The Lights are on...and my Girl is coming Lord

A glorious vigil here tonight. Kellie Marie, our fourth child prepares to receive Christ tomorrow for the first time. I hope soon the whole church reopens fully so we can get back to receiving the food which nourishes our eternal souls. The Lord is lonely for far to long. He calls for us, he searches for us, he nourishes us. We should have never left him so alone. I am so proud to go with our Kellie Marie and take her to meet the Lord.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Pray for us.

-ehw

Faith, Hope, Charitas- A Photo Essay

In the darkest of times...where people keep faith in God they will find hope he placed in our hearts by the same God to do the works of charitas needed to build a foothold of his kingdom on earth, and earn entrance to his kingdom in eternal life.

If we loose the faith...the darkest of times becomes a very dark eternity without hope, and a complete isolation of self from others and our creator.

-ehw

Living Memories of a Good Priest

    God blesses us from time to time with people in our lives who call us out and inspire us to new heights of growth.  My son, and family, were blessed to know Father Austin Fogarty at St. Thomas Aquinas Church from 2012 until his death.  My Kevin would never allow Father Austin to leave the church without a high five during the procession.  In 2016, two years after Father passed, my son went to cry some more at his graveside.

   It was therefore a great deal of happiness yesterday, we were able to enjoy a good bit of Father Austin's handiwork at St. George Parish in Newnan, Georgia.  Based on what Father did at St. Thomas Aquinas to repair and beautify the sanctuary, we could feel his handiwork all over the church.  We even found notes to the parish sacristan with reminders for care of chalices with his name on it.

    It made me ponder how our material works can still help the living after our passing.  I realize we cannot take anything material with us beyond the grave.  However, if what we build with our hands and hearts is rooted in God's Law we can leave a living memorial capable of inspiration far beyond our death to generations beyond.  I know this was true here, because my Kevin shed no tears yesterday.  He instead marveled at the works of this fatherly priest, and how he urged him to live a life for Christ.

   So today we will pray for our beloved friend and priest, Father Austin Fogarty.  I pray he finds himself wrapped in the love of Jesus, at rest from his pains endured here on earth.  While we miss you, we will not let that selfishness keep us from living as you asked us to here on earth with the people of God.

Vocations Prayers Please!

    This weekend the 9AM needed a volunteer family to take home an older chalice, called the Elijah Cup, and put it in a prominent place in the home.  Every time we see it, we should be praying for an increase in responses to vocation calls from Christ. 

   Well the kids asked and jumped into the isle...as another family further up and on the side also went up.  To make it even more interesting a family up front, good friends of ours, also started to leap up and then stopped.  We did not see the Deacon motion to the family to our right so we kept charging down the isle...so the six of us kept walking to the delight and laughter of the parish on collision course with the other family!

   As we saw the other family come into view ahead of us, we sheepishly turned about.  We were headed back to our pew for the dismissal rite when we heard a booming voice...."Wait we have another one!"  from Father John Bosco Tri.  So we went on up and accepted the cup he held!

   I don't think Father Tri was going to let us go.  See Father Tri and my John Paul already had a little talk.  Father Tri offered John Paul use of his vestments two weeks ago....he seems pretty sure my JP will join him soon.  (JP is only 22 months old right now so they are a little big on him.)

   The serious side of all this is however, we need everyone to respond deeply to their vocation call.  God does not stop issuing vocation calls.  The problem is we just don't respond as we should primarily due to fear. Fear of giving ourselves away totally to God's design, fear of the reaction to our family, fear of the ridicule the world will put on us for being "old fashioned", or even fear of not knowing a safe place to begin the journey.

   The result is a horrible vacuum.  One priest for thousands of families, and the loss of nuns to build social networks of schools and services all mean the Body of Christ does not get the care it needs.  A loss of religious vocations means families suffer as well, because trained religious are not there to nourish with sacraments, knowledge of sacramentals, and caring hands.  The carnage does not end there though with the failure to heed our vocations. 

    How many fathers are afraid to lead their domestic church towards God? How many mothers are not bringing the heart of Christ into the daily routines of family life with courage?  Without true fatherhood and maternal care, the fires of vocation will merely smolder in our souls.  Never will the vocation fire burn bright for either task God could give us.  All this leads to greater pain for the body of Christ as marriages suffer, sacraments go under offered and utilized, and churches close. 

    Recently I read how Mother Teresa understood her spiritual darkness to be her participation in the pain Christ has when we reject his cry of thirst to add our soul to his.  Imagine how we could soothe Jesus suffering if we all began to encourage children to become religious if they receive the call?  On their journey to discernment, we parents would need to grow in our faith as well since we are their first teachers.  A testament to this growth of faith, would be the rejection of the contraceptive movement, and the growth of larger families once again in Catholic households.   From larger families historically come greater the number of vocations.  This occurs since boys and girls do not feel the subconscious need to ensure there is an heir for the family name, or someone to care for parents in old age.

   So pray for a great response to the vocations God sends us at any time in our lives! 

Here is a short prayer for vocations I found:

O Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge, understanding, and counsel to youth that they may know the vocation wherein they can best serve God. Give them courage and strength to follow God's holy will. Guide their uncertain steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion their minds, conquer their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they will labor in God's holy service.
Amen.

From EWTN: Click here to see the original

My understanding of Religious Art

      Over the last few years I found myself learning more and more of my faith...yet with each lesson I realized my understanding of faith is barely out of its infancy.  I can grasp a concept, but to know the precise details will escape me for many years to come.  I am not worried though, it just means each day I can explore a little more.  I also take heed of St Thomas Aquinas vision...what we understand and can percieve here can do no justice to what the reality of what the Divine Law really is.

    So if we can only see a glimpse of heaven in anything we think or create, I think religious art should reflect that.  Eastern Rite Catholic churches have incredible icons which follow this very basic premise.  What we see is not to be hyper realistic, but rather a starting point to enter the mystery presented.  From this entry point in meditation, you can explore the rest of the story and its application in your life and its journey towards heaven.

    Take this photo for example.  A hyper realistic photo here would draw no interest.  It was washed out, a simple statue in front of a church.  There was however much more to its story if you cared to look for it.  In the editing I found the amazing light and shadow contrast.  I vignetted the photo to draw the eyes into my message, I knew the subject matter was an angel or a messenger of God and it just fit.  I removed some color to make it timeless, since angels are timeless creatures.  The contrast of the man made wall and green plants made me think of the leading Rosary mystery of that Friday...Mary why do you look here in a tomb for the living?

    The scene before me became the pathway to a deeper meditation on something far bigger than I will ever be able to comprehend on earth through the creation of and review of Catholic religious art.  One added bonus in all of this was I needed to quiet my mind to the world's distractions to see this.  In the silence, is where God can speak to our souls, and where we need to spend some of our time each day.  So I got my silence, my thought and my created art.

    This is what making and viewing Catholic religious art should do for you...at least from my little spot on this earth.

-ehw

Points of Grace and Wisdom

    If we believe the Bible, God's Grace and Wisdom abound on this earth.  We also know God pronounced humanity good at our creation.  So what keeps us from finding these two tools needed to help us navigate the world in harmony with the Father's will if our nature is inherently good?  We all know it is the noise of the world preventing us from finding God in the silence of our own hearts and lives.

    Noise comes in many forms.  Lack of sleep, too much TV, too much Facebook, illness, threats to our livelihood and our families just to name a few.  The challenge to quiet the noise requires solutions unique to our individual identities.  For introverts prayer will come easy.  For sanguine temperaments simply standing still long enough for grace and wisdom settle in your life may be the challenge of a lifetime.  For melancholics not falling into despair when challenges smack your life may be the constantly renewed roadblock of a lifetime.    

   For each person there is a solution though.  It just takes the time and dedication to find it.  The examples of saintly and holy lives abound in history, and even in modern times.  We just have to look for them.  Then when found we have to take the next step and act to apply the lessons in our own lives.

   In the quiet of quite a few vacation timed desert morning walks, I was able to quiet my mind enough to get to church on a weekday for mass and confession.  It was wonderful.  The grace and wisdom revealed saved me once again from wrongheaded paths.  I know I will need to seek yet more grace and wisdom for many a coming storm, but it was reassuring as always a minor miracle appeared when needed.

   I hope you find your path to points of grace and wisdom today as well.

-ehw

The 18th Anniversary

    Time flies and it lies. 

    It seems like yesterday I went out for an easy five mile run with my cousin David, showered up and put on my blues ensured these rings were tucked in with my brother Karl and we went off to the church to meet two priests (who are like brothers to me) to get married before God and family.  I remember the door swinging open and my soon to be Father-in-Law smirking at me saying "I loved her first." The whirlwind day of photos, holding hands, being the focus of attention wore my bride and I out.  I remember thinking of the marriage being about the two of us, swearing fidelity to each other before God.  

    Today I started with rescuing John Paul (child number five) from his crib at 4:55AM, resting a few more minutes and then going for a laborious 2.9 mile run (every tenth counts now).  On coming home I see three boys doing chores and enjoying each other's company.  Two girls and a momma fast asleep...and I think...wow a lot happened in eighteen years.  Soon we'll make a doctor's visit and I'll be off to work for the rest of the day.

    Nothing could symbolize the massive change and frozen time better than our wedding bands.  Nicked, bumped, worn smoother, worn 24/7 and still as strong as when new.  If possible, they might even defy the laws of physics and be stronger now than ever before.  It is almost like the rings adapted with us to experience, trial by fire, success, failures, responsibilities and the love of children we're blessed with.

    I love my Carrie Anne, and I truly think no one else in the world would put up with me like she does.  Her wisdom is sound, and heart warm.  This warm heart powers our family, and keeps us on track.  The self sacrificing love Carrie displays with each child she carries is simply heroic.  The nine month sickness and long recovery she fights through each time has to count for something good when see meets our Lord one day!  She is pretty cute too!

   More than loving her alone, I love the "us" our marriage creates.  Our constant lessons of agape love, brought by the opportunity to be a family, allow us to bring Christ into our family everyday.  Mastering these lessons provides the spark I see in couples married and happy at 25, 40 and 50 years.  This is the love which should inspire us all to holy matrimony for life, grows healthy families, and shows us how to claw our way towards heaven through better and worse a fallen world provides.

    I know we have so much more to face in our lives.  The world is right now in a tremendous crisis of faith, and needs Christ more than ever.  I write this not to boast, but to help others see the way to heaven through Holy Matrimony and its foretaste of heaven.  I had a friend who said he was surrounded by friends with failed marriages, and was scared to become married out of fear generated by those failures.  

    I told him what I now know is true...seek out those who succeeded.  Learn the lessons of the happy 40-50 year marriages, and put them into your heart.  Learn sacrificial love, and seek one who wants to give of themselves without limit as your partner.  Pray over everything, and keep Christ front and center in your family life...he will guide you through the tough times which will come.

    So today pray for us, pray for your marriages, and pray for those who need to find peace in self to make either a vocational commitment to marriage or holy orders.  It is the best gift we could give the world!

Capturing the Glory of our Spiritual Dawn

    When I saw this windmill I could see the outline, but not the details.  The vast contrast between the bright rising sun and the shadow side of the windmill also deprived my eyes of fine color detail.  My brain knew what was before me, but my senses could not grasp all the details as the wind gently started moving the blades and changing the scene.  

    I looked into the scene and then began to think of our spiritual lives.  We first know the world as it exists around us with natural light and law.  When God's light falls on the land the contrast between the right and wrong becomes distinct.  What we thought before of our environment will radically change if we embrace God's law as our spiritual dawn arises.

    This is the key moment in the transition between dawn to day in our spiritual lives.  If we accept God's law over us, the light will continue to grow into full day.  If we decide to follow man's law alone, we'll need to wait for the street lamps to come on to make sense of the world.  Street lamps are no substitute for God's light.

    Even with embracing God's Law bringing on our spiritual day, our earthly minds will never see the world as clearly as God sees it.  We will, however, be gifted with the knowledge and graces needed to avoid pitfalls if we ask for them with heart, mind and soul.  If we grasp the offered graces, sacraments, and penance we have a better chance to stay on the path to heaven.  

    If we obtain the prize of heaven through the gift of God's mercy, we will one day see as God sees.  The outlines will suddenly become full of detail, the high contrast will yield brilliant color, and the slightest breeze will be noticed and appreciated.  

   Sounds good to me...

-ehw

Photo Essay: Connecting to the Christ Child's Heart

    At the center of the plaza in front of the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament is the statue of the Child Jesus extending his Sacred Heart towards us.  The heart of a child, broken of it's innate narcism, recognizes the blessings Christ brings to us in some moment of silence.  For most of us, those childhood moments form the closest and purest connections to God we will ever have.  it is the closest we will ever come to touching the Sacred Heart of our Lord.  

    The reason is once we leave the narcism free window of youth, our lives get busy.  Our lives fill with noise and competition needed survive in the adult world.  The moments of peace needed to connect to God in the manger, at the Sermon on the Mount, on his cross, or arising from the dead in his glorious triumph over death get crowded out on the clock.  The devil uses our fallen world to challenge your attempts at connection to Christ using trials to us at work, his mocking us when our children go astray, or physical ailments used fogging our mind and blocking reception of God's treasures bestowed on us.

    We should not lament on this spiritual torment.  We must accept it, and revel in the few moments of childlike joy we do get when our hearts open to the Lord.  We must treasure those moments as a triumph over the forces of Satan, and know this constant spiritual battle is the one the Lord encourages us to have.  A heart constantly striving for the Lord is one which never leaves faith or hope aside, and provides a path where charity can flower.

    See the striving heart, the one cutting through the distractions of the world, is a mature heart seeking Jesus Sacred Heart.  The striving heart completes the circle of spiritual life for those blessed with a childhood connection to the Lord.  See if charity flows through your heart to others, you again stripped yourself of narcism like you did as a child.  In the charitable acts you will build not just a moment of joy, but the potential for an eternity of heavenly joy with Christ.

-ehw

P.S. Thanks to Mom for the inspiration for this blog post!

The Harvest of Salvation

    Many modern Catholic theologians, and clergy, assert the world’s population has a reasonable assumption of reaching heaven.  This theological viewpoint by nature runs over quite quickly into how they interact with the world through preaching, parish life and politics.  Although I am just a novice in understanding grand theological ideas; the assumption cannot be true due to conflicts with sacred scripture, Church Fathers teaching, and natural law.

    We are created in the image of God and built to share in knowledge and the life of God (CCC356).  Our capacity to do so however depends on each of us freely choosing to offer back to God all of the creation he provided to us (CCC358).  The stain of original sin on our nature makes it impossible to do be completely intimate with God without constant reliance on our Lord’s sacraments and teaching (CCC 402-406).  This results in the “hard battle…” of life in the real world where one who lives in ignorance of man’s wounded nature “gives rise to serious error in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals.”(CCC407)

    Our Lord also clearly repeats this theme in scripture through his parables.  In the parable of the sower we find all the seed is good.  The seed just lands on different ground.  The seed only thrives when it can find enriching soil and few external dangers.  Some ground is easily fertile, some is fertile but full of thorns, and some falls on rocky infertile soil.  The end result is two thirds of the seed yields very little healthy wheat.  Meanwhile the fertile soil thrives with the fewest plant failures.  The moral of the story becomes the minority of people grow into wheat the Father takes into heaven.

    Now the great philosopher would reply, any man can have their own faith in God which generates hope.  The same person could then use their intellect, and observations of nature to do good works of charity for others.   So therefore the scripture, tradition and sacraments are not required for assumption into heaven for eternal life.  So therefore reasonably people can assume God has a wide entrance to everyone to obtain heaven.

    The philosopher would err however in his final assessment.  By relying solely on our own intellect for decisions, we in fact prevent ourself from submitting our intellect to the will of God.    This fact, in and of itself, means the person living alone is not ready to become one with God.   No being ready to form complete union with almighty God prevents us from obtaining the gifts of heaven.  Giving back everything to God includes submitting all of our intellect to the words and commands of Jesus for introspection.  

    The lone person also becomes one against the fallen world, with all of its physical and spiritual dangers. With no community in which to find refuge from hostile forces, the lone person must fight alone and will be unaided by the wisdom of others on their quest for heaven.  So at the end of the lone journeyman’s life, it will not be a final chance to beg for God’s mercy (which those who submitted our lives before hand may possibly receive).  It would be a complete act of mercy from God to grant mercy to someone who did not submit completely to his rule, and is still defiantly saying they are their own judge on matters of faith and morals.

    We have scriptural evidence for this when Jesus himself tells Saul his work of persecuting christians hurt his body, and he needed to change.  Saul becomes the Apostle Paul, and every day begged for mercy he did not deserve.  Paul submitted his teachings, and service to the guidance of the other apostles in Jerusalem to insure their continuity with those of the remainder of Christ’s body.  Paul celebrated the eucharist with the rest of the church as daily nourishment for his journey.  Paul did this because the Body of Christ on earth was the church, and its sacraments is God’s life blood poured forth to the nourishment of the individuals in that body.

    If men as great as St Paul and other church fathers realized how thin the path to heaven was, then the historical and theological evidence clearly comes down against a “reasonable assumption” for each person to reach heaven.  It is time to recognize how this carefree attitude hurts moral decision making in our daily lives and the governance of our church.  If we recognize the real rocky path towards heaven, maybe we’ll re-acquire the missionary zeal of those first christians once again.

-ehw

We must preach with words

    You also are blessed because you have heard and believed. A soul that believes both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and acknowledges his works.    A Commentary of Luke by St Ambrose Bishop, Divine Office 21 Dec

    A common phase we hear today is the St Francis saying of "Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words."  In our overly politically correct culture, we get bombarded with messages saying words of evangelization offend people and turn them off to the faith.  So any way out of explaining or evangelizing with words, is actually welcomed by those of us who fret we may not have all the tools to evangelize properly.   Giving into this fear however will not promote the gospel in anyway.

    Our early church fathers recognized all people can see natural law, and form lives which conform to it.  Natural law in this case being defined as the revelation of the Eternal Law of heaven in nature.  Aristotle, aka The Philosopher, remains one of the foremost pagan observers of natural law.  We find Aristotle referenced constantly by St. Thomas Aquinas and other Doctors of the Church as they framed their arguments about church doctrine.

   Despite the brilliance of observation by natural law observers, they often found themselves going astray because they lacked one vital element to guide their daily reasoning.  While these observers could see God's eternal law peeking out in nature, they lacked the other two legs of the trinity to guide their minds to full truth.  These men and women lacked the words of Christ, and the timeless inspired words of Wisdom gifted by the Holy Spirit we find in the Holy Bible.

    In today's man filled world of noise, the Bible must compete for time in people's thoughts.  Therefore, God really does call each each of us to advertise for him.  Our actions must of course be consistent with our thoughts and words (That is another blog topic), but we need to use words to form the invitation to know this Holy Bible is worthy of spending time with it!

    We do not need to be be a St. Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas, Mother Teresa, or John Paul the Great.  We just need to live our lives, and then make the invitation to come to the book when the moment strikes.  When someone asks you why you were kind you can say, "Because I want to live as Christ wanted me to."  When someone is in need of support, or looking for guidance on a tough moral decision you can always offer to pray with them or for them.  

    When we don't know the answer to anything we are asked, we have legions of saints writings and active religious to reach for.  These faithful instructors to illuminate the word in different methods.  This allows the word to reach, and touch the souls, of those with different backgrounds and cultural references.

    Actions alone will never satisfy the soul's need for ministry.  We must preach with words to bring the word of God deep into people's hearts and minds.  This is where the mysteries can make a stronghold.  It will let new faith stand the tests of the world like a fire against a cold night with equal parts emotion and reason.

-ehw

Go home to Christ with the Holy Family

       Some of my favorite meditations during the Rosary focus on the Holy Family.  I find many lessons in their lives, mostly unsaid, which help us understand how we need to live our lives in this fallen world.  When God gave them each a unique mission for our salvation, each member of the family did as requested.  Take in a bride and adopt a baby as your own...St Joseph check.  Flee to Egypt and leave EVERYTHING behind in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT...Check.  Watch your child die on the cross, innocent of everything except being our just and holy savior...check.

    In our faith community of Regina Caeli Academy we had two mothers pass away during the past month in Texas.  One from cancer, and the other suddenly during delivery of her third child.  Each woman left behind a family lead my faithful men of the church.  For them I pray the example of the Holy Family provides a path to continued holiness, and reunion in heaven.     These husbands had strong families of faith, and now face a period where they may feel the heat and cold of a desert journey until they reach safety of peace in understanding the will of God.  In some ways it reminds me of Joseph and Mary as they carried their child Jesus to from Bethlehem to Egypt and back to Nazareth.  A long journey which must occur under the guidance of faith to succeed.

    As we gather for Thanksgiving, remember families like these two around the country.  Pray the light of Christ stays strong in them and their children.  May it be lit by their desire to obtain the graces of heaven, and rejoin their mother in eternal life.  It should be a prayer for all of us as well.  God wants us all to come home.

-ehw

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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Once Upon a Dream

    When you give my girl music, a dress and a light saber you get a whole new version of the Saber Dance!  She takes after her big sister who as I type is spinning in the kitchen as she loads up her breakfast cereal.   All children at some point need to enter the real world, but for now I love keeping them safe to dream and play in a wholesome way.

-ehw

The Prayerbook made for you!

   Do you need someone to pray with you?  For you?  The prayerbook above is meant for you! 

    How did this happen?  (This is the hardest post I've composed over the last four years!)

    In 2014, after much introspection, I realized a need for more consistent personal prayer in my life.  Prayer with God needs to happen in good times, meditative times, times of discernment as well as times of need.  A year ago I failed in most of those areas by being hit or miss.  On cue, God sent my son to me with a book about St. Dominic and the rosary.  A year of growth started in earnest as I devoured the book.  As I wrapped up the first year of work, I noted progress in many areas and several continued shortfalls.

    Prayer from others literally kept me upright following our two 2014 miscarriages.  Since then I made it a point to let others in need know I will pray for them as well.  The opportunity to pray with others had two incredibly powerful moments this past year.  One with close friends as we prayed over their sick child in the ICU.  The other was with a co-worker recovering from a heart attack in a different ICU.  In the second case it was special as we prayed with his wife and another friend from work.  

    I know God was listening, and I am grateful he supported full recovery for both requests.  I don't want to sound crazy, but God's grace was so present in each moment I was shaking afterwards.  The realization God was amongst us in those moments, tending to his children, left me feeling rather meek.

     This year I wanted to be more consistent in fulfilling prayer requests as they came in.  So I picked up a spiritual diary to catalog the requests over the next year.

    I publicly announced this year's prayer campaign on St Dominic's feast day at John Paul's baptism. Current requests recorded so far include needs of friends for their parents, the manager of a transmission repair center fighting liver and pancreatic cancer, young men discerning their future vocation, our school's success at its mission, a friend's child with the same risks my wife had in pregnancy, a young priest at his parish, a new widow and her family, and two co-workers with heart ailments to mention just a few.   I also have some for people who never asked, but just have an obvious need for someone to requests God's intercession on their behalf.

    Each night I review the prayer requests, hold it close, and pray for those inside.

    Prayer is the only thing I can do for most people I know in need.  I have no worldly riches, and little spare time in my days to travel and be with the many I know in need. 

    So you can see, this prayerbook is for you.  Please help me direct my prayers to God to help you, and I what I pray will be our collective journey to sainthood in the Kingdom of God.

-ehw

P.S.  Reply to the post, shoot me an email or better yet give me a call!  I'll add you to the prayer rolls!

Enjoying Moments...a Large Family Blessing

    The vast majority of people outside our little homeschooling community think we were nuts for rejoicing on the possibility of a fifth child in our family.  I could not disagree more with the majority.

    The Bible described children as a blessing, and large families were a reward from God.  Nowhere in the Bible does a large family equal a curse.  I would agree having a large family however can present a challenge from time to time!  So far nothing I've faced is insurmountable, just a great set of challenges.

    With the arrival of child number five, good young John Paul, I look forward to enjoying one more round of moments like this one above.  I have the seasoning of parenthood four times before to know snuggling with my baby on the couch, in between diaper changes, is one brief moment in time.  The only moment in which I get to love my son with these cuddles.  In a few years, he will be all boy and want to wrestle the old man into submission!  

     I received five wonderful sets of moments like this.  I am looking forward more good times ahead, with the full knowledge valleys of darkness will exist as well.  It is all part of the large family blessing I behold day in and out.

-ehw

P.S. Photo credit to my favorite assistant Carrie Wojtkun who caught me sleeping on the job!  I did all the post processing for her!

Faith of our Fathers

    This past Saturday we had the privilege to baptism our son John Paul in the faith of our forefathers.  I am happy to know the faith in scripture and tradition handed down from the Apostles themselves resides in all of our children.

Acts: 38-39

38 'You must repent,' Peter answered, 'and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God is calling to himself.'

    Now back to living the faith, and striving to be the example and teacher our children God needs me to be.   Thank God for family, friends, reconciliation, Holy Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit to help us meet the mission.

-ehw

P.S.  Yes it is hard to hand over the camera....but sometimes you have to live the moment. 

Boys by Fireworks

    Boys like their summers filled with wonder and awe...and this year both found fulfillment in home based fireworks over the Fourth of July!  If you remember your childhood, I bet it was moments like this you remember for a lifetime.  I know memories like this are seared in my mind!

-ehw

P.S. Always a challenging shoot when darkness is involved, and you will not use the flash.  The rewards for catching the special moment of light are immense.