Fr. Ben

We were blest this past weekend to attend the ordination of Fr. Ben Sawyer. Ben was Philip's roommate in collage and went to seminary at Mount St. Mary's, where Matthew is currently.

For those of you who have never had the privlidge of witnessing the ordination of a man into the eternal priesthood of Christ, it is a truly beautiful thing. At no other time is the full weight of tradition which we enjoy as a Church as perceptable as in the rite whereby the candidate enters into the unbroken line of the priestly ministry established by Christ himself. The 'essential rite', the very moment to which one can point and say "now he is a priest," happens at the imposition of hands by the bishop and his brother priests on the head of the now-newly ordained. In seeing this simple, efficacious gesture, one cannot help but call to mind the concrete, historical reality that this office has, litterally, been handed on to every priest, bishop and deacon from those who have already received the laying on of hands, in seamless succession, from Jesus to Fr. Sawyer.

Fr. Ben's chalice, a gift from his mother. An emotional Fr. Ben, at the reception held in honor of his celebration of his first Holy Mass, thanks his mother and late father for passing on the faith so dear to them and which he is now charged in the duty to pass on to his own spiritual children. He said, "there is no greater gift a parent can give their child." Another notable quote from the newly-ordained; "My parents fulfillment of their vocation to marriage made possible my vocation to the priesthood." It seems very appropriate, then, that the parents would formally present their priest-son with a chalice at their first Mass, in which the Most Precious Blood will be given to so many others.

While there we met up with other UDers...here Avery is hanging out with Brother Ambrose.


Receiving first blessing...go ahead and bless the two-year old a bit extra for us.

Friday Photo Favorites

My little one is two today...

Tunnel Time

Make a Smilebox photobook

Nursing Nonsense

Paul Thomas was happily playing in his room with his trains, or so I thought, as I settled in to nurse Avery down for his moring nap. Then, silence; something we as mom's crave, but know as a warning if all are not sleeping, buckled in, or restrained in some other fashion. Silence means, "stop what you are doing and find all people under three feet tall quickly". This time we were lucky... the bottle was only half full.

Notice the scrub-brush. Thankfully, he learned THIS from us and not other habits of ours.

I must admit the bathroom smelt great for a couple of days!

Friday Photo Favorites

Can't get enough of sleeping babies!

This kid has got style!

We were graced with a quick visit from Pop Pop Monday night through Tuesday morning. Paul Thomas took full advantage of the newbie situation and convinced Pop Pop to let him pick out his own apparel for the day.

Mind you it is mid-May in Dallas, Texas. The bunny slippers seal the deal.

Ahhh, thanks Pop Pop! Mom would have never let me leave the house like this.

Oh wait one more thing to complete the look.

Shorts! On the Head.

Now I am ready for the day.

Train Crossing

As I worked from the computer desk, I could here Avery starting to get bored with his arch toy. I quickly finished up what I was working on and was surprised to hear him laughing. I leaned back to see this pleasant sight!

Paul Thomas noticing that Avery was bored with his toy moved it out of the way to begin a new game with his brother.

As soon as I grabbed the camera I could hear the familiar sounds of a train.

Up, Up, Up

Down

Whoo Whoo

Yeah, that's me, I'm the track right now...

and I love it!

Friday Photo Favorites

Here a few favs from Avery's Baptism back in February. The gown is from Assisi! We had a whole crowd come in to celebrate with us.

Thank you to all the family for making this a special time.

Wow!

This is the first enclosed track PT has built! Tons better than Momma and not even two yet!

Good Job PT!

Paul Thomas is doing a superb job driving the trains on the track. The bridge is his favorite part! Up, up, up and down....weee is how you know from the other room that the train is going up and over the bridge. He also has incorporated this into our daily drives. It is amazing how many bridges there are in the Metroplex!

When he needs some space we find him like this with his train.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Gee Gee and Papa for the train set! It has given us many hours of fun!

Like Father...

Avery is such a jovial baby! He listens and watches all that happens, then the second someone turns to glace at him, he coos and kicks and turns on the charm. He reminds me of what his Daddy must have been like (judging from the stories). Observant, alert and jolly! Avery brings joy to all we meet through out the day. I thank God for giving us two amazing little boys with such unique personalities!