Ordinary Time

We are now in 'ordinary time,' with Lent and Easter time now behind us. As part of the change of season, I had to switch to the Ordinary Time volume of my breviary.

I had just said good night to the last child when I went out to the living room to pick up the next volume of the breviary. The three volumes were gone from their usual place.

I was just getting ready to start roaring at the children who were already in bed. I was ticked off that somehow and somewhere those children....

...those children had been playing 'Mass' yesterday, and probably were using them for the readings or for carrying around in procession. Whatever they were doing with them yesterday, they were using them for the greater glory of God. Certainly some of the games we played as children or dreamed about as young men and women became our work, our vocations. I was so glad I thought a moment before yelling and screaming at these children who one day will be men and women - maybe priests and religious.

Hopefully, one day some of my sons will be priests or religious, and I will experience the joy of kneeling in front of my own child and receiving a blessing from him - maybe even 'them.'

Perhaps the child here will be reading the Gospel as a priest, and the girls dressed up as nuns will be professed sisters or nuns in convents or cloisters.

To think that I could have lost my temper, and perhaps discouraged one of my children from listening to God's call to the religious life, saddened me. It must have been my guardian angel prompting me to count to ten before losing my temper.