Teacher Weena

The house is quiet, save for the crinkle of a stray foil wrapper (the gold ones always hide under the sofa, don’t they?). Yesterday was the "Big Day." The feast is now leftovers, the fancy dresses are in the wash, and if you step into the local big-box store today, they’ve already replaced the lilies with patio furniture. But here’s the secret we get to keep as Catholic families: We are just getting started. In our "domestic churches," we don’t just celebrate Easter Sunday; we live the Easter...

I was sitting at the dining table with my son recently, watching him work through his math drills. The pencil tapped a restless rhythm against the wood, and his eyes—usually so bright—seemed to drift toward the pull of the screen we’d used for his previous lesson. As I watched him struggle to anchor his mind, I found myself traveling back a few years. Do you remember when they were seven? When our mornings were steeped in Scripture memory and the slow, quiet wonder of a Charlotte Mason...

I remember one Ash Wednesday, years ago, when I tried to do "all the things." I had a complicated sacrifice jar, a multi-page prayer curriculum, and a very ambitious plan for meatless meals that—let’s just say—my toddler was not interested in. By the first Friday, I was exhausted, the husband and our boy were confused, and the "spiritual atmosphere" of our home felt more like a stressful boot camp than a journey toward the Resurrection. That was the year I realized that Lent isn’t a spiritual...