Church Conversations
If you’re like me, you may often wonder…”How have we come to this?” There is so much destruction, war, evil, cancer, politics, hurt, and a million of other things that, if we’re not careful, could cause us to lose all hope and to enter into a state of despair. It’s a slippery slope as they say. One may even state, “Maybe I just won’t have kids? Who wants to bring kids into a broken world like this?” I’ve thought and uttered these same words before, but from one Christian mama to another, what happens when the Christians stop having babies? There will be no one raising their babies in the ways of truth and light that keep despair away and hope alive.
The point of this article is to bring it back to basics. How do we teach our children to love God and to follow Christ? Well if you know the sure fire answer, please do tell. (lol) What I’ll do for myself and all of you is to tell you some of our stories and “Church conversations”.
My husband and I are both strong members and believers of the Catholic faith. We are true Christians first and everything else second. Naturally we are walking together on this hopefully path of holiness, and we are determined to get each other and our babies to Heaven. Where do we start with this? Sunday mass together! The family who prays together, stays together, right? Well I’m the first to agree with you, bringing babies to church is not always a rocking good time, and our supposed prayer time is spent in the bathroom or outside where spankings may occur. But every once in a while, there’s a moment of true clarity and a little nugget of teaching that happens. As we were gathering our family towards a pew entering into church (naturally late), Adeline (3) starts asking “Am I going to get a white blessing?” Confused, Vic and I look at each other; white blessing? After a few minutes and a several repetitions by a persistent little girl, we came to the conclusion that she is asking if she will be able to receive Holy Communion, a physical “white blessing”. Our hearts melted and she was very displeased to learn that she would not be able to receive a white blessing until she made her 1st Holy Communion. Not a good answer for a 3 year old as it was followed with 10+ Whys, but how applicable is it to life?
Lord, will you just let me receive this [insert prayer intention here] aka white blessing? Can you please heal my mother? Will you please let me get that promotion? Will you please let us have a baby? And a million other things we can request. While we often think His answer may be No, what if His answer is “Wait”? Just like we told Adeline who was so pleading in her request; she wasn’t told No forever, only no you must wait.
Human nature, especially now is geared towards instant gratification i.e. instant download, direct deposit, add to cart and ship overnight, but God to a Christian states “Wait. My ways are greater than your ways, and My timing is perfect.” (or however He words it). We are called to be pillars of constant hope amidst the fallen world in which we are living. And Vic and I are trying to listen. To listen and to soak up every little bit of these special and holy “Church Conversations.” More to come…stigmata/mascara, and green/brown crown of thorns
