New Year ... new mottoes ...

So, we have put our family under the patronage of the Holy Family for 2011 (yes, we need all the help we can get).  The cool thing?  We rec'd a gorgeous Holy Family picture from dear friend and graphic artist, Maura Harrison, and our Pastor gave us a copy of the following Prayer for Family ...

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The family word for the year is:

Charity

and not in the contemporary sense of the word where we give stuff to the poor, or serve in a soup kitchen, or visit the home-bound (altho those may all be things we'll do this year).

Here's the definition of Charity that we'll be working on in 2011:

Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

(CCC #1822)

Yes, that WILL BE our first copywork assignment once we start school back up!

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My word for 2011 is

OBEDIENCE

or rather DOCILITY to the Will of God

and it's funny that today (Jan 4th) is the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton as she has a great quote about obedience (and one that I might just have to memorize ... or tattoo on my arm ... or post on my laptop!):

The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God;
secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it;
and thirdly to do it because it is his will.

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Today at Mass, Father gave a great sermon about St. Elizabeth and used this quote. I loved his explanation: not only do we need to decide that DOING God's will is a good thing, but we also need to joyously and willingly DO God's will, and, further, we need to not worry about why God wants us to be in a certain place at a certain time, but to accept that it's God's will and, in the words of Nike ... JUST DO IT! 

Since I'm one of those people who likes to over-analyze and second guess WHY, this third point is particularly important for me to remember.

Thank you, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton!

Prayers for a healthy, holy and happy 2011 for one and all ... and by the way, we'll be making Colonial Brown Bread in honor of St. Elizabeth Ann for dinner tonight ... 
UPDATED:  this brown bread recipe was deemed the BEST bread I've ever made ... and since it's yeast-less and dummy-proof, looks like I'm going to have to start stocking buttermilk!