Thank you for sharing that with us! Converts and reverts are the best Catholics :-). They have struggled with the faith and made a conscientious decision to be Catholic. In so doing, they often read and research more and begin to introduce their faith on a greater scale, into the home. Welcome back!
My nearly 5 year old turns to me and says, “Dad is that true?”...I replied yes of course, and he replied, “I gotta get some of that bread”.
There, you have just proven my point!
Speaking of children, our Church was packed with children last night for Holy Thursday. Though Roman Catholic, I practice my faith in the Maronite Catholic Church. It is a 'teaching' Church and long ago adopted the practice of washing the feet of children as opposed to adult males. The reasoning behind this is twofold. First off, the children bring the parents - who are so proud to see their children participate in this liturgy. The second reason is that children are like tape recorders - whatever you feed into them, they register forever. The Maronite Church is one of the Eastern Catholic Churches and has its See in Lebanon. Due to the persecution of christians and the various wars in Lebanon during the past century, many of the Maronite Catholics have fled for other parts of the world. Amongst the new families in our parish is a Lebanese couple with 3 small children. The two pre-school boys were curious to see what was going on with the 12 children and the priest so they snuck up for a closer view. They were soon followed by a 3 year old girl who also wanted front seat viewing :-).
It is not uncommon in the middle east for Maronites and Orthodox to inter-marry. The Church was packed again tonight with this blend of Maronite husbands and their Syrian Orthodox wives. The Orthodox Church will celebrate Holy Week in April but tonight, the wives accompanied their Maronite husbands and children to our Church to join their voices in the beautiful hymns, some of which are common to both Churches. The same phenomena will occur in April when the Maronite husbands accompany their wives to the Orthodox celebrations of Holy Week. I pray that some day our Churches will be united so we can all celebrate together at the same time. Until then, it was so beautiful to hear their voices as we chanted the hymns of Good Friday, some of which are in Arabic.
May our Lord continue to strengthen you in the faith and may your children be enriched by His graces. A Blessed Easter to you and all your family!
“It is not uncommon in the middle east for Maronites and Orthodox to inter-marry. The Church was packed again tonight with this blend of Maronite husbands and their Syrian Orthodox wives. The Orthodox Church will celebrate Holy Week in April but tonight, the wives accompanied their Maronite husbands and children to our Church to join their voices in the beautiful hymns, some of which are common to both Churches. The same phenomena will occur in April when the Maronite husbands accompany their wives to the Orthodox celebrations of Holy Week.”
Just like home! :) A Blessed and Holy Pascha to you!