Two First Communions & Two Baptisms!

Living a Catholic life within the family is a beautiful thing. It is the anchor that everything pivots on. So what joy is found in two more saints entering the Church Militant and two children receiving Our Lord for the very first time!

In the past two months we have experienced both. So I though you would enjoy the gallery….

Magdalen, Jeanette and Mike’s little girl, received her First Holy Communion 2 weeks before the rest of the children in the parish. Their family was making a trip to Lourdes and so they would be gone for the actual First Communion day. What a special day for Magdalen as she was also able to crown Our Lady, also!

Maria and Megan, sister-in-law and cousin to Jeanette and Margy’s husbands, made the First Communion dress. Gin made Magdalen a beautiful First Communion apron and Margy made the cake.

Dominic and Sarah’s, Rita, received her First Communion with the other children at the Parish.

Pictures of the party are at the bottom of this stack.

Gin had a rough end of pregnancy. This is her eleventh baby. Her hemoglobin was too low and she was not responding to the many things she was taking to boost her iron. So she ended up in the hospital getting iron infusions.

Her birth experience was not typical either. They are usually fast and furious. This one, she ended up being transferred from the Birth Center to the hospital. There, she was still able to have the baby naturally.

How happy we all were when Mom and Baby (Liliana Therese) came out of the experience unscathed!

Margy and Dave’s baby, Little Giorgio Anthony, was born 2 weeks ago. Everything went fine.

Margy has her hands full. Sean is three and she has three littles now! Blessings and sacrifices abound!

Beautiful Blessed Mother Our Lady Wire Wrapped Rosary! Lovely, Durable ~ Available here.

Each link is handmade and wrapped around itself to ensure quality.

Solitude and Silence: The Cloister of the Heart ~ Available here.

What can the lay person learn from the life of a monk? Solitude and Silence are two pillars of monastic life that many people quickly point to as the hardest and most confusing parts of this kind of religious consecration. However, the great spiritual writer Thomas à Kempis, author of The Imitation of Christ, helps us to understand that all Christians are called to some solitude and silence in our lives while not taking on a complete eremitical life. He recommends the systematic and intentional incorporation of solitude and silence in a manner which is consistent with each one’s vocation and state of life.

It is important for us to cultivate these two habits in order to enter into contemplation and conversation with God. This vision of God may also be experienced (to varying degrees) even in this world, through the grace of contemplative prayer. And silence and solitude are the hallowed doors through which one must pass to arrive at this delightful and serene state of holy contemplation.

$5 SALE!! Excellent Book! How to Be Happy, How to Be Holy, Father Paul O’Sullivan ~ Available here.

Everyone wants to be happy. While not everyone wants to be holy, we all should—especially because this is the surest way to become happy. Christ Himself gave us very clear directions on how to be happy when He sat down and pronounced the Beatitudes. Since then, all the Saints have sought to follow the advice of their Divine Creator and Redeemer in the way of true joy.

In How to Be Happy; How to Be Holy, mainstay author Fr. Paul O’Sullivan offers guidance on how to achieve both sanctity and happiness, showing how the two go hand in hand. Providing lovely anecdotes from the lives of the Saints, Fr. O’Sullivan shows us in a warm, encouraging, and inspiring way the importance of prayer and the ease with which we can all derive great benefits therefrom. While not yet Saints ourselves, we will surely make it there following the advice of this little book. Among the contents are expositions on all the major prayers (and some lesser-known ones), explanations of the Mass, meditations on the mysteries of the Rosary, and more. This book is a pocket method for approaching heaven and thus true happiness.

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