I'm offering my Mass and rosary today for my dad and mom who were Pearl Harbor survivors. I've blogged before about my parents who were both on the islands (Dad on a ship in the harbor, Mom on Oahu) when the Japanese planes began their devastating attack. If you want to read those posts go here, here, and here.
I'm so grateful to God that Daddy survived the war and that he and mom went on to have a large Catholic family whom they raised in the faith. I'm a Catholic today because they gave me a gift that I opened and embraced. Without their witness, would I ever have found the Church? Who knows.
If you're blessed to be Catholic I hope you'll join me in remembering today the people who made it possible. Faith is a gift, but it's freely given.
I wish I could find the Scripture passage (I think from the Old Testament) that says something like, "How can the people learn unless someone is sent." Mom and Dad were sent by God to a little village (Some would say not so little.) called the Schneider family where they were the first catechists of their ten children. Thanks, Mom and Dad, I love you! Please keep praying for this woefully imperfect child of yours.
They are still having stuff going on at the Oklahoma memorial right near my house . . . it's pretty cool and I'll be posting on it later. My internet keeps wonking out on me.
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