Live Your Season

by Mary Ann Halloran

St. Catherine of Siena has a famous quote that I really like. She said, "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

I have a saying that I am known for around these parts, "Live your season."

How are those two related? Well, I often hear single people who really really want to get married and are pining away while waiting for it. I often hear married women say how they wish they had more freedom to do "God's work." Sometimes that married woman is the one who wanted to get married so badly.

Or I hear mothers of small children, who couldn't wait to have children, now looking for more of a life beyond small children.

Hmmm -- what's going on here?

To put my quote and St. Catherine's quote together it would be something like, "Live your season to the full, and you will set the world on fire." The grace is there when we are living what we are meant to live.

Living Your Season

I know a girl who really wanted to get married, but she lived her single life to the full. She did some amazing work and traveled quite a bit giving seminars, speaking to youth, and helping run pro-life events. She lived her single life totally, and she set the world on fire. Now she’s living a different season in marriage.

Live your season means to live the state of life you are in, to the full.

• If you are a mother of small children, tweens, or teens, then be the best mother you can be.

• If you are a wife then be the best wife you can be.

• If you are a husband and father, be the best you can be.

• Take time for your spouse and enjoy each other.

• If you are a young person studying, then study the best you can.

• If you are a religious, give it your all. In each season, find support, you will need it.

I am the mother of 8. I feel like I lived that season pretty well. I made mistakes and there were plenty of tough times, but I really did enjoy my children, and I continue to. Even though we will always be parents, the season of raising children is ended for me, and now I am enjoying my grandchildren when I can travel to be with them.

Looking back I can clearly see how God's grace of the sacrament of matrimony was always there to help us. He sent the wisdom and the gifts needed. Sometimes those gifts change with each season. As my husband and I grow older, we are living a new season in our community life, with our children, and with our grandchildren.

The enemy, the devil, likes to tempt us with wonderful-looking 'works of God' to pull us away from what God really wants us to do. Be alert! The last thing the devil wants is for you to set the world on fire. He doesn't want happy marriages. He doesn't want godly children, and he certainly doesn't want single people on fire for Christ. So his strategy is to get you to not live out God's plan for you and make something else look way more exciting. Don't be fooled!

As we persevere in our vocations, whatever they may be, we will develop character and grow in holiness through the struggles. So now you know how to set the world on fire.

Blessings,
Mary Ann / Mother Hen

---