By Christine Da Costa
IN days gone past the Church needed great heroes like St Francis of Assisi whose poverty and complete gift of self reminded the Church of the Gospel message.
I believe that one of the greatest needs in our age is for women to rise and respond to the call to sainthood in and through motherhood, witnessing to the world through their joyful sacrifice and willingness to welcome life.
I believe the journey to wisdom comes through having eyes open to the presence of God in the mundane moments of each day and, like Mary, holding, treasuring and pondering these moments of grace in our hearts.
A particular experience of grace that I have been pondering in my heart over the past 12 months happened at the Ignite Conference last year.
I have four children and my personal journey as a mum has been tumultuous, to say the least.
The one constant over these past nine years has been that God has never let go of me and when I have been able to do nothing else I have just reached out my hands and my heart, grabbed hold of his cross and begged him to help me get through, praying that somehow in this journey He would teach me how to love.
During the Friday-night rally last year I was at home with the kids, but not wanting to miss out I turned the livestream on and sat at the computer in my kitchen.
The moment they brought the Blessed Sacrament out I started crying.
My kitchen was a mess, my heart was a mess and I was just calling out to Him “Lord, I’m such a mess how can you love me? How can I be used by you?” His response to me was instant. “Christine, the mess doesn’t matter. I trust you with my heart.”
It was as though His Eucharistic heart came to me through the screen and it was one of the most life-changing experiences I have ever had.
This moment speaks to me so deeply of my call as a mother.
In the midst of all the messiness of home and life I am called to care for His heart.
A Pinterest-pretty home is not my first priority, gourmet meals are non-essential.
My focus became caring for His heart and I do this by first caring for the hearts of my children.
I am allowing grace to whisper gently to my own heart and I am trying to bring an order and simplicity to my home that will minister to my family and the hearts of all who enter.
I’m very far from achieving this but when I make caring for the heart of things my first priority I discover that my yoke is easy and my burden light.
I am invited in every mundane moment of motherhood to enter into mystery.
When I am caring for the heart of things my eyes are open and I see with the wonder of a child and the heart of a mother.
The mystery of creation is discovered with every birdsong heard, with every sunrise and sunset that is seen, with every flower given by grubby hands, and I give thanks.
I experience that I enter into the mystery of the Incarnation as I feel a child move within my womb, as I hold a child close to feed and as I celebrate each moment of discovery and learning and give thanks.
The mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection is entered into as I embrace the pain of giving birth, as I grieve a child lost within the womb, as I hold close the sufferings of my children’s hearts and let Him hold my heart close to His and give thanks.
The mystery of the sacraments becomes real in my own home when I begin to see that He who fills us with His Spirit in Baptism and desires union with us so much that He would give His very flesh and blood to us to eat and drink is with us profoundly, mysteriously and oh so beautifully in the marvellous, mundane and messy moments of our day.
When things go wrong, as they often do, when hearts get broken, knees get scraped, when we are at the end of our tether and feel as though the final straw is breaking our back, together, we hold onto hope and give thanks that this is not the end of the story.
These moments, so difficult and sometimes so dark are when we proclaim the mystery that Christ will come again and one day, it could be any day, He will be all in all and every teardrop will be dried, every sick body healed, every broken heart made whole and the whole of creation, groaning now under the weight of humanity’s hurt, will arise and sing out.
This is what a mother’s heart knows when her eyes are opened to the mystery and the wonder of what it is to be a woman, to be a mother who carries His heart close and cares for the hearts of those who have been placed in her care.
This I believe is the beginning of Wisdom and we can be so sure that in this journey we are not alone.
