The Graduate

This time of year, you see a lot of balloons on mailboxes and extra cars in driveways.  Graduation parties.  Back in my day, when you graduated from high school you got a diploma and your old man let you get an extra quarter pounder at McDonalds.  "Can we get a 20 piece McNuggets?"  "Let's not go crazy son."

Now I was renting a band and catering food for my oldest daughter's accomplishment of surviving high school.  I don't mind.  I had the same look on my face that the other dad's had at the three other parties I went to last weekend.  My baby girl is growing up.  The celebration was less a reward for passing four years of academics, and more of a gesture of gratitude and encouragement.  Gratitude for the joy of raising her and encouragement for her to leave the nest.

I wonder sometimes if God looks on me with that same fatherly love.  The joy that comes from sharing a life with me, and encouragement for me to some day leave this world and move on to the next.  We might not all get diplomas, but we are all in His classroom, learning our lessons and experiencing our own graduations.

So go buy some balloons.  Put out a party tray of food, fill up the coolers and invite family and friends over to celebrate!

Proverbs 22:6  "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it."

It's All Grace

by Fred Vilbig

My daughter, Karyn, graduated from Notre Dame this spring. That in itself is something any parent should be proud of. But it is the back story that is even more amazing.

Karyn enrolled at Notre Dame when my business was doing well. But as the economy derailed, so did my business. We couldn’t afford to send her there. I started sending the financial aid office monthly reports showing how things were slipping, but they were not impressed. I encouraged Karyn to go to the Grotto at Notre Dame and pray the rosary. My wife started praying to St. Jude. Nothing worked, and we had to pull her out. She was really devastated.

But she didn’t give up.

Operation Overlord

Keeping your promises to others is important - especially your children. So after my youngest daughter served mass, I promised her a pancake breakfast at IHOP. As we waited for our table, a very old man slowly strolled in and sat near us. His  heavily decorated hat caught my attention. I couldn't see the inscription on his medals, but I clearly saw the embroidered "WWII Veteran" smack dab in the middle of his hat. Overwhelmed in that moment, I rose and walked over to him. I introduced myself, shook his hand and thanked him for his service to our country. He thanked me for what he called "my kindness". My final words to him were "May God continue to bless you." This made an impression on my daughter who thought that I knew the man. As we ate our breakfast, I explained to her how important the men and women of our military are for their sacrifices and service. Needless to say, the pancake breakfast had much more emphasis than I had anticipated.

Our Lord's Barber - Pentecost

     Parting his hair, I cracked the layered crust the curvature of a golf ball. A miniature maggot colony writhed inside releasing a pungent odor. Others huddled close as I cut hair removing the serum-forming dome concealing the boy’s head wound. He stared passively while his mother appeared relieved anticipating a holiday photo at the next station.  Another guest awaited my clippers as Family Services escorted the mother and her young son aside.

“Drama, huh?” A tall, muscular Nigerian sat waiting bibbed and patient.