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Email a FriendI just posted about the day, too! Here’s the link:
http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/2011/04/faith-familys-moms-day-away.html
There In Our Midst
We women need each other
Posted by Danielle Bean in News on Monday, April 04, 2011 10:41 AM
Oh my GOODNESS, what an amazing experience it was hosting our first-ever Faith & Family Mom’s Day Away on Saturday!
I hardly slept the night before, so filled was my head with “What if’s” and “If only’s.” But I should have known better than to fret about anything. The fact is, the women who read and support Faith & Family are amazingly positive people. With a crowd of Faith & Family supporters (and plenty of new faces too!) showing up, there was no way the day could be anything less than a smashing success.
I love that we have built up an encouraging, supportive community here online, but this event really cemented in my mind the fact that we women need each other. Not just through blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, but in real life. Online community-building is important and enormously helpful, but every one of us needs to also make the effort to build and nurture real-life relationships with other women who share our values and can support us. There simply is no replacement for the real-life presence of a fellow mom’s voice, touch, laugh, and smile.
In real life is messy. It takes effort (just ask my kids how exhausted I was when I returned home yesterday afternoon) and things don’t always go as we planned (Just ask any of the women who attended how many “little things” went wrong on their way out the door and on the road as they made the effort to spend the day with us), but in the end getting together in real life is the most grace-filled and soul-feeding thing we can do for ourselves. It is not a luxury. We need it.
During adoration on Saturday, as I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the privilege of being in the presence of so many women who share my faith—all of us kneeling together before Christ our King, all of us loving Jesus together. When we sang at the Benediction and so many feminine voices filled the church with words of praise and thanksgiving, it was a powerfully beautiful sound.
Christ tells us that wherever two or three are gathered, He is there in our midst, and He most certainly was in our midst this weekend. I heard Him in the laughter, saw Him in the smiles, and felt Him in the real-life touch of my sisters in Christ. Thanks be to God for that gift.
Some other round-ups of the day (Let me know and I’ll add yours!):
Hallie Lord
Kate Wicker
Colleen Martin
Melanie Bettinelli
Daria Sockey
Carol Beauchemin
Celeste Behe
Lisa G.
Leticia Velasquez
Dorian Speed
Lacy @ Catholic Icing
Rachel Balducci
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My scattered account of the fantastic day:
http://www.clan-donaldson.com/2011/04/moms-day-out-report-long-form.html
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