My beautiful daughter Rebekah had here first wedding performance yesterday, I am as proud as punch with her total performances but especially her own rendition of Ave Maria... enjoy...
You should be very proud of your daughter, Rebekah, and the musical gift with which your family has been blessed! It makes me long to visit your island! And then about 5 minutes ago, I came across my daughter, Rachel: her musings on her trip to the old sod some sixteen years ago: BTW, the reference to Edward refers to my paternal great-grandfather. Ireland was amazing. I'm in love, I want to go back, and I cannot believe all the miracles God sent our way. We spent most of our time in western Ireland. Getting there was interesting, as driving stick and driving on the other side of the road was an explosive combination, but our guardian angels did prevent us from having any collisions or major problems. We stopped by Kells on the way, and saw the old monastery, and reached Ballyshannon that evening. Camping was so much fun! Mel and I had some technical difficulties with the tent, which resulted in our getting very wet the first night, but otherwise it was so fun and relaxing. Matt, Miriel's boyfriend, met up with us at the campsite, and we had some wonderful times the next few days. Matt and I climbed the Slieve League cliffs on a cloudy, drizzling day but, even though we couldn't actually see the sea below us, it was amazing climbing up through the clouds and bounding over the mountainside. I felt like I was living "Lord of the Rings," or, at any rate, in a totally different world. We also visited Donegal castle, toured Ballyshannon, and visited Bundoran Bay. The bay was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen, and seeing all the places described in Edward's poem was incredible. I actually may have sat on the very rock he did, when composing it. See, the three of us climbed out on a rock jutting out into the bay, and I had such an intimate conversation with Christ, imagining how much he had to trust in leaving their homeland and how much he[Edward] probably dreamed of bringing his family back, even though those dreams weren't fulfilled until I sat there that morning. The biggest lesson of the whole week is to really trust God in everything, let myself be humbled, and just depend on him in a child-like fashion. So many times we arrived at a church just in time for Mass, even though it would be the most random hour of the day. Whenever we took a wrong turn, someone appeared nearly right away to point us in the right direction. We were able to attend a young Irish Catholic group, Pure in Heart, in Dublin and when we arrived really late to our campsite in Knock, someone showed up to let us in just as we finished our Hail Mary and plea for Our Lady of Knock to pray for us. The biggest miracle of the trip, though, was probably climbing Croagh Patrick. I don't know how much you know about the mountain, but, first of all, it's huge, its peak is in the clouds, its trail is made of large, loose rocks, and some parts of it are pretty much straight up. When I first looked up that mountain, I couldn't conceive how anyone could actually climb it, let alone poor pilgrims for the past fifteen hundred years. And, honestly, I don't know how we made it up. Only by his grace...and to think I thought of climbing it barefoot. But so much interiorly happened on that mountain. We had totally depend on God's strength, and I felt I was living an allegory of life, climbing insurmountable peaks and then finding the Blessed Sacrament in a little chapel on the top. The whole experience was so humbling and so deep, very hard to describe. God is so amazing! Eventually, we just stopped worrying and started expecting everything to work out. And it did, as he gave me so many spiritual lights and enabled me to entrust myself to him in such a wonderful, deeper way. And it was so much fun! Rachel is now 37, married happily, with 5 children. It was so sweet to spend time with her at our recent family reunion, watching her debating her older brother, Fr. Benjamin, as they have lovingly done for the last 30 years!
You are Blessed to have such a wonderful Spirit filled daughter- a testament to a Holy Catholic upbringing. What faith she has!
Her faith is deep and she has an expansive mind. The walls of their home is literally lined with bookcases which are obviously filled with books.
