Lineage and Legacy

As I look at the date on the calendar, I feel a squeezing in my heart. My oldest graduates from high school this weekend. The emotion isn’t so much pain or sadness, but rather a fullness. Sometimes we can love so big that our heart hurts in a good way from the very act of loving so much and for so long.

I guess this is what is supposed to happen. I was supposed to get married, and have children, and raise them to leave the home, to venture out on their own and leave the nest. The little one who used to demand to be put in the carrier on my back while I cooked is now able to fend for himself, feed himself, provide for himself in this world outside my home.

Today’s Old Testament reading is about lineage and legacy in a family. I don’t think I am one of those godly men of our ancestors whose legacy is remembered by all. I feel like one of those others about whom the memories will fade. Yet when I look at my son, grown strong and healthy in mind, body and spirit, I know that I cooperated with the Lord in some good for this world. That is my legacy.

Whether you are called to a physical or spiritual motherhood, the world can be a better place because of your life and the virtue you show. We all have people or projects that we are invited to mother. This is part of what it means to be a Catholic woman. And as we mother, we often grow and nourish these people or ideas through to a place of independence. They are part of our legacy long after we have left the earth.

Whom or what are you being invited to nourish? Of what are you being asked to let go? Lord, help us to see the larger picture and how our day-to-day virtue works for Your greater glory.

Lord, help us to see the larger picture. // @maryruthhackettClick to tweet

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Mother Mary, guide me to mother and nourish those in my life.