Let me begin by wishing all of our moms a Happy Mothers Day. It is a special moment to thank them and tell them that we appreciate and love them. For those of us who mothers have died, it is a poignant moment to remember and pray for them. I found a number of quotes about mothers which I liked, but I will save them till the end.
I appreciate that on Mother’s Day the two-bit collection is taken up for the Mary Bloom Center – which is named in honor of my mom. It serves the needy in Puno, a city high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. The Center strives to promote the values most important to my mom and dad: marriage, family, children. While those values are deep in the heart of every human being, they are also under attack in our world today. Mother’s Day is an opportunity for us to reaffirm their centrality for us both as Christians – and as citizens.
A person who brought much joy to our moms (and dads) these past few weeks was Mr. Pat Butler. He did a spectacular job producing the school play UFO-2. It was an engaging story with very good music and dance numbers. Like most people who saw it, I was just amazed at the talent he brought out of our middle school students. I saw the play on two different nights and enjoyed it immensely and felt proud of our students for their accomplishment.
Last weekend many of you had the opportunity to meet the new parish puppy. He is a lot of fun – and has been well received by children and adults of the parish. If you have Internet access you can find out more about him and see some pictures at: http://oocities.com/fatherbloom/parishdog.html There’s a nice picture of him with Mr. John Cassio’s eighth grade class. Also with the Damey family, who donated the puppy along with a kennel and a supply of food. (So far he does not seem to be a big eater – much more interested in affection and company.) Sr. Mary Clare, Tom Weber, Vernon and other members of the parish staff also posed for pictures with the new dog.
Thank your for your support of the Annual Catholic Appeal. Last weekend ______ parishioners filled out pledge envelopes for a total of $ ______. If you have not yet filled out your pledge, please do so. It is more important than ever that we support Archbishop Brunett and the mission of the Archdiocese.
· The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. - H.W. Beecher · Let France have good Mothers, and she will have good sons. - Napoleon I · All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. - Lincoln · A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. - Washington Irving (1783-1859) · They joys of motherhood are never fully experienced until the children are in bed. - Author Unknown. · Songs of Experience "Infant Sorrow" My mother groaned! my father wept. Into the Dangerous world I leapt: Helpless, naked, piping loud; Like a fiend hid in a cloud. - William Blake · Is my mother my friend? I would have to say, first of all she is my Mother, with a capital 'M'; she's something sacred to me. I love her dearly...yes, she is also a good friend, someone I can talk openly with if I want to. - Sophia Loren · There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness... The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after all, the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way. - Andrew Jackson · In all my efforts to learn to read, my mother shared fully my ambition and sympathized with me and aided me in every way she could. If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother. - Booker T. Washington · Woman knows what man has long forgotten, that the ultimate economic and spiritual unit of any civilization is still the family. - Clare Boothe Luce · Surely Feminine Visitor: "And what will you do, little girl, when you get as big as your mother?" Little Girl: "Diet!" · Sonnets Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime. - William Shakespeare · Now that I've reached the age, or maybe the stage, where I need my children more that they need me, I really understand how grand it is to be a grandmother. - Mrs Margaret Whitlam · A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take. - Cardinal Mermillod · Mothers are the pivot on which the family spins, Mothers are the pivot on which the world spins. - Pam Brown · The mother is the most precious possessions of the nation, so precious that society advances its highest well-being when it protects the functions of the mother. - Ellen Key · I never thought that you should be rewarded for the greatest privilege of life. - Mary Roper Coker Mother of the Year 1958 · Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined. - John S C Abbott · The love of husbands and wives may waver; brothers and sisters may become deep-rooted enemies; but a mother's love is so strong and unyielding that it usually endures all circumstances: good fortune and misfortune, prosperity and privation, honor and disgrace. A mother's love perceives no impossibilities. - Paddock · There is in all this world no fount of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within a mother's heart. - Felicia Hemans · Before becoming a mother I had a hundred theories on how to bring up children. Now I have seven children and only one theory: love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved. - Kate Samperi · Biblical Quote V. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God give the thee.