The kingship and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High;their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.” Daniel 7:27
For all the saints who from their labors rest,who Thee by faith before the world confessed; Thy name,Jesus,be forever blest.Alleluia, Alleluia!
For the apostles' glorious company,who bearing forth the cross o'er land and sea, shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee: Alleluia, Alleluia!
When I think about my grandma, I think about two things in particular; one how badly I miss her, and two how she always seemed happy and content with life. One thing I have learned in my classes at the seminary is, that salvation for Christians (my grandma was Presbyterian) is attainable by baptism and by seeking God’s will and grace in life.
My grandma never talked about religion too much, but she embodied it in her way of life, she always seemed to be content with whatever God gave her. She attended church faithfully and she was active with her “circle”, her group of women friends at her parish. I rarely heard her complain in life, and never saw her yell once or even raise her voice. She always seemed content to go wherever my mom would take her (my grandma didn’t drive) and although she had things to take care of at times, she never seemed stressed.
I simply picture her as happy and content (while missing my grandpa). I saw her life from a grandchild’s perspective which is different than my mom would have seen it, as I know there were hard times their family experienced. One thing I know was never lacking though was love! You could see it between the two of them. In this day and age when it is all too common to hop from one dating partner to the next or even one marriage to the next, my grandma never mentioned another man after my grandpa passed. I was only four when he passed away so I don’t remember much about their marriage (hardly anything unfortunately) but she sure did make it clear over the years as I grew up as to what a marriage should embody and what true love looks like, as she talked about him almost non-stop.
After she passed I would have dreams about her and in every one I was crying asking her “Don’t you love me? Don’t you want to come back here?” In the first few dreams she answered that of course she loved me and in the most recent dream that I hope I never forget, we were driving in a car and I again asked crying “Don’t you love me, don’t you want to be back here?” but this time she never looked at me, she simply looked straight ahead into a very bright light and was beaming and she smiled and said “of course I love you” and I looked at her and I could see she was either in or going to Heaven.
Her love didn’t change but she never looked back once and she had no desire to be here on earth. She was happier than I had ever seen her staring into that light! Since then I have thought about that dream and thought about her earthly life. It was simple, sometimes a struggle, happy, and sometimes filled with earthly pleasures. Her “earthly pleasures” were sweets (thanks for passing that one down grandma) and dishes/china. Kohls and TJ Maxx were her favorite places to go and look at the aisles of dishes! Since having that dream though I bet she thinks that was so small in happiness in comparison to what she is experiencing now, but for me left on earth, I sometimes cling to walking down those aisles.
She’s never come to me in a dream asking about dishes though so I imagine it goes to say that our earthly goods are not really something we need in abundance! While my mom may have some different views (although I imagine she’ll agree with the majority of what I have said), I think I can speak for us both when I say that she had a life well lived, was loved more than anything, and Heaven has gained a beautiful St. Lori.
To Jesus through Mary- Ally Hynes
