March 30, 2020

When I was a little kid, probably around the age of six, living on a farm with my family in the middle of Michigan an ominous storm hit our area in springtime. As I remember it, the black clouds literally blocked out the sun and the world became almost dark. Then the winds came, and huge limbs were ripped from the trees in our yard. The lights went out. The windows of our house rattled. I don’t remember thunder or lighting, but there was a lot of rain moving sideways to the ground in the wind. I was never so scared in my life. Was this the end of the world?
Then my mother did a most wonderful thing. She gathered me and my siblings into a central room in our house and led us in praying the rosary. Surrounded by darkness, tremendous wind, horizontal rain, a shaking house, and falling limbs, my mother calmly passed out the rosaries and we prayed huddled in that small room.
As I reflect on this experience, some thoughts come to mind. The first is that we had rehearsed for that storm by praying the rosary almost every evening as a family in the years before the storm. Praying the rosary was calming for us. We often fell asleep with the rosary in our hands. Somehow, praying made everything seem ok. We knew that no matter what happened, God was with us. Prayer was integral in facing the bad times, because we had prayed it in the good times.
A second thought was that while we were scared, at the same time there was hope; we didn’t panic. Calm ruled the day. We might have been facing the end of the world, but none of us “freaked-out”. Our faith said the God always knows what he is doing, that he has “the whole world in his hands.”
I thank God that in my family, the domestic church, with our parents as the primary teachers of the faith, that we prayed our way through the storm. Thanks to their example and teaching, I continue to face life’s problems, big and small, by praying. Things don’t always go the way I want, but with God’s grace, I can handle it.
In a little while the storm of my childhood was over, and we stepped out into the sunshine in wonder at what the storm had done. Best advice, “Stay away from the downed power line!”
May the Lord bless and keep you. May He let His light shine upon you and give you His peace.”