Kristi

“If one movement of mercy is in hoping for its own diminishment, another must be toward its own expansion. The way of charity that the child calls us to--that you call me to--is a way that constantly magnifies, not because your needs multiply but because you call me to be open to the needs of others.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession

“That you are not mine to possess, that you are not mine to craft and shape, that you are a gift to me, means that you can also be a divine presence to me. When you call to me in your need, that is God's call to me as well. The space I give you to grow and flourish becomes also the space for my own growth and flourishing.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession

“And Mary and the Church both, like You, labor for the world. Mary's labor figures, reveals, and clarifies the Church's own labor. The Church, like Mary labors to bear divine presence into the world. The Church, like Mary, participates in Your new creation and hearkens to Your first. In the figure of Mary, creation, church, and pregnancy all entwine as images of one another. A pregnant woman's body, the Church expectant, and You, the womb of creation, all come together in the image of pregnancy.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession

“Pope Benedict XVI wrote that liturgy should be "the rediscovering within us of true childhood, of openness to a greatness still to come, which is still unfulfilled in adult life." The child at play is an image for the kind of openness to life that adults should cultivate--that, in fact, the liturgy is trying to help people discover. In church I am seeking my true childhood.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession