Rave review:
It’s amazing what even preschoolers can learn from the richness of Catholic tradition. The Advent wreath teaches colors and numbers; a rosary helps them count by tens. That’s why the newest book by Brother Michael “Mickey” O’Neill McGrath, Jesus A to Z (World Library Publications, 2007) is such a treasure.
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At Home With Our Faith takes home web honors
"Smartly designed," "perfectly aimed," "inviting on every page": These are just a few of the nice things judges had to say about At Home With Our Faith at two recent national newsletter awards competitions .  .  .
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Homemade Social Justice

Bread of Life

Some of the best lessons we teach our children involve no spoken words. Here is a story from George Docsi, architect and author, which I found in Robert Bly's A little book on the human shadow. Docsi tells:

"When I was a boy in Hungary I loved dinner. I loved to go into the dining room and sit in front of the big plates, and have the maid come in and serve the soup. One evening I went downstairs and the dining room was in an uproar. A pogrom had taken place in Russia, and many Jews were fleeing over the border into our town. My grandfather went down to the railway station and brought home Jews whom he found there.

"I didn't know what was going on, but I could see old men with skull caps in the living room, mothers nursing babies in the corners of the dining room, and I threw a fit. I said, 'I want my supper! I want my supper!' One of the maids offered me a piece of bread. I threw it on the floor and screamed, 'I want my supper!' My grandfather happened to enter the room at that moment and heard me. He bent down and picked up the piece of bread, kissed it, and gave it to me. And I ate it."

In similar (though far less dramatic!) situations to what Docsi describes, I have ranted or hissed at my kids, shamed them or demanded they snap out of it. Docsi's grandfather did none of these. In an inspired gesture, loaded with meaning, he invited the young boy to rise up from a selfish place to a sacred space.

Parents, we're capable of such moments. As Bly comments, "The kissing of the bread is very beautiful, I'm not sure why." I have a clue. Think of the Eucharist, bread that becomes for us his body, given up so that we might live eternally.

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