One of Coffe&Canticles favorite readers (favorite as in loyal and makes frequent comments ) is Melanie B. from Massachusetts, who has her own blog, The Wine-Dark Sea, a very sweet and intelligent Catholic mommy blog. Late last night she left a comment on last week's Worth Doing Badly post, and it's worth sharing:
I just wanted to come back and say thank you for posting your description of your "badly done" evening prayer in the midst of chaos. I really needed that. I've started trying to pray morning prayer while cooking breakfast on those days when I don't get up before the kids instead of waiting to try to find a quiet time after breakfast that may or may not appear. It's been a gift. I've allowed myself to pray daytime prayer while hiding in the bathroom and to pray evening prayer while brushing my teeth. Giving myself permission to stop looking for the quiet place but to just pray in the midst of the chaos was exactly what I needed right now as the quiet places in my day have seemed to dry up recently. It's been like looking for a creek in Texas in August. There just isn't anything there. I've been so frustrated.
Even though I've never held myself up to some sort of ideal of ordered peacefulness and have learned to pray with the kids climbing all over me, I guess I was still clinging to the notion that I should try to find time to sit down and devote my full attention. Letting go of that has really been a blessing.
I just wanted to come back and say thank you for posting your description of your "badly done" evening prayer in the midst of chaos. I really needed that. I've started trying to pray morning prayer while cooking breakfast on those days when I don't get up before the kids instead of waiting to try to find a quiet time after breakfast that may or may not appear. It's been a gift. I've allowed myself to pray daytime prayer while hiding in the bathroom and to pray evening prayer while brushing my teeth. Giving myself permission to stop looking for the quiet place but to just pray in the midst of the chaos was exactly what I needed right now as the quiet places in my day have seemed to dry up recently. It's been like looking for a creek in Texas in August. There just isn't anything there. I've been so frustrated.
Even though I've never held myself up to some sort of ideal of ordered peacefulness and have learned to pray with the kids climbing all over me, I guess I was still clinging to the notion that I should try to find time to sit down and devote my full attention. Letting go of that has really been a blessing.
My only followup is to make this suggestion to Melanie and all moms (and dads) who put down their breviary to attend to Life, only to see it sitting there several hours later and realize that one never got past the second psalm of the hour,and now it's time for the next hours to be prayed. Don't try to go back and finish that earlier hour. Imagine that your guardian angel finished it for you, since that is in fact what he did. Your guardian angel, and the millions of believers all over the world. Sort of like when you get up at mass to take a child to the bathroom. You wouldn't feel you had to go back and recite the prayer's you'd missed to "catch up" to the others. No, because they prayed the mass for you. That's called the communion of saints.
