First Communion and a Special Priest

    This weekend we celebrated another wonderful family milestone.  Our third child received the Most Holy Eucharist for the first time.  With family, friends and a wonderful priest around us; we had a weekend to remember for a lifetime.  On a weekend where I had tears fill my eyes as Kevin approached our priest, I just wanted to share one thought with you right now.

   Father Mario, of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Alpharetta, is a very special priest.  Last year it was this priest who rearranged his calendar to help my wife through the miscarriage with sacraments, and me with prayer.  Father Mario, and several deacons, constantly encourages the altar service of my oldest son...and made a call for my second son to join him on the altar at the First Communion Mass.  This wonderful priest also quietly will touch my arm every time I pass him, and asks how the new baby and my wife are doing.  His homilies always have humor, yet never shy away from calling us out to increased holiness.  He also does not shy away from answering tough questions on the homily from my three oldest children...and this happened twice this school year already!

    I ask for each of you to pray for the ministry of this special man.  He is doing God's work, and not shying away from the challenge of calling men out to join him on the journey.  

    God Bless you Father Mario!

-ehw

P.S. With so much craziness around us, I wanted to let you my friends know people do exist in this world who are making a difference to add souls to God's Kingdom.  For so many of them, raising them up in prayer is the only thing we can do to help sustain them.  While some may think this a trite thing to do, it actually can mean the difference in their sustaining their strength in their difficult job!  If you agree share the sentiment along the way!

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Father visited each First Communicant at the sign of peace

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Father Mario takes a moment to bring God's grace at every opportunity

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Father Mario's standing order to altar servers...if you are here for daily mass suit up!

Magical Moment

    Last night we attended a birthday party for one of the teachers at our school.  It was a wonderful night.  What struck me the most about the evening was how deceivingly simple it was.   The teacher's family organized an iPad based karaoke machine, a sign, dessert, music, balloons, the teacher's brother said mass (yes he is a priest), and each family brought food for themselves plus some.  Children vastly outnumbered adults, and even managed the entertainment all night long.  Many teens also assisted us parents by holding (and chasing) infants and toddlers efficiently across the school gymnasium for an hour or two.  

    Above you see my seven year old swing dancing with a wonderful spirited four year old.  Later he was swing dancing with a lovely fifth grader!     I am glad my children will have these memories, and lessons on good social graces.  I will never be able to take them to fancy amusement parks, exotic locations, and even movies are a strain on the budget.  But this type of night was both precious and priceless.  You could even say it was magical.

-ehw

P.S.  Yes the lights were out in the gym.  You can really say it was one of the few times I really wished I had a costly full frame DSLR rig with see in the night capability!

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The simple things...like a sweet dance

-ehw

The stories a tricycle could tell...

    I took a trip down memory lane yesterday.  it all started with taking this photo last week on Holy Saturday.  Here is my youngest riding a tricycle with a long history in the family.  This was is the second tricycle we owned, but all four children rode it.   I got to thinking about all the stories it could tell.  Right now the tricycle is in fear as the current driver (child #4) threatens to run down the driveway into the street...just because she is a cute red headed dare devil.

Owner #3 circa 2010

    Just a few years ago the child #3 furiously tried keeping up with big brother's two wheeler.   This little guy does not like loosing, and it took a lot of learning to understand one day he would have his own two wheeler.  (Oh did I mention tears as well when the fatigue set in?)  Until he got his own big bike, he made use of the bucket for hauling everything!  He showed people he was Virginia tough.

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Owner #1 circa 2005 

    A few years earlier we had the original owner get his new bike...and found he only had eyes for his sister's bike!  That is exactly what you see here.  The little guy is not looking for ways to pedal...no he was watching for a hijack opportunity of his sister's older tricycle.  He never rode it after this! 

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What happens when you get hijacked and the thief leaves his car with keys?

    Well this was the first time my big girl took over driving the tricycle...it was just minutes after the photo above.  See her brother came over, traded, and never came back.  A few weeks later I finally gave up trying to get my son on this one.  I reset it for her to ride for about a year when she got her first two wheeler.  Then it got handed on to the rest of the family.

    Well...the moral of this post is to remind you to capture memories with what ever you have.  These photos come from a 2 Megapixel point and shoot camera circa 2001, a 10 Megapixel 2009 Pentax DSLR, and a 2014 Fuji with a cool X-Trans sensor!  Do you really care?  No!  What matters are the memories and emotion attached to the photo.  If the photo tells a story you'll want to relieve, it will stay in your collection forever.

    So when child #5 rides this little bike, I will be ready camera in hand to record another story and chapter of my family life.  It will be something I want to remember many years from now.

    What stories will you treasure?  What photos will you hold on to?  In the end it is all that will matter.

-ehw

He is Risen!

    The title of this post comes from an ancient Christian tradition that during the Easter season you should greet on another with the words: "He is Risen!" and the receiver will reply: "He is Risen Indeed!"

    So with that simple, glorious thought I leave you to enjoy your day with family and fellow Christians around the world!  

    HE IS RISEN!

-ehw

You know you lost...

    As we move into Holy Week, I want to note how you can spot someone who knows they cannot not win a logical argument.   It is really quite simple.  As you listen to a debate, if one of debate participants suggests changing the definition of a known word the debate is lost to them.  This is when the only hope to win is to make a word change its meaning, or attach an emotion to a word which will overshadow the logical reality presented in the judges's presence.

    So with this in mind you should now be able to clearly see what "progressive" really means in debate terms.  Progressives will change a word like a chameleon changes colors.  It explains why words which mean one thing for all of history, must now change and bow to "modernity."  It explains why some people are so hostile to classical homeschooling education.  If one is to know the truth as revealed throughout the ages past, it does not allow you to willingly follow an illogical tyrant to your death.

    This week as you pray and reflect on what the Lord did for us, put his life into its original context.  If you do this I believe you will find the salvation story did not change from Genesis to the Cross or the Acts of the Apostles.  Salvation's themes did not change with the shape of the sand dunes, or the empires in charge of the world since the Apostles either.

    Salvation history and natural law only change if you personally think you know more than God.  It also assumes you can rewrite the laws of nature itself to suite your world view.  Thankfully for those times when we all let our selfishness out of the box, we can turn to God for mercy.  After paying the piper for our sins, we certainly can get back on the proper path to communion in heaven with the Lord.

-ehw

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

Sense from Tragedy

    This week two sisters lost their babies in child birth on the same day in childbirth just hours apart.  One of the sisters, and her children, are friends of our family.  The loss struck home after our two miscarriages last year, and with our anticipation of Baby Echo's arrival in August.  We know of their pain, and pray for their families to weather the storm of emotion which comes with it.   The event brought back common question from a few people I talked to: "How can God let such pain enter the world if he is so great?"

    Maybe this can help explain a little bit...

    A little over a week ago some criminals broke into my car, and emptied it out of everything they could make money from.  I was mad, scared, embarrassed, the whole range of emotion.  I of course went to mall security, called the cops, and asked if they had anything which could help my situation.  As I walked with the security manager to my car we started talking.

   As we approached my car he identified how they crooks got in from previous robberies.  Then we waited for the patrol unit to arrive with a detective.  As we waited I popped the trunk and in it only three items remained.  One of them was a 14 year old army camouflage folding chair issued at only one place in the Army.

  He looked at it and said, "Were you an OC in the desert?"  Well yes I was...  Soon I found out he was Sidewinder 39 Ancient, and he found out I was a Cobra 13 Ancient at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.  He threw artillery fire, and I chased armored companies across the desert floor.  We roamed the desert  for two years together, possibly only meeting at a dinner or two for mere minutes...but we effected each other's work and knew the call signs. 

   I asked him how he liked the tour, and he responded it was a tough tour.  During their tour out in the desert he had a stillborn baby in 2001.  It was then my heart sank, and I knew the other side of a story.

  Almost 14 years ago in a desert far far away in 2001:

   When my wife had our first pregnancy her blood pressure spiked greatly.  The doctor scheduled extra checks, and on her week 38 visit the blood pressure was still at the same spot...high...as the week before.  The doctor then said abruptly, "One way or another this pregnancy ends today."  Just the tone of her voice put chills in our hearts, and the words sunk into our heads like lead weights in water.  After a quick trip home to get our hospital bag we had our baby girl in our arms just four hours later.  My wife's blood pressure ended up causing no problems, and quick action by the doc kept the cord around my girl's neck from causing lasting harm.

   As we held our baby a few hours later I asked the nurse if the doctor was always that curt in her bedside manner.  The nurse said no.  My wife however matched the profile of a women who lost her child in the clinic earlier in the year.  The doctor would take no chances with this pregnancy, and wanted to protect the baby at all costs.  This was why the doctor was so focused during our delivery day.

Ten days ago...

   I put my hand on that Security Chief's arm, and told him his baby saved my baby's life.   I know my words can do nothing to ease the pain of such a loss, but I had to say them.  I was happy to then hear his other children are now strong adults.  He is proud of them, as he should be.  I did however remember him and his family in my prayers at some point in the days since that moment.

    So here is the answer to the question about pain and suffering in this world right under the nose of an all powerful God.  We live in a fallen world feeling the effects of original sin.  Fallen worlds have sickness, death and people doing their selfish will rather than working for unity in God's will.  Through all of this God, still gets the last laugh.

    I know babies born without the breath of life go straight to the embrace of God.  Then you have incidents like the losses of these three families.  I know the crooks got away with my stuff, but in their evil I met a man thousands of miles and years later who's family's sacrifice saved the life of my lovely oldest daughter...my Desert Rose.  What will come out of the losses of these sisters today?  I do not know yet, but I know there is seed sown for great and redeeming works of grace which may not bloom for decades.  When it blooms the name of two cousins will be on it, and they two will rejoice in its bloom as they dance with the Lord.

    Until the day this new grace blossoms, I will enjoy the dancing of my blooming Desert Rose as I reminisce on this chance to see how God works his will through both the good and the bad.

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Transfigure Us O Lord!

    Today's reading was about the Transfiguration of our Lord.  The great foreshadowing for heaven's glories!  

    The thought of that reminded me of this photo I took a few weeks ago.  A nice statue of Mary  backlit and a little flash up front...Well illuminated just like she was in life as she fully accepted and lived the life of love Christ called us to lead.  

     Well here is to praying we all have a good week dreaming of God's glory!

-ehw  

Leading us to the Cross

    Walking by this statue of Mary, something told me to stop and look again.  So I did look again.  Suddenly a message screamed out at me, "FRAME A GOOD SHOT!"  I am not going to call it divine revelation by any means, but my inner artist saw something it just needed to capture.

    Take it for what you want.  See what you want.  I just saw Mary reminding me her Rosary leads us to study her Son, Jesus Christ.  When our moment comes we'll choose which sinner to imitate.   By studying Christ's mysteries though meditation during the Rosary, we will find ourselves better prepared for that moment.

-ehw

P.S.  Fujifilm X-T1 with a little fill flash to even up the scene a tinny bit.  Processed RAW in Capture One 8.  So far it all just works and is a lot of fun!

Revisiting a shot...and Christ's example today

    Two nights ago I read a very short essay on photography.  The author (Scott Bourne) exhorted readers to revisit a site time and time again.  To shoot the scene from above, below, left, right, with new settings and depth....all because in photography we try to capture three dimensions in a two dimensional frame.  When you also consider we artists may try to communicate a sense of the environment and emotion in those same two dimensions I think you can agree the task of making art communicate is actually harder than it looks.

    So that is why I again visited a familiar subject.  The cross in our sanctuary at St. Thomas Aquinas Church here in Alpharetta, Georgia.  I've heard a few sermons about Christ's victory on the cross recently, and it made me think in new ways about those hours when he sacrificed himself for us.   Then last week I read about using flash with grid to isolate a subject in broad daylight.  Well I had no flash, but I could play with my exposure meter just enough to get me on my way to the same effect.  So in the silence of the church I was able conceive in my mind a vision of a piece of art I wanted to share.

    I wanted to convey the feeling the devil wanted Christ, and you and I, to feel when crucified or targeted by his dark friends.  I wanted to convey the sense of darkness surrounding Christ on the cross.  While I conveyed that, I also wanted to give us viewers a sense of hope.  I did that by making sure the inner light of the word made flesh shone out above the darkness.  I thought this might show how he gives hope to the world in our darkest moments.

    See I could also see, in the back of my mind, the terrible atrocities being committed against Christians in the Middle East.  Boys and girls my son' Kevin's s age are being tortured, and murdered, under the crucifixes of their churches because their hearts stand with God.  As a father and shepherd, my heart and gut is wrenched thinking of what happened to them.  I fear what could happen to my sweet children, if spiritual and martial defenses weaken in the slightest degree. The darkness is my fear revealed.

     I can also see the light.  Those young innocents and martyrs also demonstrate complete faith in Christ's word.  They literally display the faith of a child in the face of men with weapons and fully developed strength.  Those children are the light of Christ on the cross, hands outspread, using their final acts of faith to call me to greater unity with God in my daily lives.

     I have so much more I need to learn and do to live the life God intended for me.  It makes me wonder who and where my next lesson will arise from.

-ehw 

A memory of the Knights

    I'm on a trip to D.C. and I really wanted to walk the city a bit...well at 7 degrees this morning and 15 this evening walking around town was not an option.  It was to work, to a meal along the way back and to bed.  I just don't have the right hot gear to have photography fun today.  I'm also really tired after a long day of work.  I think I walked an easy six to seven miles today between meetings and around the city.  I should be in better shape...

    Today out of the blue a friend of mine called to tell me he had joined the Knights of Columbus this year...always wanted to, and finally did it this year.  I was overjoyed to hear the news.  See my favorite memories from my last stint here in Virginia came mostly from my work with the Knights.

   Instead of a current memory I thought back to my favorite memories of my previous years here in the region.  An this image taken last year about this time was one bringing back good times with my friends helping others, caring for our families or being the visible arm of the order!

    Vivat Jesus!

-ehw

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Calm in the Storm

    The four hour trip, planned afternoon meetings, getting a work out....the plans of man.

    The morning storm in the nation's capital...three inches of snow...two cancelled flights (one after I was on board!), the broken luggage carousel adding over an hour to bag recovery, cancelled meetings and arriving after thirteen hours in the dark on a cold blustery night revealed the plans of nature.

    I kept my calm...almost completely...read two good books by Scott Hahn and most importantly when I thought I was just going to be beyond frustrated for the day found the place to say my rosary.  See I needed calm, and the big glass windows overlooking the tarmac and runways called me.  There I stood in the long Atlanta winter sun, the warmth making me relax, and my rosary called. 

   Today I said the Sorrowful Mysteries (Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crown of Thorns, Carrying the Cross, and Death on the Cross) and it put me right into my place.  I thought I had a bad day?  That was a bad day!

    Suddenly tonight as I was preparing for bed I knew Christ had provided my daily photography inspiration.  I could not pass it up, or fail to share right away.  It was the what the spirit wished me to do to give back some glory to the Lord for my safe travels.  

   Vivat Jesus!

-ehw

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

Christmas Eve Traditions

In our home we switched up traditions a few years ago to get a little peace back into our Christmas worship...and also to enjoy our Christmas Eve traditions a little more.  See we get the house ready, make our Christmas Angel Food Cake, then we have a nice dinner, light the Christ Candle and sing to our Lord and Savior.  Truthfully the house is so full of nervous energy I am amazed everything gets done and enjoyed!

After dinner we set the family gifts out under the tree, say our prayers...and the kids get off to bed so the good St. Nicholas of Myra (the good Bishop who smacked Arius) pay us a visit!  Oh I mean Santa Claus in the red suit.  Except for a last minute requirement to find eggs (thank you Bunn family for letting us share your egg coop bounty at 945PM!) everything was perfect.

More later...but all is good in the Wojtkun Home!  Our Lord is made incarnate!  He is ready to show us the word spoken and expressed in creation since before time began!  What a wonderful, wonderful blessing to the world!  I also love how my children love each other.

So enjoy a glimpse into our home, celebration of Christ's birth, and understand my poor wife only looks a little green because Baby E is doing well and will make his name known next August.

-ehw

PS  These are the very first photos from Mr Fujifilm X-T1...enjoy!

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Merry Christmas Aunt Suzi and Uncle Steve!

Set out the Cookies with care

Can you feel the excitement?

A brief timeout!

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I am so blessed my Children love each other!

Playing Tag

If you thought playing tag at DjaDja's house meant running around 14 acres of land on your feet...you'd be so last century!  Heck we give the two year old and seasoned citizen the leg up in every way.  In fact the only guy running on foot was the cameraman!

-ehw

Giving Thanks to God

   Our first President, and the Congress of the United States, dedicated this day to praying and giving thanks to God.  In the final paragraph we see him calling all public and private people to do our duties faithfully.  He also asks us to "promote the knowledge and and practice of true religion and virtue."  As you can see there is no separation of church and state.  To George Washington our bounty comes from God, and our personal duty is to live in accordance with Nature's Law.  To Christians this means we must live inside God's design for the world in all that we do.  

    In fact, to achieve personal and national civility we must receive adhere to this guidance.  The result of  dismissing this call to Nature's Law is chaos.  

    We need to look no further than the debates on Furgeson to recognize this.  Rioters in the streets don't care that the man killed willfully beat a man to rob his store moments before his encoutner with Police.  They do not want to recognize that the man was high on illegal drugs, something that would impair his judgement even more.  Obtaining supplies for this habit was the reason he robbed the store, and was wanted by police.  The natural effect of giving into vices such as these is a bad conflict with those entrusted by the citizens to protect them from such abusive behavior.  

    The solution to this type of problem is simple.  It is to live inside natural law.  To Christians this means simply to live out the Golden Rule...and your relations with others in your community will start off on good footing.   To solve many other problems we face, there is a good book that is our family instruction manual I can recommend:  The Bible.  Start with Poverbs and Wisdom...then move up to read of the word made man in the Gospel and natural law will unfold before your eyes.

    So make today something more than turkey and football.  Make today a moment that changes your life, and that of your family.  Give thanks to God Almighty, and point your family to the eternal wisdom of his word.  The greatest thanks you can offer God, is to deliver your house to stand with him.

-ehw

Raise a Veteran

    The theme for the day is to honor veterans for their service, both those who died and those who continue to serve.  In its original form, Armistice Day recognized the War to End All Wars.  Americans and Europeans moved into isolationism, turned inward and also sowed the seeds for the next war.  Free nations cast down their arms, and allowed others to prepare the engines of war to enslave them until it was almost too late.  Today we see the same problem around the world.  Engines of tyranny now spin up and prepare to pounce when weakness reaches its most critical point.

    As a historian, and man of Christian faith, I cannot in good conscience follow that example today.  I know there are good people in this world.  I also know there are those who give into evil.  Those people seek to either turn me to sin as an accomplice or make me their slave.  The enemies of freedom will never rest.  The enemies of building the Kingdom of God will never cease adapting to our transient strengths in their attempts to tear it down.

   In a nation of almost 350 million we have only about 1.5 million under arms today.  The nation's recruiters cannot get enough young men to join the service due to lack on interest, poor fitness, and (frankly) intellectual incapacity.  Many men get rejected due to gang affiliation and drug use.  So the administration is actually trying to bring foreigners (legal and illegal) into the ranks to defend this country.  As a reminder of history....when every great nation began to commission others to defend their statehood they fell.  Just look at the history of Rome.  Republic to tyranny.  Native sons to mercenaries.  

    So today please consider something a little different for Veteran's Day.  Don't just thank a veteran, raise a veteran.

   As a parent myself I can now feel the fear and angst felt when the child raises their hands to say, "This I will defend."  Despite the angst I know my life is but a transient one.  My days of quality service as a front line fighter now extend far into my past.  If my children want to be free, and give that gift to their children, they must one day put veteran somewhere on their resume.

    It is time we all realize it is not enough to just thank someone else for the gift of freedom.  It is time for each man to serve where able.  Service in the active duty military, guard, and police, fire and rescue all keep us safe.  It does not have to be a career...just a portion of life holding the line against the terrors of the night makes you a worthy veteran in my eyes. 

    So today do more than thank a veteran.  Raise a veteran.  Your grandchildren will thank you one day for giving them the gift of liberty.

-ehw.

The Hand in the Sand

    On this Sunday morning, with the two youngest kiddos on my lap, I read the Divine Office of Readings for today.  The reading was about Ester.  Here she was a young woman being rounded up, just because of her beauty and taken into the harem of the king.

    I cannot imagine the thoughts and fears she had on that fateful day.  She was nothing more than a pawn, in fact she was less than a pawn at that moment.  She was a grain of sand in a vast desert.  However, inside that grain of sand we know as Ester something stronger and more significant was ready to bloom through the grace of God.

   See Ester had the seeds of faith planted inside that grain of sand through the gift of faith.  Through the events unfolding around her she would receive the choice to stand fast with her faith or cover her face in fear.  Her free choice to sacrifice herself for her people is a foreshadowing (one of many) of the type of life Christ led on his way to the cross.  

    As a parent Ester's story only tells part of the story's lesson.  Her foster father Mordecai fulfilled his parental and priestly duties towards Ester by first forming her in faith, and then continually reminding her of God's covenant through to her people.  A covenant which only survives if each generation embraces it freely in their hearts and deeds.  That is why Mordecai continued to remind his adopted daughter of God's commandments and covenant until the crisis peaked.

    The challenges we face in this world today are no different than those Mordecai and Ester faced.  The way to overcome those challenges are also no different than their responses.  Parents and children must respond to the hand in the sand, the love and wisdom of the Holy Spirit in all that we do.  

    Parents and clergy must form their children with wisdom and the fear of God (that is the desire not to disappoint God) so they can evolve their faith into Love of God (where we make his will our own).   We parents can never stop living our lives calling out both ourselves and our children to holiness.  We must never stop praying the gift of faith is given to our children.

    Children must understand as early as possible, they have a great inheritance.  The covenant of God passed down and expanded from God through Abraham, through David, through Christ to each of us.  Through this covenant we bind ourselves to follow his law, and obtain the rewards of eternal unity with him in heaven.    Their basic choice in life is to chose virtue over vice each day of their lives.   Whether they choose to do it from fear or love will be their own, and a decision they must understand accountability falls on them alone.

  Have a blessed Sunday while remembering how Ester and Mordecai listened to the hand in the sand.

-ehw

A Different Day

A different type of day today.  It is a Federal holiday, so I had the day off and wrote up a busy schedule for myself.  However it was a still a school day for Regina Caeli Academy so the four kiddos with the momma got up and at it in the early morning light.

Nine days out of ten...well 95 out of 100...I am the guy up first and out the door while they enjoy their warm blankets for another hour or so.  So to be roused by my wife's alarm, and the sound of lots of other feet is a game changer.

Today you can see the Silver Bullet headed out the door on its mission.  As it left I found myself reading the news alone with my coffee.  I found myself experiencing the same fears I had in my bed last night at 2 and 3 and 4....Ebola, TB outbreak, Flu type 68,  ISIS, Russia on the move worldwide, China on the move in the South China Sea, a disarming US, Bishops in the middle east and Africa reminding their people they need to defend themselves, and a blatant turning away from natural law this country was founded on on every page.  

Now fear is not a good state to live in, instead it is an emotion that should push us to new work to right the situation.  So I made my list for the day, heard the divine office, read the morning prayer, and moved out to 9Am mass.  During mass I listened and fell deep into thought.  I wanted to ask God where he was.  I wanted to ask him to do something about this madness around me, to help my family survive the coming turbulence.  In the silence of post communion I my head rang with words from so many other sources me like a piece of lead dropped from the roof.

"Son I did do something about all this.  I made you."

With that I got myself into motion working on preparation for Blue Knights tomorrow night (6 new boys coming in for the first time making their shields), meeting with a friend, and saying a few prayers along the way.  I guess the big guy reminded me, to do what I can, where I can to build his kingdom.  So I better get a little busier!

-ehw

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