Come Holy Spirit! Guide our steps, DEEPEN our ROOTS!
Before I begin this blog, I want to ask that you, the reader, join me in prayer as we make the Sign of the Cross and take a moment to breathe deeply…. God, our creator, we humbly thank You for all that we are given and called to. Please send down Your Spirit to strengthen and guide us. Especially during these challenging and uncertain times, help us to accompany the youth you have put in our care so that they may deepen their roots in You, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is my first blog post ever and I had a perfect post planned. I wanted to take some time to introduce myself, my background, my upbringing, my goals for the future, explain what Deepening Roots is and where it hopes to go... but the world has since turned upside down with the current public health crisis of Covid-19, so we'll just have to get to all that in a later post.
There is no time to waste, because many of you, like myself, are now stuck at home with your families for who knows how long. With many physical churches closed, it's more important than ever to turn our homes and our families into the domestic churches they are called to be.
I am currently at home with my husband (who is not Catholic but very supportive in this area), my four year old son, and a daughter who will be two this summer. My husband and I are both blessed with the ability to work from home during this time of social distancing. We're taking these social distancing weeks to enjoy time together and reset our focus on what matters most.
There are many things (physical objects, routines, and rituals) we already have in place in terms of being a domestic church, but I have many plans in my head (I always have a million plans for everything in my head) to strengthen this area of our family and now seems like a perfect time to renew our focus on God together.
Over the next few weeks, I plan to offer a few blog posts on what we have been doing, what we are implementing now, and maybe even a little of what we hope to do. I plan for this to be the beginning of a long series on cultivating a domestic church. My family is far from perfect and we don't do everything we "should" do and we make a lot of mistakes along the way, but we're trying and we regularly seek forgiveness from each other and from God. The purpose of sharing here is to spark ideas for your family and to hear from you so that we can grow together. We are stronger when we're supporting one another.
Before diving into all the things we "could" be doing, let us first remember to be gentle and patient with ourselves. St. Francis de Sales tells us to "have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself." As a textbook perfectionist, I often have great expectations and become frustrated when things don't go as planned or only a fraction of what I intended is actually accomplished. With young children in the home, almost nothing gets done in-full or as planned so I've had to grow in gentleness with self (this is a work in progress). Each family is different. Try what sounds good for you and leave the rest. Make small changes and continue to tweak as your family grows. Comment before to share your own ideas and experiences so that myself and others can learn from your family's unique gifts and strengths.
So stay tuned and follow us on social media (see below for more information)! I will be back shortly to share some ideas and experiences. If you have any suggestions or want to share ideas, please comment below!
Until next time, may the peace of Christ be with you and those you accompany in His name! Please pray for me. I will pray for all of you!
With all my love and respect,
Angela V Davis
Deepening Roots Ministry Services