Practising religion is a big part of our life; we are Catholics and quite proud of that. We attend mass weekly and find that our church family is as much a part of our life as our biological one. In fairness, my family alone takes up a good percentage of the church but what is nice is that Rob's parents and Grandfather also attend meaning that our weekly trip to church isn’t just about faith but about family too.
There is something quite special about our church too on this occasion. Having attended this parish the whole of my 26 years living in Lincolnshire it is the place where I also made a lot of my religious promises to God within my own faith. My First holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Baptisms of two children have all been under this same roof. That is 26 years of connection to this church. And unbelievably (even though growing up in this parish I didn’t know Rob at all) his story is exactly the same. Being a few years older than me our paths didn’t cross until late in our teens, but here we both our, a life woven into this one church.
What's shocking is for me I still remember my first holy communion, well parts of it anyway, and to suddenly be celebrating my first child’s seems a bit of a milestone. It seems grown up I think and suddenly that meant that Raph was growing up, a stabbing reminder that time is moving on.
It was a proud day though, as a parent I am looking at it with a real want for Raph to understand the magnitude of what I want him to believe in but I had to just keep reminding myself that the joy of his faith right now, during these early years, is just about the simplicity of understanding that there is a loving God, there for you as someone to talk to, to listen to and to learn from.
A child’s faith is something that really I wish for. How simple to just live with a true belief of the great love of God.
Raph needs no more than that right now. I don’t need him to be any kind of religious protege, I just want him to make it through a mass without asking “is it done yet?”. Let's be realistic, he’s seven and as a new alter boy I can see him swinging his robe belt in a way that tells me he's he's lost interest in the mass. God love him! So we just sit and watch from afar smiling and thinking “Oh Raph!”.Anyway, Holy Communion happened, I am not sure if he gets it but I suppose his journey will be that he eventually understands what an important step it is in his Christian Faith. I thought I would just share a few pictures from the day, to be honest, I took hardly any once we got home for a pizza party in the garden but luckily, Raph's best friend was on hand with his Instax and she got some great pictures for Raph to keep and remind him of the day!
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