PPPST! January 2014

Happy New Year, Intrepid Parents:

We met again this morning and after a quick centering moment, we read the following passage from today's Lectionary. Every time that I read this passage, I question more than becomes resolved. The comfort that I draw from reflection on this Gospel reading is that, although one can be lost so often in life (and in early/middle/late parenthood), we are consistently found as we rest in the every-ready arms of El Shaddai.

Blessings....

The Mod Sub

Luke 2:41-52

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them.Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour. 


The Parents of Pre-pre-schoolers Team at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church (PPPST!) blog entries begin in previous months. Click on link below to read more...
http://jkdesignspot.blogspot.com/2014/01/st-patricks-pre-pre-schoolers-parents.html
BTW, the next session should be on Groundhog Day, Sunday 2 Feb. at 9:15am in Small Group Room.

PPPST! (St. Patrick's Parents of Pre-pre-schoolers Team) 2012

Welcome Intrepid Parents!

Here is a convenient place to meet virtually and to see what was "food for thought" in past months. We meet once a month before the 10am service (9:15 to 9:50am) on the First Sunday of every month. There is a nifty "small group" meeting room just past the office that suits our needs quite well. Needless to say there are snacks to go with morning tea or coffee. Childcare is available in the nursery for a quiet respite from parental duties.

Please join us! The Rev. Loren Lasch is a good first contact. Ellen Teplitz and I (Janet Lee) are your facilitators.

We start with a centering bell app that I installed on my mobile phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.mindbell&hl=en .
When I hear it ring randomly throughout the day, I might take a deep cleansing breath or I might say the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner".





In November 2012, we prayed this prayer from The Book of Common Prayer:
46. For the Care of Children

Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed us with the
joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient
wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love
whatever is just and true and good, following the example of
our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

We asked the question, what does Jesus have to say to us about parenting?


In December 2012, we read this short passage from a book called, What Mothers Do by Naomi Stadlen. It helped us to think about how we can best serve each other in small group. Sometimes all we can do is listen...

Naomi and Ruth. ("Call me Naomi no longer; my name is Marah for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.")   http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=255773724

"It took me many failures to realize that this silence is healing. It acts as a shock-absorber. No more needs to be said. The crying mother feels less alone, and the listening mothers feel they have taken on a tiny fraction of her lot. All feel lighter and stronger, despite the pain they have shared. After some time, the bitter mother will dry her eyes, thank everyone, and the meeting moves on to something else.

Silence often works better than words. Mothers sometimes use meetings to seek or share advice, but this can easily go wrong. Each mother's situation is specific to herself. Often when one mother learns something from another, it's a tiny bit of information that she finds useful, not the informant's entire system. But when a mother has survived the early months of uncertainty, she can be tempted to believe that she can rescue newer mothers from this difficult time. 

Most of the time, what mothers seem to want from each other is compassion--without any advice. That's why their stories can sound harrowing. The harrowing quality is to elicit pity. A mother may often give a more one-sided picture than is truly the case. This is because the mother longs to be bathe in her listener's compassion. She has probably spent all morning being patient and compassionate toward her child and craves some attention for herself."

Naomi Stadlen

There are related conversations in a previous post:
http://jkdesignspot.blogspot.com/2013/07/ive-been-reading-this-recommended-book.html

Please join us on Sunday 5 Jan 2014; and as always, there will be snax :)!
The ModSub