Our Lady of Sorrows your heart pierced seven times yet never flinching in your hope, faith and love for God the Father, his son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit which rested on you bringing Jesus into the world. Pray for us, and intercede for our needs today when your greatest pains only further united you with God. Teach us how to use our suffering to do the same on this Good Friday.
-ehw
Today my family took time to really remember those who gave all for us to live our lives in freedom. We attended mass at St.Francis De Sales. We came back home to attend what I thought would be a small ceremony in our little neighboring town of Lovettsville (We live just outside of town). Little did I know this town of 3,000 people would muster up a very honorable and well thought out ceremony which did remind us why this is a Federal HOLY-DAY.
Today I saw too many names of West Point friends and fellow servicemen I served with over my nine years who fell in the line of duty pass in notes between us remaining friends. This ceremony presented a loving tribute to those who served and gave all. It also allowed my children to appreciate the gift of life they have today.
Around or dinner table we talked of millions in re-education camps in China, the brutality exposed by escapees from North Korea, and the technical threats which come from unknown sources stalking our livelihoods around the world. It was a good way to remind my children once again freedom will never be free in this fallen world.
Business customer service fails when we think of pure profit over caring for the customer’s needs. Families fail when we assume our personal wants are more important than the success of the whole unit. National security missions fail when one person assumes their needs are greater than the needs of the many.
For my family discussion tonight this allowed us to come back full circle to how we started our day. We went to Mass, and participated in the sacrifice of our Lord for our salvation. No one more just or powerful ever died for others salvation in all of history. We must strive to remember freedom does not mean the ability to do anything. Freedom means we have the ability to choose the right thing, or accept the consequences of not doing so.
These men and women we honored today gave their lives and never came home. It does not matter how..they gave all for us. They gave of their freedoms so we may have a moment with freedom ourselves. So let us use these moments wisely, and defend our children’s ability to pick up the mission themselves.
-ehw
Lovettsville, Virginia….the Backstreets
Here we are just finishing our third month in our new home of Lovettsville, and we’re starting to venture out a bit here and there. This adventure took a Dad and five kiddos on a walk down the backstreet where my mind went right into our Lenten lessons….
If you told my wife and I we’d be moving eleven times, escorting six kids through life, work our way through five miscarriages, enduring some long term illnesses, and I’d have an overall mediocre professional life twenty years ago we’d be surprised and overwhelmed. We had our plans, and we were going to follow them!
This Lent we listen and read lessons from our Good Catholic series created by the Catholic Company. The main focus is to help us understand God’s will, live in his will, find happiness in his will, and then endure the hardships of a fallen reality on the way to our final judgment. One key lesson they harp on again and again is our main sources of stress come from our personal choices to deviate from God’s will in our actions.
Outside of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, God’s will for my life is pretty hard to discern. I have no outstanding talents. I have far too much pride. I will never rise to the top of my daily profession. I have no idea how I will work my next profession….and all this leads to stress over “what is the right course of next actions.”
Thankfully Father had a reminding us (paraphrasing a bit): “ The past cannot be changed, the present is where we are now, and the future is not here yet. God gives us enough grace to survive the present, so stay in the present. Make each present decision in accordance with his instructions, and it will all work out in accordance with his will.”
So as I walked one of the little backstreets of our little remote Loudon County town, I just enjoyed the moment. My pains disappeared, the sky seemed a little nicer, the cold winds didn’t cause me to shiver, and I enjoyed the laughs of my children a little more. Somewhere out here, in what the world would call a backstreet, God’s will called and I listened to it.
I have to walk the backstreet a little more with an even better attuned ear.
ehw
