Connections continued

I'm writing in larger print for my friends who, like me, are struggling to see the tiny print. I just found another connection today and it's a biggie!



Two years ago, I started working at The College of New Rochelle, which is a Catholic college that was founded by the Urseline Order in 1904. According to Kevin Knight, editor of New Advent (newadvent.org), the order was officially started in 1535 in a small house near the church of St. Afra in Brescia, on Lago Garda.



In 1944 and 1945, several groups of soldiers were stationed in and around Lago Garda. My father was a part of the 10th Mountain Division and was in the mountains surrounding the lake. Dad often told us stories of his time in Italy, including the words he picked up while he was there. Even as small children, we understood that vieni qui meant "come here!" And capisce meant "understand?" One of the stories he told us was about the time he lived when his entire platoon went down in a boat on that lake. He was very ill the night before with a stomach virus. He had found a place to sleep in an abandoned house and never woke up when his platoon awoke the next morning. They all went on the boat and it sank just off shore.



I just found out today that St. Angela Merici is buried there in Brescia. We (my husband, my mother, and my sister) are going to that area of Italy soon. We are going to salute Dad, who's in heaven now, when we go by Lago Garda. I would love to see if we can stop somewhere to see St. Angela's gravesite and possibly the spot where Dad almost drowned. The connections are amazing, and they continue. I will continue to write about them.

Connections

Lately I've been noticing a lot of connections between what is going on in my "secular" life and what I hear at Mass on Sundays, or from Dr. Schuller (Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA) on the TV. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, a sweet older woman in our building passed away. Everyone liked her. I used to call her a philosopher, because she said things that brought you back to earth. Anyway, one of the tenants decided to take the chance and create a lovely garden in her memory. She asked me to help her collect the money on my floor. I did that, as I am sure other people on other floors did. She collected quite a bit of money and bought some perennials. We planned to meet at 10:00 a.m. that next Sunday. My husband and I went to the 9:00 mass that Sunday so we wouldn't miss the fun of planting the plants with everyone else. We arrived at our building just as they were finishing up the work, actually. The older woman's sisters were there, too. The readings at Mass were about loving our neighbors. As I looked around watching people that usually only say hello to each other on the elevator, I realized that we were living what I heard at Mass. I said it aloud to my neighbors and they liked the thought of that.

Today, Dr. Schuller transferred his congregation over to his daughter, Dr. Sheila Coleman. She is now the pastor of that church. He talked about how God answers prayers by saying no, or grow, or go slow, or Go! Either way, our prayers go before us - we enter each day with lots of prayers already before us that will be answered at the "right" time. At Mass later on in the morning, we heard readings about "Ask and you shall receive," "seek and ye shall find," and "knock and it shall be opened to you." AFTER Mass, we talked to a couple my husband knows better than I do. I wound up talking with the wife for a while. She was having a moment of discouragement. She thought her daughter and her husband of three years might be on the brink of breaking up. A light went off in my head as I realized that I lived through two miraculous healings in the past five years. I said that to her. I said she feels discouraged right now, but she doesn't truly know the outcome of her daughter's marriage. The two sermons I heard this morning reminded me of that.

I make simple jewelry I've taught myself through articles in magazines like Beading and Step by Step Wire. working with the wire is relaxing. The magazine, Jewelry Artist, takes me to a new level and makes me want to improve my skills with jewelry making. I'd like to get into working with silver and gold.

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