for some reason, Adoration tends to bring out the God the Father connection to me. grace and prayer connect me to my Father in Heaven; this connection enlightens me as a father and as a son.
tonight at Adoration, for a brief moment, i held thomas in the crook of my arm as he chewed on a cup. at that moment, we were both basking in our Father's care--i provided to him warmth, protection, safety, and love. simultaneously, i was reminded of our Father's similar loving touch, those grace-filled moments during which life makes complete sense and feels good. [praise God for having received good catechism enough to be aware of the infinite depth of the faith, much deeper than a "feeling" or "emotional bond" between me and the cosmos...that is for a different post.]
in previous Adoration experiences with thomas, i have been given similar graces upon observing fatherhood and Fatherhood. one observation is that i (lauren and i) provide everything for thomas-- his food, his clothes, his shelter, the love he receives, and, ultimately, his life. recognizing all i provide for thomas reminds me of the infinite generosity of our Lord. our Lord provides at the most basic level our lives. without our Lord's loving, generous gift of life, we would not be here. similarly, without our family's commitment to be open to life, thomas would not exist. i give thomas love, but our Lord offers His Love; more importantly, he has offered for us an invitation to the divine life through His Son, and consequently through His Church. i give thomas an apartment, and a room of his own. our Lord gives us graces to build virtues through His Sacraments to protect us from evil and bring us closer to Himself.
we love dressing thomas in fun clothes. let me be more clear: lauren absolutely can't get enough of dressing thomas in fun clothes. i kind of enjoy taking pictures of them. similarly, through grace we are given virtues like faith. i love in Ephesians when paul talks about clothing ourselves in faith--i believe the line is "put on the armor of Christ." this imagery reminds me of the spiritual battle in which we are taking part, and the importance of "gearing up." i am going to wear a cup when i play baseball: of course i'm going to wear something when engaging in spiritual warfare. that all comes down to prayer i suppose (a topic to be covered another time).
lauren and i feed thomas food--lately he has tried and enjoyed graham crackers and potatoes (no--not at the same time!). our Lord gives us spiritual food.
when i was in choir in high school, we had to do sight-reading exercises. we all hated these exercises as they diverted our attention from singing cool songs in parts and had to be sung in boring solfege. my choir director informed us we were "eating our vegetables." just like we eat vegetables to improve and maintain our health, so we sight-read to improve and maintain our musical abilities.
so it is with faith. every day, God gives us several "vegetable-eating" moments. Deuteronomy 30 talks about a choice we have each day, light or darkness, life or death: the writer urges: "choose life so that you and your descendants might live." more practically, we are given several opportunities throughout each day to choose life. "life" might be something more quantifiable like patience, understanding, right-judgment. read up on the fruits/gifts of the Holy Spirit and you might get the gist. when we practice virtues such as courage and hope, we are eating our spiritual food.
more importantly, God gives us His Son in the Eucharist each day. each day, we have an opportunity to partake in the Heavenly Banquet. more on the Eucharist in another post.
what a beautiful blessing to be given insights into Fatherhood, just by observing fatherhood. praise God!
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