Gildavid Moments

Click on this link for this entry: http://mgcr168.bravejournal.com/

Here is a short account of my tennis adventure: http://mgcr168.bravejournal.com/

    

     David and I attend Sunday Masses at the Sacred Heart Church in Columbus. It is the church where David’s mother used to go to as a young girl.

     His aunt (Aunt Peg) and her husband, Bob, are both Eucharistic ministers at Sacred Heart. His uncle (Uncle Tom) and his wife Barbara serve as acolytes for Saturday and Sunday Masses.

     I like going there because it is a small parish and I feel like I have family there. I enjoy having doughnuts after Mass and socializing with the community of faithful.

     Every week, copies of the Church bulletin are given out as we enter the church. It is a one page newsletter where important announcements are posted. It also includes interesting and relevant topics about the Catholic Church and the faith. I like reading the bulletin because it makes me aware of what is going on in the parish and if there was anything that we could help with.

     For example, last December, volunteers we asked to help put up the church decorations. David and I enlisted ourselves for the task. This appeared in the bulletin the following Sunday (note our names were spelled wrong, hahaha) 

 

   

    

    

   

    In January, they announced a pot luck for the Feast of the Epiphany. Again, we signed up for the affair and I volunteered to make some egg rolls (which took half a day to prepare because they anticipated thatb over a hundred people would be attending). It was a lot of fun and my egg rolls disappeared from the table fast.

    

         

    

    

    

    

    Last December 10, David saw this announcement:

    

                He asked Aunt Peg if we could participate in this short ceremony together with the other married couples who would be renewing their vows that day (we are not yet official members of the parish as we have only started going there in October of last year). We were given permission to join. After the Holy Communion, David and I went in front of the altar and, together with about 8 other couples, renewed our wedding vows.

     Most of the other couples with us have been married forever and it was was a special blessing to stand there with them. Renewing our vows was a special grace and, for me, the best way to prepare for Valentine’s Day (in fact, the reason why this was held on February 10 was because it was the Sunday nearest to Valentine’s Day).

     The rite was very simple and its simplicity was what made it inspiring. The couples faced each other and held hands. The husbands repeated the vows they made during their wedding, after which the wives did the same. This was followed by the blessing of the priest and sprinkled the copules with Holy Water. The community acknowledged the couple’s vows by clapping their hands.

    I hope that we will be able to do this every year. I believe that a marriage is once again sanctified whenever a couple renew their vows before the altar and with the Christian community as witness.

     Thank you Fr. Lupa and Aunt Peg for giving David and me this beautiful moment, and thank you my Flying Knight for coming down the altar with me.

     I have heard this question asked a few times specially when Christmas is approaching. Last Sunday, I found an interesting article about this question and I posted the article in this link: http://mgcr168.bravejournal.com/ .

      

     Early this month, I overheard David’s aunt (Peg) and her friend Bill talking about the white squirrel who frequents the church grounds. Bill, who is a very good photographer, said that he took a picture of the squirrel who willingly posed for him (instead of scampering away). I became curious because I had never seen white squirrel before. I asked Bill to show me the picture and he offered to give me a copy. I call him "the Catholic squirrel" because he likes coming to Sacred Heart Church and to St. John’s Church (both churches are only two blocks away from each other).

     He is the cutest squirrel I have ever seen so I am posting his picture here just for fun.                                                                                                                              

      

   

    

 

    

   

   

   

     I wrote a post about these children at this link: http://mgcr168.bravejournal.com/

      May the Prince of Peace find our homes pleasing before His eyes and may He bless us with His Peace, Joy, Love and Abundance.

 

     Finally, we had an unvented gas stove installed in the sunroom so we could use it even in freezing temperatures. This picture was taken when the outside temperature was in the lower 30s and I was comfortably warm while preparing our Christmas cards.

     We also had additional insulation put up in the attic and it was interesting to watch the "insulation men" during the process.

 

First they unloaded the hose through which they would put the insulation….

through this door…

up the stairs…

through this hallway….

and finally, inside this closet and through the ceiling which opens into the attic.

As I was watching them, I thought "Yikes, this is going to be messy" and I was not looking forward to cleaning up after they finished the job. As it turned out, I did not have to do anything! They carefully covered the areas where the hose run pass through and the insulation was blasted from the truck, through the hose and into  the attic. It was amazing!

Thank you Arick and Sons for an excellent job. We are now going to be comfortably warm for the winter.

 

It is a stormy weekend for us so I made a post about storms and the storms of our lives at this link:

http://mgcr168.bravejournal.com/

Happy weekend everyone!

Christmas Greetings from the Gildavid Home!

The Spirit of Christmas hovers over the Earth inspiring us to lift our thoughts beyond our everyday mundane concerns.

"Life is God’s gift to you and how you live it is your gift to God." (Leo Buscaglea)

When the Christ Child comes into our hearts on Christmas eve, what answer do we give to the question: "How did you live your life this year as a gift to me?"