Happy Feast Day, and More Wedding Bells
Álvaro gets down on one knee in front of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Poland.
Happy feast day of our patrons, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin!
Praying our novena these last nine days, we have prayed to be open to God's will for our lives. We have prayed for families to live with virtue, joy, and holiness in everyday ordinary life. We have prayed for more respect and commitment to marriage in our modern society.
While we've been praying these prayers on the home front, our beloved theology, drama, and literature teacher Miss Laura Lindmeier has been with a group on pilgrimage in Poland.
Guess what happened over there in Poland, while we were in the middle of our novena back here in Philly?
The very fortunate Mr. Álvaro Dávila proposed to Laura, going down on one knee in front of the original icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa. Congratulations, Laura and Álvaro!
Recollecting all that has happened in the last eighteen months, Miss Lindmeier is the sixth Martin Saints faculty member to get engaged or married: Tomassi, Cuddy, Fitzpatrick, O'Donnell, Burke, and now Lindmeier!
I'd say that Louis and Zélie are doing their fair share of intercession.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, today we had a beautiful community Mass at Sacred Heart parish in Bridgeport. A student and alumni choir sang angelically. Father DiMaria preached about how we can make our hearts fertile soil, just like the Martin family did. The Martin family ran a business, paid their bills...and endured great suffering...and found the grace to live a holy life in ordinary circumstances.
Álvaro and Laura are just beginning their family. Our teenage students and their parents are a later stage of family life. Many of our donors are older and living yet another stage of life. But we're all in this together.
This is what Martin Saints is all about. Forming families and raising children in the faith is an act of co-operation between many partners and mentors, an act of patience over many years to help our sons and daughters mature in the faith. This is what Catholic schools and communities are supposed to do.
Thank you for your support, practically, financially, spiritually. Let's always keep praying for each other, our school community, and our country. May the Martin family of saints please pray for us all!
Mass this morning to celebrate the feast at Sacred Heart parish.
The Martin family.
Álvaro and Laura at St. John Paul II's childhood parish in Wadowice, near Kraków. Álvaro and Laura originally met in a course studying John Paul II's Theology of the Body.
