Do you want to go to heaven, to be a
saint? Do you pray for the same for your family, for your loved ones?
Well! Today is your lucky day!
After studying scripture, the Catechism, lots of spiritual readings, the
lives of many saints, and insightful visits with holy, consecrated souls, I
have stumbled upon the answer! I mean the saints—even Jesus Himself—were
in on this little truth. Why not us? Ready? Here goes:
Fiat Voluntas Tua, Latin for Thy Will be Done.
That is it!
Those are the saving and hope-filled words of
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before His Passion and death, acquiescing to
God the Father in chapter 26 of the Gospel according to Matthew.
Those are the same words shared by every saint
in heaven both known and unknown.
Saying, Fiat Voluntas Tua / Thy Will
be Done, is the same as simply saying, “Yes!” to Jesus. “Yes, Jesus—Your
Will, not mine, be done.”
Even St. Mother Teresa gave this guidance.
When she was asked, “How do I become a saint?” she affirmed very simply, “Say
‘yes’ to Jesus!”
How can we apply this simple, yet powerful
wisdom to our families? How can we “Say yes to Jesus” in our homes?
I’d like to unpack living out or “Fiat” our
“Yes to Jesus” in our homes through the following areas:
·
Our Personal Fiat
·
Fiat in Our Marriage
·
Fiat in Our Parenting
What does the word “Fiat” mean?
In its most simple sense, “Fiat” means, “Yes!”
Does our daily fiat really matter?
YES!
Let me illustrate:
Quiet your mind and envision a lovely
afternoon. The sun is low in the sky, the leaves can be heard blowing
through the trees in a warm gust, and suddenly, a brilliant angel appears to a
lovely, humble, and fair virgin named Mary. This brilliant angel
exclaims, “Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God. And now, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called
the Son of the Most High!” (Luke
1:30-32)
Confused, Mary responds,
“Are you sure you have the right Mary? See, I am betrothed, but not yet
living with my beloved. Um, to be found with child, well—that
would suggest I have committed adultery! What would the community—my family, what would they think? You know
the consequence! I would be stoned to death! So, you see, I don’t think you
have the right Mary, and if you do, unfortunately, this won’t work for me.
Wait. Is
that right? NO!
Let us go to
Luke, chapter 1, verses 37-38: Mary, humbly, with faith and trust,
acquiesces – she says, “Yes!” to God.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be
done to me according to your word.”
This is Mary’s
Fiat. This is her, “Yes” to Jesus. This is what we
are called to do in our homes—live our fiat, to say,
“Yes!” to Jesus.
That is all fine
and well, you protest. Saying, “yes” is simple. But it’s not
always easy.
I agree, 100%.
The good news? Jesus encourages us, “My yoke
is easy and My burden light.” (Mt 11:30) When we say yes to Jesus, we say
yes with Jesus. A yoke is an instrument that connects
two animals together to share the load. When we say yes, we are
cooperating with Jesus.
How does this
relate to us in our home?
Our Personal Fiat
How do we live
out our personal Fiat? It all starts with grace.
“How,” you
protest, “do I gain access to this grace?”
“Grace is a
supernatural gift of God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for
our salvation.”1 More
simply, grace is a gift from Jesus to help us say yes to Him—allowing Him to
make us saints. And, in the immortal words of Leon Bloy: “The only
tragedy in life is not to have become a saint” – and for us, it starts in our
home.
“Well
then, how do we obtain this gift, this grace,” you continue?
We obtain grace
through prayer and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.1
Prayer
As we are all
aware, in our homes, we are called to
say yes, ALL.DAY.LONG (and sometimes into the wee hours of
the morning). Indeed, we understand the immortal words of
St. Mother Teresa, we “…give until it hurts.”
When our children
were younger, there were countless moments when I found myself on my knees
weeping, begging our Lord, “I cannot do this! It is too
hard!”
The demands on us
are endless and at times can feel overwhelming.
Presently, as we are living amidst unrest and uncertainty, our
struggles are even greater, and the demands seem
to hurt even more. Can you relate?
Most assuredly,
we cannot do this—alone. However, we can do all things
in Christ Who is our strength (Phil 4:13). One way
we tap into this strength (His grace) is through prayer.
I am sure it sounds
overwhelming to add anything to your day, as you likely flop
yourself into your beds each night, completely empty and
exhausted. Nevertheless, pray we must! Pray for our family,
our church, our world.
Begin
small. Set your alarm five minutes early and simply pray a Morning
Offering. If you can swing a little more time, start each morning with
one passage from the Gospels, or find an online resource with
the daily readings. We personally use Catholic Company’s daily
email called “Morning Offering” which includes an inspiring quote from a great
saint, daily readings, saint for the day, and more! Start there.
If
you cannot pray in the morning, pray when you are nursing
your baby, or during naptime. When our babies were nurslings,
my prayer time was 3AM - a beautiful time with baby. Our
vocation has times and seasons; we must be able to adapt. Prayer at
any time is a source of grace.
If you don’t
think you can add prayer, ask God for the grace to make time in your day
for prayer. I promise, He desires this time with you. He will
make it happen.
So, grace is the
key to our fiat and prayer is a channel for this grace. Find
time each day to lift your heart to our Lord, that you can do all
things through Him, who is your strength.
Sacraments
We also receive
the grace needed in our fiat through the sacraments. Whenever
possible, we should avail ourselves to the sacraments.
The Eucharist and Reconciliation are the most common in our lives
presently. I stress, go to Holy Mass when you are able.
Do not be discouraged if, because of your duties, you are not able to go
to Mass as often as you'd like. As St. Frances of Rome consoled, “A
married woman must often leave God on the altar to find Him in her household
care.” Jesus is in our children and in
our husband. Jesus is in the
spills, dishes, homework, laundry, hugs, and yes,
even in changing dirty diapers. When we love and serve our
family through our vocation, we love and serve Jesus. This is
our fiat.
Fiat in Our
Marriage
Recall, Holy Matrimony, too, is a sacrament,
a source of grace to aid in our fiat.
The Catechism teaches, the
“… grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is intended to perfect the
couple's love… help one another to attain holiness in their married life
and in welcoming and educating their children.’” CCC1641
Further, Christ dwells with us in
our marriages, giving us the strength to take up our crosses and so follow him,
to rise again after we have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one
another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of reverence for
Christ," and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and fruitful
love. CCC1642
Therefore, through our
marriage, the sacrament, we receive the grace needed for our fiat.
So, what does this look like,
practically speaking?
My confessor put it perfectly. In marriage, each of us brings such different, but complimentary
gifts into our home. We, as wives are to respect and honor our husband’s judgment in matters of the head.
Our husband, in turn, should respect and honor our judgment in matters of the heart.
God works through our spouse as a
channel of grace for us, and we, in turn, are a channel of grace for our
husband. Our spouse was hand-picked by God
to lead our families to heaven. If God trusts him, we can, too.
So, if we are called to honor and
obey our husband as head of our home; who are we ultimately obeying? To whom
are we truly giving our fiat?
Our fiat to our husband is our
fiat to God.
“…and be subject to one another in
the fear of Christ. Wives be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.”
Ephesians 5:21-33
I do want to clarify, we are
called to live our fiat, to say, “Yes” to our husbands in all things—except
sin. As I mentioned, marriage is a sacrament, a channel of grace, and its
end is heaven. Living our fiat in our marriage is intended to help each
other get to heaven and to help each other, with God’s grace avoid, and
God-willing even overcome sin.
An example we can try to emulate
is Elisabeth Leseur, a lovely soul whose goodness (with God’s grace) converted
her husband from atheist to priest. In her diary she resolved, “To go
from the near duty to the far one. To set priorities for my actions:
duties to my husband first, then all who belong to us… to my dear
husband: tenderness that has not even the merit of duty, constant care to be
useful and gracious to him.”
“But, what does this look like
for me, in my marriage?” You ask.
This can be accomplished in both
small and great ways: by greeting your husband with a smile, complimenting his
masculinity, thanking him for his hard work, admiring him in front of your
children, serving him first at meals, making his favorite meal from time to
time, calling out his good traits in lieu of nit-picking his faults, holding
your tongue if his mistake is not sinful, and availing yourself to him,
intimately, when able.
Fiat in your marriage is your fiat
to Jesus—it’s that simple. And because your marriage is a sacrament, each
time you live out your matrimonial promises, you receive the grace needed to
continue to live out this fiat.
Fiat in Our Parenting
The Catechism teaches, “The
supreme gift of marriage is a human person.” CCC 2378 As my spiritual
director correctly put it, “As parents, our God-given role, is
the highest calling! We are called to shape character, instill virtues, and
affect the world.”3 If our children are going live their fiat
in their adult years, we will have to guide their souls into a loving, obedient
relationship with Jesus in their formative years. In living our fiat, we
guide them into living theirs.
Our first order of business,
remembering that the primary sources of grace, the grace needed to live our
fiat, is prayer and the sacraments. We need to guide their little
souls into a relationship with Jesus through prayer and the
sacraments. We know Holy Mass is the highest form or worship,
if you are able, this is ideal. If the Lord has you, as
St. Frances of Rome suggests, serving Him at home, finding Him
in your family, lead them in simple prayer, in your domestic church, receiving
the sacraments as often as possible.
When our children were young, we
prayed this prayer each morning to help us center our daily activities on love
of God:
“Dear
Lord, I will work for love you, pray for love of you, and play for love of you.
My
whole day will be a loving prayer.”4
If you can start your day with this
commitment: all you do is for love of our Good God, our fiat is
easier, everything becomes more meaningful, and even the hard things
become simple.
In addition, if you are out
running errands, stop by an open Catholic church in the area and simply say,
“Hi!” to Jesus – pray a Hail Mary together. If you are unable to access
the church, the parking lot is still close to Him. This only takes a moment,
and it demonstrates how accessible Jesus is to us and that you find it important
enough to take this extra time.
Furthermore, Our Lady entreats
that we pray the rosary—daily. Holy Heroes has a beautiful, simple set of
rosary books to engage your children at a young age to pray, and even enjoy
saying the rosary.
In Summary
Living our
personal Fiat starts with grace, and we receive this gift of
Jesus, this grace, through prayer and the sacraments.
We are assured,
when we turn to Jesus through prayer and the sacraments, though our vocation is
demanding, that with Him, His “yoke is easy and My burden light.” (Mt
11:30)
Pray often, love your spouse, and lead your
little souls, with God’s grace, back to Him in an eternal family.
So, if you can
take away anything from this talk: Our Fiat depends on God’s Grace, and
God’s Grace is lavished on us through prayer and the sacraments, especially the
Eucharist.
When we say yes to Jesus, we say yes with Jesus. Fiat Voluntas Tua.
I prayed and will
continue to pray for each of you. Please pray for me and my
family as well.
Thank you and
have a blessed Advent and a very Merry Christmas!
In the peace of
Christ, and His Blessed Mother,
Kristen &
Co.
----------
Suggested Resources &
GREAT gift ideas!
·
For Mom:
o
A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your
Home and Peace to Your Soul: A
Mother's Rule of Life | Sophia Institute Press
o
The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The
Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband
from Atheist to Priest: Elisabeth Leseur: 9781928832485: Amazon.com: Books
o
33 Days to Morning Glory – A Marian Consecration, if your
parish has Formed.org, it’s free! 33 Days
to Morning Glory Introduction | The Divine Mercy
o
Holy Hour / Visits Jesus in the Tabernacle
·
For Children:
·
Little Catholic's First Rosary Book: Bead-by-Bead Picture Prayer Book
(4-BOOK SET) - Bead-by-Bead
Picture Prayer Book Set (holyheroes.com)
·
Read-alouds to children:
o
Little Nellie of Holy God –
inspiring story! Little Nellie
of Holy God (holyheroes.com)
o Treasure Box Books – (books 1 – 20) can be
purchased individually or all 20: Treasure
Box Set: Books 1-20 (holyheroes.com)
o So Many Ways to be Holy: So Many
Ways to Be Holy: A Child’s Book about Vocations (holyheroes.com)
o King of the Golden City – to aid in preparation for
First Holy Communion: The King
of the Golden City (holyheroes.com)
o The
Weight of a Mass – Josephine Nobisso - Great to affirm the gift of Holy Mass
and First Holy Communion Prep - The Weight of
a Mass (holyheroes.com)
o Take it to the Queen – Josephine Nobisso – Great to
help understand mercy and prep for the sacrament of Reconciliation - Take it to the
Queen (holyheroes.com)
o My Confession Handbook, Jr: A Child'S Worry-Free Handbook to the Treasure of the Sacrament of Reconciliation Great for Saints-In-Training,
Ages 7 - 10, with the Guidance of Parent or Guardian - My
Confession Handbook, Jr.: Soley, Kristen M.: 9781490876641: Amazon.com: Books
o Lives of Saints Books from Mary’s Books: Mary's Books Publishing (marys-books.com)
·
Resources for Car / travel:
o
Rosary in the car - Complete CD Set: The
Holy Rosary - CD Set: The
Holy Rosary (holyheroes.com)
o
Holy Heroes Glory Stories – entertaining, inspiring,
and solid! Glory Stories
Complete CD Set (holyheroes.com)
o
Stations of the Cross CD or MP3 Download – One sure way to fall in love
with Jesus is to meditate on His passion: The Stations
of the Cross (holyheroes.com)
-----------------------------------------
Resources:
1. St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism
2. Jacqueline - https://deeprootsathome.com/dont-read-another-word/
3. Lori Knuth
4. Treasure Box Books
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