This morning I was up early and went to Mass right away. I went to the church that my parents and I belonged to many years ago. At that time, my mom played the organ for the choir and her friend was the director. My dad sang and I did also for a few years. I became good friends with a couple who met and sang in the choir and eventually got married. Now, almost 40 years later, they have 8 children, 9 grandchildren, and still attend the same church. I have only seen them a couple times during the past few years, however. So I was surprised to see my friend get up after the homily and talk about stewardship. The first story he told was when the church moved out of the old small temporary building to the now big, beautiful structure. Unfortunately, they didn’t accommodate for a good music system for whatever reason. My mom and her friend had to advocate for a very long time to get only an adequate system. My friend was very involved at that time. While he didn’t use names, I knew exactly what he was talking about. After Mass, I surprised him when I said hello as neither of us anticipated seeing each other. While we were speaking, a man who sang in the choir with us those many years ago joined the conversation. He actually sang at the Mass that just ended. He didn’t recognize me until I introduced myself. He remembered me, but more than that he remembered the kindness of my mother. When the choir was just getting going, he was young. He always had vision problems, but managed to read and memorize music. He shared a story of when he was trying to learn a particularly difficult piece of music. He came to my mom’s house a couple times and she helped him work through it. Evidently he tried to pay her, but she wouldn’t accept it. He was so grateful. I was so grateful for these special memories of my mom today.

I Found God today in beautiful memories of my mom.