Tag Archives: Celebrate
Loved!
Today we celebrated Ash Wednesday at Presentation High School. To non-Catholics, this must be the weirdest cult practice that one has ever experienced! Being doused with ashes in the shape of a cross and being told to turn from sin and live the gospel. The scriptures proclaimed at Mass today told us that we are forgiven and loved and invited to be our best selves! These students certainly look happy, don’t they?
I’m so proud of my Catholic faith. It has really emerged as a positive force in this troubled world. Our Pope has taken great pains in living a simple life and rejecting the pomp and circumstances of Vatican City. We are encouraged, during the season of Lent- the forty days and nights before Easter- to do something positive in our lives rather than give something up.
Be kind. Serve the poor. Love your neighbor.
When I was in high school I practiced all the Catholic rituals without understanding them. These students are doing the same. They have no idea how this gospel message will come to nest in their souls and take fruit in their lives. God bless them! They are beautiful young women with the whole world at their feet.
I pray that they go forth and make a difference. That they love tenderly and serve with open hearts. That they become women of God with lives that impact others in a positive way.
I feel so blessed to be able to witness their transformation to womanhood and support them as they look forward to all of life’s blessings.
Amen
Remembering Mom
I love this picture of my mom holding my son Robert when he was 3 months old. That joy you see in her expression and the contentment in little Robert’s face says it all.
Dorothy, Dottie, Dot, Auntie Dot, Sittie, Mom… She answered to many names whenever and whomever called and needed her warmth and generous love, her comforting down home cooking or just her calm presence and her sensible outlook on life.
25 years ago today my mom left us for what we fantasize as a “better place”. 25 years ago her five sons sat around her bed in her home and waited with her for the angels to come. I got the call at 3am, having gone home to nurse a hungry baby- my mom would have wanted me to do that.
We celebrated her life with family and friends and of course plenty of food. She is the woman who taught me that food is love. And she would have wanted us to eat and laugh and take care of each other in our grief.
When she died she left such a palpable void in our lives and I would guess in almost every life she touched. I often wonder what we would have done together in the past 25 years if she were still here. Mother daughter things… shopping, pedicures, talking every day on the phone. What mistakes might I have avoided and which decisions would I have made differently under the auspices of her motherly wisdom? What kind of woman would I be today if I had had the benefit of her nurturing, her advice, and her confidence in me?
I can see her mushing over my grown sons, petting them and cooking for them and asking them questions that would be totally off limits for their mother to ask of course! And they would answer and tell her everything. Because she is their Sittie and they love her and she would be an integral part of their lives as she was for all 13 of her grandchildren. No words can express the sadness when I stop to think of how our lives would have been enriched by her unlimited and unconditional love for us.
Mom, we carry a torch for you. We embody all the wonderful things you taught us. Don’t fight with your siblings. Be honest on your tax returns. Love everyone and feed them if you have the opportunity.
We will, Mom, and we do. We do it with you in our hearts.