On celebrating saints' days

(I'm revisiting old posts - and sometimes updating them. This post was originally published in January, 2007.)

As a person who was raised as a (mostly) non-denominational Christian, the idea of observing saints' days was somewhat strange to me when I first encountered it. But what helped me understand this tradition was remembering St. Paul's injunction to "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." In the recognized saints, the church is saying, "Look at these people because they did a good job imitating Christ."

The thing is, it's sometimes hard to answer the question "what would Jesus do?" for the simple reason that you don't happen to be a first-century Jewish male in your thirties. (Letting alone the fact that you aren't the Messiah!) When we look at the saints, we are looking at a wide variety of people who have imitated Christ: priests, missionaries, businessmen, children, fathers, mothers, monks, nuns, even kings and queens! Some of them may be in circumstances a little bit more like your own, but even if most of them aren't, having all of these extra examples gives you a better idea of what following and imitating Christ looks like.

Now, you still imitate Christ primarily; the saints can't replace him in any way, shape, or form. But they're like older brothers and sisters who've been living with your parents' rules longer than you have, and can show you the ropes. You can look at them, and be encouraged, because they have proven that it's possible to follow Christ in every era, in every country, in every situation, no matter your age, race, or gender.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


P.S. If you want to learn more about celebrating the church year, my book "Let Us Keep the Feast" has a plethora of history, ideas, prayers, and more to help you do just that!



This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Celebrating the Church Year: the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25)

-something to ponder:

O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising . . .

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

   -Psalm 139:1-2a, 5-6

-something to pray:

Most gracious God, who didst fill thine Apostle Saint Paul with love for all the churches: Grant, we pray, that our fellowship may foster love and unity amongst thy people; through Jesus Christ our Lord.*

-something to listen to: lovely, powerful Pauline theology set to good music:


For more ideas on celebrating the church year, pick up a copy of "Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home". 

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

*Prayer is from the Revised Anglican Missal.


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Celebrating the Church Year: the Confession of St. Peter (January 18)

-something to ponder:

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

   -Matthew 16:15-16.

-something to pray:
Grant, almighty God, that all who confess the Name of thy Son Jesus Christ may live always in his fellowship, and be guided beyond the terrors of evil and death even unto the home thou hast prpared for us, there to dwell in eternal light; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.*


-something to eat: fish, of course!

-something to listen to: Michael Card's "Walking on Water" - a great, cheery song from Peter's perspective. I love the refrain:

Jesus, you can see me

You know right where I am

Only you can save me

For I'm a sinful man.

I know that doesn't sound cheery, just reading it, but with the music, it is. And the music makes you realize just how cheerful a prospect it is not to be able to - and not to have to - rely on yourself.


And, of course, for more great ideas on celebrating the church year, pick up a copy of "Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home".  

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

*Prayer is from the Revised Anglican Missal.

 This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.) 

St. Nicholas' Day is tomorrow!

A reminder for all those with kids. :)

Though, in my case, my kids reminded ME. It's only 1:30 p.m., and they already have their shoes lined up in the hall, waiting for the good bishop to fill them.

And we've had our annual discussion of the really good St. Nick, the priest who loved the Lord Jesus, who gave to the poor, and fought the heretics (my son was charmed by the story of Arius' ignoble demise, as only a six-year-old boy can be).

Fwiw, I've always had good luck finding gold chocolate coins at my local Trader Joe's, if you're looking for shoe-filler. :) But any small gift will do. Make sure they put carrots or cabbage or straw in the shoes for the saint's horses!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links - Forgiveness, Anglicans, Pakistan, and more

Forgiveness, Cell by Cell - "When Christ told his disciples earlier to forgive your brother “not seven times, but seventy times seven times,” I think he may very well have meant for a single offense—because that’s how forgiveness works."

Time for a Big, Big Change -  "The Stand Firm web site is about to undergo the single biggest change in its eight-year history."

A Little Proof of a Large Thing - "Our bodies, and the pattern of our lives, make a gesture which is meaningful because of the very fact that some pattern exists. There is not nothing, and there is not chaos: there are patterns, and I cannot unsee them."

Another Pakistani Christian Woman Blasphemy Trial Set for This Saturday - Martha Bibi, a 45-year-old rural villager and mother of six, was also accused of making derogatory remarks against the Koran and blaspheming Mohammed. Her final hearing is set for this Saturday, March 17. This is one to write your congressmen about, folks, because international pressure actually has a chance of keeping her alive if the verdict goes against her. It's super-easy to email your senators these days; most of their sites have a form for it, and they may not pay attention to individual letters, but they do pay attention to volume.

Quantum Marketing - Got to love marketing advice that comes down to: "write a really good story."

Father Ailill on St. Patrick's Day - "I mean to say, take some pity on the man. He's 1500 years old. Hasn't he earned a little good manners, if not respect? If you're convinced you need a day to lower yourself to the level of the beasts, call it Bacchus Day, or Falstaff Day, or Ted Kennedy Day. Even St. Olaf Day. He liked his tipple well enough."

Links: Polycarp, Complementarianism, Horses, and more!

Today is the feast of the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The second-century account of his death is short and well-worth reading.

Things that undermine the complementarian position - written, I should note, by a complementarian. I don't agree with everything in here (for one thing, I belong to a church that has priests, not elders), but I thought this was very thoughtful, gracious, and smart.

Dream Big and Long - more on motherhood and vocation.

The Art of Horsemanship - I love articles that give me a view into a part of the world I know nothing about. This one does that.

He Who Knows the Story - a very Chestertonian conversion.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Daybook for 9/13/11

outside my window . . . a nice, cool, end-of-summer day. The clouds this morning were glorious, covering half the sky, but in little cotton-ball puffs, the edges of each all a-shining.

I am listening to . . . Mumford and Sons' "Home" and Brooke Fraser's "Something in the Water". One is mournful and longing, the other is upbeat and triumphant, and I like them both so very, very much.

I am wearing . . . shorts, a grey t-shirt, Celtic knot earrings from a dear friend, and my hair up and off my neck (of course!).

I am so grateful for . . . a good school experience, so far, for the two oldest.

I'm pondering . . . how I want my writing life to look, now that Adam's gift is finished and I'm back to ordinary times. I think that I always want to be editing/querying a book (so one finished), be writing a book (in process), and be plotting/researching a book (prospective). That way I can move smoothly from one project to another. Ideally, when I finish writing one book, I want another one waited for me: plot outlined and research complete.

We'll see how that goes.

I am reading . . . Ghost Ship, by Lee and Miller. And I'm sadly almost done. Write faster, guys!

I am creating . . . I just finished a tiny vest for a new little boy due soon at our church, and I'm about to cast on a cardigan for Adam's cousin's new baby, also due soon. Oh! And I'm starting my next novel - my first contemporary romance! The research on that one is finally done. Exciting times.

around the house . . . everything's actually pretty clean and calm, now that the rowdy summer days are gone. I'm enjoying the peace.

from the kitchen . . . I have chicken baked; I'm going to shred it and put it on bagels tonight with some marinara sauce and cheese to make mini-pizzas. Strawberries are waiting to be washed for our side dish.

real education in our home . . . spending time each day listening to the kids talk about school, reading books, helping with homework. Doing some popcorn reading of the Psalms with my eldest.

the church year in our home . . . today is the feast day of Cornelius the Centurion and of St. John Chrysostom. I find myself wanting to pray, "May God give us both faithfulness and golden words."

recent milestones . . . the two eldest started school! They both like it, and I'm very grateful. For my part, I'm enjoying having more one-on-one time with the youngest two in the mornings, and with the oldest two in the afternoons, while their little sisters are napping.

the week ahead. . . hoping to get a handle on the new rhythm of our days, now that we've got two in school.

picture thought . . . We had the pleasure of spending a long Labor Day weekend with some dear friends who live a bit north of us, and one of the things we got to do was to help with the bee harvest. It was so cool!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

I just want to say

. . . that my husband is celebrating St. Joseph's Day by doing some woodworking. With his son.

He's so cool. :)

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

dates of note: St. Macrina and the Moon

Today is the anniversary of the first lunar communion. If you've never heard this story, it's well-worth reading about. Yes, Eucharist in space! Weird as that sounds, it's true.

Also, yesterday was the feast day of St. Macrina. (Of course, often observed earlier or not observed because the weekly celebration of the Resurrection takes precedence.) I don't know of any particular way her feast day is usually celebrated at home, but I think it's worth rereading a brief biography of her, just as a mom of young siblings. To put it simply: she and her brothers turned out really, really well. It's kind of the result we're all working towards every day. (Though I admit that I selfishly want grandchildren.)

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

St. George's Day Cookies

I give you a battle royale:
First, the characters are created:

The battle lines are drawn:

Our hero takes up his sword and addresses his foe:

The dragon is soon vanquished:

St. George triumphant:


Thanks for the icing, Mom!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

writing and the morning.

The day stretches before me, and I'm curious about what it holds. It's my first breathing space of the day; after the rush of breakfast and diapers and nursing, and cleaning up from breakfast and reading some books and nursing again, the babies are down for their naps and the kids are down for their quiet times. Or, rather, up, since I'm the one sitting in the living room at the bottom of the stairs.

I'm always puzzled at what to do with this short half hour or forty-five minutes of peace. Do I pray? do I relax? do I try to get some chores done? do I write?

Often I do some combination of the four. I'll start by puttering around a bit with the house stuff: move this over there, put that away, start this part of dinner so the end of the day is less harried. Today it was getting all the dirty clothes into the laundry bags and fishing out a recipe for herbed bread that I want to make to go with tonight's creamy veggie soup. Then a bit of relaxation: reading a snatch of TWOP's recap of Survivor (the one TV show we actually watch on the TV - over at my mother-in-law's; what can I say? it's become a Grandma-time tradition: dinner and Survivor). And now the tea is on, and I might read through the morning daily devotion in the BCP and then try to get a bit more of my novel rewritten.

The novel now, that's a thing. I wrote it in the small space between when my son started sleeping through the night and when I got pregnant with Lucy and Anna. Now that Lucy and Anna are - not sleeping through the night - but only waking up once to nurse - I'm starting to rewrite it. I didn't expect to be doing it so soon, but my husband, who hadn't read it yet, started reading it aloud to me during our dishes-and-clean-up time that we have every night after the squirts are a in bed, and hearing the words rather than seeing them has given me a gift I never expected to have: the gift of being able to experience my own words as a reader, and not a writer. I'm terribly afraid Adam has just let himself in for an entire lifetime of reading my work back to me. Brave man.

So I am working on the little, obvious fixes that I've noted. Add dialogue here. Make that character more consistant throughout. Show, don't tell, that they had a lot of fun at the dinner party. And in the midst of these little changes, I'm hoping that the bigger one makes itself clear. The story starts with a flourish, and ends with a delightful build-up of tension and an even more delightful release, but there is something missing from the beginning-middle of the book, and though I can feel the shape of what ought to be there, I don't know the specifics yet.

The shape of the change is so clear in my mind; when I talk about it, I always make the same low, round motion with my hands. But I don't know exactly how it is to be done yet. So I'm hoping that by fixing the easy things - this paragraph, that scene - I'll be able to lure the big change out of hiding. It's there, I know it, I can feel it, and I hope that by innocently working in its vicinity, while paying it no direct mind, it will come out of hiding, and show me its face.

But for now? Tea and Psalms. I've read all the way through them again, my one consistant piece of Scripture reading this year, and I'm back at the beginning: "Blessed is the man . . ."

That, and perhaps the biography of St. Elizabeth of Hungary that I got out of the library. Today is her saint day, and I know nothing about her except that one of the other liturgical blogging moms around her had her daughter dress up as St. E of H for Halloween. It made me curious, and so now I have an old, yellow hardback from the library that's going to assuage my curiosity. I should have read it last week, but I was deep in the middle of Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. That's done as of this morning though, and so to St. E of H I go!

I hope your morning goes well, and that the best possibiities of the day become reality.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

A Few Links - St. Teresa, twins and the church year

Kerry at A Ten'o'Clock Scholar has a great post for Teresa of Avila's feast day tomorrow. I particularly like this observation: "all our possessions are only given to us to enable us to do the Lord's work". That's one to chew on for awhile. It reminds me of my favorite prayer from Proverbs, which implores the Lord not to give us to much, that we forget Him and say, "who is the Lord?", nor to give us to little, that we steal, and profane the name of our God. I'm not quite sure how the two thoughts go together, but it seems like a good thing to ponder on St. Teresa's day.

And here is a link to an interesting article about how MZ (identical) twins form. There is the terribly disturbing, bloodthirsty fac that the research was done for the purpose of figuring out which embryos were likely to become twins so they could be thrown away (Lord have mercy), but the actual observation of the formation of twins is fascinating.

And, finally, an article my mom passed onto me, just a general overview of the church year, but also a bit of a meditation on it. Worth reading, especially for some of the turns of phrase.

October 13, Feast of Edward the Confessor

I saw on my Ordo calandar today that it's the feast of Edward the Confessor, King of England. As I have a fondness for English history, and I'm trying to get back to observing the feast days, I dug out my trusty Oxford History of Britain, and looked up old Edward.

He seems an odd fellow to be called a saint. It seems particularly kind to name him the patron saint of troubled marriages; I'm not sure that sending your wife away to a nunnery is any kind of example to follow. Of course, he did later take her back, and I suppose it is probably the the good example of reconciliation that we are supposed to follow.

His life, like the lives of most of England's monarchs, would make a splendid novel, if you found the right person to write it. But the wars, the family intrigues, the deaths, tortures, flights to safety, glorious battles, headache-inducing politics: it's all there.

Perhaps it's the glimpses of piety here and there that make it something extraordinary: the dedication to building a glorious church, the rumors of the healing touch, his care for the poor.

It is more piety, maybe, than is apparent in the lives of most great men. And maybe these few things that are remembered are evidence of much more that is not. It makes me wonder how much of our devotion to God would be remembered by any future generations. Or would they just see the wars, the politics, the oddities?

Though Edward was a king, I feel like he gives me hope for living as a saint in ordinary times. Though his times look extraordinary to us (the battles, politics, etc, mentioned above), it was, largely a peaceful time in England. There were wars, there were dangers, but nothing like what was to follow in the next little bit. He served where he was called, it seems. A king doing kingly things, but nonetheless, trying to be God's king.

So, in the end, after looking at this ambiguous saint, what I take is that I ought to serve where I am, regardless of what odd things or small things come to me.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

St. Mary's Day for children

I started to tell Bess, my 4 year old, about Mary's Day, and before I had a chance to tell her how we were going to celebrate it, she burst out, "We could pick flowers!"

Indeed! Funny how kids tumble to things sometimes!

Picking flowers is a traditional way to celebrate Mary's life. Roman Catholics will decorate her statues with flowers on Assumption Day. We don't have any statues of Mary, but we have some icons of Mary and Jesus, and I like the idea of making a small wreath (as Bess and I often do with the clover she picks out of the grass) and hanging it 'round the icon.

It's really, if you think about it, not that different than taking flowers to a friend's grave. It's a way of celebrating what God accomplished in the life of his servant, and remembering her willing obedience to Him, and encouraging ourselves to follow her example.

Here are some other ways to celebrate St. Mary's Day with children:
-draw a picture of her.
-read Bible story books about the Nativity or finding the boy Jesus in Jerusalem or the crucifixion, when Jesus told John to take care of his mother.
-make cookies with blue icing (use food coloring). Blue is the traditional color for Mary, and as you make the cookies, you can talk about how blue reminds us of Heaven, and how Mary welcomed heaven into her heart when she welcomed God into her life. And about how she is in Heaven now. This can lead to a conversation about salvation.
-talk about people you might know who are named after Mary, and how we name people after saints to encourage us to love God like they did.

As always, it's a good day to sing "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God".

How are the rest of you celebrating this Friday?

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

of the Virgin Mary

This Friday is Mary's day. In Anglicanism, we celebrate it as her "falling asleep day" or "the Dormition", the day she died and went to be with God. The Roman Catholics celebrate it as the Assumption. I once heard an Episcopal priest explain the Feast of the Assumption and then observe, "of course, as Anglicans, we feel free to call it just that: an assumption!" :)

In either case, it is a day to celebrate the Mother of God, the woman who was a model for the whole church in the way she bent her own will to the will of the Lord. There is no better answer to God's commands than Mary's, "May it be to me as you have said." In this, she sets an example for us all.

Now that the babies are six months old, and life has a rhythm again (it's staccato, but it's a rhythm), I am trying to find my way back into the celebration of the church year. It seems like spending the week thinking about Mary is a good place to start.

I don't pray to the saints, but I take deep comfort in their example of faithfulness, and know that there is a lot for me to learn from studying their lives and words. And as my primary job right now is mothering, Mary is someone I want to spend a week meditating on.

Again, life is very full right now with the babies, so I'm setting myself an easy task: memorizing the Magnificat. I have it near to memorized, having read it often and often during Morning Prayer. But I don't have it quite by heart. I'd like to by the end of the week, and I'm planning on copying it over today so that I can read it while I nurse, or prop it on the counter while I do the dishes. I'd encourage you to do the same, if you are looking for a devotion fitting to the season. And, if you get a chance, read the first chapters of 1 Samuel, to see where Mary's prayer echoes Hannah's.

So, that's my celebration this week. I plan on doing my next post on how you can celebrate Mary's Day with children. There are some cool traditions that have grown up throughout the years that can be adapted to use with toddlers and preschoolers. Stay tuned!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Happy All Saints' Day!

The Lord is glorious in his saints!

So, whose stories are you going to tell to your children today?

On our walk back from the grocery store, I talked to Bess about saints, and how saints are people who loved the Lord very much and who were, with his help, holy in what they did. And we talked about St. Brigid, and St. Mary, and St. Peter and St. John, and St. Augustine and St. Monica. About how Brigid fed the poor and visited those in prison, and how Peter walked on the water with Jesus and John was Jesus' friend and Augustine wrote about God to help other people understand God better and how Monica prayed a lot. And we talked about how all of these things were things that made God happy and how Bess could be a saint too by loving the Lord Jesus and doing the good things he wanted her to do.

And do you know what my daughter said when we reached our front door? She volunteered that a Jesus-pleasing thing she could do was "share my candy with my brother when I have a bowl of candy and he doesn't."

Yay! She gets it!

Our other plans for All Saints' include reading some picture books of the saints' lives, singing our new hymn a lot AND . . . seeing our new baby! Yep, we have an ultrasound today, and I can't wait to see this squirt who has, FINALLY started regularly wiggling around so that I can feel him or her.

And it seems like All Saints' Day is a good day to see our new little one, because we hope that he or she will be a saint one day too. May all our children love our Lord and Savior.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

St. Michael and All Angels (plus All Saint's Day)

So . . . I missed Michaelmas. I've been so into this Ordinary Time thing that I've gotten out of the habit of looking for feasts. But I'm beginning to think about All Saint's Day, which is (I think) the next big feast day coming up. (Um, that is, not forgetting the feast days of St. Luke, St. James, St. Simon and St. Jude.)

I don't celebrate the weird American perversion that is Halloween, but I am very interested in finding out what the older, better traditions surrounding All Hallow's Day are, so that I can celebrate them with my children. I like the idea of having a day where we talk all about the people who really, really loved Jesus (this, I think, is the best way to define "saints" to a one year old and a three year old).

My best idea so far is to collect some good picture books about the saints (we already have a few), and to spend the week of All Saint's Day reading them daily. Also, there's a great children's hymn called "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" that I'd love to teach my kids. Bess, at least, is good at picking up song lyrics, and I think if we sang it every day this next month, that she'd learn it. I especially like how the end of each verse says, "and I mean to be one too" (a saint, that is).

And I've heard that in some places in the world, it's traditional to make pretzels on All Saints' Day. I admit that I don't quite understand why.

So, does anyone else have any great ideas about how to celebrate All Saints' with kids?

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

May Saints

May 2 was the feast day of St. Athanasius. (I actually met a little boy named Athanasius once. He was Eastern Orthodox, and was born on Athanasius' day. Very cool!)

In order to break my streak of noting the saint days after they happen, here's a list of the ones coming up this month:

-happily situated near Mother's Day is the saint day of Monica, mother of Augusting of Hippo: May 4.
-the great mystic and writer, Julian of Norwich, has her feast day on May 8.
-another great writer, Gregory of Nazianzus, has his feast day on May 9.
-Dustan, Archbishop of Canterbury, is celebrated on May 19.
-May 20 is the feast day of Alcuin. Anyone know anything about him?
-Ditto for Jackson Kemper. He's listed in the BCP as "First Missionary Bishop in the United States", and is celebrated on May 24.
-Now here's a heavy hitter: the feast day of the Venerable Bede is celebrated on May 25. If you've never read any of his "Ecclesiastical History", well, you should. Especially the part about the Romans evangelising England from the south up, the Irish from the north down, and how they met in the middle and argued about the date of Easter.
-I mentioned him awhile back, when discussing one of the popes, but Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury (woo-hoo!) is celebrated on May 26.
-This one is in bold in the BCP, meaning that it's a major feast day: The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I assume that's when she went to see Elizabeth? This is the last day in May, the 31.

wow! A lot of important people to remember this month! Truth is, everyone on that list is someone to whom we all owe at least one great debt. They've improved our understanding of the incarnation (Athanasius), shown us the power of intercessory prayer (Monica), explained to us the great love of the Lord Jesus (Julian), introduced our ancestors (possibly! depending on where you're from! and if not yours, than probably the ancestors of friends of yours!) to Christ (Augustine) and much, much more. Indeed, our Lord is glorious in his saints. May we follow their example in serving Jesus.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

bother!

And I was so determined not to miss it!

I've been terrible about remembering to celebrate saints' days, but I was convinced that I would remember St. Mark's this week. Alas, today is NOT the 24th, and so St. Mark's feast day is not tomorrow, but yesterday.

All the same, praise God for St. Mark, evangelist! Go take a peek through his gospel, and just try to count all of the "suddenly!"'s. It's like the Herman kid's account of the appearance of the angel in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: "Suddenly, out of the black night, SHAZAM!" I've heard Mark's gospel called "the comic book gospel", and that's not a bad description. Lots of action. For a world that sometimes sees Christianity as dull, Mark's gospel is a good antidote. In it, we see Christ actively loving his people who he has come to save.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

March 19: the feast of St. Joseph

Today is what the BCP calls a "major feast", the feast of St. Joseph.

When I think of St. Joseph, the first thing that comes to mind is the opening rhyme of "A Song for Joseph", an old Arch children's book by Mervin A. Marquardt:

"Sing me a song of a man named Joseph,
Sing me a song of a carpenter man
Husband of Mary, God's honorary
Father of Jesus; a heavenly plan!"

Amidst all the fights about Mary, it's good to take a day off and ponder her spouse, the good, faithful Joseph. He's less noticeable than his wife and child, but he's also the one from whom they draw their strength. (Yes, Mary and Jesus drew their strength from God, but Joseph was one of the conduits of God's love to them, I think.) Nursing moms can tell you how important a husband is - someone who takes over when you're too exhausted to think, too hormonal to anything but cry. Isn't it good of God to give someone to Mary to be her support as she carried His son? And when their family was in danger from Herod, God spoke to Joseph about what to do. Mary just had to take care of her baby, while Joseph took care of getting them to a safe place in Egypt.

I guess I see today as a day to be extra thankful for good men, men like Joseph who support their families, carry heavy loads, who lend strong back and patient ear to those they care for. I'm blessed to know lots of men like Joseph, faithful and obedient to God, righteous and kind. I think I'll try to spend today praying for them. I hope you know a few men like St. Joseph too.


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

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