aeternus

If you happen to be a reader of this lowly little blog you might already know I have a special place in my heart for things Polish.  This goes back to my early childhood when I remember my Grandfather and his mother chattering away all day in the Polish language.  Their chats were most animated but I recall being a little bit afraid of my Great Grandmother, Bertha, because she never could talk to me in English.  I think she would get a little frustrated with me when I did not understand her words and perhaps that caused this little fear.  Ah well, I was only a toddler.  I pray to her now sometimes in my heart and I look forward to knowing her better one day!

So, having a love of my Polish heritage (which being an American also means that I have a broader heritage which extends to an Irish, Austrian and Hungarian family tree), I was excited to learn there was a special Polish mass being celebrated today in St. Louis.  To honor their Parish’s Patron Saint, the faithful at St. Agatha’s church celebrated mass attended by our own Bishop Robert Hermann and special guest, Bishop Zygmunt Zimowski of the Diocese of Radom in Poland.  Bishop Zimowski is the “pastoral guardian for Poles living abroad.”

I brought my son along to the celebration so he could experience some “Polish in America” and learn a little about his own heritage (which we have abbreviated to be simply “American-Australian” because his father is from Australia and it is getting a little confusing in our family after so many generations of immigrants both ancient and new!)

St. Agatha’s church is located directly South of a mighty big St. Louis landmark — the Anheuser-Busch Brewery (where they make Budweiser beer).  In fact, as soon as we got within a few miles of the church we new we were close because you can smell that beer cooking all throughout the city!  Depending on ones nasal ability, that may either make you a happy or unhappy breather of the St. Louis city air!  The church of St. Agatha is a beauty of a building.  The tall spire is one which decorates the South City skyline and its inside is adorned with the most beautiful vaulted ceiling worthy of hours of gazing.  The parish used to be attended by the local Latin mass souls but they moved over to St. Francis de Sales a few years back and the faithful Polish souls moved in.

St. Agatha was born and died a martyr in Sicily, Italy.  There is not much factual evidence recorded about her life though legend tells of her heroic death through an angry suitor who wanted the chaste maiden for his bride.  When she refused to be married to him or to anyone (for she had given herself only to Jesus) the young man (having great political connections) had her arrested and she was tortured and killed.  Rather than renounce her Lord she cried,  “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.”

The mass to celebrated this heroic Virgin Saint was just beautiful and I appreciated so very much hearing the prayers in Polish.  I must admit to spending much of the mass time listening for the few Polish words and phrases which still are somehow embedded in my small brain.  I was happy whenever I heard Święta (holy) or  BOŻE (God) or even W imię  Ojca i Syna i Ducha Świętego (the sign of the cross).  I felt like my Grandfather was with me and my soul was peaceful.  In fact, the church even smelled like my Grandfather (though I am hoping that had nothing to do with the boiling malt smell from the brewery!)

As the mass was beautiful so were the parishioners. They were so very, very happy and welcoming.  I did not know anyone there and yet I must have been hugged about a dozen or more times!  (And, I might add, they were not “whimpy hugs” they were like “bear hugs”!) Truly, it was intoxicating!  Even my son remarked just how happy everyone was and how this made him kinda giddy too!  There was a brief time when the mood changed somewhat. It came when the Bishop from Poland spoke in his homily a bit about a certain sad problem we have had in St. Louis with another Polish parish in the city.  Bishop Zimowski was genuinely concerned as a Shepherd of his fellow Polish souls and was adamant about reconciliation and resolution to this “problem”.  His prayerful call for unity was well understood by all in attendance.  He thanked Bishop Hermann for his loving leadership in St. Louis and Bishop Hermann commented as to being quite impressed by his brother Bishop’s kindness and wisdom.  He said, “From the bottom of my heart I am so grateful for the celebration of this Eucharist.  It is the Eucharist that makes us one!”  The parish priest, Reverend Czeslaw Litak, said there was great thanksgiving for this day for the faithful Polish people of the parish.  May God be praised for bringing us all together for this Eucharist. Amen!

The mass was ended with a most beautiful benediction and procession around the church.  The light playing off the monstrance and Sacred Host was truly captivating to a soul.  How beautiful is our Lord who humbles Himself under the guise of so perfect and simple a form of purity.  The elegance of a white round host of bread transformed into our Eternal Lord who sacrifices Himself each day anew in the thousands and thousands of masses said throughout the world! Amazing!!!

After mass the faithful were treated to a star studded performance from two angelic voices from the Warsaw Opera Theatre.  Ryszard Wróblewski (the tenor) and Edyta Ciechomska-Bilska (soprano) were absolutely wonderful and their song pierced the heart through their obvious love of not only operatic but sacred music as well.  The Polish faithful were treated to many beautiful songs and also to some very beautiful hymns. It seemed everyone sung along to the last one as many embraced eachother and swayed to the melodic rhythm. I’m not sure what the name of the final piece was but I am sure it was a hymn to honor our Blessed Mother. I believe I may have even seen the Bishop sway a bit in happiness during this number!

Not to go unnoticed in the performance however, was Christopher Tomoszecuski.  This brilliant man provided the instrumental accompaniment to the feastivities.  While I am sure everyone in attendance thought there was a full orchestra in the choir loft, it was just one man!  Truly, he was astonishing.  He was a virtuoso on the organ which he managed to provoke into sounding like not just a keyboard but a string section as well!   I don’t know how, but he managed to play both the organ AND a trumpet at the same time!  Honestly, I think he must be part octopus to be able to accomplish such an amazing feat of musical ingenuity!!  I told him afterward how amazed I was.  He only said that the organ was his “hobby” and he was a trumpet musician only!  Now that is a humble man!

Before I stop typing, I’d like to mention my absolute favorite part of the day.  It came when Bishop Zimowski  was walking down the aisle after mass.  As a generous man, He stopped to greet some of the faithful.  As he walked up to me I shook his hand.  In my best Polish accent I said to him, “Szczęść Boże”.  Smiling broadly back to me, not even realizing (or at least in kindness not even showing) that I was indeed totally butchering his language, he replied “Szczęść Boże”.  My heart jumped out of my chest with happiness and I will never forget that this man gave me such a holy and generous blessing.  I am hopeful my Polish family in heaven was happy too!

May Jesus Christ be Praised – Now and Forever!

p.s.  I hope you enjoy the photos from the day.  I certainly enjoyed taking them.

Happy Feast of St. John Bosco! I thought I would share two wonderful and very wise little quotes of his…

“ Love the Church, revere the Holy Father, receive the sacraments often, frequently visit  Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, be very devout to the Blessed Virgin, offer Her your  heart, and you will be able to overcome all battles and allurements. When it is a question of doing good and rejecting or combating error, trust in Jesus and Mary, and you will be ready to tread human respect underfoot and even suffer martyrdom.”

“Were it not for the Blessed Virgin and the Blessed Sacrament, the world would now be in ruins. Those who want to work in the light – that is, along the way to heaven – must draw closer to these two sources of light, or at least one of them. Those who walk away from them move in darkness and in the shadow of death. (Luke 1:79) “

“BESIDES your systematic meditation and your other vocal prayers, there are five shorter kinds of prayer, which are as aids and assistants to the great devotion, and foremost among these is your morning prayer, as a general preparation for all the day’s work. It should be made in this wise.

1. Thank God, and adore Him for His Grace which has kept you safely through the night, and if in anything you have offended against Him, ask forgiveness.

2. Call to mind that the day now beginning is given you in order that you may work for Eternity, and make a stedfast resolution to use this day for that end.

3. Consider beforehand what occupations, duties and occasions are likely this day to enable you to serve God; what temptations to offend Him, either by vanity, anger, etc., may arise; and make a fervent resolution to use all means of serving Him and confirming your own piety; as also to avoid and resist whatever might hinder your salvation and God’s Glory. Nor is it enough to make such a resolution,—you must also prepare to carry it into effect. Thus, if you foresee having to meet some one who is hottempered and irritable, you must not merely resolve to guard your own temper, but you must consider by what gentle words to conciliate him. If you know you will see some sick person, consider how best to minister comfort to him, and so on.

4. Next, humble yourself before God, confessing that of yourself you could carry out nothing that you have planned, either in avoiding evil or seeking good. Then, so to say, take your heart in your hands, and offer it and all your good intentions to God’s Gracious Majesty, entreating Him to accept them, and strengthen you in His Service, which you may do in some such words as these: “Lord, I lay before Thee my weak heart, which Thou dost fill with good desires. Thou knowest that I am unable to bring the same to good effect, unless Thou dost bless and prosper them, and therefore, O Loving Father, I entreat of Thee to help me by the Merits and Passion of Thy Dear Son, to Whose Honour I would devote this day and my whole life.”

All these acts should be made briefly and heartily, before you leave your room if possible, so that all the coming work of the day may be prospered with God’s blessing; but anyhow, my daughter, I entreat you never to omit them.”

– St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

“God alone is he, who, by his infinite wisdom, sees, knows and penetrates all the turnings and windings of our hearts: he understands our thoughts from afar, he finds out our traces, doubles and turnings; his knowledge therein is admirable, surpassing our capacity and reach. Certainly if our spirits would turn back upon themselves by reflections, and by reconsiderations of their acts, we should enter into labyrinths from which we should find no outgate…

And if prayer be a colloquy, a discourse or a conversation of the soul with God, by it then we speak to God, and he again speaks to us; we aspire to him and breathe in him, and he reciprocally inspires us and breathes upon us…

Prayer and mystical theology is nothing else but a conversation in which the soul amorously entertains herself with God concerning his most amiable goodness, to unite and join herself thereto. Prayer is a manna, for the infinity of delicious tastes and precious sweetnesses which it gives to such as use it, but it is hidden, because it falls before the light of any science, in the mental solitude where the soul alone treats with her God alone. Who is she, might one say of her, that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?

…Love speaks not only by the tongue, but by the eyes, by sighs, and play of features; yea, silence and dumbness are words for it.

Truly the chief exercise in mystical theology is to speak to God and to hear God speak in the bottom of the heart; and because this discourse passes in most secret aspirations and inspirations, we term it a silent conversing. Eyes speak to eyes, and heart to heart, and none understand what passes save the sacred lovers who speak.”

–This is an edited version of St. Francis de Sales chapter “A Description of Mystical Theology” from Treatise on the Love of God.

– The photos above are from our “snow day” yesterday.  I took the children to the biggest hill in St. Louis (at the St. Louis Art Museum in Forrest Park)  You can see that we were not the only ones there!

“I KNOW full well that we have within ourselves certain signs of our predestination, nevertheless they are but conjectures which tend to strengthen our hope, but do not entirely dissipate the just fears which God wills that we should have, when we think of His impenetrable judgments. No one, says St. Gregory, so long as he remains on earth, can positively know what is decreed in heaven as to his predestination, or as to his eternal loss. This is the sad condition in which we live here below; we are certain of soon finishing our career in this place of exile, without really knowing, if we shall ever see our own true country.

We must not lose sight of this tuition if we wish to prevent faults, into which we are sure to fall, without that. Our dear Lady of Mount Carmel has placed no limits to our hope in becoming her children ; the promise she has made of protecting us is not limited by any condition; she has engaged that she will not suffer us to be unhappy for all eternity, that is to say, she gives us every hope of our salvation that we can possibly have in this life ; she promises by that, that if we persevere in her service we shall infallibly persevere in grace.

But what do you say of so magnificent a promise ? Has the Blessed Virgin explained it to your satisfaction, or do you cherish some scruple ? When, to calm the anxiety which the uncertainty of your salvation causes you, you would have dictated to our Blessed Lady the promises she has made, could you have chosen more formal promises?

The holy Fathers, when they have spoken in general terms of the power of the Blessed Virgin, have made use of expressions quite as strong and quite as favourable. St. Bonaventure does not give any other limit to the power of Mary, than to the almighty power of God. St. Antoninus assures us that God does not make a favour when He listens to her prayers, but He grants them as an indispensable duty, and that she would not know what it is to be refused. St. Anselm asserts that a true servant of Mary cannot be lost.

Here you have opinions sufficiently capable of inducing you to place entire confidence in the Mother of Mercy; but however learned and holy these men may have been who have given us these splendid testimonials, they fall short of the promises our Blessed Lady made to St. Simon Stock, and of these I am about to speak.

They teach me that I have nothing to fear if the Blessed Virgin takes an interest in me, but that is not sufficient to appease my uneasiness ; I wish to know if she does so really.

She gives me her manifest and visible proofs. It depends upon myself to take it in its right sense. She has attached to this scapular her protection, for she says, “He who is clothed with this habit shall not endure everlasting fire.”

I am not, then, astonished that at the first report of so magnificent a promise, Christians from all parts flocked to the holy community of Mount Carmel, to whom she had intrusted so precious a treasure.

Noblemen, princes, kings even, who have as much to fear for their salvation as the commonest of men, eagerly desired to participate in the privileges of these holy religious — they whose grandeurs exposed them daily to so many dangers.”

– by Saint Claude De La COLOMBIERE, S.J

Taken from: Half-hours with the saints and servants of God
Compiled By Charles Kenny
Burnes and Oates 1882

I really miss my old routine.  It used to be that I would drive the “mom bus” to pick up children from school a little earlier than their 3:15 pick up.  I would give myself an extra 30 minutes to read from one of my most FAVORITE books (St. Fautsina’s Diary) and then I would recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and then give my little ones a happy welcome from their day at school.  Oh, this was a joy…

So, this year, with a different schedule I am missing my time with Faustina.  I just opened by chance a page and loved this little quotation.  She struggled so incredibly in all aspects of her life.  One day it is physical, the other mental and spiritual.  (In fact, spiritual battles can (and most often) often occur not just from outside forces but from within our own weak and feeble minds!) I appreciated reading her struggle on this particular day of her life.  I thought I would share it.  I hope it makes me find more time to read her diary again.  Oh, it does wonders for the soul…

“J.M.J
Cracow, August 10, 1937
Notebook Four

All for You, Jesus, I desire to adore Your mercy with every beat of my heart and, to the extent that I am able, to encourage souls to trust in that mercy, as You yourself have commanded me, O Lord.

In my heart, in my soul, there is a dark night. My spirit has come up against an impenetrable wall that hides God from me. But this darkness is not of my doing. Strange indeed is this torture of which I fear to write in full. But even in this state, I am trying to be faithful to You, O my Jesus. Always and in all things, my heart beats for You alone.”

(photo above near Center Valley, Pa)

A prayer I came across and now share…

O St. Joseph whose protection is so great,
so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God,
I place in you all my interests and desires.

O St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession
and obtain for me from your Divine Son
all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord;
so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power
I may offer my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers.

O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms.
I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.
Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me,
and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for us.

Amen

- Photo near Center Valley, PA on the way to the Carmelite Monastery in a December fog.

As we were away from St. Louis during Christmas I was not aware of a little story done on the Benedictine Community at St. Louis Abbey which was to show the quiet of prayer during this holy season. 

My son has been attending The Priory run by these fine Benedictines this year.  I thought I might write a bit about them and the school…

It has been such a BIG change for my son this school year for it is a rigorous schedule the boys maintain and from day one these young fellows are thrown (as it seems) into the deep.  The challenge comes not only from academics but from formation and initiation into a world of mature intellectual thought and behavior.  For some of the boys, like my son, they are still so young and so this challenge is quite difficult.  It is not easy on mothers I may add.  My heart hurts for him sometimes when I see him struggling so hard.  I try to be strong for him so he will grow strong and stay brave but it is difficult for me!  I must say that I am so proud of him for he met this challenge with determination of spirit and great courage of heart.  For example, I would like to share this little miracle.  It demonstrates God’s Fatherly help…

One of the biggest changes this academic year is the introduction into the daunting challenge of learning Latin.  Anyone who has ever attempted to cogitate this language knows the demands it places upon one’s intellect.  As I said, the school practices the philosophy of sink or swim and so from day one they were jumping off the high dive!  My son did pretty well for a couple of weeks and then BOOM – he might as well been trying to learn Swahili or Russian or Chinese.  Nothing made sense and grades plummeted to an all time low.  He was distraught because he was so very excited to actually study Latin this year.  He had been looking forward to it and was determined to make it something he would master.

As his hopes were being dashed and poor Mother and Father (who have no formal training in this language) were of little help, the aid of a tutor was enlisted.  The tutor, by the way, was Dad’s idea I had another…

I had been going to mass at the parish which is on the Abbey grounds and run by the Benedictine community since the beginning of the school term.  This was a big change to my early morning routine.  I was not sure I would be happy missing mass at the Carmelite Monastery but I chose to trust in Divine Providence.  The morning mass at the Abbey is at a suitable time and the actual church is quite and interesting one.  It is built in the round and looks quite different than your typical modern Catholic Church. (see my photo above).

The morning mass here (called St. Anselm’s) would have been o.k. for me to attend.  However, after a couple of weeks,  I found there is yet another mass said at the Abbey.  It is held at the same time as the other but in a different chapel.  The mass is offered at what is called the Oratory of Sts. Gregory and Augustine.   It is a newly instituted Oratory and because they have not yet established a proper church, for the time being masses are prayed in the lower level of  the Parish Hall.  What is different about this mass is that it is offered in the Traditional Latin form.

Our dear Archbishop Emeritus Raymond Burke was devoted to this form of mass and with his help and leadership it has enjoyed a great and enthusiastic welcome from many of the faithful in St. Louis.  Before attending this daily Latin mass, I had only been to a handful offered in Latin before.  While I enjoyed them, I admit to feeling a bit “lost” in my physical participation.  It is not any real fault that I was lost, I was just never educated to know this mass.  (This may give some clue as to my age — shhh!)   My soul, however, needed no manual to understand that my job as the faithful was to be united in to the mass in a contemplative way.  Somehow not having to verbally respond to every prayer allows one mind to think ever deeper into what is being celebrated. Besides, even with the eyes closed ones ears may yet hear that it is time to sit, kneel or stand and so this mass can be experienced in a new and different way.

My heart was intrigued enough to persist in attending this daily Latin mass (which I found did not take 2 hours to celebrate) and I hoped my mind would catch up with my soul in learning the prayers in a decent amount of time.  In their translation I have discovered that the Latin Mass prayers are so amazingly beautiful and I feel it is a bit sad we no longer use them.  The beauty of the prayer encouraged me to continue and after a few months I am finding it easier to follow along in the missal.  The mass is prayed in a style which encourages the faithful to prayerfully respond with the Altar Server and that, I believe, is a very nice practice for those who need to feel a stronger verbal participation necessary.  You can follow along with the Latin texts (if you are good with your missal) or you can read along with the translations.  Or, better yet, you can just open your heart and know you are with Christ witnessing His most redemptive act of infinite mercy and love.

So, anyway, back to the story… remember, my son is still struggling with his own “Latin issues”!

To help our son, my husband prescribes a tutor.  They will meet for 30 minutes before school twice a week.  However, I prescribe an alternative approach – prayer.

I told my son, who was next to tears at his failing grade, that I had a great and perfect plan to get him back on track and to become a skilled pupil of Latin by the end of the semester.  He looked at me quizzically but hopefully.  His little eyes desperate for the help of a Mother.  On Thursdays the boys start school late so the Monks and teachers can have their weekly meetings.  Knowing this I said, “how about starting on Thursday we go to school at the regular time (when the rest of your classmates are still sleeping) and attend the Latin Mass together.  We will offer a novena of 9 masses (9 Thursdays) for the intention of learning Latin to please our Heavenly Father and we will also ask our Blessed Mother to help you in class.  I am SURE that by the end of the Novena you will be an example Latin Scholarship!”

Now, you might think that any boy would say, “Mom, are you crazy?!!  Get up early on my day to sleep a little extra!  Mass in Latin are you nuts?!”  But I say to you, this boy was so enthusiastic and his trusting faith so immediate that it would warm your heart.  The next Thursday we were up and out the door before the dawn…

So, for 9 weeks he studied and for 9 weeks he prayed.

A surprise came concluding the 9th mass.  Father asked if my son would serve the mass for him the following week.  (That was a happy shocker!)  Also, on the 9th week he brought home his first 100% grade in Latin.  And, not too surprisingly he now has an A- average.

Please draw your own conclusions…

p.s.  Please don’t forget to have a look at the short little multi-media presentation on the Monks at the Abbey.  I thought it was not half bad…

I am afraid to admit that this morning was a little more hectic than prayerful.  My husband had to leave for the airport at 5:30 a.m. and when I went downstairs and out the door I was greeted with an unexpected covering of sheet ice.  It was not thick ice, it was the black ice, the kind you can’t see.  My wise husband knowing my clumsiness forbade me to go outside.  However, ever determined to prove him wrong I penguin-walked down our steep driveway (living on a hill poses its challenges but how thankful I am for a hill here in the flat Midwest!).  At the bottom of the drive, despite my cautious efforts, I lost my legs and went square down on my most “padded side”.  Ouch!  Guess Himself was right again!   But this is really not the cause of my distress, let me continue…

After mass I was taking the children to their respective schools and we were listening to the traffic report to help minimize further black ice stress levels.  After the traffic report a commentator (The Osgood Files reporter) was giving his thoughts on Scientology and its “weird” (his words) ways.  Apparently there is some Hollywood star he was making fun of who is a Scientologist and he was really beating up on their beliefs as he chuckled about not using medicine and aliens and other such stuff.  I really don’t know enough about Scientology to make any comment myself.

As this annotator continued to rant and rave about the weirdness of Scientology.  He said, “Scientology is a cult that sucks in gullible people, and is just plain weird.  Granted, it does seem pretty weird — especially the interplanetary beings and strange machines — and it probably sucks in gullible people. ”   

He then says: “But you can parachute into any religion you’re not familiar with, and find all sorts of stuff that could be considered equally weird and could also suck in the gullible: …Mummified bodies, people praying before fragments of saints’ bones, the laying on of hands, the drinking of blood — although it does taste a lot like wine”

He continues to joke about the afterlife and saying:

“It all gets weird — because it’s about the fear of death, and no one’s come back yet to tell us who’s right.  Well, Christians do claim one person did, but that was under pretty strange circumstances, too.”

I had to clench the wheel of the car and concentrate really hard on my task of driving because my ire was stirred up!  Those statements, while obviously bigoted and discriminatory, are more than just some snide comment.  These words were chosen carefully and were meant to harm and offend all Christians and especially Catholics.  These words are so far past the line of fair comment that I can not believe they were spoken on the radio.  Perhaps I am just too naive and out of the “loop” of what is considered fair game for slander and ridicule in our society but I am certainly a bit nettled!  You just don’t joke about my Lord and the Holy Eucharist.  This is our sacred and cherished belief and it is not a subject open for badinage or indeed vicious mockery.  This really is a subject out of bounds!  What happened to common decency?  I think perhaps today decency is much more un-common…

I have visited the Charles Osgood website where transcripts and MP3 podcasts of the Files pithy comments on contemporary news issues can be found.  You can listen and read for yourself his commentary today.

I pray for the conversion of our culture but I believe the persecution of our faith will continue and every day we must take the advice of St. Paul to suit up in our Christian armor as he said:

“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.

Therefore, take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and to stand in all things perfect.”

And also Paul tells us not to loose hope in the battle:

“But let us, who are of the day, be sober, having on the breast plate of faith and charity and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

Truly Paul tells us that prayer is the key to battling this enemy.  Let us know how important this job of prayer is as we trust in Him who saves all through His infinite mercy.  I am also reminded of Pope John Paul II’s words to overcome evil with good.  He says, “At its deepest level, evil is a tragic rejection of the demands of love.   Moral good, on the other hand, is born of love, shows itself as love and is directed towards love.”  Let us then love and defeat those who mock our faith with love and the certainty of truth which is found in the fountainhead of that love, our Heavenly Father who loves all of his children.

“How great is the abundance of the delights that he conceals from those who fear him but prepares for those that hope in him! Until what is being prepared arrives, we can understand only in part.

Until this comes to pass, until he gives us the sight of what will completely satisfy us, until we drink our fill of him, the fountain of life — while we wander about, apart from him but strong in faith, while we hunger and thirst for justice, longing with a desire too deep for words for the beautiful vision of God, let us fervently and devotedly celebrate the anniversary of his birth in the form of a servant.”

– St. Augustine

I think this mornings words from St. Augustine are a great reflection for me as the trials of Christmas visiting have come to an end.  Thanks to all of you who sent their prayers for my dear Nana.  She had us pretty worried there for a few days, but she has overcome, yet again, another mortal battle.  The dear girl was awarded her birthday wish to go home to her own little house.  She was near giddy to be discharged from hospital for I think she was not sure she would celebrate her next year.

The most interesting fact of her trip to the hospital came one evening when I was sitting with her.  A nurse came in to draw some blood and for safety reasons asked Nana her name.  Then she was triple safety checking and asked her date of birth.  When Nana replied January 2, 1916 my ever quick math brain (insert laugh here) worked out something critical…  Nana was not going to be 95 on her birthday but only 92!  She has been either fibbing or forgetful or perhaps wishful about her actual age.  I eagerly burst forth with my discovery and she only laughed at me and said I was the one who always changed her age… perhaps she is right.  Her mind is certainly more clever and quick than my own…

(photo of the Holy Manger at the Carmel of the Little Flower)