Reflecting on Good Friday as a Mom - Giving from a Place of Poverty, But Giving Anyway

This Good Friday, instead of attending the Stations of the Cross and three o’clock service at our church, I am laying down with my boys, helping them feel secure in a new space as they go for a nap.

My heart longs for days when I could peacefully take in these services, tearfully kiss the foot of the cross, enter into the solemnity, hear the wisdom of a priest.

Instead, I have been unable to attend Holy Thursday mass, and now, despite my best intentions, I am missing Good Friday, as well.

Does this make me a neglectful Catholic? Does my faith-life suffer?

But, as tears fill my eyes, I am reminded that this sacrifice, this surrender into my motherhood and the needs of my vocation at this point in our lives, can be just as much an act of love, an act of worship, as the one I would have offered in the church building, today.

As the Everyman’s Way of the Cross prayer, which I have mentioned on my blog before, says: So seek me not in far-off place, I am close at hand. Your workbench, office, kitchen, these are altars where you offer love, and I am with you there.

He is with me here, at this altar where I have the opportunity to offer Him my love. At this time, this is the best I have to give, my surrender to His Will for my life, His Will for me to serve my children. 

While the best I have to give may not look as rich, as faithful, as devoted as what others may have to give, that does not make my love offering to Christ, my devotion to Him, any less important or heartfelt.

In a way, at this time I am giving from a place of poverty = time that is not my own, best efforts and intentions that are sometimes overruled by the needs of little ones. So today I hold a quote from this blog close to my heart: this is a unique kind of poverty. And we, in our poverty, really do give all we have, just by doing our best.

Are you at a similar place in your parenthood? Do you feel continually asked to sacrifice, to give up your expectations for the good of your kids?

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God bless,
Olivia Fischer