Reflection on Eclipse and Mary....

The 8th of April was a big day for two reasons this week, first of all it was the Annunciation of Mary transferred to this particular day as it is not celebrated on Holy Week in the Latin Tridentine Calendar. Second, everyone was watching the total solar eclipse going through America. 
My thoughts on the eclipse, yes this was a nice event to get outside and enjoy nature and do some science. However, how many are giving God glory during this time? I doubt if you will hear it in the news media. Team sun or team moon or earth is all they talked about. God gave us this wonderful event to enjoy "in the heavens there will be signs and wonders" as the Bible says! I also was thinking - perhaps there was an eclipse the day of Good Friday when Christ died? The way the Bible and movies portray the hour of Christ's death as an earthquake and darkness happening. Could this darkness been from a solar eclipse? I wouldn't know for sure - but it sounds like a true possibility! We should give God thanks for this beautiful day that we were able to observe whether you got to see a total eclipse in Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Ohio, New York or Maine... or like us where we just got a partial - it was a fun event! 
Now, let me turn to our Marian theme - Mary is the beautiful Mother of God. The moon is considered HER Lamp and the Sun is sometimes considered to represent Jesus. So, Mary overshadowing the Sun!! This shows to me that we get our graces through Mary and praying to her for help! She is the Mediatrix of all graces! Also, it was the Feast of the Annunciation on April 8th - she is the first doula accepting God's fiat and going straight to visit her cousin Elizabeth immediately after this Annunciation of God to her soul. You can read this article from Koala Mom blog if you want to know more on how a doula can help your Catholic pregnancy: https://thekoalamom.com/2019/10/catholic-doula-support-pregnancy/​ 
In this blog post, I also wanted to announce a new childbirth class training program - we are offering a new course titled "Gratia Plena Childbirth classes". We have decided to redo our name of the course and will be featuring more information soon on this class. We are in tester mode and we are offering partial scholarships or one full scholarship (to a lucky mom) for testing the class. Deadline for applications is April 15th and then I'll decide on a few tester students for this course. The partial scholarship students can choose a give from your heart amount to test the course. Start will probably be mid-May-June for the first class around 4-6 zoom meetings - I will decide on amount later. 
Let me know if you have any questions. If you want to apply go to the childbirth class page or email [email protected] - I will not accept applications after April 15th. Thanks. 

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