The Professor's First Communion Part 2

After the Mass, we had family back to the house.  Unfortunately, some were not able to make it due to illness and others were out of town, so it ended up being a small gathering.

The cake...

The Professor's Nana made him a bagful of stuff.  She typed up and framed his favorite scripture and his favorite Psalm.

I was looking around for cake ideas, and I came across a link to an Etsy shop that sells Lego Rosaries!  I *knew* he would love one, and I was right!!!!  He really looks forward to prayer-time now.

My favorite gift of all (even better than the reaction to the Rosary), was a spiritual bouquet my MIL gave him from her lay Carmelite community.  Those wonderful people have offered so many Masses, holy hours, Chaplets, Rosaries, etc I couldn't believe it.  When I asked her when all of these had started being offered, she said "about a month ago".  I was flabbergasted!  The conversion in his attitude and some things that had been happening around here that just stopped out of the clear blue was amazing.  It was an incredible witness to the power of prayer that continues to move me to this day.

It was such a blessed day.  It's wonderful to see the changes that have come to The Professor in just the short time since he began to receive Jesus.

The Professor's First Communion

In a beautiful Mass (what Mass isn't beautiful???) about 6 weeks ago The Professor received his First Communion. We've been rather busy since then, so I apologize for not getting pictures up sooner.


He's in the second row, second from the end. As you can see, the church (huge, BTW) was overpacked.  The pews were shoulder to shoulder with kids on laps.  People were standing two or three deep.  More were there for this than Midnight Mass or the Easter Vigil!


Just HAD to fix his jacket during the homily!!!!!!!!!!!


Second row, the one with the glasses :)


I believe the question was :Who wants to go to Heaven?




Not mine, but I thought this was funny.  Mom came chasing this kid down for across the church and the look says, "Awww, mom.  This is so not cool!" ha ha!


He's on the right.







These photos were all taken by the parish's photographer, so I hold no claim to them at all.

Maybe there's something to it...

The frequent reception of the Sacraments, I mean. I've managed recently to work in daily Mass three times a week in between dropping Velcro Boy off at school and the gym. Of course everything else is suffering, but I think that is necessary at this time.

But, I digress...

I made it to two (out of 3 ) Masses last week plus Reconciliation and I found the difference in myself to be amazing!  I was more patient and tolerant.  I recognized several occasions when I ordinarily would have lost my calm...but I didn't.  I felt less stressed too.

We've been to Mass twice this week so far (other than Sunday, of course), once as a family and once on my own and so far it's been a pretty OK week.  Of course there are a few more coming up too...

We might even get to an Extraordinary Form Mass for the Easter liturgy!  Let's pray Doodlebug naps Saturday (he's been dropping them lately :( and I'm soooo not ready for that) so we can let him skip nap on Sunday.

Desert Cactus story

As I mentioned earlier, my plant is still alive!  And it bloomed!  Pictures as promised...

This is a desert cactus...

It's not all prickly like most cacti, it's actually quite nice.

When the buds start, they look like this...

Hard to see, but they're the two tiny pink dots at the end of the leaf.

Bud gets bigger...

and bigger...

and bigger still...

Then....

it turns into this...

Isn't it magnificent?!?

There are several more buds on the plant already.  I wonder how long the blooms will last...

Thanks so much Tina!

His perfect timing

It really is.  Perfect.  Here we are, the second Sunday in Ordinary time, and several extrordinary things have already happened.  Of course we've all heard about the terrible earthquakes in Haiti.  Yes, quakes with an "s".  Once an aftershock reaches 5.0, it's considered another quake.  So many horrors that we don't have to deal with here even under similar situations.  So many dead.  So many dying.  So many injured, homeless, injured.  I heard a reference on the radio about how every building had been leveled; be it an office building, church, mansion or cardboard shanty.  God is the great equalizer.  It makes me think of the Magnificat: He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.  Well...He may not have lifted up the lowly, but He certainly brought down the mighty. 

I think He has given us this opportunity to take care of each other.  For each of us to come together as brothers and sisters.  To unite as one human family.  To do what ever He tells us to do.

Today's Liturgy of the Word spoke to me on so many levels today.  Oddly enough I was actually able to pay attention to it ;) 
Isaiah 62:1-5 about God's faithfulness.  He will not leave us alone.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 about the gifts of the Spirit and how each person has a different gift that comes from the same Spirit.  I had been wondering about my gifts lately.  More in another post.
Then of course the Gospel: John 2: 1-11 The Wedding Feast at Cana.  Mary's instructions to the servers: "do whatever He tells you".  How we all need to live that one simple message.  Do what He says to do.  So simple.  Yet, so hard.  We are called to help "the least of these".  Well, right now it's the people in Haiti.

Out of the mouth's of babes

Last Sunday as we're entering the pew for Mass, Doodlebug starts throwing a fit.  He's saying something and we're just not sure what it is.  Finally get him settled down and forget about it until after receiving Communion and returning to the pew.  As I'm in the process of getting back down on the kneeler (holding Doodlebug), he starts throwing another fit.  The whole 9 yards, crying, arching away from me, etc.  So, I finally get him to settle down and get him to tell me what's wrong.  And he says "cracker".  This doesn't make sense to me since he doesn't eat crackers during Mass (Goldfish, yes, crackers, no).  He continues trying to get away from me and is stretching over the pew (we're in the third row), repeating "cracker, cracker".  FINALLY I get it, he wants the Blessed Sacrament!!!  So, I explain to him that it is a very special cracker.  Jesus is in that cracker and he has to wait until he's older to get one of those special crackers.  This settles him down a bit.  Thinking about it later it dawns on me that every week (pretty much), for his entire life we've approached for Communion holding him in our arms.  We "get a cracker" and he doesn't get anything!  Poor kid.  Looking at it from his point of view, we're fairly selfish :)

Beautiful Compliment

Since becoming Catholic last year, I have felt strongly pulled to the more traditional practices of the Church. One of those being the wearing of a mantilla as a reminder that God is over us. I find it helps me to stay focused on the Liturgy as well as reminding me of God's presence (as if the great big Tabernacle doesn't ;)). One day a few weeks ago, as I'm entering the Church, the greater stopped me and told me "when you put your mantilla on, you look just like the Blessed Mother. You're beautiful." It was the first response I've had regarding the mantilla and it was one of the most touching things I've ever been told. It brought tears to my eyes.