I hope all of you had as great an Easter as I did!
Mary and I attended the Saturday night Easter Vigil Service at Holy Family Catholic Church. If you have never attended this Easter Service, I urge you to do so next year. Regardless of your religious denomination, Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, any other kind of Christian, or Jewish, you will find this service inspirational, exciting, and long. It lasts two and a half hours, but I would attend every Saturday night if it were available.
As much as I liked the Service, I do not intend to write about it, but I do want to relate a few words from Fr. Joe’s Homily. “Most of us are crucified between two crosses,” he said. “The cross of regret about the past and the cross of fear of the future.” Then he spoke about dealing with these two crosses.
The following day I saw a young man of 18 whose dad died suddenly and unexpectedly some 9-10 years ago. The following year his mother had a nervous breakdown and was declared unable to care for her two young children. The kids began living in a series of foster homes. When he was 15 he and his little sister were adopted by a new family. The best part of the story is they “lived happily ever after”, at least they were still happy when I met him.
Let me say this was a wonderful young man! Smart, well spoken, well groomed, church going, friendly, happy, all the things you would want your son to be. When I congratulated him for qualifying for the USAF I added how happy I was to have been able to spend a few minutes getting to know him and how proud I would be if he were my son. “You haven’t exactly had a story book childhood, but you sure have turned out great!”
He smiled, shook my had and said, “I cried a lot, but I can’t worry about what happened in the past, I just look forward to being in the Air Force and making a difference!”
“Take good care of yourself,” I cautioned. “So you can take good care of us. And keep us free! That’s your job, you know. I think you’re up to it! I know you are!”
He thanked me, gave me a big, bear hug and, as they used to say in story books, went off to seek his fortune.
How blessed we are to have such men dedicated to keeping us free. I pray each day that I can be worthy of his protection.
Happy belated Easter.
Oh, remember to find an Easter Vigil to attend next Easter! Guarantee you’ll love it!