It has been
such a beautiful week continuing old traditions and making new ones. This year I realized that I put a lot of
emphasis on Halloween and the Day of the Dead and kind of skim through All
Saints Day. I know it’s a day of
obligation so I attend Mass, but I don’t have a personal way of celebrating
that day. After doing some research I
got a few ideas from home schooling moms that I hope to implement in years to
come. On Tuesday, my nephew and I made a
banner to decorate our door during the month of November. It was really easy to make. I printed images of various saints to color,
then we glued the colored prints to rectangles of cardstock, connected them
with a ribbon and hung it up on my front door.
My nephew doesn’t find coloring very exciting now that he’s a little
older, so I bought small carrot cakes to coax him into participating- treats
not only work with animals (smile).
While we were working on the banner we had a really good discussion
about the saints. He hadn’t realized
that Saint Valentine, Saint Patrick and Saint Nicolas are Catholic saints and
he was extremely disappointed that I didn’t print out images of them to color. Afterward, I pulled a tray of puffy, mini,
carrot cakes (sorry we ate them before I could snap a picture) to which my
sister asked, “What are celebrating today?”
“You can
thank the saints,” I said, “It’s their feast day.”
Later, I
made my way to mass. I have a really bad
cold and I was so tired I was tempted to miss it, but am so glad I made the
effort. I went to a parish that I
normally don’t visit because it had a service at an hour that worked with my
schedule. It was a bilingual service and
the priest that celebrated spoke the best Spanish I have ever heard a
Vietnamese person speak. He had no
accent and I was able to understand him perfectly – I wondered if he has lived
in Latin America? I was so delighted by
the sound of his perfect Spanish and enjoying the service so much with its
great music selections; then I got to hear the Sermon on the Mount proclaimed
(in perfect Spanish)! This Gospel
reading and I have a beautiful history (SMILE).
An aside:
During the week that followed my brother’s passing – as we organized the
funeral and burial, we were asked what we wanted the tombstone to say. My family who knows my passion for words
turned to me. I remember going into his
room with my bible in hand and asking God to help me. I opened it to the Sermon on the Mount and
one of the verses just totally stood out from the rest and I knew I had found
the words. Thus, every time I hear this
gospel proclaimed (especially during Mass) I get such a happy feeling knowing
with certainty that my brother is with God.
Yesterday, Dollar visiting his uncle.
I was
thinking happy thoughts as the reading ended knowing that I was in the presence
of all the saints including my brother - when this perfect-Spanish-speaking
Father delivered one of the best homilies.
I can’t do it justice. I am not
sure if it was his jovial voice, his infectious energy, the personal testimony
he shared, but I left the service changed.
As I drove home, I couldn’t stop thinking of his homily of the joy I
felt in my heart because of what I had just experienced. He helped me understand the festivity that
gets sandwiched in between two more popular celebrations- in a way that I
hadn’t looked at it before. He helped my
definition of “church” expand and this expansion filled me with hope. I am part of this huge family that includes
those in this world, our dead and those in heaven and it expands over
time. We are ALL connected! I know this
is catechesis 101, but the way he explained it took this wisdom from my head to
my heart. It transformed the doctrine to
life. My little eureka lightbulb lit
brightly, this light illuminated me all the way home.
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