Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Cause of Our Joy, and my three daughters, the cause of my joy.
Christina has been off from school all week. No one else has off from school, Gabbi is preparing for chemistry, psychology, and physiology finals, and Bella is reading The Divine Comedy as expeditiously as possible since all three books arrived from inter-library loan on the same day and must be returned soon. I have enjoyed reading it with her, but I wanted to give Christina some one on one time.
She led me to sit in the schoolhouse, where she enjoys the desks and the company of the children, the coopers shop, where she impressed the cooper (barrel maker) with her skills at the wood shaping bench (this is her fifth time to OSV this year) and the barnyard where we watched the animals. We gazed at the lovely little white lambs tagging along behind their massive wooly mothers, responding to their calls with tiny bleats, and nursing with gusto as they rammed their little heads into mom's belly for more milk! What a delight it was to see her enjoy herself on the playground, when she has been denied it at school because of the risk of falling with her delicate vertebrae.
Its a moment close to any mother's heart, but especially dear when you homeschooled your daughter for eleven years. This is what you dreamt about when you pictured her future, an intelligent, articulate young woman meeting life's challenges with success.
Gabbi's grade point average of 3.7 at Three Rivers Community College where she takes her difficult pre-nursing courses (pre-calculus, Anatomy and Physiology and Organic Chemistry) is a source of pride to her and her family. She was inducted this week into the national honor society for community colleges, Phi Theta Kappa.
Christina loves the computer, with the Starfall site she learned her letters, and she goes on PBS Kids often. We have applied for a grant for an Ipad 3 . She used it in speech therapy at UCONN Hearing and Speech Center, and has one at school she can't take home. Rather than watch movies when she comes home on inclement days, I'd like to see if we can engage her in some of these Ipad apps on this website.
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Was the horrible sight of the crowning of thorns the first and only time Our Lady saw Jesus crowned in humility? The Lord's whole earthly life, taking on the nature of a human being was a humiliation. Since no man before Christ was born perfect and sinless and the teaching of the Trinity cannot be known through human reason alone, who on earth is able to distinguish the God-Man from sinful humanity? How humble is the Lord! It is similar to entering a penitentiary, wearing prison garb, yet never having committed a crime and being willing to be seen first as a criminal. How many examples must Our Lady have witnessed of this unending display of humility which culminates in the Lord's Crowning with thorns and cruel mockery by the soldiers.
