Birth
how to pray with baby: up all night
Continuing with the practical side of spiritual practices with newborns, here is the 2nd in this series of simple ways to pray while caring for a baby: all day long, up all night, in fussy moments, and in peaceful moments. Waking up at night To pray: I rise before dawn and cry for help; I put my…
READ MORE
how to pray with baby: all day long
For those of you drowning in diapers and midnight feedings, I’ve compiled a list of short Scripture verses and quick prayer practices that you can do while caring for baby. All day long. Up all night. For fussy moments. For peaceful moments. . . . Feeding To pray: Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord,…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: healing
Mommy, I just want to hug you around your scars! His sky blue eyes flash. His brows furrow. The cheerful animals plastered across his summer pajamas – a grinning monkey and laughing elephant atop a fire engine – smile up at me in stark contrast to the glare on his face. For weeks he’s been…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: holding
Be still and know that I am God. Your hands have held things that terrified you. Your first set of car keys. A boy’s sweaty palm. The college admission letter. Cold cans of beer. A brand-new passport. All gripped by fingers that trembled, knowing the weight of what might come next, the thrill as well…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborn: beholding
He gazes at me, steel blue eyes searching. He gazes. And gazes. Sometimes so intently, for so long, that I have to work to hold my own gaze steady, to meet his eyes with mine. This is part of the (happy) work of having a newborn. Watching them. Watching them change in front of your…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: accepting help
I thought I knew something about accepting help when a newborn arrives. But then last Sunday’s I wonder why my stomach hurts… turned into maybe we should go to urgent care? to that appendix needs to come out stat and the surgeon is waiting for you in the operating room. Nothing like an emergency appendectomy…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: comforting
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you… Isaiah 66:13 The poor babe is sick. Gift of a cold from his big brothers, generously passed along a week after they finished hacking and sniffling and crying for us all night long. Neither of them were ever sick so small, and it breaks…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: cleaning
Yellow-stained diapers are hanging outside on the deck, bleaching in the sun. Pump parts are drying on the kitchen counter. A rolled heap of wet mattress cover and crib sheet waits on the floor in front of the washing machine. Burp cloths are draped across couches and chairs. (And as I type this one-handed while…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: feeding
With a summer baby we slip into bed while the sun is setting behind the hill and we wake up when the sky is already bathed with light. And still we haven’t slept a solid stretch. Because all night he is nursing. All day and all night and all the hours in what feels like…
READ MORE
spiritual practices with newborns: a new series
Here we go again! Settling into Newborn Land… It’s a strange place to live. Everyone keeps odd hours. Crying is common. Spit-up and strange smells are expected. Nothing is ever clean. But it’s a sweet place to stay, too. Newborn neck nuzzles and curled froggy legs. Milky breath and fuzzy fine hair. Sleepy smiles and…
READ MORE
Labor’s Stages: A Triduum
A journey of four days, each unique. Holy Week reveals itself in new shades every year, shadows of dark and light. It pushes through the broken, cold dirt of Lent’s long winter with a fresh green curl of hope. With only a few short weeks to go before baby’s birth, I see these feasts through a new slant. Each…
READ MORE
Mary of the Third Trimester
I wonder how she felt in the final weeks. Whether she was tired of carrying, exhausted from the extra weight and the swollen ankles and the restless nights and the ceaseless kicks. Or whether she loved wondering about the mystery of this babe, watching the strange, sudden stretch of skin across her stomach, limbs pushing…
READ MORE- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Next »