Plowing With Kindness

After telling my husband I needed something "more" this Lent we decided to attend the parish mission at our neighborhood church.  It just so happens that the speaker for this mission is one of our favorite Dominican priest who is in residence at the parish we belong to (not our neighborhood parish, it sounds complicated but it really isn't - we are not registered parishioners at the neighborhood church although it is technically our parish - nothing political or controversial, it's a lovely parish, our kids play sports there but the long and short of it is we currently belong to a parish where a lot of our homeschool friends belong).  Longest parenthetical sentence evah ovah.

It has been a lovely mission so far.  On the first night I went by myself and for the rest of it the whole clan tags along. My kids are of the temperament that they can sit and listen (or draw or sleep through anything) for an hour with minimal drama (except for potty breaks LOL).  Father's talk was about the Four Cardinal Virtues, Seven Capital Sins, Grace and tying it all together at the end. On the first day I was a little bit smug that this was Catechism 101, nothing new to hear, I have hammered these topics in the children's brains in the last two years, I even have the lapbooks to prove it!  On the second day, Father asked if anyone has ever heard a talk about the Seven Capital Sins or can enumerate them.  Very little show of hands, even Fr. Pastor (not his last name, it's his title) said they touched very little about it in seminary.  And then I understood.  This may be Catechism 101 to me but there are so many who have completely been deprived of this knowledge (not necessarily of their own accord).  There goes my sin of Pride ;-)

Father OP (not his last name, it's the name of his congregation - Order of Preachers) then said something that really struck me in a new way in reference to the Parable of the Sower - "Plow with kindness before sowing seeds of faith".  It's true, isn't it?  It's easier to evangelize, to make Christ known to another by act(s) of kindness instead of bludgeoning with (self-righteous) words. Like clanging cymbals are the words of the uncharitable.

I have been taking copious notes as we review our lapbooks and go through the lectures once again with my kids. I should mention that Fr. OP was prepared with crayons, word searches, etc. for the little ones who might get bored.  I'm so glad that we are able to go to this mission as a family. I intend to thank both priests, pastor and OP for the privilege.

Photos to share, as usual, some unrelated to the mission -

did I say I took copious notes?

copious and somewhat illegible! lol

the homemade lapbook that I was so smug about

capital sin no. 1 has my name written all over it

what the six-year-old drew at the mission on the Feast of the Annunciation, ignore that Mary's "yes" is backwards, it is sweet and I love it, I love the mind of that child

unrelated picture - the youngest lecturing me on the nuances of David and Goliath on the Kindle