Celebrating Daniel

On Saturday, April 22, 2023, my sweet godson Daniel Joseph celebrated his First Communion! 

I was not able to be at Daniel's baptism in 2014, so this was the first time I was present for one of his sacraments. 

My heart bursted with joy for my godson on his special day! 

It was a perfect day celebrating the Eucharist with family and friends! 

I am honored to be Daniel's godmother.

I am proud of the young man he is.

I am thankful for his beautiful family!

Daniel has a kind heart and I have no doubt God will do good things through him. 

Daniel enjoys playing baseball and likes hockey. He is also awesome at badminton! 

On our drive over to the First Communion we stopped at a gas station. 

I didn't see the curb walking into the gas station store and so I fell to the ground. 

I fell in slow motion hitting my left eye/cheek bone and skinned my right knee. 

I was embarrassed about falling and worried about being bruised for First Communion photos.

I could have easily broken a bone but like I said, I fell in slow motion as if someone was protecting me.

My dad saw me fall gracefully and said he thought it was an angel. 

No bruises, just a sore bone and knee. 

Angels protected me in that moment.   

Daniel's favorite saint is St. Michael the Archangel. 

I am asking St. Michael and all the angles to protect and guide you, Daniel Joseph. 

Fear not, beloved, you are safe; take courage and be strong. Daniel 10:19 

More

 "Life is not about doing and having. It's about becoming. Our obsession with doing and having has led us astray." From Matthew Kelly's Introduction to the 100th Anniversary Edition of Velveteen Rabbit 

We all desire more and not less. 

We think that in order to become more, we have to do more. 

Or we think we need more to become more. 

We think less of ourselves if we do not have or do more. 

Thankfully, God's definition of more is different from our own definitions. 

"Aspire not to have more, but to be more." St. Oscar Romero 

Life is about becoming the person God created you to be. 

Not less, more. 

More holy moments. 

What are holy moments? 

Moments we collaborate with God. 

He wants us to ask Him for more of His grace. 

We cannot become more without Him. 

 

Christ is Risen

Christ is Risen! 

Indeed, He is truly Risen! 

Happy Easter! 

We celebrated the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. 

It is a beautiful gift to witness the joy of those who enter into the Church at Easter. 

Through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist, faith is professed. 

Grace is received. 

Easter Joy bursts! 

My dear friend after making her profession of faith and receiving the sacraments of confirmation and holy communion said to me, "I am home." 

Pure Joy! 

The Holy Spirit outpoured the gift of Joy on the Church all over the world. 

"We are the Easter people and Hallelujah is our song!" St. Pope John Paul II 

I found this Easter Reflection and thought I would share. 

Eternal and Unconquerable Father 

The Beloved Disciple's faith in the Resurrection began in a tomb. A place of death became a witness to life. During a pilgrimage to the Holy Land I was privileged to pray inside Jesus' temporal tomb. What moved me was not a prayer I said, but a grace I was given. I had a visceral sense that I was kneeling in the epicenter of the Father's love, that place where the Father's love for the Son proved to be stronger than death. 

The Father's love is undying, unconquerable. He is not afraid to go to the deepest, darkest, coldest, loneliest place. He will go anywhere to find his sons and daughters and raise them to the life that his Only Begotten Son's obedient and sacrificial love has bequeathed to them. 

Have I emerged from Lent with healing of my sins? Have I invited the Father's love into the darkest depths of my heart and memory? Did my sacrifices enable me to hunger and begin to experience the love for which Christ is risen today and forever? So it is never too late. It is always and ever the season for the risen Lord to redeem us with the eternal love of the Father. 

Reflection based on John 20:1-9 

Father Richard Veras 

Eternal and Almighty Father, we thank you for never ceasing to reveal yourself through your Son, that his risen life may love and heal all your children and gather them to yourself. 

In the Tomb with Jesus 

Painting by Erin K. McAtee 

Our Joy is found in an empty tomb. 

Our joy is found in the Risen Lord. 

Our "home" is with Him. 

Alleluia! 

Faithfulness

The seventh Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness.

Peace be with you on this Holy Thursday.

On the night he was betrayed, the faithful departed. 

His life was handed over. 

The faith of his followers was shaken. 

Faith was hiding behind fear. 

His followers were no where to be found. 

All but one of the apostles remained faithful.

The rest abandoned him. 

They abandoned him on a tree to die.  

Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

"But "abandonment to God" is actually rejecting emptiness and choosing abundance!"  

Philippians 2:6-8

In Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

Jesus emptied himself for you and for me.

Jesus chose us.

He continues to choose us, even when we too abandon him.

Tonight we remember the night he gave the greatest gift of all. The Institution of the Eucharist.

The gift of his entire self in the Eucharist. 

His body and blood, soul and divinity.

He asks us to receive this priceless gift. 

And before he dies on the cross Jesus gives us another gift. 

"Jesus offered to the world from the Cross His Mother, the star to look for in the storm." Chiara Corbella Petrillo A Witness to Joy 

Mary, his mother and ours, is the greatest example of faithfulness there is.

She did not abandon her son and she will not abandon you.

She is with us at the cross. 

Painting by Erin McAtee 

Goodness

The sixth Fruit of the Spirit is Goodness.

"Whenever you are given a cross. be sure to embrace it with humility and gratitude. If God, in His infinite goodness, favors you with a cross of importance. be sure to thank him in a special way." St. Louis de Montfort

To be honest this quote is a hard one to share.

Maybe it's hard to share because I have not stopped and thanked Him for the cross he has given me.

If God is all good, why must we still carry our crosses?

Why would we thank God for the crosses given to us?

How can this be good?

These are questions I think most people wrestle with.

They are questions I am now pondering as I write this blog.

There is no perfect answer I can give you.

Goodness doesn't come from a God who wants us to suffer.

Goodness comes from a God who suffers with us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16

God's goodness comes from the cross.

"Crosses release us from this world, and by doing so, bind us to God." St. Charles de Foucauld

Jesus is not only saying, "Pick up your cross" but also cling to your cross.

Only good can come from it.

Thank you, Jesus, for this cross.

Kindness

The fifth Fruit of the Spirit is Kindness. 

Where was kindness when Jesus was betrayed? 

Where was kindness when he was handed over?

Where was kindness when Jesus stood bloody and broken before his own people? 

Jesus was mocked, scouraged, beaten and crucified. 

 Very few were kind and stood with him to the end. 

Kindness would not have been found, if it weren't for his mother, the women and the apostle John.  

Their kindness may not have prevented his suffering and death but their kindness consoled his thirsting heart. 

This holy week is an opportunity to be kind. 

Do something kind for someone today. 

Say something kind tomorrow. 

 "No one can ever excel in great things who first doesn't excel in small." St. Francis Xavier  

Love is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4

"I praise and exalt your name forever, for the kind glance you mercifully cast upon blessed Peter, so that when the cock crowed the second time, he immediately acknowledged his guilt, and without wasting time he left the company of wicked men and with much sorrow of heart he wept bitterly for denying you." Thomas Kempis 

Image by Adam Nemeroff 

Patience

The fourth Fruit of the Spirit is patience. 

I ask for the fruit of patience as we enter into holy week. 

I do not want to rush through this holy week before Easter. 

I pray to patiently walk these holy days with Jesus.

I must remind myself that Easter joy comes from Him alone. 

"He never tires of knocking at the door of our hearts. Nor does he tire of waiting for us to open to him, because he loves us." Blessed Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

Jesus is patiently waiting for us to give Him our hearts.

We cannot have the Resurrection without His suffering and death. 

 "The entire experience of Lent is leading us to the Cross, where Jesus will show us the full extent of his pursuit of us. Be not afraid. Jesus is pursuing you. Stop. Slow down. Be still. Let him find you. He is pursuing you." Ascension Lent Companion Year A  - A Personal Encounter with the Power of the Gospel 

Be patient.