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Preparing the Homestead for Lent with Suzan Sammons
272 Plays11 months ago
On this episode, I had a solo-interview with Suzan Sammons, author of The Stations of the Cross in Slow Motion, A Daily Devotion for Lent.
This is a powerful interview that reminds me of the importance of building a homestead on the proper foundation - prayer and the Sacraments. Like any other pursuit in life, the development of a productive homestead is truly lacking if it is not characterized by a strong presence of prayer.
Suzan discusses her new book, but also provides great insight into prayer in the home, fasting, and commentary on some of our historical practices concerning Lent. This is an interview that I hope you find encouraging and inspiring as we prepare for the upcoming Lenten Season.
If you are enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or sharing it with a friend. And if you'd like to message us directly, please feel welcomed to email us at hello@littlewayhometead.com.
Order Suzan's new book, The Stations of the Cross in Slow Motion, A Daily Devotion for Lent: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-stations-of-the-cross-in-slow-motion/
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Transcript
Introduction to Little Way Farm and Homestead
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Little Way Farm and Homestead is a regenerative and educational farm in southeastern Indiana. Motivated by the Catholic faith, we strive to inspire, encourage, and support the development of homesteads and small-scale farms in faith and virtue. I'm Matthew. And I'm Carissa. We're excited for you to join us on the podcast.
00:00:23
Speaker
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast.
Matthew's Interview with Suzanne Sammons
00:00:28
Speaker
On this episode, I had a solo interview with Suzanne Sammons, author of The Stations of the Cross and Slow Motion, A Daily Devotion for Lent. This is a powerful interview that reminds me of the importance of building a homestead on the proper foundation, prayer, and the sacraments. Like any other pursuit in life, the development of a productive homestead is truly lacking if it is not characterized by a strong presence of prayer.
00:00:50
Speaker
Suzanne discusses her new book, but also provides great insight into prayer in the home, fasting, and commentary on some of our historical practices concerning Lent. This is an interview that I hope you find encouraging and inspiring as we prepare for the upcoming Lenten season. If you are enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or sharing it with a friend. And if you'd like to message us directly, please feel welcome to email us at hello at littlewayhomestead.com.
00:01:27
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast Suzanne Sammons. It is extremely exciting to have you back here again, although this time you are solo.
How to Establish a Catholic Culture During Lent
00:01:35
Speaker
And I think it's because you have some particularly exciting news that you're going to have to share with us here as we get into the podcast episode. Yes. Thanks Matthew. I appreciate being here again. It was a great time last time.
00:01:47
Speaker
Well, awesome. Before we get to your exciting news, I do want to open up a conversation around what people can do to really develop a good Catholic culture in their home as they prepare for the Lenten season. I know this is one that we're considering or will be considering, particularly strongly here at our home and on the homestead, as we think of what we can do to better engage our family, our children, and make sure that we have a home that is prepared to celebrate or recognize the season of Lent.
00:02:15
Speaker
What is the importance of or what do you think is an important part of developing really, firstly, culture in the home that is identified by the Catholic faith?
Engaging Children in Faith Development
00:02:24
Speaker
When you're talking about developing the culture of the faith in the home, so you're thinking about children and children's needs, children's spiritual needs, we always want to keep in mind how concrete their thinking is.
00:02:38
Speaker
So we want to have, we want to engage them visually. We want to engage all their senses and walk with them on their level, which is not to say we make the faith childish, but we recognize that we're giving this beautiful thing to a child. So we always have to keep in mind their developmental stages and what works well for children at different stages to learn the faith.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess there's probably some practical elements there as we consider that certainly we've got children in the home, but we also have adults in the home who are really looking to get a lot out of the season of Lent and make sure that they're properly disposed to receive God's graces through the season and that they're growing in spirituality as well.
Preparing for Lent as a Family
00:03:25
Speaker
What advice or what does that maybe look like for the adults who are in the family? How can they best begin to prepare for the season of Lent?
00:03:32
Speaker
That's a good question too, because it might feel like I need to do these two things separately, prepare my children and prepare myself. But I think we want to try to see the whole here and prepare our whole family. And there's certainly ways to do that so that as you walk as a family toward Lent, you're still examining yourself because we don't all have the same faults.
00:03:58
Speaker
Um, we, we each have different things we need to work on that lent is perfect for doing that. But one of the things children need and respond to is repetition. So this is the idea of the Baltimore catechism is built around. You learn these questions, you state these answers over and over. And, you know, people turned against the idea of the Baltimore catechism because it's
00:04:26
Speaker
It's rote, it's memorization, it's repetition, that's all bad, right? But then we tried something else and we know how well that worked out in the 80s and 90s catechesis. So why did it work? Why did the Baltimore catechism work so well as a basis? It was because of the repetition, because children
00:04:48
Speaker
They're built. Their little brains are built for repetition. And I think any parent knows that. Children will ask you the same question day after day, right? So just using
00:05:02
Speaker
Advent is an example because maybe some of us relate better to Advent than Lent. Why are there three purple candles and only one pink candle? I think every one of my children has asked that not just once, but they will, there's an age where they'll ask it like every other day through Advent. And you keep telling them the answer. And what they're doing is processing what you're saying.
00:05:26
Speaker
It takes some time, so they need to hear it over and over. And I think the interesting thing is, even though that's a developmental stage for children, we know as adults, we need to hear things over and over. How many times have you opened scripture, read something that you've read many times?
00:05:44
Speaker
And you feel like, Oh, I forgot. Yes. That is true. So it's really something we all need. Um, and we shouldn't be, I guess we shouldn't be ashamed or we shouldn't feel like it's wrong to repeat the same practices year after year as we walk into Lent or as we walk into other seasons. So we don't have to reinvent the wheel every year. I guess that's what I'm saying.
00:06:09
Speaker
There's something to that rote memorization that allows us the freedom to know that we're going to fall back on good habits, hopefully. It makes me think back when I started learning to play instruments is you have to learn things like your scales and you have to learn certain finger techniques in order to produce good sound quality. And you do a lot of these practicing of various techniques that may not in and of themselves even sound the best or lead to what we might recognize as a song.
00:06:39
Speaker
But they give you a framework to rely back on so that you're not operating out of no background, but you're operating, especially when you get into a tricky spot off really good habits that have been built. That's how I kind of think that when you talk about the Baltimore Catechism is the framework there is such that if people encounter difficult times in their adulthood life or as they get older,
00:07:04
Speaker
or confusing instances or someone says something to them and they're not sure if it's exactly right, they have this memory to go back on that's been practiced for many, many, many, many times that they know is a good foundation for the faith. And I suspect a lot of our traditions and our habits and our customs in some way do the same thing. And it sounds like that's maybe what you're getting at when it comes to practicing Lent or Advent, et cetera.
00:07:29
Speaker
I think that's absolutely true. And when we look at when do people encounter something that challenges their faith and can really sort of be a danger zone. And one of those times is suffering. Another time is just, um, when you're surrounded by people who don't believe in who challenge you and all those, those times is, I think that's a great analogy that you brought up. Those are when you have to be able to step back and say, well, wait a second. These are the things I know for sure. I know God is good.
00:07:59
Speaker
Like in times of suffering, I feel like God's abandoned me. I feel like maybe God just hates me. He's given me these terrible things. Why is he condemning me? Um, so you, you, but you back up and say, wait a second. These things I know for sure. I might not be able to figure this all out, but I know God is good. God is love. And you just back up to those things. That's exactly right. Yeah, that's wonderful.
Spiritual Growth and Discipline During Lent
00:08:24
Speaker
Well, as people prepare for Lent and they consider the Lenten season coming up, maybe you could describe just a little bit about what are some things that people could anticipate getting out of Lent? And not that it's all about getting something out for ourselves, but there is some expectation I think that people can have, whether that's spiritual growth or a more disciplined prayer life. What do you think are some things that people could hope for as they progress into and through the Lenten season?
00:08:51
Speaker
I think that's a great question because we don't want to enter Lent with sort of our standard, here's what I do for Lent. I always give up desserts, you know. If, how is that, what you have to ask yourself is how
00:09:10
Speaker
Is that going to not just the big, we want to say, how's that going to draw me closer to God? That is a good question, but it's a little bit too big in my opinion. I think that the first step is to say, what are the things that are keeping me from God? So we're the roadblocks. We're the little parts of my heart.
00:09:31
Speaker
there's just a do not enter for God. I'll give you everything else, but I can't forgive this person that did this to me 10 years ago. Everything else is fine. So we've got to find those little parts of our heart that we haven't given over or things of the world that we're not willing to give up and then go from there to figure out
00:09:54
Speaker
What are the practices or prayers or intentions I can have that will move me past that roadblock? So just saying, I want to get closer to God, you know, there's, I'm here at a he's, he's there at H or Z or whatever it is, wherever you are on the road. Um, that's great, but you got to get past B first. And what is that for you? So I think we have to be more practical perhaps, or more systematic.
00:10:23
Speaker
in figuring out that first step to drawing closer to God, what's keeping you.
00:10:29
Speaker
I think that's a great framework. And I suspect that oftentimes it's easier for us during Lent to even try to consider maybe some of our custom practices like giving something up during the Lenten season. Those things that we know are bad habits, but might not even really be the things that are ultimately keeping us from God. They may just be bad habits, which could also certainly be keeping us from a deeper relationship with God.
00:10:53
Speaker
But there's probably also some degree of discernment in really digging in deeper to the things that are really dramatically impeding ourselves from growing in a relationship with God, whether that's how we spend our time, how we engage in leisure, what our work looks like, what our prayer life looks like, how we treat our family members. I often think that there's a degree of easy things that we look to that we think, oh, I can just let that go and that'll help me.
00:11:19
Speaker
But really, I think that there's some harder things out there that are probably more indicative of where we stand spiritually, like how we treat one another, especially when it's difficult or how we respond to God or those around us or even ourselves in times of deep trouble or distress or during times of suffering.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yes. And I think that that does not, that doesn't mean we don't take on the traditional practices that the church gives us for Lent. That doesn't mean we don't give alms or pray more or fast. And in fact, I think all of those things are more powerful when the intention we're doing them with
00:12:02
Speaker
is recognizing here's the thing what I really need is to grow in humility or I really need to forgive this person or I really need to not let that one person at work bother me so much.
00:12:18
Speaker
fasting with that intention is more powerful because you're working on this specific thing. So it doesn't mean you shouldn't fast or shouldn't give alms or shouldn't pray more. It just means that there's a reason we do those things. It's a little bit deeper than I'm just going to fast because I know I'm supposed to because it's Lent.
00:12:39
Speaker
Do you have any advice or recommendation for people to discern those motives or those intentions so that when it does come to those traditional expectations of Lent that they're doing so in a way that could be more disposed to be spiritually fulfilling?
00:12:56
Speaker
Well, I'm not a spiritual director, obviously, but I think that probably what is helpful is thinking about all your confessions that you've had over the last maybe six months or as far back as you can remember. Those sins that you confess over and over, you can think about those and try to get to the root of them.
00:13:22
Speaker
So, if you lose your patience a lot with the kids, okay, you're impatient, but maybe there's something deeper there. Maybe you like to be in control of every situation and that's why you lose your patience. Or maybe you tend to stay up too late at night and so you're tired a lot and those are two very different root causes for the impatience.
00:13:45
Speaker
So to me, it would make sense to look for the root causes and then work from there. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's definitely something for me to even reflect on is really consider not just what the outcome is, but really what is the root cause. And because then I can think reasonably, well, then I can address the root cause. And if I can address the root cause, maybe I'm making some things a lot harder on myself than they need to be. And maybe I can open myself up even more fully to God's graces in that way.
Significance of Fasting: Spiritual and Physical Aspects
00:14:13
Speaker
I do want to ask you one other question before we move on to some of your exciting news, which is the connection between Lent and fasting. But here's why I ask it. I often find that fasting kind of takes a backseat to a lot of our discussions just in life.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I have found that the more that I'm aware of fasting, the importance of fasting, the need for fasting and practicing it myself, that it really helps to put a lot of clarity before me about what I need to do in life and what I'm supposed to do in life. So maybe you could just talk about the importance of fasting in general and whether or not people can expect that there's any potential spiritual benefit from fasting. I would love to. I am fascinated by the
00:14:56
Speaker
history of fasting in the church. I mean, I could talk about fasting for an hour. I have talked about fasting for an hour. And I've run some groups that facilitate fasting for people because I'm interested in fasting from the physical side too.
00:15:15
Speaker
Like a lot of people it's become a little bit trendy to fast, right? So intermittent fasting we hear that term a lot extended fasting there was a there is a Canadian doctor dr. Jason Fung who's a nephrologist and he really is sort of the father of modern fasting and so he's brought out a lot of the or brought to light a lot of the physical benefits and so
00:15:45
Speaker
To me, that shows, of course, God gave us this great gift in fasting because not only are there spiritual benefits, but there are physical benefits too. So, you know, no surprise God knows what he's doing with the human body. And the reason I think this trend is really important and really helpful for Catholics is that
00:16:04
Speaker
we can know how to fast in such a way that our physical limitations don't hold us back from fasting. Because what you hear from so many people is, I can barely get through the day on Ash Wednesday. This two small meals, not equaling my larger meal thing, it just, I can't even get my work done.
00:16:28
Speaker
I have a headache. I'm impatient with my kids. So this newer research about fasting that helps guide us and navigate us physically is really it's just precious because once you figure out physically how to do it, then you're going to fast more. You're not just going to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday because that's all you can handle. You're going to realize I can do a real fast and I can do one every week. I can not eat for 40 hours once a week.
00:16:58
Speaker
So I'm very grateful for that. Then when you are fasting, I thought it would just, you know, I thought it would be torture, but what I have found and what many people have found, this isn't just me, is that you do gain some mental clarity on that day. And there's a physiological thing going on there, but certainly it's a spiritual, it's a spiritual phenomenon as well.
00:17:27
Speaker
One benefit is humility because you realize when you're fasting that you want to eat, but you don't need to eat.
00:17:39
Speaker
You still want to though. And, and so how powerful, how powerful just our most basic instincts are as human beings that, uh, boy, I know I don't really need to eat right now. My body's burning, stored fat. I'm totally, I'm fine, but gosh, it would just be so nice. You know, so I think it's humbling to, to realize how, how much our body just sort of can drive us around.
00:18:07
Speaker
And so the idea with fasting is saying, telling your body, no, no, I'm in charge here. So this is, this is the next benefit I think is training the will. And that's the tie-in with Lent, I think, because we are trying to subdue our wills and make everything about us God's servant. So we really need, we really need fasting because before everything else, food is a
00:18:35
Speaker
really basic need, food and water. So disciplining that first is just essential. As a farmer and as a homesteading producer, I definitely agree that food is important. And yet at the same time, I can attest that in my life when I have committed to very serious fasting, it is really brought out in me what I need to work on because it seems to not only, yes, it's obviously
00:19:05
Speaker
you know, our drive for hunger or hunger drive is almost a base inclination. But at least in my experience, and this is anecdotal, but in my experience, it also has brought out my base, maybe root issues when it comes to things that I need to work on sin in my life that I need to eviscerate and get out. And I find that it's been incredibly spiritually powerful to me as well as has given me this clarity over what I can and cannot do with my body and how
00:19:35
Speaker
I do have mastery or can have mastery over my body and that God has designed it in such that there is that order and it's it's beautiful. It's wonderful. And sometimes I actually look forward to fasting. Yes, it's you telling your body, right? It's you telling your body you don't decide when I eat. I decide when I eat. And that's actually can be very liberating for a lot of people. And it's not since you brought up homesteading. I totally agree. Food is good.
00:20:05
Speaker
And so it's not saying eating is bad. It's not saying food is bad. Just like the celibate priesthood doesn't say marriage is bad. It says marriage is a gift. Again, with fasting, food is good. It's a gift. That's why we want to treat it properly.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. It's a great perspective and hopefully maybe a great tie-in to the next part of our conversation, which is that you have really exciting news coming up about a new book that is a pending release.
Introducing 'The Stations of the Cross in Slow Motion'
00:20:35
Speaker
Maybe you could talk to us a little bit about that and give us some background into what that book is, why you're excited about it and how it might be helpful to people as they prepare for and go through the season of Lent. Yes, thank you so much.
00:20:48
Speaker
Sophia Institute Press is publishing my book, The Stations of the Cross in Slow Motion on January 16th. And I am really excited about it. I wrote with my husband, Eric, the Jesse Tree, an Advent devotion, several years ago. And that book walks through Advent for families and gives a day by day reflection on salvation history.
00:21:15
Speaker
so that we can walk toward Christmas together learning about Christ's family tree. And that book was very well received and I heard from a lot of people that wanted something similar for Lent. Most parents probably know there are so many resources for Advent that you can't use them all. When it comes to Lent,
00:21:37
Speaker
There's some slim pickings sometimes. There's just not as much out there for Lent. And I love the idea of doing something similar to the Jesse Tree Book for Lent, but Lent's a lot longer and it's just different. So it took me some time to discern what might be the most helpful to families. And what I decided to do was to base the book on the Stations of the Cross.
00:22:04
Speaker
because it's such a beautiful devotion. And it's a devotion that's been with us since the early, early years of the church. People would go to Jerusalem to walk in Christ's footsteps, to walk the way of the cross. So this is a very, very old devotion. And sometimes though, when you do the stations of the cross, I mean, it only takes
00:22:28
Speaker
maybe 20 minutes to pray the stations and things kind of fly by. And sometimes you miss the chance to meditate on one of the stations because you just got a little distracted and it's already over. So this book takes each station and contemplates it for three or four days, slowly walking toward Lent. And as I plan the book, my next dilemma was
00:22:57
Speaker
How do I dig into these stations with the eyes of the church? And I found that the church fathers really, of course, loved to explore Christ's way of the cross. And so there is just a whole treasury of insight from the church fathers on these events.
00:23:17
Speaker
So that's where most of the ideas come from in the book. They're all put together day by day so that you open with a description of a prayer and a description of the station. There's a meditation. There's a scripture reading and a closing prayer. So it is similar. A lot of families do a Jesse Tree devotion and it's similar to that.
00:23:40
Speaker
Well, that sounds awesome. I know that for us, the Stations of the Cross is particularly important. Maybe I'm interested in hearing some more insights into your experience, even writing the book and what inspired you to write the book.
History and Tradition of the Stations of the Cross
00:23:53
Speaker
But could you just expand on what the history maybe of the Stations of the Cross looks like? Because honestly, I actually don't know much about the history of it.
00:24:01
Speaker
It's interesting. So initially Christians would take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, of course people still do, take a pilgrimage to walk the way of the cross they wanted to see. And there were people who would show you, oh yes, this is where this happened.
00:24:19
Speaker
when it became more difficult to get into the Holy Land, people still wanted that experience. And that is when just in towns across Europe, Avia de la Rosa would be set up. And this is when the images that we now associate with the stations of the cross kind of cropped up so that you could originally actually, it was just numbers, numerals. And so you would find these numerals one through 14.
00:24:49
Speaker
along a road or along a path, and you would use that to help you meditate on the stations of the cross. So then it was later that images were added, which makes sense, to help people meditate and to remember sort of where they were in the process of the stations. And you know, some of the stations come from tradition and some come from scripture.
00:25:10
Speaker
So we know Saint Veronica is not mentioned in scripture, but there she is in the sixth station, the cross. So I think it's beautiful that it's a combination of scripture and tradition that gives us the stations. Eventually, an indulgence was attached to the devotion. So you receive an indulgence for
00:25:32
Speaker
publicly praying the stations of the cross in procession. So the processional character is actually part of the indulgence. Now, if you don't walk from station to station, that's OK if that doesn't work because of the size of the crowd. So if you go to your parish, there's 100 people. And so just the priest and the altar boys do the procession. You're still taking part in the procession by being there. So that indulgence is available to you with the usual conditions.
00:26:01
Speaker
So I think that's a beautiful piece of it as well. I had no idea. That is so interesting. That's really interesting. See, this is one of the things that I find so spiritually powerful and just enriching about life when it comes to the Catholic Church is that her traditions, the traditions of the faith are so deep and have so much root in history, scripture, tradition.
00:26:29
Speaker
that learning about it makes it so real and also impresses upon you just this weight of history that makes you feel honored to be a part of it.
00:26:42
Speaker
Amen. Absolutely. That is so neat. I didn't know that. I didn't know any of that really about the Stations of the Cross, except obviously that, you know, I probably could have guessed that there was some historical development of it into what we do now. But yeah, wow, what a beautiful tradition.
00:27:00
Speaker
Okay, so the book, what inspired you? How did we get to this? First of all, what does it look like to write a book? I don't know that a lot of people know what that process looks like. So what does it look like to first write a book? And then what inspired you to write this particular book? I have always loved Lent. Well, I'll back up because you asked what's it look like to write a
Suzanne's Writing Experience
00:27:21
Speaker
book. It's kind of ugly.
00:27:24
Speaker
I think this might be a common experience but this is how it was for me that I was really excited about the idea and proposed it and when it was accepted I was thrilled and very shortly after I thought
00:27:40
Speaker
What am I doing? Well, and then particularly with this topic, who am I to write this book? I went through some agony with that. Who am I to write about Christ's passion? I must be out of my mind that I even had this idea. So the church fathers and doctors came to my rescue on that and said, you know, we'll write it. You know, just take notes.
00:28:05
Speaker
So that was good. But I think a lot of people go through that initial exuberance and then it's sort of the reality sets in that this is a big responsibility. So that's how it was for me. And then it's just hard work. But generally, you're writing about something you have a passion about. And so you're carried through on that.
00:28:31
Speaker
And the Stations of the Cross were something that meant a lot to me as a child. And so being able to write a book that would maybe get some other children today more interested in the Stations of the Cross or just to give them that gift of loving the stations, which I was given as a child,
00:28:54
Speaker
That was a big inspiration. My father would take me to stations. My school had stations of the cross every Friday after school. The kids just marched across the parking lot into the church for stations. It was just what you did on the Fridays of Lent. And then my father would take me, he'd say,
00:29:12
Speaker
I, it would be, you know, later that night, I'm going to stations. You want to go with me? Sure. So I would often go twice in a day, um, during Lent. So it's just, um, and you know, the visual images of the stations, I think really connect with children. So I, I developed a devotion to St. Veronica and, um, it's meant a lot to me to be able to write about that also.
00:29:37
Speaker
Are there any interesting things about St. Veronica that maybe some people aren't as commonly aware of? Well, I, I had one great discovery with this book, which I am so grateful for. I used these stations of the cross from four different saints and drew from them for the prayers and the descriptions of the saint of these stations. So a lot of people are familiar with St. Alphonsus Ligori's stations.
00:30:04
Speaker
St. Francis of the CZ wrote stations also. And St. Jose Maria Scriva also wrote stations, which I love. They're different. I really love those too. And then last of all, St. John Henry Newman wrote stations. So four saints we have that wrote a stations of the cross. So I used all of those. And I had never seen the ones from St. John Henry Newman before.
00:30:31
Speaker
And when I read what he wrote about Our Lady and Simon and Veronica, it was so beautiful. He said that it was no coincidence that Simon and Veronica appeared right after Christ met Our Lady. So Christ meets Our Lady in the fourth station.
00:30:53
Speaker
And what do you think she does once she sees Christ? She prays for him and she asks, surely ask God to help him. So what happens next? Simon. So Simon comes to help our Lord. And then what happens next? Veronica. So Mary prays, then a man comes, then a woman comes and the man helps as a man. He carries the cross. He works.
00:31:22
Speaker
And the woman helps as a woman. She provides maternal compassion to Christ. She wipes his face just like a mother would. So I just thought that was such a beautiful insight into our lady and her power. And also the way men carry the cross, men carry the cross in a different way. Even though we have a lot of trials in common,
00:31:51
Speaker
Men are fundamentally different from women viva la difference. And so they will respond differently to the cross. And that is good. And women will respond differently to the cross. And it should call out that kind of maternal love and compassion in them. Whereas for men, it might call out the desire to work, to offer the body to help someone.
00:32:17
Speaker
So that was my, that was like my, my mind blow. That's amazing. It's wonderful. Did, were there any particular, you know, after you go through and you finished the writing of the book or maybe even at a time period after there's probably a sense of relief for some time between it being completed and its release. Has there been anything that has kind of come out of that, you know, maybe through the writing of the book or the content of the book that has impacted you specifically since, uh, finishing the book?
00:32:48
Speaker
I think one
Understanding Temptation vs. Sin
00:32:50
Speaker
of the things that's been striking me that I've been giving some thought to and talking to the kids about is I used the three falls of Christ to call out temptation, sin, and repentance.
00:33:16
Speaker
So, so the difference between temptation and sin and what those what those each really mean, particularly temptation and talking to the kids and thinking to myself about how temptations are not sins. And what do we do during temptation? I mean, sometimes it seems like there's just a blur between being tempted and committing a sin like it just happened. But but really, you know, it's in the times of temptation we immediately need to call on Christ.
00:33:46
Speaker
right in that moment. And that attempting thought or that pops into your head is not something to feel guilty about. It's not even something to confess. It's just something to put aside. So that idea is, it's been good to sort of crystallize in my own head and then too in teaching my kids.
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. There is certainly a degree of spiritual maturation and understanding the difference and the distinctions between grades of sin as well as temptations and imperfections and how it all fits together. And I appreciate you commenting on it because there is a reality there and it's something that we all have to wrestle with.
00:34:29
Speaker
If we truly want to grow in a spiritual life, I think it's important that we be very aware of all of those aspects of our personalities and our characteristics, our habits, our behaviors, which ones are really sinful, which ones are things that maybe aren't as sinful, but we still ought to work on because we're called to perfection, not just to not sin in the big things. And so that's a good distinction to make across those for sure.
00:34:57
Speaker
And to understand too that not all temptations mean that some demon is on your shoulder really after you.
Lent Practices in the Home
00:35:09
Speaker
For instance, the Baltimore Catechism says that temptations can come from directly from the devil. They can come from people around you. They can come from things around you.
00:35:20
Speaker
And I think acknowledging that means, Oh, well, if certain people cause me to experience temptation, those are people I shouldn't be around. If certain things cause me to experience temptation, I need to avoid those things. Um, if you, because if you think that, well, every time I'm tempted, it's simply the devil, how do I get away? But not every temptation comes directly from the devil.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's totally fair. Well, a last question I have for you, what does Lent look like in your life as in what maybe is important to you or your family or the customs and the cultures in your home that help to show that Lent is being experienced and that maybe other people might want to consider in their homes?
00:36:09
Speaker
I think that because Advent makes such a mark on our family, sometimes I try to sort of see like, well, if something worked really well in Advent, how can I put that thing into Lent? So one of the things we do during Advent, like a lot of families is the Advent wreath.
00:36:28
Speaker
So during Lent, I always have some sort of candle type display on the table. Usually what we do is take six candles in candle holders and put them in the form of a cross. There's six weeks during Lent, so we'll light one each week. Or you light all of them the first week and you
00:36:49
Speaker
light one fewer each week as you go to our Good Friday. So things get darker as you move to our Good Friday. So you could do that either way. Kids love candles. You tend to sit down to dinner every night, so it's something you're doing every day. So I think having something on the table like that's been very good for us. We have experimented with the different
00:37:12
Speaker
ideas like the having the toothpicks and making the bread dough crown to pull a toothpick out when you make a sacrifice or yeah we've done that one a lot
00:37:26
Speaker
Sometimes that turns into kids saying, trying to tell each other, that wasn't a good enough sacrifice for you to take a toothpick out. You're supposed to wash the dishes. You can't take a toothpick out for that. And then that doesn't seem very spiritually helpful. So we haven't done that one every year. We recently have gone through the distinction of what is a real sacrifice as well.
00:37:53
Speaker
I was like, well, how did you know? Maybe she particularly really didn't want to do the dishes that night. And it was, it's possible. It's possible. I would err on just go. Yeah. All right. Leave the person alone. You don't know what's going on inside them, but, um, but still that works for some people. Um, sometimes then the toothpicks on Easter morning turn into jelly beans.
00:38:16
Speaker
But then one year when I was thinking there's too much sugar in the house, they turned into flowers, but then that made people really sad. So Stations of the Cross, we like to do for sure in the home, but I really like to do them at the parish as well, because I think that then you have more of the processional character, which the church has said is important, and you have your parish community.
00:38:41
Speaker
I think both are good. I like doing them in the home. And again, we usually set them up with a candle in front of each one. We have images. Put a candle in front of each one. And after we say the station, somebody gets to snuff the candle. Hopefully there's no fighting. You gotta assign that ahead of time. And then by the end, it's dark. So I like the light and dark symbolism.
00:39:07
Speaker
And then this year we're actually putting stations in our woods on a path so that we can have families over on a Friday, maybe have a simple soup dinner together and then pray the stations through the woods. So I think those are things kids really are going to remember. Very neat. The stations in the woods is one that is also on our radar and that we're excited to hopefully publicly be able to offer to people one day when they come to visit the farm.
00:39:38
Speaker
That's wonderful. Is there more to that being in the woods or being on the property than simply just another place to put it? Is there more tradition behind that? I think that people like them outdoors because of course Christ was outdoors. In a beautiful church, that's wonderful and you can have more beautiful and larger images probably in a church.
00:40:03
Speaker
But I think people are drawn to the outdoor, just like we like the live nativities, the outdoor nativities, because Christ was in nature for these events. Yeah, that's so true. It probably calls to something deep within us, I would suspect. I think so too.
00:40:20
Speaker
Well, as we conclude here today, what are maybe one or a few things that you hope people get out of the book as they go into the Lenten season or through the Lenten season when they finish Lent and they've read the book? What do you hope they take away from it? You know, I hope that people get to slow down. Sometimes it's hard to think of a title for your book and you usually need some help.
00:40:47
Speaker
But as I wrote a description for the book, I just started talking about how it slows down the stations and that became sort of my focus that everything today, most of us feel like it's too rushed and we feel like we don't have time. We feel like we miss things that go by so quickly.
00:41:10
Speaker
And so my hope is that people can slow down the stations and you don't have to take some major insight from every single one, but maybe something in one or two will strike you that you'll carry with you. And that's what happened to me when I read St. John Newman's.
00:41:31
Speaker
Stations of the cross it was those three stations that really what he said about them that really stuck with me And you carry that with you or maybe just by slowing down the entire devotion It will just all mean more to you and you'll feel like for the first time. I really got it I really see what Christ did on the way. That's great
00:41:55
Speaker
So that's the Stations of the Cross in Slow Motion, A Daily Devotion for Lent, Sophia Institute Press coming out in January, correct, of 2024. Yes. Where else, obviously through Sophia Institute Press, is that the best place for people to go to buy the book? I love Sophia Institute Press and it probably is the best place. Of course, it's available on Amazon as well. Wonderful. Well, Suzanne, we really thank you for joining us here and talking through your new book, The Stations of the Cross in Slow Motion, A Daily Devotion for Lent.
00:42:25
Speaker
As well as sharing many of your insights around Lent and the Lenten season and how people can prepare for it. I really appreciate your comments, your insights, and I thank you for being a guest here today. Thank you so much, Matthew. It was very enjoyable for me too. Have a great day. Bye bye.
00:42:47
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Check out the show notes for more information about this episode and be sure to tune in next week.