Researching ancient writing has made me realize the importance of delving deeper into the Catholic faith. One can easily see the contrast in the lives of the saints, the popes, the apostles and the bishops that fought and died to keep the faith alive. I am no different. It is a strong desire that has been placed in my heart to rediscover who I am through every person making positive contributions to the Catholic church. The truth is so obvious. What we need to be doing is so simplistic and yet we freely choose not to look at the gift of faith, we choose not to research and learn from our elders. Fortunately, I was blessed to see a live sermon happening in the presence of my maternal great grandmother. Every year at Easter Vigil, she had invited the priest and the altar servers to come and bless our home. She was a beacon of light because every time I saw her in the building she wore a rosary around her waist and she was in deep prayer. Whether she was mopping the first and second story hallway and steps, walking to church daily, her entire life revolved around the Catholic faith. She lived during WWI and WWII and her husband and sons my great uncles were all military men. The finest men within our family and I had come to love them all dearly. My great grandfather died serving the church by ringing the church bells and worked as a janitor at my parochial school. He was of that generation that never stopped working. His daughter my grandmother was the same way. She worked as a seamstress in a factory, and at night she cleaned various offices in town and worked for the richest lady who owned a very high end womens clothing store. A mother of four never stops. And her husband worked right along side of her. And I remember being invited to help but I had enjoyed their company much more than the work that was involved. My grandmother was a holocost surviver. She did share the story about hiding Christians underground beneath the home they had lived in. And my younger brother creating a rendering as she described the house. She lived to be 83 and the war stories and the holocost stories all died with her. But it was our faith that sustained us all throughout the trials of life. Our faith is our rudder, our faith helps us to see beyond the moment of great suffering, our faith teaches us to break through to the other side with God. My Polish ancestry is very rich. Some of the most intelligent men and women in the world have come from Poland. And during the holocaust, the most talented people in all of Poland, composers, artists, writers, entertainers, even religious sisters and saints, all were deliberately placed in gas chambers, silencing their talents and God given gifts, never to be read, sung, seen, or painted on a canvas again. But they lived! I remember as a child hearing stories about art work being stollen and placed into crates later to be discovered upon trains, some of that art work found its way to the U.S. My late and great Polish Great Grandmother instilled in me to love God, to pray, to serve, and to live as his daughter. And honestly, she was exactly right. I caught her sermon by the way she lived her life. And when my husband took me to Poland that solidified the deal. I knew I would continue to honor her legacy, and surrender to God my life of service because we were born for greatness, a greatness that can only be found in loving God. I was given one picture of my great grandparents and I cherish it because they were on Pilgrimage in Poland and I was given the honor of walking in her footsteps eight years after she had died, and a voice said, kneel and kiss the ground, all of your ancestors are with you. And I sobbed like a baby! So you see everything in life comes full circle and if we pay attention we can see
