HONORING THE HOLY MOTHER

Y’all, I had SUCH a blessed day. We went to Mass for the first time in almost a year and it felt so wonderful. When we walk in, we usually go to the cry room where all the parents with little toddlers and babies sit, but the Usher insisted that we go into the main church.

Today is a Holy Day day of Obligation for us, as we celebrate the Assumption of Mary into Heaven and her coronation as the Queen of Heaven (next week for coronation). Those days entire families are sitting in the main church. I truly believe Mother Mary loves it when we’re all sitting together in the house of worship, venerating her with babies in our laps and little kids tugging on our arms.

And some thing else so wonderful happened when we were at mass today. When the choir began to sing Hail Holy Queen, I heard a little tiny voice in the midst of it.

It was my baby girl singing the song because I sing it at home all the time.

“Hail Holy Queen enthroned above

O Maria!

Hail Mother of Mercy and of love

O Maria!

Triumph all ye Cherubim!

Sing with us ye Seraphim!

Heaven and Earth resound the hymn

Salve, salve, salve Regina!”

Y’all, my baby sang ALL.THE.WORDS.

I started boo-hooing.

Something about that makes me so grateful and humbled by the responsibility I have, but also overflowing with joy and more accepting of the heavily flawed being that I am and we all are.

That’s a real challenge as a mother today, I think. There’s this insane pressure to have your whole life be Instagram worthy, for your children to never act up, for everything to always be tidy, for everything to be perfect. I am so grateful for the grace of the holy mother that helps me understand that I do not have to adhere to those impossible standards.

I can enjoy my life, tradition, cultivation of children, The sacrament of marriage, the work of a matriarch and accept that it’s not going to be sunshine, rainbows, and IG perfection.

Since today is a feast day, there’s often a lot of unspoken pressure to have everything perfect. I made a decision that I want my children to LOVE and UNDERSTAND the traditions that we have, and they can only do that if they are actually INVOLVED with those traditions. That means that the icing on the cake won’t be perfect, and the meals that we cook won’t be as fancy in order to allow them to enjoy something inside their little tummy On feast day as well.

No bechamel sauce whipped up today, no super high end cuisine. Just me setting the table, blessing the herbs and hubby putting an organic chicken inside of the smoker (they come out super dark, but super tasty!), and two enthusiastic little kids putting blue and white roses made from icing on the cake for the Queen of Patriarchs.

There is a song that I heard years ago that always stuck with me because of one line:

“…and that makes me lucky.

God I’m lucky, so much luckier than I ever thought I’d be.”

I feel that with my whole spirit.

Nikki