My Aunt Lisa is a home healthcare worker. She goes to people's homes who need help with all kinds of different things and helps them and gives their families a break. As much as I'm not a fan of Matthew Kelly, he says that "finding your genius" should be a goal in life. My Aunt has definitely done this. All the people she helps absolutely love her, and she is amazing at what she does. Not many people could do what she does - I know I couldn't. Anyway, she takes care of three old priests at the monastery where we stayed and my mom, Aunt Pat, and Madeleine and I got to meet them. One was Father Tom. He just turned 100 years old and he's been at St. Bernard's since he was 15. He was a monk first and then a priest. He takes care of all the archives and he knows everything about that place. He's known all but one of the Abbots, and he knew Father Joseph, the priest who built the Ave Maria grotto. He was really happy to meet us, and gave us all a blessing in Latin. Then we went to meet Father Ignatius. He couldn't see, and Madeleine was so quiet that he didn't know she was there. I asked him to pray for her and he touched her leg and gave her a blessing. He said he would pray for me too! The third priest promised to pray for her too. Now she has three holy priests praying for her.
When we left, Lisa promised to bring them all a slice of pumpkin pie in the morning, and that made their day. We got to walk around part of the monastery, including the library. We saw a really old music book that was made of sheepskin and was hand written by the monks about 100 years ago, as well as a beautiful, hand embroidered vestment.
I loved visiting the priests and seeing the monastery. I hope that Madeleine grows up with a love of priests and sisters, and of course our faith as well!
4 comments:
Oh she surely will with such a wonderful mother as an example!
funny you mention matthew kelly. i just heard a talk on cd by him and inenjoyed. can i ask why you aren't a fan?
My college roommate dated Matthew Kelly for a time, and he came to our dorm a few times and called often. He's a pleasant guy in person, but I've actually never even heard him speak professionally or read one of his books.
I know what you mean about having our kids exposed to holy priests and religious. I love having priest friends over to dinner or seeing them and having them recognize our boys. Since Bill was in the seminary, he has friends who are now priests, and I'm so happy that our boys to get to know them. We also lived with a priest for three summers, and he has become a good family friend. I think it's good for them, too, to have contact with Catholic families in their homes. Everyone wins.
Sorry I didn't mean to start anything about MK :)
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