en Español

  May is the month we celebrate Mother’s Day.  One day of the year that we remember in a special way how wonderful our mother is.  Hopefully, we don’t do that only on one day of the year, but all of the time.  But like so many things, we forget or get busy and don’t let Mom know that she is special.
   Most of us will send a card, go to dinner, or buy a corsage if our mother is alive. If she has died we will remember her fondly and perhaps make a visit to the cemetery. These are important tokens of appreciation, but they are not enough. There is something more to be done.
   Most mothers only want to see their children happy, healthy, and successful. They hope that they will become well-adjusted adults.  But for mothers who are Christians one thing more is called for.  They want their children to know Christ and to
follow Him.  They hope and pray that their children will enter into heaven.  They also hope that when they are dead that their children will pray for them.
   The best gift that we can give our mothers this Mother’s Day and every day is our faithfulness to God.  Attending Mass, rearing our children in the Catholic faith, and doing works of service and charity make us better people.  If your relationship to God and the Church hasn’t been that good, make a resolution this year to get back on track.  You don’t have to tell your mother you are doing this.  She will know.  It’s funny how mothers always sense what is going on in our lives, especially when it is something very good or very bad.
   May often is given to honoring Mary, our Mother in the faith, too. Mary has only one desire: that we know Jesus and follow Him.  All of the apparitions throughout history give us the same message.  Mary calls us to prayer, fasting, penance, works of charity, and attendance at Mass.  Funny how honoring our human mother and honoring our spiritual mother is the same thing.
   The end of this month is a remembrance of those who have died in service to our country.  How many mothers have dreaded seeing their sons and daughters go off to the service?  Yet, they know that by doing so our freedom is preserved.  Too many times have mothers received telegrams or had visits in a staff car by an officer and a chaplain. That visit or that telegram meant only one thing: their child was missing or killed in action.  Mothers have long kept vigil in prayer for their children in the service.  Mothers have long suffered in silence at the loss of their children.  May our remembrance of our dead be also a remembrance of the many mothers and fathers who have borne the ultimate sacrifice in having one of their children fall in battle for freedom.
   May is a beautiful month.  The weather is usually perfect.Graduations, First Communions, and other celebrations make it grand.  It is a good time to remember how blessed we are.  May we never forget the small and large ways that we have been loved and cared for.  May we always offer thanks for these blessings and for those who have given us so much.  God bless you.
      Peace,
      Fr. Chris

ROSARIES FOR LIFE is a pro-life organization sponsoring a prayer experience on Saturday, May 12 from 9 a.m. –
10 a.m.  The goal is to encourage as many individuals as possible to pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary for an end to abortion.  The rosary may be said privately at home or in groups at church.  For more information, call 407-277-7266.

Thoughts on Nicaragua
When the church decided to send me to Nicaragua, I was prepared for many things. I was ready for poverty. I was ready for poor, starving people. I was ready for strange food; This year a trip to the second poorest country in Central America really opened my eyes. I met the starving children in those commercials. They are real and there are lots of them. In our elementary schools, the kids get to be the most popular when they have the best of whatever happens to be in style this week. The children in Nicaragua carry their desks to school (if they are lucky enough to afford one), some of them without shoes on.
  The street at night seemed to be a sea of children younger than ten. Why, I asked, are young children playing on the street at eleven o'clock in the night? The answer seemed painful when one man who spoke English responded. "There are two reasons, either they have spent their day on the streets begging for money, or they have been working all day trying to sell the handcrafts that they made. This is the only time they have to play." Such children, it seems, should be sad. The real tragedy was how happy they were. When I picked them up and spun them around they had the most honest smiles and they could be happy in a  very real way.
   These people manage to be happy while they are living in pieces of scrap metal and cardboard nailed together. That is their house. They are happy to eat the piece of bread that is their breakfast, lunch and dinner. Maybe two pieces if they were middle class. Most were NOT middle class. They were happy to wear the only dress that they owned because it was pretty, or it was before it was covered in dirt. I picked up a beautiful child in a beautiful dress. When I put her down my white T-shirt was brown. I have to admit that I would never have imagined the conditions in Nicaragua. I would never have given a second thought to complaining about something that I am not satisfied with. Although I know I will never achieve my ultimate ideal to not care about "shallow" things, I hope I will improve at least a small amount knowing how well off I am. All the things I expected to learn from Nicaragua, I did learn. But I learned more than that. The people's faith was incredible. Their hope for the future was bright, and they were real, happy people.
   When I learned that some of the poorest people in the world were so happy, it really made me think. About what I have, what I don’t need, what I’d give up, and what I wish everyone else could have.  In the end I wished that everyone else could have the genuine happiness that these people had and the deep faith that kept them going.

      Erin Bacheldor

(editor’s note.  this article appeared in the April issue of The Envoy, a monthly publication of the Emmanuel Baptist/Freidens Church in Schenectady , New York. Erin is the granddaughter of Peg & Ed Bacheldor who are members of our parish)

May 15
JESUS CHRIST – Wellspring of Forgiveness & Reconciliation
 We believe that Jesus forgives and calls us to forgive one another. In the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation we rejoice in God’s forgiveness.

 May 16 – THE HOLY SPIRIT – Font of Hope and Healing.
 The Spirit imparts hope by healing our wounds and by enabling us to heal one another In the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick we  experience God’s healing.