Nancy is today on the road back from an unexpected trip to Pennsylvania for Bill's grandmother's sudden death in her sleep. A lot of shock and sadness, yet knowing that they gathered to send her off to the arms of Jesus united sharing the heavenly banquet at her funeral mass is very comforting.
The deep attachment to Patrick is so real for me, as I shared in the traumatic birth filled with such fear as I have never experienced in my lifetime watching him die and possibly my daughter also! Patrick was brought back to life and although he was the "sickest baby in NICU" he quickly recovered and is a healthy happy boy of today! This grandma was called upon to baptize him in the middle of the night in the midst of NICU surrounded by doctors, nurses and ambulance personnel, and tiny premies reaching their tiny hands into the air in praise for LIFE and Patrick coming into The Church, where Jesus and Mary ministered to him along with all the Saints gathered in heaven!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-story-of-little-lamb-grandson.html
This is a big year for Patrick in The Church... he along with cousins Rose and Augustine will be receiving their First Communion! My heart will certainly be with him on his special day as it looks like his and Rose's special days will overlap and he is 2 days away in Washington. There is a cord that binds us with the sharing of the Sacraments, so I am praying much for the huge steps of First Reconciliation and First Communion - knowing that Patrick will place the utmost value and respect for these huge steps in his Faith journey!
I recall Patrick's older sister's and brother's First Communion, and how they truly took to heart the reality of Christ coming to them in His Body and Blood in the Eucharist! How we love Our Lord, and would cross raging streams in a flood or climb the highest mountain, or inconvenience ourselves if we were at one of our children's sporting event in another town... in other words we LOVE to come to the banquet laid out for us in the Kingdom of God and would never miss it!
How the Gospel today held us accountable to show our LOVE for Jesus by answering his invitation to come to "dine in the Kingdom of God!" How pointless and shallow do the excuses of those invited, but had better things to do. How can anything be more important or better?
'Come, everything is now ready.'
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,
'I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.'
And another said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;
I ask you, consider me excused.'
And another said, 'I have just married a woman,
and therefore I cannot come.' Luke 14
Yes, we recognize that we are weak and crippled and lame and blind and we need our Lord for healing and give the control over to Him!
In Catholic School they have mass each week, and Maria with her homeschool does manage to get to daily mass during the week.
The point he was making... I baptized all these children, and where have they been for these last 7 years? "Please bring your children back each week to receive their Lord in Word, Body and Blood. This is where they find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT and where they can go forth armed with Faith to face the world!"
Amazing St Paul today in Romans 12...
"Do not grow slack in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope,
endure in affliction,
persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,
exercise hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you,
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Have the same regard for one another;
do not be haughty but associate with the lowly."
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/my-most-cherished-cross-patrick-gerard.html
"He who comes to Communion loses himself in God,
as a drop of water in the ocean.
They can be no more separated." - St John Vianney
"His union with those whom He loves
surpasses every union
of which one might conceive, and
cannot be compared with any model.
Therefore even Scripture needed many illustrations to be able
to express that connection, since one would not suffice.
In one place it employs the figures of an inhabitant and a dwelling,
in another those of a vine and branch, here that of a marriage,
there that of members and a head.
None of those figures is adequate for that union, for it is
impossible from these to attain to the exact truth. Above all
it is necessary that the union should conform to friendship -
yet what could be adequate for divine love?
...So I come to that which is strangest. To whom else could one
be more closely united than to oneself? Yet this very unity is inferior
to that union. For each of the spirits of the blessed ones is identical
with himself, yet it is united to the Saviour more than to him.
It loves the Saviour more than itself."
Nicholas Cabasilas (+ 1392)
Greek monk, mystic, bishop
Jesus, you sent your servants out to gather us for your feast in the Kingdom of heaven...'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled,
the blind and the lame.' Yes, Lord, I am weak and crippled and bind and lame and I am nothing without YOU! May I follow after you carrying/dragging my Most Cherished Cross and finding LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! I long to be always with you and leave the darkness of sin and death behind. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
