Carry Your Cross

     Carry your cross today.  The Saints remind us, the only way to heaven is through the cross.  We must suffer, and learn to rejoice in that suffering.  This is such a hard concept if we are of this world and not Christ's.  (I struggle with this debate daily myself!)  So let us not be like the masses and flee our Lord in his time of need.  Let us take up our personal cross, and follow Christ in his way of the Cross.

PS  Please pray for the boys...we start carrying our cross today at 1155, St Brigid to Regina Caeli, Academy.

-ehw

The Cross and St. Joseph

     What can you learn from a man who says nothing in the entire Bible?  It turns out we can learn a great deal from his silent example and the symbols of his biblical and tradition based stories handed down from the Patriarchs.  For this reason he is a patron saint of my family and our little Blue Knight Evangelization club.

    St. Joseph was a carpenter, and it is this trade he passed down to his son.  Working with wood is one of the oldest traditions of mankind.  In the Garden of Eden we began this tradition of working with wood through the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.  Working with first gave us the fruit of unity with God, and the later one's fruit planted inside us the seeds of pride to create our fallen world.

    The Tree of Life required no pruning or sacrifice to care for it or provide for our souls.  Once the world fell though, God needed to send his son to set things aright.  The job required Jesus to use the materials, tools and symbols we humans could grasp.  As partakers of the Tree of Knowledge we humans always look for God to symbolize rewards for good behavior by showing us the "land of milk and honey." Overturning our fall from grace could not however come without sacrifice and correcting the pride from the fruits of Knowledge.

    So enter into this story a carpenter.  A man who sizes up a tree, cuts it down, cures it, and then crafts it with man made tools to provide necessities of life.  A carpenter will build tools, homes, carts, and hundreds of other items to ease our daily burdens to give us a better life.  Yes the carpenter kills a tree to provide us a better life.  It is the way of things in a fallen world.

    It was the carpenter St. Joseph who provided Jesus with the earthly skills and tool set to make the very cross he will carry to Calgary.  In the Jewish tradition it would be St. Joseph who introduced Jesus to earthly scripture (remember Jesus was there when they wrote it in the Trinity), apprenticed Jesus, brought up in the knowledge of Jewish ritual, taught Jesus the culture of the world he lived in when they went to market or met customers, and ensured Jesus had a sound domestic church with his wife Mary .  St. Joseph was responsible for introducing Christ to the complete earthly tool set needed to communicate with the world the message of salvation. 

    Being the faithful and obedient son, Christ learned his lessons well.  This is why Christ took the dead wood of the cross, a barren man formed tree as his greatest tool.  While the Romans saw it as a tool for a public belittlement of men to keep their earthly power over a population, Jesus had other ideas.  Jesus took the dead tree and used it to pass through to eternal life.  Through his death he obtained the glorification briefly glimpsed at the Transfiguration for all eternity.  In this act he corrected the error of Adam and Eve, and showed us our personal path to redemption.

    Through the works of a child, we get a glimpse of the qualities of the parents who raised them.  Although St. Joseph never said a word to us in the Bible, the impact he had a profound impact on the life of Jesus.  Looking for guidance in his example and patronage for our families can greatly advance our spiritual lives towards the Tree of Life.

-ehw

ANCIENT PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH

Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interest and desires.

Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him close in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for me. Amen.

Please visit The Catholic Company to see more about this prayer.

Be Not Afraid (of a Plus Size Family)

    Our current Western society praises itself on being rooted in control over nature through application of science and reason.  Nowhere is this more evident than through control and size of the family.  Embracing a large family is in fact the anti-thesis of control of nature.  Therefore any counter-cultural move away from strict family control sets off a firestorm of emotion, debate, and shunning to bring people back into the fold.

    The argument for a controlled size family is a logical outgrowth of the Enlightenment.  The penny sized description of this philosophy is:  If I can reason something out (logically order it through science) and I want to will it into being, the result I want to make can and should be as I want it to regardless of any historical or scientific obstacles.  While the goal of Enlightenment thinkers is good, to make the world a better place, it fails because it assumes all things are ordered according to a single person's will.  

    In a precisely ordered world replacement level children would not be bad...it would simply ensure a stable society with Mom and Dad being replaced by their little children.  It assumes there is no war, famine, enjoyment of bountiful years, divorce, recurrence of the Spanish Flu, accidents, control of passion by all people, natural spoiling of children, or change of political order.  When in history has this ever happened?  If I apply a scientific method to the review of history against any one of these factors, much less a combination of two, I can say never with confidence.

    A view of family across all traditional cultures shows having a large nuclear family is a reward and sign of prosperity.  Large families can take a loss, as tragic as it might be, and still survive to another generation.  Families with large families embrace passion and reap the rewards with a 99% stability rate (i.e. no divorce) when using Natural Family Planning.  In large families where parents have all the children help each other natural selflessness arises.  Even economic science shows growing populations increase GDP, while stable and declining populations result in a loss of economic power despite automation.

    Yet just saying have a large family is also a poor scientific argument as well.  Many large families fail because they may be open to life, but fail in another basic component of success.  One has to look into the why behind successful families everywhere, and its origins.  These reasons come from observations in natural law, not man's law.

    In Genesis we see man was not complete until he had a wife.  Together they were to be fruitful and multiply.  Proverbs tells us a man will have no fear to argue in the city gates when surrounded by his children.  Jesus tells men they must serve their families to the point of complete self sacrifice, and women must listen to their self sacrificing men.  (This addresses our greatest vices as men and women of power going to our heads, and sets the example for their children's future relationships) Time and time again we also read throughout the Bible we all must look for the Lord's direction, and build our world towards it.  Embracing these lessons points us towards successful family models.

    St John Paul II, in his masterful Theology of the Body, also reminds us men and women complete the other sex in marriage.  In the marital act we participate in renewing creation with God.  Acceptance and loving our resulting children then completes the family.  When viewed in its totality, this sets up an environment where family life can mimic the Biblical revelations of Natural Law.  This type of environment fosters good and minimize bad family effects we can see in the physical world around us, while moving from generation to generation.

    In the a few short words above I hope this lets you understand where I started on my journey towards embracing the title of this post: Be Not Afraid (of a Plus Sized Family) in today's world.  This decision does not come without challenges, doubts and trials.  It is emblematic of real life, needing a constant renewal.  Nothing worth doing ever came without cost...and never will.  So be not afraid to look at the reality of the world, and use its very nature to form a better future according to the will of God revealed through nature.  I promise the experience will really ENLIGHTEN you!

-ehw

P.S. Besides where would I get my cute photos of family life from without this many kids?

Earned not Given: Lesson for the 4th

    This year the capstone challenge of my boys Blue Knight year was the annual board of review at Regina Caeli Academy.  (The full story of the event itself is here BOARD OF REVIEW) For the weeks leading up to the board I reinforced to the boys and their parents their awards were earned not given by saying:"When your friends ask about your awards you will be able to tell them in Blue Knights everything is earned not given."

    This is a hard task we all must learn, and one fathers must teach repeatedly.  In my case I had one boy who was able to discuss each question for five minutes each in great detail.  The other son took a pretest in the kitchen as we cleaned up from dinner, and smugly thought his 80% was enough to stop studying....ah not in my house.  After a very serious discussion on how the name Wojtkun was the only thing I would ever give him, and how he was not going to drag it into the gutter he go serious.  So he was on cloud nine when he scored a 100% at the review, and earned the rank of Sergeant for next year the next week.

    So what does this have to do with the 4th of July?  Well everything.

    In 1776 our Continental Army was in the field for over a year, dying for American Independence. The men in Philadelphia used the words of Thomas Jefferson to define what we stood for as a nation, knowing by doing so they signed their own death warrant.  After years of fighting (remember the war went on past Yorktown in 1781) the Founders created a document forming a government which used checks and balances to keep the worst human failings in check.  

    Despite all the Founders did did generations ago, Benjamin Franklin responded prophetically to the question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got-a Republic or a Monarchy?" with "A Republic if you can keep it."  Dr. Franklin knew human nature, and knew the lessons in his generation could not be passed on through our DNA.  A republic could only be passed on through teaching each generation the cold hard facts of our history, human nature, and the balancing grace of applying natural law.  Even with lessons learned, each generation must still earn a republic through application of those lessons to the events of their times.

    In today's world we have a tendency to throw away the ideas of the past, thinking modern science can solve all problems.  The news reports today show the natural tendency for people to crave the warm security blanket of authoritarian rulers (if they agree with us).  These trends are disturbing, for they show people discarding the philosophical lessons (probably never learned and many times purposefully corrupted) of the founders.

   So today we must again decide if we want to continue earning our Republic, or throw it away and again come under authoritarian rule...from inside or outside our nation.  The threat is real, and only the willfully ignorant can't see it.  

   Time to go pray for our nation and its people...that the light of freedom ignite in our souls once more.

-ehw 

Good Friday Quest

   On Good Friday I put together a quest for our Blue Knights group.  We visited three churches from noon to two and found short lessons at each church related to the passion of our Lord.  We completed our Quest with a boy led Stations of the Cross in our home chapel of St Micheal the Archangel at Regina Caeli Academy.  You can view a complete report on our Blue Knight website.  

   The regular group of seven had six potential recruits and our teen mentor join us for a day.  During our travels we also met with three other families and five more children.  All total it was a joy to see nine families and nineteen children participate during the day.  It was also wonderful to hear the boys sing, respond to complicated questions, and enjoy being with their fathers.  Our mother daughter team was precious as well, teaching us a lesson from the women of Jerusalem. 

   The funniest moments were at St Benedict at both the beginning and end of Stations.  When the thirteen boys marched in with capes and uniform colored shirts followed by Dads, people stopped and wondered who we were.  You could actually hear the whispers and see the heads turn.  I must admit it was a quiet but very visual spectacle.  At the end of stations I could see the pastor observing the long row of boys...I know he did not know who we were and was wondering where we came from.  I think I'll drop him a note and thank him.

    It was awesome to have fathers on board taking time with their sons to learn lessons, and mothers who spend great amounts of time building classically formed children inside their homes.  I could see how each family was not using a cookie cutter approach to evangelization.  It was easy to see families identifying what each child in their family needed, and searching out different methods of teaching each child.  It was inspiring, and motivated  me to continue doing the same with my sons.

       The most reflective moment was after the boys completed their stations.  Two boys quickly noted as we reflected on the death of Christ, the clock struck three.  The timing was not choreographed, but perfectly summed up our day traveling with Christ to and through the cross.

    Thank you Jesus for letting us participate with your in your passion on this Good Friday.

-ehw

And so it begins...the Triduum

    The commisioning of priests and institution of the Eucharist...two great gifts

    The beauty of Holy Thursday never escapes me  Last night as even more beautiful because of the lessons taught to me by so many God seeking people over the last year. Lessons from people who past over 1800 years ago, and lessons from those living amongst us now filled my mind, heart and warmed my soul as we heard the liturgy of the word and celebrated the liturgy of the Eucharist

   Father Tri, of St Brigid Catholic Church, reminded us the story of each life is what makes the church breathe the world. The story each life brings to the church helps pass on its's lessons and beauty from generation to generation  These stories allow the priesthood of the family to connect with the priesthood of the Church.  To make this occur we all must listen, observe and react to the wisdom of God as it works its way into our lives throug everyone around us. 

   The Holy Eurcharist is the foretaste of heaven, the perfect mana, needed to nourish our souls with the grace to navigate e challenges of a fallen world.  When taken in concert with reconciliation it enables us to stay on the path to heaven.  It keeps Christ within our very blood...commingling a bit of heaven with our life here on earth..as we go about our day.  So when we say take Christ with you wherever you go, if we partake of this holy nurishment we can do exactly that.  No other God before or since offered such a gift to mortals.  In fact no other God offered to make lowly man part of himself, and join in perfect communion in heaven, for all eternity if we choose to do so.

   Pray for our priests that they may lead all souls to heaven.  Pray for our priesthood in the family, that each man will be willing to lead their family to the best of their ability to the altar of God.  Pray each mother makes their home a place where the stories of old, new and the future will enable The word of God to reach fertile ears and move those souls to Christ.  Pray for the religious, that by their concerted life they make offerings the rest of us cannot for the salvation of the world.

   So let us begin our Triduum journey, and honor the sacrifices made to bring us all the way to heaven.

-ehw

Kalen helping bring the gifts forward with our Decon in formation Randy Ortiz

Where is the blog?

    A few people asked me why the blog posts slowed down.  So I thought I would address that this morning since I've blogged more than ever the last few months!   I support two important activities for my children (outside of paying the bills and homeschooling): Blue Knights and First Lego League.

   Blue Knights is a boys evangelization effort I run with some willing and faith filled Dads.  I am the head coordinator this year for both our year groups, and my friend Les (John Paul's Godfather) runs the first years.  I am very happy to report three other friends are very excited and participating as well...one runs the before meeting games and the two new dads are digging into the program very quickly.   This effort is time consuming though.  We have one template meeting a month, and the second I have to brainstorm inside the program objectives.  Between the meetings my sons and I work on the evangelization questions, daily prayer, and a few craft projects.  The work is worth it when you see all the boys light up hearing about the great lives of our saints and teaching of our church.

    The second major activity is the Darebot First Lego League team.  Les runs this group, and I am one of two dedicated assistant coaches.  During the fall and winter we can meet two to three times a week for several hours to prepare for the competition.  I am helping build out the project and team building aspects of the competition.  Thankfully Les is a great coach for the kids, and I just have to keep up.

   For both activities I run separate Wordpress blogs.   You can view them and see all the fun events and activities yourself.  It is where life is on display, and some pretty fun street & documentary photography!  Here are the sights!  Darebots and St Michael's Blue Knights

   So the next time you wonder where are the pretty pictures trees, flowers, Americana, and grace you've come to expect regularly...just know they go on in two different venues.  I'll keep pushing on here the best I can as well!

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A New Servant for the Table of the Lord

    Today I found myself blessed to watch my son Kevin participate as an altar server at mass for the first time.  It is a moment which almost put tears of joy in my eyes.  Why?  I could see in his eyes and his deeds he wanted this moment with all his heart.

    Last night Kalen and I prepared Kevin by holding a practice mass, as conducted at RCA with Father Tran's preferences, twice on our deck.  Kevin impressed me with his memory of how the bells rung, the way people stepped around the altar, holding his hand on his chest and the procession in which he would accompany the priest to the nursery to deliver the Eucharist to those working there.  I already knew he memorized much of the consecration prayers, but this was pretty amazing for me to see first hand. For all of his daily eight year old distractions, he was paying attention every mass.

    Today two upper school boys, John Paul and Stephen, took Kevin over to the chapel to set up and do a final rehearsal.  This is something which endears me to Regina Caeli.  Our youth are normal youth, but we parents call them out a little more each year to live their faith.  At the end of a 15 minute preparation, Kevin came out tripping over the seam of the smallest cassock and stood with Father Tran and Stephen to enter the mass.

    He went down the isle with his serious face on, and nervously looked over to Stephen from time to time to make sure he was doing the right thing.  Stephen looked out for Kevin as a big brother should, and Kevin earned a smile from Father Tran.  Kevin sure made his Daddy proud.  It sounds silly to many, but I was proud because he entered the Army of Christ today at the altar of our Lord as a willing servant for the community.  it is a major step on the road to adulthood of life and faith.

    Thank you God for letting me see this day in the company of so many good friends!

-ehw

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Quiet Time

    It is an interesting week in our house.  Most of the normal home life continues.  Dance, Robotics, and letting the kids play outside....normal life.  After a few months being under so many guns it was nice to also have friends over and see a movie with them...and eleven kids had a pizza night!  Then there was the opportunity to just for a few minutes enjoy John Paul getting to settle down on my chest for a nap...after a few minutes of ear piercing complaining!

   Life is still crazy, but it needs living and sound of worship to abound for it to have meaning. 

-ehw

The Doctor is In!

    The Doctor was in last Saturday night.  She did house calls for everybody!  Luckily she confirmed we are all in pretty good shape headed into our Fall Break from school.  We are almost homebound since we still have three days of dance, two Robotics classes, doctor's appointments, a dead refrigerator, and music!  Regardless of our staycation status, we should have time for plenty of moments like this one where we enjoy a few moments of family time...can get the house set for fall both inside and out!

-ehw

The House of Cards to Live in

   Today's I want to challenge each of us to look at the house of cards we live in.  Are the cards built from God's playing deck or of man's?  This rather simple examination of our personal lives can save our souls.

    If I was to look at the United States right now, I would say our house definitely plays with man's deck of cards.  Here are three examples.  The continued promotion of abortion by elites means we pay to kill people at the rate of over one million a year!  With a birthrate in the US of native born below replacement levels, you can effectively say we are committing genocide to ourselves.  The continued promotion of Keynesian economics says we play God with money, making something out of nothing.  The debts racked up, and increased economic burden they place on the economy also mean we are placing a noose around our future capabilities.  Finally the rewriting of history to remove the need of God to keep order in society removes a key component to our national system of laws.  Our legal basis for existence in the Declaration of Independence states we must act under Natural law or Nature's God for final authority in what we do.  Yes this is a Christian concept, when discarded allows us to convolute any decision to meet our personal tastes.  This allows materialism to sweep the nation, selfish leaders, and promotes issues one and two.

    I am just a fallen man, but I would say the house of cards photographed above provides abetter example of living life well.  St Joseph, the chaste spouse who cared for Mary and Jesus through years of exile and threat of death by the King of Judea silently following the will of God.  St Peter, the man who's Holy Spirit powered faith sustained him through trial, torment, and the creation of a church enroute to his own cross of crucifixion.  St Sebastian, who guarded the Emperor until he received the choice to burn incense to a false God.  St Francis of Assisi who gave us a great example of working towards peace, and always knew God creates things from nothing not man.  St Augustine who's writings illuminated the scripture, and demonstrated why he needed to turn from sin filled life to become one with God's will.  Finally St Boniface, who demonstrated to Druids their trees served the one God's will when he cut their biggest down to make a church from the lumber.

    We have a choice of cards to build our lives.  If we want the life eternal, it is best to pick the cards God designed, and the examples of those who followed God to eternal life in heaven as role models.  Following the example of Margret Sanger, Keyes or Stalin, Mao, Hitler and current history rewriters only leads to a life which ends with death and self chosen life of separation from the eternal paradise.

-ehw

Thanksgiving For My Riches

    I will simply say last night was glorious.

    A day full with early diaper changes, management of an energetic three year old, four hours with 10-13 year olds working on Lego Robotics, too much work not done around the house, and a still recovering Momma ended in an evening of riches and thanksgiving to God.

    Why?  Because after years of fighting the thought I am finally putting nails, locks and fittings on the lid of the modernism heresy in my life. I still like fast cars, the best house, fast computers, new cameras and fancy dresses for my girls.  I just know the true rewards in a fleeting life meant to work our way to heaven are the moments where God's love shines through us.  I'll work hard to get the tools needed to survive, but not to the detriment of the mission of unity with God.

    So when John Paul fell asleep on my shoulder before dinner, just brining him to the table nestled there with the rest of the family was a joyful moment of God's plan for heaven peeping through.  I could almost imagine the four babies we lost with us at the table as well...the whole family was there in a moment of peace.  It is almost a moment one would hope could be eternal.

   I am finally following Jesus guidance by accepting in my heart, my true kingdom is not of this world.  This world is a passing moment in our eternal lives.  The eternal is the reward.  What a wonderful table that will be.

-ehw    

Teaching Virtues

    The hardest part of virtue training is we all need to do it everyday.  The most fun you can have in virtue training is to come up with ways to make your children remember the experience. On this night my buddy Les worked up the game and the stations for our club.

    Each child went to the start point and put four weights on the arms and legs.  They then faced the questioning period of three questions.  Successful answers removed one weight.  Then you ran the obstacle course to me...standing in for St Joseph where you recited your St Joseph prayer.  I told the boys to talk to their mother.  Then you went to Mary, portrayed this evening by a lovely four year old, to say the hail Mary.  Mary then sent the boys to her son Jesus (represented by a crucifix) to recite their Act of Contrition to dump their final weights.  The whole event gets timed and champion crowned.

    I think it was fun to see this little girl's reaction to the boys coming to her, especially her big buddy above.  For the record...the boys did pretty well on answering the questions.  

    This is why photojournalism is so much fun. Capturing real life, not made up stories or events designed to draw the press in is what excites me!  It makes you think on your feet as a photographer with your tools at hand.  When the action happens you have to grab it fast!

-ehw

P.S. The boys you see above are all part of the Blue Knights Boys Club we started two years ago...we hope to grow a little this year at a new home....praying hard it can work out.

Corpus Christi

    Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, in the Roman Catholic Church.  This feast reflects on the connection between Christ, his Church and to each of us through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.  Without this dogma, everything fall apart.

    Last night I had the privilege to hear a sermon from Father Tri John-Bosco Nguyen, which truly a tour-de-force of theology.  He does the subject much greater justice than I ever could but let me just reiterate a few points he made.

    Examination of Corpus Christi cannot be done in the modern context.  We must place ourselves in the culture of Christ time to begin our examination of this dogma.  We must realize,  when Jesus celebrated his final passover with his disciples he did not sacrifice a lamb.  He offered bread and wine with the words, "This is my Body take it an eat it."  All the gospels support this.  So Christ himself clearly substituted himself for the lamb.

    In John 6, Christ does not shy away from telling the crowds we must eat his flesh.  Father Nguyen emphasized in the original text, the Greek work was actually meant "to chew."  When people started leaving because of this specific language, Christ did not shy away from the truth of his words.  Instead he looked to his disciples and challenged them on where they stood on the validity of his lesson.

    This total self gift of Christ, to be with us in the Eucharist, is something which science cannot define or confirm.  (The presence of so many eucharistic miracles is another story and piece of evidence though which can help those who need science to support their beliefs.)  This example of total self giving is however the reason many religious, from the dawn of Christianity, entered lives of celibacy.  Lives without distractions of external needs of the flesh which could reduce their ability to sacrifice for others.  Even married couples engage in total self giving through the marriage act, which again follows the example of self giving embodied in the sacrifice of Christ in Corpus Christi.

    The ability to receive Christ in our daily lives through the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, foreshadows what life in communion with God in heaven will be.  It fortifies us with God's grace both spiritually and physically.  It is a wonderful reality, I am proud to be part of.

-ehw

PS. Thank you Father Nguyen for a wonderful homily.

Faces of Joy

    Seeing the joy on so many young faces this weekend at first communion was a great experience.  This is actually one of the best parts of parenthood.  Helping your child experience these good steps towards adulthood should fill you with joy as well.  Helping our children to know and love the Lord is a challenge, and of the greatest importance to parents for our own eternal salvation.  So let us pray we do our evangelization joyfully, and the children respond in kind as they continue their rites of initiation!

   -ehw 

Good Friday- The Quest!

   Good Friday was a day for set up as a quest for three young Blue Knights, an aspiring squire, and two dads!  We accepted a challenge to travel vast distances to visit three churches, attend stations of the cross, and locate our dear Jesus, St. Joseph and Holy Mother Mary at each stop.   We did all our good prayers at each stop! We were lucky on this journey to also encounter friends from Regina Caeli at two stops!

    On a Daddy note, it was wonderful to see some full churches and services.  It is always painful to dwell on what the Lord did for each of us.  Yet, when I saw brothers and sisters filling the pews I knew the message still carries the day in more hearts than the devil cares hear of.  So in the midst of the tragedy unfolding then, and now, I still could feel the victory of Christ on the Cross alive in my heart.

  Next up?  Big Kids and Dad attend veneration this evening!

-EHW

PS Rare photo of the author and his boys at the end!

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Kevin reads the stations...

All the boys participated!  Wonderful!

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St Brendan in Cumming, GA

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St Bridget in John's Creek

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Ok enjoy it while you can...A proud Dad with his boys.

St. Joseph

    Today is a special day for me....it is the Feast Day of St. Joseph!  So even though I am in an other state, working 14 hours a day (well 16 today), and it is 20 or so degrees outside I found the Cathederal on the way to work.  As luck would have it, I walked in at mass time! I noted the Bishop was moving along briskly.  So I then attended mass AND got to work on time!

     Today was the funeral for the cousins lost last week in childbirth.  One of the children's middle name was Joseph as well.  So I lit a candle for the children, and asked this great saint to look out for them on the path to heaven.  Just before leaving I said our Blue Knight St. Joseph prayer....

Dear St. Jospeh

Who took such good care of the baby Jesus and blessed mother Mary. 

Be our protector to. 

Guide us on the path that is safe and sure, all the way to heaven.

Amen

-ehw

A big step for a little boy towards God's grace

    Yesterday was one of those milestone days in our family.  Our third child, Kevin, went to his first confession.  He's been asking to go for the last month, and yesterday was the day set up for a third of the second grade classes to attend.  The true milestone though was Kevin asked to go to confession over a month ago.  We parents only had to facilitate the sacrament.  I believe this is is a sign God sent the gift of faith to Kevin.  

    As parents, my wife and I believe the greatest judgment God will put on us is whether or not we did our best to bring the word of God to our children.    Please note I did not say successfully bring the word, attend at church strictly, ensure memorization of text or anything like that .  I said God will judge us our efforts at doing our best in evangelizing our children.  

    At this point of my spiritual growth I fully recognize the gift of faith is one I cannot bestow on myself.  If I cannot bestow this gift on myself, I also cannot bestow it on others!  All I can do personally is develop my fear of the Lord into love of the Lord.  Where I lack skills in evangelization for my children, I must look for other places for children to find them.  After all the yapping is done, the real work still rests with God.  God bestows the gifts of the spirit, as needed, for us to accomplish the tasks he gives us.

    Over the last year we just did our best to help Kevin learn his act of contrition, talk to him about forgiveness, repenting, and repairing damage made by our sins.  My wife and I also constantly work to provide the children a somewhat peaceful environment around the home.  There God can speak to our children without undue distraction.  We are glad our travels, orchestrated by God, led us to be with many others who believe in the same parental mission.

    We fully recognize God's hand guided the course of events inside Kevin's heart.  Those events led the little boy to accept God's gift of grace yesterday at confession.  It bodes of so much potential grace to follow in his life, if he continues to move on the same path into manhood.  

    Today however, I will use these photos to remember the moment this little boy took his first step into adulthood as a Catholic.  It is wonderful and overwhelming to see God working in our midst.  That is after all why I started carrying the camera in the first place...

-ehw

Capturing his Glory!

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Kevin signs the book of the elect with his own hand.

Busing Tables for Charity (Knights of Columbus)

    I have to say my boys did well today.  Up at 0615 and out the door by 0640 to bus tables for the Knights of Columbus (KofC) Pancake Breakfast at St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church here in Alpharetta, Georgia.  After a quick wake up call I found them highly motivated all morning, and they never stopped moving.  They were great Blue Knights!  I think the key motivator was all you can eat pancakes....Kalen (11 years old) served 0730 mass..and Kevin (7 years old) and I sat in the pews.  Then it was right back to work.

    A great thing about helping out the KofC is that these events are pretty well run for years.  So putting a new body into the system at an entry point job, like the three of us busing tables, is easy as cake.  If you attend enough times, I promise you'll get promoted to kitchen duty.  Money raised goes to charitable works in our local community, to disaster sites, local food anks, parish members in need of assistance, special family focused events, ultrasound devices for children and their mothers; and even abroad.  

    Working with my boys at an event like this, also gives me a chance to see them growing up.  See Kalen blended right in, ready to be with the adults (and learn the skills needed to work with them).  Kevin was a cute second grader, but totally focused on doing a good job with a smile.  I kept hearing from my brother Knights about how well they were doing.  No goofin off, just Both are better customer service people than their Dad.  They each consumed and sold the hot chocolate at every opportunity.  I was glad when they did not break the bank on refills.

    Oh it was a wonderful time to be with my sons!  Made a me a happy Dad!  

-ehw

P.S. This is why I love my style of photography...I get a chance to capture a moment when His Glory Shines through a person and makes the world a better place.

Kalen buses up the table before the big rush

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My ever growing boys

Bigger than who?

Where I've been the last two months (long post with photos!)

    The greatest challenge in life is fitting everything you have AND want to do inside the few minutes we get each a day.  It is just not possible to do everything.  So this little blog suffers from time to time.  This is one of those stretches in time where the blog suffers for many good reasons.  

   This past month we've had a few challenges at the house. First it was crunch time for the Darebots, the Regina Caeli First Lego League team.  Four seventh graders and one fifth grader (my boy Kalen) make up the team.  I'm an assistant coach.  I don't know much about the whole process, I just take my cues from my good friend and head coach, Les Levergood.  My job is to back him up.  He did a great job with the kids by mentoring them along the way.  They won the programming award at the qualifier round.  This got us invited to super regionals on January 17th in Athens, GA.  You are invited to see their blog (which I administer for the kids who provide most of the entries using this link:  Regina Caeli Darebots

  So what do they do at practices?  Build a robot, program the robot and then prepare what amount to basically sales presentations to judges on a special project they had to research.  In their briefings they must demonstrate cooperation, teamwork, workflows, cost estimates, and a dozen other items.  There is also a wildcard game the kids must work on, to which they must demonstrate their teamwork to solve a complex problem under some sort of constraint (Like giving directions with your back to your partner!)  Practices run two to three hours each, and the kids will tell you we still need more time!

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    But that is not all!  I continue to help with youth and parent evangelization at church.  So we continue on with Blue Knights, when I am the lead parent for right now.  I handle the scheduling and planning.  Other Dad's pitch in to get the work done.  Since I am working, very little time for photographs there!

    Then there is the matter of chaperoning my daughter's first upper class dance at school....oh talk about a heart attack moment!  Yep after I swapped out with a family friend as chaperone...three boys asked her to dance.  I had to hear about it after the fact.  

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13 and beautiful!  Hanging with the upper schoolers at a sock hop!

    Then there was the other work I did, like photograph our first mass in the new St Michael the Archangel Chapel at our school...

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The Choir

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And of course finishing the Shelby Cobra Project!

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Throw in a few family moments at Thanksgiving and Christmas, taking two weeks to clear the flu bug from the family, fixing computers, learning new lessons to get software working right for you in this ever changing world and I am whooped!  You heard me right!  I said I am whooped!

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    Some would think that I should slow down...well I will in some ways in the coming year.  In other ways I need to keep living and enjoying the moments I get.  Life is precious.  Caring for others through coaching, evangelization, praying for them, expanding your personal relationship with Christ, defending the country, and being a better Dad/Husband all make life worth living.   I still have a long way to go in all those areas.  When I get all those things figured out, I think it will be time to rest with the Lord.  Until then...I'll try keeping Proverbs and the Sermon on the Mount in my actions a little better everyday.

    An one personal request from me to you (if you made it this far).  Please keep both the unborn and those wanting children but not so blessed in your prayers.  In our journey through the year we had two miscarriages.  We met families enduring three, four, five miscarriages on the road to making their family and understood their pain and joys.  When you are done praying for those two groups...please pray for people to embrace their role as parents to raise their children in the light of the Word made Man Jesus Christ.  

    This is a little personal because see we are praying hard that we get to meet a little someone in about 30 weeks...and this is one of the award winning photos of the year right here that I did not even take!

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God Bless and Happy New Year!

-ehw