The Sorrowful Mysteries: The Scourging at the Pillar/The Crowning with Thorns (Part 2)

[I've been praying and meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary lately, as they have really been on my mind as I prepare for Gianna's birth. The Mysteries, which include Jesus' agony in the garden, the scouring at the pillar, crowning with thorns, carrying of the cross, and the crucifixion, don't really seem like a traditional kind of prayer for someone who will be giving birth soon (more normal would be "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" or "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..." etc...), but these meditations have brought me great peace and happiness and I'd like to share bits of those thoughts with you. ]


The Second Sorrowful Mystery--The Scouring at the Pillar
The Third Sorrowful Mystery--The Crowning with Thorns
 (Matthew 27:26-31, Mk 15:1-2, Luke 23:16-25, John 18:36-19:1)
After Jesus is handed over to be killed he is bought to Ciaphas, the high priest, who finds him guilty. Then, as morning breaks, Jesus is bound and led to Pilate. Pilate questions Jesus and was basically uncomfortable about the whole situation, eventually saying that he "finds no guilt in him".  

Since it was the feast day of the Passover, Pilate offers to release a prisoner, either Jesus or Barrabas,   but the crowd shouts for Barabbas to be released and as for Jesus they yell "Crucify him, crucify him” and Pilate caves to the pressure, and leads Jesus to be scourged. 

Jesus was stripped of his clothes and tied to a pillar, surrounded by a blood thirsty mob who was shouting and encouraging the Roman soldiers as they lashed Him with leather whips tipped with sharp stones or bone. The soldiers put a scarlet robe on him, a reed in His right hand, and adorned his head with a crown of thorns. They mocked Jesus saying “Hail, king of the Jews!” (Mt 27:29) and spat upon him. 

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When I read these verses in the Bible, they take up such a short space in time (for me). It seems like everything happens to Jesus to quickly. Betrayed. Found guilty. Handed over. Stripped, scourged, and mocked. Seems so quick. But in reality, it says that he wasn't even handed over to Pilate until morning. I wonder how much time had passed, if there was much down time between these "events". I have no doubt that Jesus used this time to pray and to gain strength from God to endure what lay ahead. 

It reminds me of how birth is portrayed on TV. All of a sudden a woman's water breaks, she's in immediate pain and the baby is "ready to come out", she rushes to the hospital, scream, scream, scream, and BOOM! Baby is born. The reality is much...slower. And who knows, for me, it could be days of slow, puttering labor, or could be a more regular, even paced labor. The point is, it won't happen like it does on TV, just like Jesus wasn't handed over and crucified in the span of 5 sentences. He experienced all of these things in real time, real life, with real pain and emotions. These horrible injustices that Jesus faced were his painful and cruel "stops" along the way to his ultimate glory in the Resurrection. Again, the idea that through suffering, comes new life. When I think about the time lapse between Agony in the Garden and when Jesus actually carries his physical cross, I think of the process of labor--contractions, moments of relief in between, and all the other stops along the way. I hope I remember to use those moments in between to pray like I know Jesus did.

When Jesus is stripped of his clothes and is exposed and naked, I always think back to to the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve recognize their nakedness after the fall. Their nakedness was like their shame. For Jesus though, rather than bringing us shame, brings about our redemption and new life in Him through this nakedness. New life and nakedness seem to "go together". 

The act of being stripped of clothes seems like such a vulnerable thing to me. There's no where to hide. I imagine that's what labor will be like--being stripped down to nothing (yes this is figuratively or emotionally...but probably also literally) and completely vulnerable, all my normal comforts will be gone. I won't be able to hide behind a computer screen and type what I'm feeling during birth--it will be me, in the moment, raw, exposed, primal, like so many women before me.

Jesus was fully human, and no doubt there were times that he called out in pain, feeling like it was too much. But he endured, knowing that the end far surpassed the means. Every tear Jesus shed, every blow He endured, every drop of blood that flowed, every moment of ridicule…all this, without protesting this “cup” that was given to him. “…he opened not his mouth, he was like a lamb led to slaughter…” (Isaiah 53:7). Every second of pain was for our freedom, to deliver us from evil and to be born anew in Him. 

So too, will I doubtless cry out in pain...a lot maybe...but I know that when the pain ends, there will be new life...a small, precious, innocent baby girl. The pain will be gone, and there will be much rejoicing. 

Thank you Jesus for enduring the pain and ridicule of the crowd and the Roman soldiers for us and our salvation. Help me to also to endure pain in childbirth, in a way that will glorify your own suffering.

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Did you miss the previous posts?
Read Introduction to the Sorrowful Mysteries
The Sorrowful Mysteries: The Agony in the Garden (Part 1)

New Year’s Resolutions 2013

I love New Year’s Resolutions. I love making goals and working towards them. I’m hoping that this year, by reviewing our New Year’s resolutions each month, we are able to be more faithful and accomplish more than we did last year. It's also exciting that our Resolutions get to include a 3rd person for the first time!!! 

I also hope that by “going public” with some of our goals, we’ll be more apt to keep them, rather than face shame from friends and family (because I know y’all will totally be calling me and checking in about these resolutions….not!). Some of these are joint goals, others are Chris’s or mine exclusively—I’ll bet you can figure out who is planning to learn the oil changes and who is doing the sewing….. ;-)

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Anyhow, without further ado: New Year’s Resolutions 2013 (inspired by Moneysavingmom.com)

Personal/home

·         Have a baby (this one is our guaranteed success)

·         Learn to do oil changes for our vehicles

·         Make/store a 1 year food supply

·         Make sourdough starter and use sourdough for most of breadmaking

·         Learn more about sprouting grains

·         Make all household cleaners from scratch (except for dish/dishwasher soap)

·         Make homemade toiletries (including lip balm, deodorant, toothpaste, etc)

·         Read 7: An Experimental Mutiny against Excess and do our own experiment  (this is a cool book…each month the author, Jen Hatmaker, did only 7 of something…forever, one month was eating only 7 foods…it’s all about simplifying, living below your means, and I am EXCITED!)

·         Learn to sew and make basic clothes repairs with Brother sewing machine

·         Read at least 12 books: TBA

·         Read lots of baby books, including: The Baby Book (Sears), How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of your Doctor (Mendelssohn), What to Expect the First Year, 25 Things Every New Mother Should Know (Sears) , Nighttime Parenting (Sears)

·         Baptize Gianna!

Marriage

·         Plan and go on trip to Napa Valley, CA with baby in tow (yes, please go ahead and laugh at us…we can dream!)

·         Take an anniversary trip to Broken Bow, OK (yeah, we liked it that much)

·         Finish reading Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist together

·         Read Man and Woman He Create Them: The Theology of the Body together

·         Fun dates/family outings in and around Tyler, TX: Drive in Theatre, Blueberry Hills “Pick your own” farm in June/July, Caldwell Zoo, Kierpersol winery or other vineyard, Moore Farms Pumpkin Patch/fall stuff, Tyler Rose Garden, and Tyler State Park are just some ideas we had

Family/Friends

·         Write two long e-mails to friends/family each month

·         Write two handwritten letters to friends/family each month

·         Faithfully update blog with baby pictures and stuff for family/friends

Financial

·         Look for land/buy a house

·         Create and stick to new budget that includes baby G

Religious

·         Continue/finish The Catechism of the Catholic Church during the Year of Faith

·         Start a Link to Liturgy Meeting at the Cathedral

·         Focus on living a different Beatitude each month (For January/February, we are working on “Blessed are the poor in spirit”)

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I know some of these seem incredibly simple (like making our own cleaners). And they are! But I know, if it doesn’t get written down, it doesn’t get done (and even if it IS written down, it gets done like 70% of the time). There are other, more daunting tasks, like buying a house and even others that require a full year’s investment (living the Beatitudes).

What are some of your New Year’s Resolutions? If you’ll bug me about keeping mine, I’ll bug you about keeping yours hehehe

Here’s to an awesome 2013!

BABYMOON!!!!!!!!!!! +Week 37

 37 Weeks!

Yes, by all those exclamation points in the title, you can probably deduce that our babymoon was awesome. And if you did deduce that, you would be right!


Friday-Monday this past week, Chris and I took a trip to Broken Bow, Oklahoma for a long weekend of hiking, relaxing, cooking, reading, and game playing. BB was recommended by one of Chris's coworkers and it didn't disappoint. While Chris was still at work on Friday, I got to "start" the vacation early with a 90 minute pre-natal massage at a local massage school. Amazing!

We stayed at a cabin called "Over the Rainbow". It was super fancy and we got one night half price and late checkout at 5 pm on Monday, so that was pretty sweet. Chris was awesome for hooking that up. We're pretty simple people and normally wouldn't go somewhere like this, but we decided to live it up and it was so special and fun! The pictures below that I took don't do the place justice, so if you're really interested, go to the website link above. I would definitely recommend this cabin to any couple!!

Driving up to the cabin...isn't it cute?!

 

  Living room/Kitchen area. The TV was attached to this rockin' Bose sound system and had AppleTV. Granted, we don't actually watch TV, but we did listen to lots of crazy music stations. There were like a zillion to choose from.

 

 

 I loved these light fixtures--they were made with Ball canning jars!

 Upstairs was the bedroom (hadn't figured out the lighting at this point LOL...everything was adjustable, but we didn't "get it" until day 2). Yes, that is an airbath jacuzzi tub in the bedroom...and a fireplace (not pictured)!!!

 This is literally Chris's dream shower. He's so tall, most shower heads hit him at the chest. The cabin shower, however, was epic. It not only had a high shower head, but also a RAIN SHOWER and 4 wall panels! The second twisty knob allows you to toggle between or combine the different features. Yes, it was epic (Renee if you read this, it really was EPIC!). Yes, you can be jealous.

   Despite the practical person I am, inside of me lives a "goody lover"...especially in regards to special things like basin sinks or cool handles on drawers. I just liked turning the water on in the bathrooms to watch it pour out so nicely. What. A. Dork. 

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Needless to say, we spent a lot of time just enjoying such a beautiful and luxurious cabin. We brought lots of books (like 8 of them), Settlers of Catan, cards, and "spot the difference" books (I know that sounds lame, but we love to do them together!) and enjoyed hanging outside (the weather was beautiful and not too cold!) on the giant circular outside couch, time by the fire, and lots of relaxing. We had planned to eat out once, but ended up cooking all of our meals inside the cabin, which was awesome. 

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 Our favorite meal was this mediterranean pizza, made from scratch (using a new dough recipe woohoo). The cabin kitchen didn't have a rolling pin...so I used a glass...good thing proper pizza shaping doesn't affect taste :-)

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Of course, we also went outdoors, despite the temptation to stay inside the cabin and drink hot chocolate all day. We hiked 2-4 miles each day on various trails (or random off-trail excursions). We love hiking and there was such wonderful wintry scenery. I don't know if we just got lucky, but there was literally NO ONE hiking on the trails. In fact, the only time we saw another human was on the very first day! We got all of nature to ourselves, and it was quite beautiful :-) Next time we hike anywhere though, there will be a baby strapped on! Below are some pictures from the scenery on our hikes.

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 Leaves are fun, even when you're 25

 

 

 

 Chris deemed this "chair" his "King" seat

 We loved using this Thermos everyday and getting steaming hot soup while we hiked. Thermos rocks. We decided that we are going to be those weird people who take one everywhere.

 

 Golly gee...wonder what kind of animal attacked this tree...lol

  These trees were so cool! It's crazy to see how low the water level is compared to the line on the trees.

 It's hard to find someone to take a picture of you when you're the only ones around...hence the poor self portrait

  I actually like this one better. More...us....

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All in all? The most fun, perfect trip ever! Well, maybe second best to our honeymoon in St. Croix. Definitely a close second. I feel so lucky that we were able to get away and spend some QT together and enjoying nature before G gets here. 

Now, off to do a billion things from my "before baby gets here" to-do list. Woo hoo (this is seriousness, not sarcasm)!!! Less than 3 weeks!

Week 36.5/New Years Update

I’m officially on less than 4 week countdown. Now, of course, who knows if the countdown actually gets to 4 weeks or ends at 4 weeks, but it’s a significant milestone, nonetheless. 

Over the past 1.5 weeks Gianna has had 3 big growth spurts. On Monday morning, I officially had to start doing the “pregnant roll over”, aka, rolling over to get out of bed, rather than sitting up and getting out. Now I sleep really close to the edge so that it’s easier to get out. Then on Thursday morning she just felt a lot bigger. Geri, one of the midwives, commented that she has quite the large rear-end and that she feels chunky-ish. Annnnnnnnnd this morning I got out rolled out of bed and was like---who is this giant baby in my belly!?!!?! Well, one thing is for certain, G is definitely growing. See proof from a picture we took before church today--

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

There’s a lot to do before G gets here, but I’m excited that I will have plenty to do to keep me busy.

Firstly, I just started “4 Weeks to a More Organized Home”from Moneysavingmom.com. Hopefully this will get our little apartment in tip-top shape in the next few weeks and help me to direct my energies in appropriate ways (rather than re-organizing her clothes 5 times or something similarly stupid that will literally make no difference in my life)

We’ve also started our New Year’s Resolution list, which is probably a lot more detailed than most people’s resolutions. I have categories and everything. Looking back on our NY Resolutions last year, I was surprised at how many we accomplished without having any kind of accountability system. There’s one resolution in particular that I feel pretty good about…… (see picture)

 

 

Resolution from last year: Make a baby?? Done! (If you don’t know why there was a question mark, go back and read How Baby Rendall Came to Be Part 1 and Part 2)

Resolution for this year: Have a baby. Hahaha. At least I know I will accomplish that one. We definitely didn’t do a 5K or mini-tri, but I’m going to attribute that to being pregnant from May-December. That’s a decent excuse, right?

I was thinking about posting our NY Resolutions for this year on the blog and reviewing progress each month so that we would be held accountable in that it would be embarrassing if we didn’t accomplish anything. Does that interest any of y’all? Probably not. But pretty soon there will be baby pictures posted often, so I figure y’all will keep reading anyway. Heck, maybe it’ll even inspire some of you to keep your own resolutions. Stay tuned for that list...

 

A Merry Chistmas and Blessed New Year to all of you!!!