A Balancing Act - Making Mobiles.

by Catherine Fournier

As many articles on Domestic-Church.Com discuss, the exercise of faith is a daily balancing act. We must always find the balance between living in the world while not becoming of the world. Our vocations call us to the 'duty of the moment' but living the duty of the moment frequently requires balancing several duty-moments at once. We must both pray and act. We find many opportunities to defend our faith balanced with an equal number of opportunities to demonstrate our faith. Growing in our faith, and learning to live as Catholics often involves learning to find a balance in our lives of self and God, of body and soul, of 'laying-up'and trust.

The visual, practical, creative act of making a mobile can vividly illustrate this to our children and families, especially if we use symbols of our faith and life in the mobile. An image of a cross or church can be balanced with a dollar sign, or a picture of a toy. Images of the saints can be placed to balance the weight of school, or family members. That a mobile is both permanent and ever changing is an excellent demonstration of our faith.

Demonstrate to your children as you are making the mobiles how a larger and heavier image can be balanced with a small image by placing the hanging string closer to the large object. Ask them "Which do we make larger in our lives, God or money?" (for example) If we make money larger, we have to be closer to the money. If we make God bigger and more important in our lives, then we also live closer to God.

Mobiles can be as simple or complex as skill, time and desire allow. There are so many variations, I will only suggest a few.

• Drinking straws, thread and paper cut-outs in a simple 'water yoke' design.
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• A circle of wire as anchor for a number of suspended images.
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• A length of wire and suspended images in a 'planetary orbit' design.
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Images can be those of the family's name saints, the symbols of the Faith - the fish, the cross, the lamb, the triangle, the Book - and/or symbols of the world - toys, T.V, money, stores, cars, boats, bikes, and other images.

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