Hebdomas Sancta: Holy Week

Holy Week

"What is your favorite holiday?" someone once asked me. "Christmas, 4th of July, Thanksgiving?" It wasn't hard to answer no to all of those. My answer was, "Passion week, holy week, hebdomas sancta." This week...this week is my favorite. This week, 8 years ago, changed my world. It was 8 years, yesterday, I made my first confession. It was 8 years ago, I experienced my first holy week. Now, this year, I get to experience it from a whole new perspective: as director of RCIA.

"When we change a part of ourselves, we become an advocate of that change..." I am blessed to have become an advocate for the one thing that gives my life the most meaning. I am blessed to get to experience this week as not just a Christian girl becoming Catholic, or even just as a Catholic. I get to experience it as a leader. Someone who, although has failed considerably in her work, still loves her faith. It has been my honor to get ready for this week in the capacity that I have. I am eager to experience the rest of this greusome and passionately painful, yet beauitful week. Be blessed...

Comments

Tiger must stay in your backpack...

I'm not that parent. The one who gloats too much, and shows off all the pictures. The parent who relays every detail of their kid to let others know how incredible I think they are. Perhaps it is a flaw. Who knows. And I also pride myself in not being a helicopter parent. I teach and let go. I discipline and let go. And I thought I would be ready for this: first day of Pre-K. I have been very positive and uplifting and have wanted my son to be extra ready to go to school. We have talked about it for months! I am ready... Or so I thought. This morning, as white boy was leaving to take them to daycare, he said to Owen, "You can't take Tiger to school tomorrow or he will have to stay in your backpack, so do you want to take him to daycare today?" I thought little of it, but as Owen threw him down on the ground and turned to head out the door, my throat hitched. "Are you sure you don't want to take him today?" He said no. It was a sense of finality. ...

60 years ago is not the 1940s

When you are born, you are lucky to get one day a year to celebrate just you. Well, you and all the others born on that day. When you become a mother or father, you get another day for just you. Sometimes those days come when you are not ready, and some come when you wish they wouldn't. Today, 60 years ago, my mother was born. A date that means littler to most people I know than to her or me. As we age, and my mother is no different, our birthdays become just another cycle of the rising of the sun and a following of the moon. Nothing to make a big to do of. My mother enjoys subtly. She can be dramatic but embraces the subtle acknowledgement of herself. She has ALWAYS placed herself second and counted the accolades of her children as if they were her own. That was one thing my mother NEVER lacked: humility. Which made me often sad she didn't get more than 2 days a year commemorating her. Mom, I know I've come short. I know that I have openly and often faile...

A goodbye love letter to you...

I sat across from my dad at lunch, yesterday, and asked him, "Do you know what tomorrow is?" He said, "Yeah. 1 year." And his eyes grew damp. "I'll never forget walking into that room..." He didn't continue. I didn't ask him to. "I'll never forget the police officer banging on my door at 1130 at night..." I didn't continue. He didn't ask me to. "This journal was given to me several years ago by my children. I know they wanted me to write down my thoughts to get through the rough times I was going through at the time. I did not start this at that time. Why am I starting it now? Well, I only thought I had been through hell back then, but now I realize I didn't have any idea what heartache was until Aug 15, 2010 -" This is the beginning of one of my mother's journals. A journal she started a little over a month after Andy died. And she wrote it--to him. "Dear Mother - Today is the day before Mothe...

"Getting older's not been on my plans"

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