Three Generations by Kendra O'Donnell. Click on the image for a larger version of this beautiful painting...
Today (January 26) is the feast of Saints Timothy and Titus. The readings for today's Mass can be found here. There are two options for the first lection, the first of which is taken from Paul's letter to Titus:
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus...
to Timothy, my dear child:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God,
whom I worship with a clear conscience
as my ancestors did,
as I remember you constantly in my prayers,
night and day.
I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears,My parish distributes quarterly a pocket size daily prayer book called Living Faith. The current issue includes this reflection based on the text above:
so that I may be filled with joy,
as I recall your sincere faith
that first lived in your grandmother Lois
and in your mother Eunice
and that I am confident lives also in you....
I am fascinated by Paul's reference to Timothy's grandmother, according to my concordance, the only place in the Bible the term grandmother appears. Paul says Timothy's faith first lived in her.
Why is it that a grandmother's faith can be so deeply alive? Perhaps it is because she has received and given life through three generations of the journey. She has taken part in so many stories where love was stronger than pain and God brought life from what had seemed like death.
I have my grandmother's rosary and the crucifix that hung on the wall of her room. I remember the faith that lived in her as we say the blessing at a family gathering with my nine young grandchildren. I feel wonder at being part of the chain of life that is both physical life and living faith.
Dear God, I am so grateful for all those before and after me in the chain of life. Thank you for holding us together in your love.
-Patricia Livingston
All this reminds of me some nice exchanges in the combox on my Fifth Day of Christmas post about the grandmother of Jesus. (This and several other posts on St. Ann can be found here.)
Happy feast day to men named Timothy and Titus and to mothers and grandmothers - especially those named Eunice and Lois!
When I first read this I thought how wwonderful that a Grandmother was recognized in Scripture - I had never seen it! Then I thought of my own life and I thought - how sad. None of my grandchildren are kneeling in a Catholic Church unless they come to Mass with me. Some have not even been baptized. So, as a grandmother who absolutely loves her children and grandchildren so dearly, I pray continually for them, that someday they will find the joy and fulfillement I find in my Catholic faith.
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