I’m Glad You Were Born

The Mom Weekly Volume 85: March 25, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the website here.

Notes: 

The Rich Mullins Lent reflections are just going to have to wait, as I am having a world of trouble finishing the first one!

However, you can still listen to his music during Lent. Here’s my “A Rich Mullins Lent” Spotify playlist again. I think you will find it spiritually fruitful, but if not, feel free to abandon it. But maybe try to pick some music to listen to during Lent that could be spiritually fruitful for you.

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

I’m Glad You Were Born

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation. I’m always surprised that it is not a Holy Day of Obligation. I think I mix it up with the Assumption in August, which is a Holy Day of Obligation.

Anyway, this is a great feast day. I have such a vivid memory of my oldest nephew being “overdue” many years ago (I was in high school!) and my Mom’s Irish friends saying novenas that the baby would be born on St. Patrick’s Day. They did this just to annoy my Mom, who (jokingly, I’m sure, being fully Italian) did not want that to happen!

And then he was born on the feast of the Annunciation! I remember my Mom being so happy about that. It’s also just a wonderful feast of solidarity with pregnant women and babies.

There are a lot of birthdays upcoming—today, and tomorrow, and the next few months.

As I pray for those people on and around their birthdays, a prayer that keeps settling in my heart is: “I’m glad you were born.”

I’m not sure what that means related to the Annunciation—one would think I would have that kind of Holy Spirit Nudge would appear around Christmas. But I’m trying to be more open to the Holy Spirit and my guardian angel. (Re-read “Holy Spirit Nudges” to recall what I mean by that. Every time, I giggle when I think about my guardian angel rolling her eyes at me).

So there it is. I’m glad you were born.

Interesting/Notable:

Five Ways to Reduce Your Microplastics Exposure—Dr. Peter Attia

I definitely want to reduce my microplastics, but I am still going to enjoy my occasional fountain sodas and Dunkin’ iced coffees. Fortunately, we already have a reverse osmosis system in our kitchen, so I’m doing one of the highest-impact actions for this. 

An Action Item: Mary’s Girlhood by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

When I taught high school for two years before you kids were born, an English teacher (Mrs. P!) was in the classroom next door.. She introduced me to this poem, and we taught a joint class between our two classes on it several times. I love to read it each Annunciation. (And I was “sure” it was written by his sister, Christina Rossetti, but I was wrong!)

Mary’s Girlhood

This is that blessed Mary, pre-elect
God’s Virgin. Gone is a great while, and she
Dwelt young in Nazareth of Galilee.
Unto God’s will she brought devout respect,
Profound simplicity of intellect,
And supreme patience. From her mother’s knee
Faithful and hopeful; wise in charity;
Strong in grave peace; in pity circumspect.

So held she through her girlhood; as it were
An angel-water’d lily, that near God
Grows and is quiet. Till, one dawn at home,
She woke in her white bed, and had no fear
At all,—yet wept till sunshine, and felt aw’d:
Because the fulness of the time was come.