towel racks and toilet seats, or gone grocery shopping, but we love our new house. It's calmer (you can hear the birds), there are parks and lots of good things walking distance and the house is starting to feel like a home. The downside is that it's far from Lisbon (40 min by car) and there is a river between us and Lisbon.
Yesterday we went to mass at the monjas de Belém, a monastery about an hour away. There are cloistered nuns there that really inspired us and helped us see what is important. Even though their monastery is under construction and they are living in hot and bad conditions, in the middle of NOWHERE, they are beaming with joy. They smile and sing beautiful music. We talked to one sister who never complained once, even though through our questions we understood they are not self-sufficient yet and barely have enough to eat. She said, "Our goal is to be able to be self-sufficient but for now it's good to depend solely on divine providence".
Put things into perspective for us. We who were complaining about not having things hung up yet in our comfy, spacious apartment with lots of grocery stores nearby.
