New Year, New Words, New Things

It’s the fourth day of the New Year (as of this writing). For us Catholics, it’s the 11^th day of Christmas and also the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

As I write this, I am intermittently coughing and breathing through a clogged nose. Most of our apartment is still in a disorganized, cluttered mess, despite our best efforts (yes, not much has changed in that aspect since my last post here).

My husband and son are asleep — both taking medication for colds and coughs which “accompanied” them as we ushered in 2013. (In fact, on January 1, they both had to go for a check-up prior to us attending a family reunion — thank God for our kind, accommodating doctors!)

Our daughter is at my parents’ place, and has had intermittent sinat or slight fever since yesterday, according to my mom. Seems she has caught the bug, too. (I hope not though!)

So is our New Year turning out to be a “bad” one, since we started it with all of us sick? 

Heck no!

In fact, it has made us even more grateful, happy, content — because we know that, despite our sickness, we are getting better. We know that we are being healed. We know that people love us and are praying for and with us. We know that we can face (well, are already facing!) 2013 head-on — as a family, united in love. (The family that gets sick together, prays more together and bonds more together!)

Like I said in my New Year’s Eve post, my last blog post for 2012, I believe that 2013 is a year for bigger, better, brighter things. In fact, God’s message for me personally (through GodWhispers, something I receive regularly via email) is this:

These simple words have had a profound impact on me. They affirmed what I have been feeling all along — that God has really, really planted something “big” in my heart. Something that He wants to bless the world with.

I don’t know what it is for sure yet — but I know it has something to do with the path He has led me (and my family) to take, and it includes truly living out our Catholic faith as a homeschooling family, and ministering to other families and individuals. Our New Year traditions and goals will probably help me discern more deeply about the “something” that God has planted in my heart.

As part of our New Year’s tradition last year, we “chose” a patron saint for our family, as suggested by Lacy Rabideau on Catholic Icing.com. We chose St. Paul the Apostle.

Admittedly though, we weren’t able to focus much on “including” St. Paul in our family life and activities last year, except to pray for his intercession, especially during the times we needed it the most.

This year though, I hope things will be different. We have chosen St. Pedro Calungsod to be our family patron saint, and six-year-old Timothy played a large role in choosing him.

I chose to go one step further though, and sought the help of a friend and fellow Catholic mom blogger, Allison Girone of TotusTuus Family and Catholic Homeschool, to pray for and choose individual saints for each family member.

It seems to me that God really meant for this to happen, because I was just thinking of how to choose individual saints for each of us when I read Allison’s blog post about choosing your saint companion for 2013!

She replied rather quickly, too, and I am so grateful that God led her to do this for so many people! Here are the saints she prayed for and chose for us:

Awesome, huh?

So far, I know it’s no coincidence that I “got” St. Philip Neri, especially after reading more about him here.

Photo credit: www.Catholic.org

 Below are some of the things I particularly took note of:

“Philip was known to be spontaneous and unpredictable, charming and humorous.” (Ahem, I think I bear most, if not all of these traits too! Ha, ha!)

“Humility was the most important virtue he tried to teach others and to learn himself.” (Humility is something I really need to work on, too!)

And my favorite part:

“Philip Neri prayed, ‘Let me get through today, and I shall not fear tomorrow.’”

You all know how much of a worrywart I can be. I wrote about that a while back, when I mentioned the truth about my pregnancy.

Knowing that St. Philip Neri always tried to look at the brighter, more humorous side of things affirms and assures me that this year, whatever happens, I must and will choose joy. Just as it says on Catholic.org:

“We often worry more about what others think than about what God thinks. Our fear of people laughing at us often stops us from trying new things or serving God. Do something today that you are afraid might make you look a little ridiculous. Then reflect on how it makes you feel. Pray about your experience with God.”

I think I’ll heed that advice not just for today, but every day. This 2013, I’ll take God’s new words for me to heart, and try new things. Because I know He wants me to. And He probably wants YOU to do so as well. Would you be willing to join me? Please feel free to leave a comment if you are!

St. Philip Neri, pray for us!