Today I watched an interview with Mother Olga, a woman who started the order of “Daughters of Mary of Nazareth” in Massachusetts. I was intrigued as she told her story about coming to America from the Middle East as a young woman and having to learn the language and culture. She brought a sense of peace with her soft voice and calm demeanor. She told stories of the order’s ministries such as visiting people in nursing homes and in hospitals, accompanying elderly who are dying and children who are suffering. The nuns will pray with and for those they visit. She said that we all have 4 birthdays – the first is the one in which God breathed life into us at conception in our mother’s womb. The second is when we are born into the world. The third is when we are Baptized into the family of the church. And our fourth birthday is the day we become a child of Heaven and return back to God. I loved this concept. To me, there is plenty of reason to celebrate these birthdays  and puts death in a different perspective – more positive and something to look forward to.

I Found God today in the idea of four birthdays.