I cleaned out my six year old’s room today.  If you ask her, she’ll tell you she can clean her room just fine.  Except her definition of clean (throwing everything behind her reading chair) and my definition of clean (putting everything in its rightful place) are vastly different.

So yeah.  I cleaned her room.  And while my first instinct was to grumble and groan over the onerous task, I eventually found myself smiling.  Why?  Because my B, sweet girl that she is, sanctifies me.  All my children sanctify me. This unites me in motherhood to Mary, who brings me closer to her son.

Mary, Cause of Our Joy

When my oldest was a toddler, I often contemplated Mary’s life with the child Jesus.  These thoughts solidified when I had my son: watching him scale the couch cushions, throw rocks, and thwack trees with mighty sticks, I wondered what an 18 month old Jesus would have looked like.  He must have played hard, coming in from outside caked head to toe in Nazarean dirt, taking off in a gleeful run at bath time.  He probably tossed his food on the floor and got into Joseph’s carpentry tools.  He was fully divine and fully human.

I imagine he was also fully toddler.

The more I contemplated the early life of Jesus, the more I began recognized Mary’s humanity.  To paraphrase St. Josemaria Escriva, while Mary was pure, holy, and without the stain of sin, she was not spared the toil or frustrations of everyday life.  She had chores, cooked meals, and took care of Jesus and Joseph.

Mary did small things with great love, not because God chose her to be the mother of his son, but because God made her human.

If that isn’t cause for joy, I don’t know what is.

Family activities

• Pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary
• Make household chores a joyful experience (sing songs, have a race, mop the floor with wet socks)
• Make a list of daily tasks that help family members serve one another
• Include prayer time in your daily tasks

Family prayer

Mary, Cause of Our Joy, you did small things with great love.  Intercede for us, that we might view our daily tasks as a path to holiness.

This post is part of the Write31 Days challenge.  To read the other posts in the series, click here.