It's Time for an Update

I'm pretty sure that several months ago I shared the story about the retreat I had to direct last year--the one where I talked a lot about the Gospel story of the "Storm at Sea". Within days of that retreat, I faced my own "Storm at Sea" with my wife when we lost our son.

Since then, I've on and off dreaded Father's Day.

Well, Father's Day has come and gone, but I thought I'd share what happened that day. I was sitting in Mass, trying not to think about Father's Day, when the Gospel reading was read. The reading was... the Storm at Sea.

Today, a couple of weeks later, while on a pilgrimage with Archbishop Dolan and 150 others in Rome, Italy, my wife and I decided to give our Archbishop a piece of jewelry that had the footprints of our son engraved in it as a thanksgiving for his fight for the unborn. We also left the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, an envelope with the same. We had each worn the jewelry since last year. It felt like the thing to do, so we did.

A short time later, we were in Mass, and guess what Gospel reading was read?

...the Storm at Sea.