I’m getting published down under! The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, picked up my Women & Faith article to publish in their Kairos Catholic Journal. I originally wrote this piece for the Catholic Year of Faith blog co-edited by my friend Dr. Tom Neal, and I’m thrilled our friends across the big pond to the west have found his website.
If interested, you can read the post here.
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Speaking of posts in other places, I have neglected to mention that my latest post, Ambient Intimacy & Spiritual Friendships, is up at CatholicMom.
The picture attached to that post is of Kathryn Whitaker and me from the Catholic New Media Conference. Kathryn and her husband Scott lived in Ames, Iowa for a couple of years. Joel and I lived in Ames for a few years. Kathryn was a graduate student at Iowa State University. Joel and I were both graduate students there, too. Kathryn & Scott were parishioners at St. Cecilia. You can probably guess where this is going … Joel and I were parishioners there, too.
The Whitakers now live in Austin, Texas. We Schmidts live in Des Moines, Iowa. So crazy that our paths only crossed earlier this year when Kathryn and I connected via Twitter. It was a pleasure to meet her at the CNMC. Joel and I hope to see Kathryn again soon and meet her beautiful family, too!
I’m a member of the Elizabeth Ministry group at my parish, and we are hosting an Expectant Mother’s Blessing using the new Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb recently approved by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. The blessing supports parents awaiting the birth of their child and works to foster respect for human life, too. Quite àpropos the blessing is scheduled for October 7, Respect Life Sunday.
Has your parish organized a similar blessing? If so, I would love to hear how it went.
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The date of our diocese’s first Pregnancy and Infant Loss Memorial Mass is Thursday, October 11 at 7 p.m. at St. Augustin Church in Des Moines. His Excellency Bishop Pates will preside at the Mass. All who have suffered from miscarriage or other perinatal loss are welcome to attend.
Has your parish/diocese offered something similar? Joel and I meet with the Diocese’s Office of Marriage and Family Life director next week to iron out the liturgical details. We would love to learn from others’ experiences.
We designed and ordered prayer cards from CatholicPrayerCards.org for both events listed above. Lesson learned: writing a good prayer is harder than we thought. Joel was really confident in his prayer-writing skills until he started reading one out loud. The prayer sounded so ridiculous that both of us busted up laughing half way through. Yeah, not good. Sorry God! Needless to say, much of the prayer ended up on the cutting room floor.
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The little big man can now ride in the Chariot Carrier!
Some comments heard along our journey:
- “Sah-weet!” exclaimed a pregnant woman. I bet she added it to her baby gift registry!
- “Woah. That’s a Cadillac!” uttered the sweaty and tired bicycling man. I think he wanted a lift.
- “Watch out. That’s huge!” screamed a little kid. Guess he feared getting run over by two cute kids and one crazy mom pushing a tricked out stroller.
And that’s a wrap. Have a great weekend!
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September 14th, 2012 
We resurrected our parish’s Elizabeth Ministry program and started doing pregnancy blessings almost a year ago. We do after all the Masses the weekend of the second Sunday of the month in front of the statue of Mary. The EM rep for each blessing gives the women a small gift – usually a holy card or prayer relevant to the calendar month and relevant to pregnancy or motherhood. (I am the one who chooses these each month – it’s kind of fun.) Then women just chat for a few minutes with Father finishes greeting people at the back of church, and then he comes up to do the blessing.
When a woman shows up for the first time, she fills out a little sheet so that we can put one of our Ministers in contact with her. We check in throughout the pregnancy, and when the baby is born we bring a gift from Elizabeth Ministry and two meals.
I hope yours is a big success!
Also, the Catholic hospital here and one of the cemetaries have regular memorials for infant loss. I’m actually not sure if the diocese is directly involved with either of these. A good friend of mine also runs an annual healing retreat open to all faiths. Peoria is coming around to recognizing that this affects so many women and families.
What a great tradition at your parish with the blessing. I’m curious, how many moms do you average per month? Even if it’s just one mom who shows up, I can see the value in the regularity to help reach more moms and provide them EM prayer support. Great ideas!
I’ve seen the baby blessings done 2 ways. The first was a part (or maybe at the very end?) of a Sunday Mass – very nice and a great way to reach the women who maybe aren’t involved in parish life in other ways. The second was a gathering at someone’s house. All kinds of kids running around, nonpregnant moms brought snacks, the priest came and visited for awhile, did the blessing, and retreated with a cele-booster.
It was fun and beautiful.
Ah…I LOVED our running stroller! It was a beast and we used it until it was literally falling apart…all 4 kids! Enjoy!!
How funny about the written vs. spoken prayer….happens to me ALL the time, I’m certain God understands and appreciates our efforts
Meeting you was such a gift. How awesome that the Holy Spirit used social media to connect two kindred spirits. Tell Joel to get ready. The Whitaker may be invading sooner than you think