Yesterday was International Women’s Day. At least that’s what came over the radio as I drove. My mind started free-floating…International Women’s Day? Is there an International Men’s Day (don’t be silly)… then I started thinking of Pancakes and a big stack of them…then I realized it was the first Friday of Lent and I really should fast. But they weren’t beef pancakes!
Back to the women…It dawned on me how blessed I have been by women in my life. As a child I was educated by women religious for three different orders. Each were incredible and gifted. The Siters of St. Joseph, Mercy and St. Benedict each gave me a love of learning and a love of God. To this day, the incredible explanation of the Eucharist by Sr. Mary Alice Reed, SSJ (RIP) when I was in eigth grade was leaps and bounds over the Roman Seminary! The names Pena, Knox, Hovis, Mooney, Emling, Helinsky and the formitable Miss Maxwell (Mullen) are etched in my memory — each helped bring out something in me that I could not see.
There is one woman, above all, who introduced me to the most important reality in my life…my Mother. Why? Not only did she give me life, she introduced me to Jesus Christ and Faith in Him. She gave me something greater than life. She gave me faith that leads to eternal life! Some years ago I realized that it was my mother who introduced me to Jesus. She taught me to pray. She told me more about following Him in how she faced the joys and sufferings of life. She practiced what she loved…God. I would not know Jesus without her. I wrote her a letter of thanks…that was 22 years ago.
Two questions:
Who introduced you to Christ? (THANK THEM!) Who or how are you introducing Christ to others? (DO IT…if necessary say something! –St. Francis.)
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved…. But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent?…Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
Romans 10: 9-17
Momma Bird with her favorite son! (Take that Matt, Charlie and Freddie! Mary you are safe!)