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J1ST 87: The Seven Sorrows of Mary and Infertility

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Hello Listeners!

With yesterday being the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, in today’s episode, we’re taking a closer look at the Seven Sorrows of Mary along with the concept of being open to life, even if it leaves your arms empty (or emptier than you want them to be).  We’re talking specifically about infertility but as Catholic Women, practicing natural family planning can leave our families looking very different than we’ve envisioned, so everyone can get something from this episode (we hope 🙂 )

The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows is closely connected with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which has been celebrated since the year 326. Many of the great saints have written on her sorrows and Mary recently encouraged this devotion in the 1980s when she made several visits to school children in Kibeho, Rwanda.  There is also a religious order that originally formed around a devotion to Mary at the foot of the cross called the Servites, formed in 1239. 

The Seven Sorrows are:

  1. The prophecy of Simeon
  2. The flight into Egypt
  3. Loss of the Child Jesus for three days
  4. Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary
  5. Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
  6. The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross
  7. The burial of Jesus

There is even a special form of the rosary with seven ‘septets’ instead of five decades (maybe you have one in your house put to the side because you thought it was defective. haha).  

We talk about the temptation to compare joys but also compare sorrows… She has it better than me. Or my struggle is more difficult than hers.  But the fact is: there is no way to objectively rate someone else’s pain on a scale of 1 to 10.  God doesn’t rate our suffering.

Katie speaks about the loneliness and ‘compassion fatigue’ (or maybe burnout?) that comes with infertility.  It’s hard to be sympathetic with a friend who is ‘accidentally’ pregnant or suffering from morning sickness, but the fact is their suffering is real too.  And pain is only magnified when we’re trapped in it.  Our Mother can help us with our sorrows. She is with us in this pain. She knew loneliness (Exile in Egypt), anxiety (the Christ Child is lost for three days), and desolation (seeing her son crucified).

There is so much to learn and so much comfort to find meditating on our mother’s sorrows.

One More Thing: If your parish or diocese is offering some sort of a ministry for those facing infertility: Please share with us!  We’d love to get more happening all across the US.

Your sisters in the small things,

 

Nancy and Katie

 

Things we mentioned in this episode:

 

Katie’s New Book: Waiting with Mary: A Seven Sorrows Devotional for Catholic Women facing Infertility (Lulu Link will be added here within the next week and a half…  follow TheJoyfulLeap on IG or FB for updates)

 

Naprotechnology: medical treatment of fertility issues that are in line with Church Teaching on Human Dignity and Sexuality

 

Organic Conceptions (Online emotional support program for couples dealing with delayed conception/infertility; Coupon Code for J1ST Listeners: JUSTONESMALLTHING)

 

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J1ST 085: Wearing a Scapular

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Next in our Sacramental Series, we’re learning about Scapulars.  We’ll talk specifically about the Brown Scapular today but there are several different color scapulars each with their own particular devotion.

The Scapular is a beautiful tradition of our Church started with the Carmelite Order.  The Carmelites, unlike many of the orders founded around the same time, have no saintly founder that we know of.  Instead, the order was founded by laymen who were former crusaders. Their community began on Mt. Carmel in Palestine, the same mountain on which Elijah defended the faith in One True God from via a challenge of the priests of Baal.  After religious persecution (meaning martyrdom for some), the Carmelites returned to Europe around 1235.

Now, if you’re like me, you have been wearing a scapular for decades, so this next bit might be troubling, but Stay With Me…  Carmelite St. Simon’s vision of Mary in July of 1251, which included the gift of the scapular, has not actually been given an official “Truth” stamp by The Church.  Unlike Fatima (1917) or Lourdes (1858) or Guadalupe (1531), this vision has not been verified. Part of this is due to the fact that it happened long ago (1251-ish).  Records that might have documented the vision have been lost. Some say that is was an attempt to legitimize the Carmelite order, who unlike the Benedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans, etc. had no saintly founder.  Infact, St. Simon’s feast day (May 16th) had been removed from the calendar for a time, only to be placed back with the understanding that no mention of the vision would be made. (Check out his bio on the Carmelite Website)

REGARDLESS: As Nancy states: throughout the history of Our Church, heresies have been uprooted and destroyed.  The scapular, much like the rosary, remains. Although as I child, I thought of it as a ‘get out of Hell free’ card, as an adult I wear it as a sign to my devotion to Our Blessed Mother, a physical reminder that I am under her protection and I have pledged myself to be “totus tuus.”

There is a rite of investiture in the brown scapular that any priest can perform for you (Nancy’s family takes ‘the plunge’ this coming spring!!!). Part of being vested is a pledge to pray some form or Marian Devotion daily (the rosary) and to live chastely according to your state in life.

 

Let’s close with the morning offering of those who wear a scapular (which I found here):

O my God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary (here kiss the scapular as a sign of your consecration), I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars throughout the world, joining with It the offering of my every thought, word and action of this day. O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can, and I offer them, together with myself, to Mary Immaculate, that she may best apply them to the interests of Thy most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Your Sisters in the Small Things,

 

Nancy and Katie

 

Need a scapular?

My parish priest recommends these ones, hand-stitched by Sisters of Carmel but the ones Andrea makes over at StellaMarigoldArt are breathtaking!

J1ST 084: Chapel Veils

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Today, we’re diving into another sacramental of our Faith: the Chapel Veil.  Reminder from last week:

Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. (CC1670)

Wearing a veil at mass will not give you special graces the way a Sacrament does, but some women find it helps open them up to receive the graces of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Did you grow up in a parish where veiling was the norm?  Neither of us did. In fact, Nancy remembers seeing it once as a child and thought they were Mennonites or something (kids think funny things!!!) and Katie’s first exposure to covering (see what I did there) was at Latin Mass as an adult.

Interestingly, St. Paul writes about women covering their head while in prayer in his first letter to the Corinthians(Check out Chapter 11).  The tradition was carried over from the Jewish people and then picked up by various other religions after Christianity.  

The tradition was actually a requirement for centuries and then due to some misinformation from the press circa Vatican II, the Catholic World was told women veiling wasn’t required anymore.

Despite it not being ‘required’ anymore, many women are choosing to pick up the tradition again.

 

Why Some Women Choose to Veil:

  • As a sign of reverence for the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
  • As a way to symbolize the difference between men and women
  • As a sign of unity with your husband 
  • Because, like the Eucharist, women can bare life. Life baring things are sacred.
  • It can act as ‘blinders’ and increase focus during mass/deepen prayer

 

Why Some Women Choose not to Veil:

  • Not aware of the tradition/that it is still “okay”
  • Husband is not on board (wearing something that is meant to be a visual sign of submission to your husband as to Christ that your husband Doesn’t Want You to Wear wouldn’t be a good idea)
  • It can be ‘attention grabbing’
  • It can be hard to keep your head covered while wrestling little ones during mass (making it more of a distraction than something that filters out distractions)

In this episode, we’ll tackle some of the Whys and Why Nots (and some solutions to the Why Nots). 

Just to be clear: We did not record this episode with the intent to tell every woman that they need to veil, BUT: if you have wondered if you should… if you’ve felt it on your heart to consider… this episode’s aim is to educate and assist in your discernment.  We hope you enjoy it!

 

Your sisters in the small things

 

Nancy and Katie

 

J1ST 081: Friendship with Mary

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Hey there friends!

It’s a big day around this small corner of the internet. Today I am sharing the LAST installment of the VIRTUES OF THE ROSARY. I can hardly believe it! I started discussing these virtues last summer, and here we are finishing them up as we approach another summer.

So, today is all about the virtue attached to the final Glorious Mystery: the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. The virtue for this mystery is FRIENDSHIP WITH MARY.

Since I feel like I have been talking about being close to Mary for this entire series, I start this episode by looking at Friendship in general. First of all, we need to remember that clearly friendship is important to God. While on Earth Jesus went out of His way to form friendships and He seems to even had had various types of friendships, and His best friend was likely St. John, the Beloved Disciple.

There are two problems with modern friendships:

  1. We often USE our friends for our own gains, and don’t really love them.
  2. We think that one friendship (or marriage) should be the only friendship that we need. And this is simply not true.

True friendships require time, vulnerability and listening. These are the building blocks for any friendship and we can apply them to our friendship with Mary as well.

We are called to spend daily time with Mary, share the secrets of our heart with her and listen to what she has to share with us. We need to listen, in particular to her message from Fatima: to Pray the Rosary and to accept suffering for the redemption of sinners.

And that is it! I certainly enjoyed recording these episodes and I pray that they have enriched your own praying of the Rosary.

Once again, if you would like to grab a copy of the Rosary Booklet where I offer reflections of each mystery of the Rosary, you can grab one right here: https://catholicsprouts.com/rosary-book

And, the Just One Small Thing Podcast will be taking a break for the months of June and July! But, I will be back with new weekly episodes in August (God willing).

Your sister in the small things,

J1ST 080: Union with Jesus

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Welcome back to another installment of the Virtues of the Rosary on the Just One Small Thing Podcast. I have really loved attaching a virtue to each mystery of the Rosary, and I hope these episodes have been helpful and enriched your own praying of the Rosary.

And, we are in the 2nd to the last episode in this series! Can you believe it?!? Today’s episode is all about the fourth Glorious Mystery, the Assumption of Mary into heaven. The virtue attached to this mystery is Union with Jesus. And, what I talk about mostly in this episode is devotion to the Eucharist.

Does that seem strange? That a mystery about Mary should be devoted to the Eucharist? Well, if you understand the nature of Mary and her role in our Faith Life, then it shouldn’t be!!!

Mary was so united with God that at the end of her life she didn’t die, but instead was taken up, body and soul into heaven. I like to think that she was so united with God that the world simply couldn’t hold her any more! And the way that we can follow her example and also be so united with God is through the Eucharist.

As many saints have put it, Through Mary to Jesus. Mary is the door that leads to Jesus.

I conclude this episode with lots of practical tips for living out your devotion to the Eucharist just a bit more fully. Here they are:

  1. Be better about spending the 15 minutes are you receive communion praising God! The Eucharist is still Jesus and now it is inside of you!
  2. Fight to attend daily mass. Look into the schedules once more and try it with the kids again. It’s worth it.
  3. Commit to an hour of adoration each week!
  4. Remember that Jesus is in the tabernacle and just being near Him is a gift for us, and a wonderful gift that we can give Him!

I hope these ideas are helpful and rekindle the fire of love for the Eucharist inside of you!

Here are a few of the links I mentioned in this episode:

Thanks for being here!

your sister in the small things,

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