Connie Rossini's Blog, page 21
October 25, 2013
Make your Bible study memorable with Legos
An aerial view of Herod’s temple by D, M, and C Rossini. Photo by D.
My boys love to build things. We can never have too many Legos in the house. On Monday I decided to have them build a model of Herod’s temple. We made a cardboard and clay version of Solomon’s temple two years ago. (Here’s a really cool Lego version of Solomon’s temple.) It took several full days of school. Now studying the Gospels, we knew Legos would make the job much easier.
Lego projects are one of the many ways we can take advantage of homeshooling. We have read about Herod’s temple and looked at several drawings and models of it in books and online. But nothing builds memories like constructing our own. I wanted to find out the exact dimensions of the temple, so we could use math to make a scale model. Unfortunately, almost every source depicts the temple differently than the others. It seems the only thing we are sure of is the size of the temple mount on which it was built. In the end, we did the best we could by choosing from among various depictions.
Side view of our temple. A little more colorful than the original!
Other Lego projects related to Scripture studies:
Tower of Babel. A simple ziggurat, this is suitable for younger kids.
Noah’s Ark
Nativity scene
Pyramids and the Sphinx (for your study of Exodus)
The Parthenon (for your Greek studies at the end of the Old Testament)
The Roman Forum
Have fun building with your kids!
Connie Rossini
October 22, 2013
Are you praying too much?
Victory, O Lord by Millais (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).
Sunday’s Mass readings were all about prayer–winning battles through prayer, supporting each other in prayer, and never giving up. I love encouraging people to grow in their prayer life! But today I want to ask a question that might seem odd to you: Can you pray too much? There are three ways in which I believe you can.
Don’t let prayer keep you from living out your vocation
Again, this might confuse you. Haven’t I said before that prayer helps us live our vocation better? That’s true. But you still need balance. If you are a stay-at-home mom with small children, you should not be spending hours a day alone in your room praying. If you are the father of a young family, you should not be spending most of every evening at Church. If you are a college student, you should not normally miss class to go to adoration. St. Francis de Sales, instructing lay people in Introduction to the Devout Life, wrote, “Do not spend more than an hour thus [in mental prayer], unless specially advised to do so by your spiritual father.”
God gave you your vocation. He works His will through it. There may be a time later, after the kids have grown older, or you are retired from your job, when you can spend hours a day in prayer. But unless you are called to religious life, that is not God’s plan for you for most of your life. Live the vocation you have, not the one you don’t.
Limit your daily vocal prayers
The Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office), the Guardian Angel Prayer … You could easily fill your day with vocal prayers. They may each be good and powerful in themselves, but are they good for you?
Like your physical energy, your spiritual energy is limited. If you spend it all on vocal prayers, you may find your spirit is exhausted at your mental prayer time. You will be unable to meditate properly, just as if you had watched too much TV or spent too much time on the internet or in conversation. Fr. Thomas Dubay writes:
The excessive multiplication of vocal prayers… can likewise impede growth. There are people who get into a set habit of adding litany upon litany, devotion upon devotion, to the point where they leave little or no time for God to give what He wants to give.
When I was a an OCDS postulant, we were discouraged from adding any devotions to those the Rule of Life imposed. We were obliged to pray Morning and Evening Prayer, part of the Rosary or a Marian litany, and examine our consciences daily. I used to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet often. I stopped doing so–not because it wasn’t a good and effective prayer, but because I wanted my metal prayer to thrive.
St. Teresa of Avila cautions that some people have committed themselves to saying so many vocal prayers in a day that they race through them without a thought, and even let these prayers interfere with the first experiences of supernatural contemplation God is giving them (see Way of Perfection, chapter 31).
Prayer is more than talking
Some people, St. Teresa goes on to say, think they are not praying unless they are talking. They misunderstand the meaning and purpose of prayer. In this case, it isn’t really that they are praying too much, but that they are talking too much. They don’t realize that prayer is to be a conversation between God and the soul. As you grow closer to God, you should do less talking and more listening. You need to cultivate interior silence. Believe me, what God wants to say to you is more important than what you want to say to Him! He already knows your needs, so don’t think that more words will attract more of His attention (see Matthew 6:7-8).
Make your life a prayer
Instead of these mistakes, seek to make your life a prayer. Cultivate interior silence throughout the day. Try to think of God and the saints as you do your work. Make acts of faith, hope, and love. Open your heart to receive His will and His grace at every moment. Let there be an exchange of life and love from morning till night.
Then carve out thirty to sixty minutes daily to be alone with Him. If you can, do this first thing in the morning, so you can reflect back on it throughout the day. Offer Him your day and ask Him to remain at your side.
You don’t have to fill your life with dozens of spiritual practices in order to be holy. Sometimes your spiritual life, like your wardrobe, needs to be pared down to essentials. Leave room for the Holy Spirit to work.
Connie Rossini
Share with us: How do you balance mental prayer and vocal prayer, or a set prayer time and y0ur duties?
October 19, 2013
5 reasons to go to Confession frequently
Russian Orthodox ikon (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).
Looking back on my childhood, I find a disconnect between my Catholic schooling and our family’s home life. So many of the traditional Catholic practices that we learned in school were kept at school. We had different spiritual practices at home. My parents were active in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Rather than my combining these two influences for a rich, adult spirituality, I left many of the more traditional practices behind at graduation. One of these was frequent Confession.
In school we went to Confession monthly. There was thus little need to go as a family. So as a young adult I went during Advent and Lent only. Since the Church only requires yearly Confession—and even then only for mortal sins—going biennially might seem sufficient. But reception of the Eucharist is only required once a year too, and I certainly wouldn’t stop at once or twice.
As a Secular Carmelite, I was encouraged to confess my sins monthly. No we go as a family every four to eight weeks. Here are five ways frequent Confession has benefited me:
1. It reminds me I am a sinner.
Frequent Confession shows me my sinful habits. Since I confess the same type of sin over and over, I know what I need to work on most. I realize I am far from being a saint.
2. I receive grace for future temptations.
Often the first few days after I go to Confession, I sail through temptations unscathed. My heart is at peace. I find it easier to be loving.
3. Reconciliation, like all the sacraments, is an encounter with Christ.
I rarely hear the words of absolution without being moved. Jesus is speaking to me. He is not angry with me. He forgives and erases my sins. I am filled with resolve “to sin no more.”
4. The penance performed as part of the sacrament helps to make up for the hurt I have caused myself, others, and the Church.
I can confess my venial sins to God at home and be forgiven, but unless I do some kind of penance as well, these broken relationships are not fully healed. Going to Confession ensures I make amends for my sins.
5. I can receive solid spiritual counseling from the priest.
Granted, I have once or twice been misunderstood by priests who didn’t know me and gave me useless advice. But most of the time, the priest encourages me with the scriptures and advises me on how to do God’s will better in the future. I have sometimes been blessed to have a regular spiritual director who makes Reconciliation part of our meetings. It is priceless to receive absolution from a priest who truly understands my spiritual state.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father’s mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful” (1458). Frequent Confession is an important practice for everyone who seeks to grow closer to Christ.
Connie Rossini
Share with us: What was your best or worst experience of sacramental Confession?
October 18, 2013
Welcome to my new, self-hosted blog!
Thanks to Lauren Gulde and Santa Clara Design, I have a professionally designed website. I won the free design in Santa Clara’s annual contest in honor of the feast of St. Clare.
Please take some time to look around and let me know how you like it. I have added a few pages that don’t have much on them yet. That’s my next project! And I want to revise my Welcome page too. If there’s anything else you’d like to see here, let me know!
If you have been following me through your WordPress Viewer, you will have to re-subscribe for that. WordPress controls it. But I’d suggest you subscribe by email as well, so you can receive exclusive deals and sneak peeks of my upcoming book. (I promise I won’t overwhelm you with emails. I much too busy for that!) Just click on the envelope icon at the top of the sidebar.
Everyone else (I think–cross my fingers) should now be on my new mailing list.
I will probably be ironing out some bugs for a while, so please be patient if something doesn’t work quite right. And be sure to let me know!
Connie Rossini
October 15, 2013
Let Teresa of Avila teach you about patience
October 11, 2013
Tangrams: combining math and art
October 8, 2013
Harden not your hearts
October 4, 2013
Teach your kids something useless
October 1, 2013
The suffering of St. Therese
September 27, 2013
Fighting demons while you sleep
