Sunday Sermon:) Family

“Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. Take time with them, teach them to have faith in God. Be a person in whom they can have faith. When you are old, nothing else you’ve done will have mattered as much.” 
― Lisa Wingate

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Today, we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family. The Gospel from Luke was about Jesus remaining behind in the temple during the family pilgrimage to Jerusalem when he was twelves years old, and Mary and Joseph were distraught looking for him. 

Father noted that even Jesus was taught to pray and show respect by his parents, and that it is the responsibility of parents to teach their children by example. Father also mentioned that families are in jeopardy in today’s society by many outside influences.

My take on it…love your children, teach them the importance of faith, family, honesty, and love, but these can only be taught by example. A book, not even “The Good Book” can teach these values without a teacher, a role model. 

  
I am very proud of my children. My sons have grown to be caring, honest, loyal young men. Best of all… They love their mamma. They treat me with such tenderness and respect, and for that I am truly thankful and feel very blessed. Not to be boastful, but I do believe that they learned by example and they saw how much I loved them and how I loved and treated others. They saw my strong faith and loyalty and family values. (Thank God they learned from their mother.) 

Matt has been here with me for Christmas and we have been having a great time. After Mass, I stopped at Sprouts for a few things. Matt made us a light breakfast of avocado toast with cucumber, (vegetarian)  then we went to see the movie, “The Big Short.” Interesting movie about the big stock market crash of ’08. 

We also stopped at Home Depot where Matt bought me a little tree that I can plant in my tiny naked back yard.

  
He has a lot of work to do for the office while he is “supposedly” on vacation, so in between working on projects that need to get done before he goes back to Chicago, we’ve been doing fun things together. (At least fun for me.) Matt and I went to dinner at Harry’s on the Harbor in Stonebridge tonight. Having a designated driver is fun. I had a Bellini with my chicken fried steak. Oh my! It was delicious.

  
 
So, in honor of the Feast of the Holy Family, I feel very blessed to have a such a wonderful family. 

 “Your children are the greatest gift that God will give you.” Can I hear an “Amen?”

Sunday Sermon and Special Friendships

“Kid’s don’t care how many sermons you preach to them. The only sermon they’ll hear is how you live your life in front of them.”
― Bruce Van Horn
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Today at Mass, we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family. Father shared his thoughts about the importance of family, even cracking a few jokes about, “It’s nice when relatives come to visit, and even nicer when they leave.” I’ll admit that I wasn’t really paying much attention to his words, but rather, I was looking around at the families gathered to worship on a Sunday morning. There was a baptism of a baby boy during mass. The entire congregation was able to be part of the celebration, welcoming a child into the fold. I think that faith, love, tradition, and teaching our children by example are the reasons families stay strong. It was a lovely service.

Another belief I have is that family doesn’t always mean just blood relatives. A family can be the people in your life who are special to you, who you care about, and those who care about you. (HA! While I was writing this blog, I received a phone call from both my sons back in Chicago, just minutes apart. Must be a maternal ESP thing.) Anyway, as I was saying, I’ve become very close to many friends who have graced my path. They truly have become part of my family, part of my life. I am very lucky and very blessed.

The Holy Family. Every family is special in its own way.

Sunday has always been a special day for me, and today started out with church, visiting with a special friend, and a leisurely brunch at our mutual “happy place,” Snug on the Square. Later, calls from my boys, calls to friends and family, and mindless television viewing with a cup of tea. That was my Sunday. Sounds pretty good!

My good friend Chris and I had a lovely brunch at Snug. See, it even says “bee happy, ” right behind us. Orders are orders.