Another Beautiful Sunday!!

<sup>It has turned into a little bit of a pattern now. I go to church on Sunday and feel inspired. I have found the past few Sundays' homilies are what I have written about, so maybe I will try and continue this as "Spiritual Sunday" or "Sunday's Sermons". Maybe the name needs some work, so send me a comment with suggestions please!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Catholic faith, I will give a little back ground for this post. Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that the Catholics "Worship" Mary. I want to make it clear that the only "people" we worship are God and Jesus. We use our saints, including Mary, as roll models, people to look up to and strive to be like. We also ask them to pray for us; we pray THROUGH the saints not TO the saints. The best way to explain it is when I ask you to pray for me; that is what we do to the saints, we ask for their intercession.

Mary is the church's mother figure and today we celebrated the feast of the Assumption. The Assumption is when Mary was brought up into heaven body and soul. Today was a "Two for One Special". Feast days such as today is considered a holy day of obligation. If a holy day falls on a weekday, we are expected to attend mass that day as well as Sunday. Since the Assumption fell on a Sunday this year, we only had to attend today. It was like hitting the Catholic Lottery!! During today's sermon the priest brought up some points that hit close to home.

Can you imagine, Mary probably had her life planned out. She had met this amazing man, Joseph, that she wanted to marry. She may have wanted to just live a quiet life on a sheep farm with her husband and a few kids. All of the sudden she is approached by an angel and he tells her that her plans for the future are going to completely change. She is going to be pregnant, and not by the man she has fallen in love with. She will carry God's child. It would be hard enough to explain carrying another man's child, but try and convince someone that you are still a virgin and carrying GOD's child. She had to have been terrified. That was just the immediate future. What she did not realize is that her life would be full of hardships. She would have to witness the torture and death of her own child. There would be moments of fear, sorrow, and doubt. Then she would spend the rest of her time on earth continuing his work before being rewarded with eternity in heaven. Her response to the angel was ""I am the Lord's Servant, may it be done to me as you have said." (Luke1:38)

That is so inspirational. If only we could all embrace the unexpected in our lives as Mary did, the good, the bad and the ugly. Look deep inside yourself. Would you have responded to the angel the same way? I probably would have told him to stop pulling my leg and then I would be looking for the "Candid Camera" guy's hiding spot. I cannot honestly say I would have responded with as much faith and certainty as she did.

My life has had it's ups and down. I have wondered why I have had to go through some of the things I have, abusive relationships, money problems, and now the loss of my daughter. I may not have an angel telling me what my future holds, but I will trust that maybe there is a greater reason for all of this. Lord, I am your servant also, and let it be done onto me as you want.

I had the honor of spending some time with one of Foster's soldier's family today. While the men worked on Foster's brakes, I hung out with his wife. After talking with her for a while and watching them, I realized that they have such a wonderful marriage and a beautiful family. When you see the two of them together, you would assume they have only been married a short time. They are openly affectionate and look at each other with pure love. Surprisingly, they have been married for thirteen years! They have three handsome, smart, and very honest boys and a beautiful teenage daughter. One of the boys told Foster that he ran too slow today. I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard, and then he told me I laughed like the Joker and like his grandmother. You must admit, "kids say the darnedest things".

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I just ask one thing from God. No matter what he throws at me, I can handle it as long as Foster is by my side. I pray that we are as happy as this couple are thirteen years from now. I know they have had their ups and downs, and as one of their sons said, "Mom, you and dad just fought today." It just seems to make them stronger and closer. This is what I pray for. Just as Joseph was Mary's rock and stood by her through it all as her loving spouse, I know I can take on anything head on as long as Foster is standing next to me.</sup>