When he seems distant and blurry, it’s not about him, but me. Time for a vision adjustment.
Jesus
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Category Archives: Faith
Flowers and Prayers
Today was the birthday of two very important people to us: my son Cody, who was stillborn 12 years ago, and Kevin’s grandfather, Lawrence Simpson, who died in 1991.
In memory, we spent a while this evening at the two separate cemeteries, on opposite ends of the city, sharing flowers and memories and prayers.
A Journey of Faith
Last year sometime, we got a DVD in the mail from the monks at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa. It shows them going through their days: praying, singing, and working. “Ora et Labora” is one of their mottos: Pray and work.
We have no idea why we were sent this. We probably got on their mailing list through another Catholic organization we support or something. And they were probably hoping to elicit a donation from us.
Frankly, I thought the video was a little boring, although it was interesting in its way. Kevin, on the other hand, was fascinated by it. He watched it over and over, usually while he was doing other things.
Fast forward to February of this year, Friday the 18th to be exact (according to Kevin).
For a couple of months around that time, there was a table in the commons of our church with used religious items and a box for donations. Kevin saw a Benedictine medal on the table. Two inches in diameter, the medal is pretty heavy and made of some kind of metal. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Benedictine sisters’ coming to America.
He paid a dollar for it, but that medal has become immeasurably valuable to him.
That very day, he put it on a chain and started wearing it, and it inspired him to research all of the inscriptions on it, which led him to research the Benedictine order.
Then, on July 3, our new priest Father Tony blessed the medal, and he’s worn it ever since.
At that point, Kevin says he began to officially live his life as a spiritual Benedictine oblate.
The word oblate means “to offer.” An oblate in the Benedictine order is a lay person, meaning someone out “in the world” as opposed to in a monastery, who follows the Rule of St. Benedict, while possibly also being fathers and husbands (or mothers and wives, since women can be oblates, as well).
On July 15, Kevin emailed Father Joseph Mary Lukyamuzi, director of oblate formation at Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, who encouraged him to continue on his path, offering his assistance along the way.
And then, today, Kevin’s journey came full-circle: The Clear Creek Abbey rosary we ordered earlier this week came in the mail.
All that time Kevin watched the Clear Creek video, he didn’t realize that the monks he was watching were Benedictine monks. At that time, he hadn’t studied anything about the Benedictines (or any of the many orders), and the video doesn’t spend a lot of time on the distinction. It wasn’t until he’d begun researching the order that it hit him.
God does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? 🙂
‘If I Could Be President’
“Mommy, if I could be president, I would make it a law that nobody could kill any more babies.”
~Lucas Dalton, age 7
Prayin’ and Drawin’
Bible School Day Camp
It’s Pandamania!
The boys had an awesome time! They were all, “Do we get to go back tomorrow?”
Thanks to Amanda Esparza and the rest of the volunteers!
Jesus in Stained Glass
I’ve been wanting to get a good shot of this amazing stained glass window (at
Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Danville, Virginia) for a long time now, but usually there’s so much light that the entire image just washes away to white.
This day, though, I must’ve been there at the right time.
Even though the color’s still a little off and some detail is gone, especially at this size and DPI, at least you can see what it’s a picture of: Jesus with his Sacred Heart, surrounded by angels.
When I was about ten, I made a little mushroom sun catcher. It looks like stained glass, but is really plastic chips that melted in the oven. (I still have it in my “specials” box. :P)
Well, since then, I’ve been fascinated by stained glass. I hope one day I’ll get to learn how to do it for real.
Husk
It caught my eye as we were walking the other day.
A husk.
Kevin kicked it.
It was empty and brittle.
Yeah, I was a little grossed out.
It was pretty big, bigger than a quarter. A bug…
A shed skin.
Something crawled out of there.
And it made me think…
How often have I felt like that?
A shell of myself.
Numb.
All the color drained from my world.
It’s been a while,
but I have been a husk of myself before.
And most people probably didn’t even know.
Because I was smiling. And laughing. And singing.
As usual.
I was a great faker, the real me shrunk up so small inside.
So weak. So scared.
Maybe I needed to be there in order to get here.
Maybe I needed to experience the husk to appreciate the whole.
The Two Who Stayed
In the end, there were only two, his mother Mary and his apostle John.
Is it any wonder that Mary was assumed into Heaven and that John was the only apostle whose life didn’t end in tragedy?
All the other 12 apostles — with the exception of Judas, who committed suicide — were martyred for the faith.
[Taken today at Sacred Heart’s chapel. One of the 12 stations of the cross, it was handmade years ago and was in the old church building up on West Main Street.]
Sacred vs. Secular Music at Mass
We’re all for a return to Gregorian music (and the Kyrie and a lot of Latin)!!
“If there’s a soundtrack in Heaven, it’s Gregorian.”
-Kevin Hawke