Lighting the Candle of Love

As I write this, I am sitting at my mother-in-law’s home, waiting for our Christmas festivities to begin.  God blessed me with two beautiful Roses – my mom and Brian’s mom.  I always called them both the Christmas Rose because they both celebrate the season with such joy!  As I light the candle of love this week, I will be filled with thanksgiving that God chose these two beautiful ladies to mentor me and show me how a Catholic Christian woman should live her life ~ with the unconditional love of God.

It is not always easy to find joy in life, is it?  It is a choice that must be made.  I could choose to sit here in sadness that this is the tenth Christmas that the McCue’s will celebrate without our beloved Charlie and the first Christmas that the Makosky’s will celebrate without our beloved Rose.  On the other hand, I could choose to sit here filled with joy and celebrate the many blessings that God has bestowed upon me and my family.  I choose joy as I relish in the love so freely given me!

As the celebration of our Lord’s birth fast approaches, it may not be easy to remember the reason that we bake and shop and prepare enormous feasts.  We are a people who love to celebrate!  My prayer for you as you rush about your day to accomplish all of these tasks is to remember the reason for the season – JESUS!  All of this celebrating culminates for me on Christmas Eve as we celebrate the moment that love touched down upon the earth once again!  Oh how I love to walk into the dimly lit church and watch it fill with families reunited to celebrate.  It always warms my heart to see people who I have not seen in a while ~ young adults home from college ~ young adults with their children coming home for Christmas!  I now am able to understand the joy in my Mom’s heart when we would all come to celebrate Mass together, for my heart swells when all of my children are home and we come to the table of the Lord to celebrate the most important meal we ever share together.  The love of family brings such joy.

One of my favorite Christmas memories is when Brian and I used to come back and celebrate our midnight Mass.  My parents would come and watch our children so that we could have this precious time together.  On the way home, we would be able to see all of the luminaries that different neighborhoods and churches display.  We would get home around 1:30am and just soak in the quiet of our busy house and my sainted parents would then drive home.  Once they moved to Campbell, this became more difficult and our tradition stopped, but oh how I love to think about those special times.

If you feel overwhelmed in the coming days, take a moment to close your eyes and think of your most favorite Christmas memory.  Allow that joy to fill your heart and strengthen you to carry on as you create what will become the memories of Christmas 2015.  I hope to share with you, with the permission of my siblings, my memories of Christmas 2014 . . .but that is for another day.

Remember to light your world with joy this week as we prepare to celebrate incarnate love!

                                                                 

Shalom,

Tina

Lighting the Candles of Mercy and Hope

Mercy – so freely offered to us through Christ our Lord.  As my faith has blossomed over the course of my life, I have found that it is easier and easier to offer mercy to others.  This has brought an incredible amount of peace to me.  For me, the key is to remember to look at another through the eyes of faith for when I am able to do that; no matter what harm I feel someone has done toward me, I am reminded that they carry the light of Christ within them and that we share the same human weakness.  When I see others through the eyes of faith, mercy comes easily and peace follows because then I am

able to do as Paul of Tarsus beckons “keep no record of wrong.”  Praying for mercy every day this past week gave me the strength to get through a very trying experience and I am ever grateful to my Lord for standing with me and for the Spirit which gave me the words to speak and the power to stomp down my human anger.

I really want to talk about hope with you.  I had a very tough time during Mass the Second Sunday of Advent.  Maranatha – oh how I long for Christ to come again so that I can see the face of my mother. 

I am writing this on Saturday, December 12 – Our Lady of Guadalupe.  It was one year ago today that I sat in a very small examining room with my mother and watched the screen as the Doctor examined her.  They were testing for muscle movement.  At the time I kept wondering why I wasn’t seeing any lines moving and the Doctor’s tone of voice became more and more gentle.  Then he got to her back and very quickly said, ok, I think that we have enough.  I thought – gosh – what the heck was this screen supposed to show – I saw very little movement.  I did not know at the time that they sent in the head of the ALS Clinic to examine my Momma.  Then it was time for the consultation.  My sweet

family all crowded into that small room and you could feel the hope each one carried with them but I knew we would not be hearing good news.  Hope left me at when I started to process what the absence of those lines on the monitor meant.  Hope left me when our own Doctor asked me to step out of the room for a private consultation.  Hope left me – me who always says “hope rises eternal” – when she said to me “it is bad – it is very bad – be sure to enjoy your Christmas.”  How was I supposed to tell my Father those words – how was I supposed to call the rest of my siblings and my mom’s siblings to tell them that our Momma’s time on this earth was coming to an end.  I will never forget the look on my mother’s face when she recognized that pain in my eyes.  My sweet Momma – apologizing to me for that pain.  Oh how darkness enveloped me that day.

God sent all his power to me on that ride home and I as slept ~ for the next day hope did rise eternal and strength was given as we celebrated her last birthday and her last Christmas – we celebrated her life!  Oh what an awesome God.  As I feel the weight of those memories every day the word of God give me hope:

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever: wrapped in the cloak of justice from God, bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name. For God will show all the earth your splendor: you will be named by God forever the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.                                                                                           Baruch 5:1-2

I live in hope every day waiting to see her again.  Maranatha – come now Lord Jesus.

                                                                 

Shalom,

Tina