#knights of columbus

Intrinsic to our faith as Catholics, Mary is always with us in spirit, and we grow to understand, appreciate, and admire her nurturing presence far more deeply during difficult times. Please join my loved ones and I in praying for Mary’s intercession and supporting a cause close to our hearts: the Christian Refugee Relief Fund, a campaign to end genocide against Christians and other minority groups including Yazidis in Iraq, Syria, and the surrounding Middle East and North Africa region. The Fund directs 100% donations to benefit these vulnerable humans through medical clinics, food programs, and the rebuilding of homes for families displaced by ISIS.

Our brothers and sisters are being tortured and exterminated for attempting to exercise religious freedom that we, as Americans, take for granted every day. Let us speak out for the rights of all who are vulnerable and express solidarity through our faith in action.

My last living grandparent, my paternal grandfather, passed away over Thanksgiving weekend. He was 97 years old. A sailor, a proud U.S. Navy veteran, an active Fourth Degree Knight with the Knights of Columbus, an Italian–American, a devoted Catholic who lived our faith in action. He lived a good life, one of family, love, and laughter. He was unfailingly kind, humble, and gentle. His grandchildren, and the greats and great-greats, meant the world to him. My siblings and I grieve for our father and his loss, who truly cherished his father and with whom he shared a special bond through weekly Knights meetings, Masses, and family gatherings. Those actions—faith in actions—exemplified the beautiful morals and values with which we were raised and only fully appreciate now.

With Saint Paul on my mind of late, the profoundness of the unseen and thus eternal is consuming my thoughts. All of the pettiness that we swear we are beyond but truly are not, the hurt that we hold on to, means nothing at the end. All that matters is how deeply you loved and touched another human. I think about my father’s unfailingly kind and gentle father and mother and my mother’s astonishingly resilient and loving father and mother and only recognize now after they have passed that all of that was indeed imbued in my parents. And I give thanks to God at every remembrance of them. ♥