The Power of an Apron

It seems like such a silly thing, that a few pieces of pretty cloth, sewn together with some polka-dot ribbon, can change your perspective and give you more energy then a cup of my DH's coffee. But my apron has done just that. After reading how other stay-at-home moms, or housewife's, or domestic engineers (call yourself what you like, our Mission is the same) gained strength from their aprons, I bought one. Its feminine, with a few frills along the top and the bottom, and like I mentioned polka-dot ribbon. While I am putting it on, I recite my Apron Prayer. It goes something like this. Lord please send me the strength and the grace that I so desperately need, and help me bless my home, my family and myself in these next few hours. Amen. It might seem silly, it might seem pointless, it might seem old fashioned, but an apron has power. Would a priest be the same in your eyes if he celebrated mass in a Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops and ragged khaki shorts? No. It just isn't the same. This is how I see my apron, as the clothing required for my vocation. Now I'm dressed for my Mission.

It is His Mission

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had an idea for a movement. At least I thought it was my idea, but no, this idea belongs to the author of all good things. So I do not know why I was surprised to find that He had shared it with other women. I was reading A Mother's Rule of Life, and came to The Fourth P: Parent. In this chapter Holly Pierlot discusses "the duties inherent to being a parent", as well as the choice she made to stay at home with her children. The idea that all our education and training to work at a specialized job could be set aside for the role of mother was to her, as it is to many women, as it continues to be for me, a culture shock. That is the culture we were raised in, even the ideals professed by our own mothers, told us that to be a wife and mother was to be less then our full potential.

Yet, this Mission of Motherhood has been given to us, as wives and mothers. It was given to me, before I fully understood its relevance or its importance. Even now, I know I have only scratched the surface. This Mission was given to Holly Pierlot, she even has a section of her chapter on parenting titled Discovering the Mission of Motherhood. Her journey is so similar to that of so many women, so similar to mine. Even after we have been given this mission, we doubt its validity, we question its truth, we wonder if it truly applies to us. We, as women have been taught that what we have been blessed with is not enough. We are forced to believe that we need to be equal to something that we were made to complement. We have been stripped of our most precious gift, our femininity and our ability to nurture. As a result we question our gifts, our talents, our Mission, our Godly vocation.

Yet the Lord is good. He continues to place this wonderful Mission on the hearts of many women all over the world. Most notably He gave this mission to The Blessed Mother, Mary. She lived her Mission of Motherhood to the absolute fullest, guaranteeing that all women, even those raised by feminist hippies, would have a blessed and holy example of how to live out their own Mission. And so she gives me the courage to continue in my vocation, to reclaim my femininity, to complement my husband, to nurture my children and to live out His Mission for my Motherhood.

Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for those who have recourse to thee.