My Catholic Baby

I have three children. Their births were spaced apart. I have a daughter that I talked about and she is 22. I have a teenage son, and he is 16 3/4. My youngest son is 7 3/4. I call him my Catholic baby. I talked about my other two children so now I'm going to talk about my little guy. I call him my Catholic baby because he was my only child born after I had become Catholic. So he was my first baby to be baptized in the Catholic religion. My other two children completed their sacraments into the Catholic church also. The only sacrament that they missed was their baptism. They were baptized Lutheran. The Catholic church accepts the Lutheran baptism because we're only supposed to be baptized one time in our life. Also my first born daughter was a little late for her First Holy Communion. But it all got worked out. Like I said, their all up to date on their sacraments. I didn't think that my hubby and I would have anymore children. My second child was 9 1/2 years old when I got pregnant with my third child. I see how God surprised us! So that's why I call him my Catholic baby. The first night he was born I held him in my arms. All the visitors were gone. It was just me and this little baby I was holding who was just hours old. The room was dimmed and I could see the lights of the hospital through the window. The day was drawing to a close. I whispered in his little ear and recited the Our Father and the Hail Mary. I wanted to be the first person to recite these two most important prayers to him. Although I'm sure he already heard of them because he had just left heaven and entered into our lives. I thought, I have this baby that I can teach the Catholic religion to him from the get go. From birth. This child of mine is going to be a cradle Catholic. I could see God's hand in this plan. My son was 13 days old when I took him into the Adoration Chapel with me. I just wanted to thank the Lord before the Blessed Sacrament for a beautiful and healthy baby boy. I just felt so blessed. When he was still a baby I wanted him to go to a Catholic school when he reached kindergarten age. But that didn't pan out to be. But I thought that that was fine because I can still teach him Catholicism. I'm his mother. Secretly I began to wish for him to become a priest one day. I just thought that that would be so wonderful if my son became a priest! My son was around five when he came up to me and showed me a picture that he drew. He said "Look Mom." I almost fell out of my chair when I seen it. It was a picture he had drew of the crucified Jesus on the cross! It had the nails in it and everything. I just held him and hugged him. I always kept it in the back of my head that he might be a priest one day. To myself, I use to say "Oh he's going to be my little Catholic priest!" Some point after that, I told my son that he could be a priest one day if he'd like. Every once in awhile I'll ask him, "Are you going to be a priest one day or are you going to get married?" He tells me that he's going to live by himself with a family of dogs. I realized that he might not have a calling from the Lord to be a priest. And that's ok. I'm not going to push it. But I just wanted him to know that he could be a priest if he wanted to. I even told my other two children that to. They can enter into religious life, get married or live alone. Last year during Lent, my youngest son asked me out of the blue, if I would take him to the Stations of the cross up at our church. Just for a reminder, her was six when he asked me this. It's something I always wanted to do but never did. I just hugged him and told him, "Ok, we'll go." How could I look into his eyes and tell him no. A...I might be in a bit of trouble from the Man upstairs if I were to say no!!!! I know it sounds strange but my little Catholic baby, (now 7) always liked to stations of the cross. If I were looking at it in a book, he wanted to see and hear the prayers to. If I was watching it on EWTN, he would sit with me and watch it along side of me. This little child has always liked the stations of the cross. I wasn't quite sure how he'd react to the crucifixion part but he was ok with it. I just thought, well if he's ok with it, I'm ok with it. =) When we went last year to the Stations of the Cross, his chatism teacher came up to my son afterward and said how proud she was to see my son there. She said that he was the only one in her chatacism class that was there. She said that she was going to give him a little surprise at the next chatacism class just for him because he went. The chatacim teacher looked at me and said, this is wonderful that he is here. It starts with the parents inside the home. That just made me feel good. She's a very devoted Catholic. I see her in church all of the time. My son was even upset when she wasn't going to be his chatacism teacher anymore at the end of the school year. My son and I are planning on going to the Stations of the Cross this Friday evening. Maybe it will be the beginning of a little tradition that him and I do together. He's my little Catholic baby. The other day he told me that he remembered something that happened, when he was two. He said it was his birthday party and that he was flying through the hallway into the living room. I told my son that he was just probably dreaming that. He said, "No. I seen myself in the living room at my birthday party but I couldn't move my arms." I just sort of looked at him and said, "Maybe it was your guardian angel who carried you." But he didn't respond. Then I said, "Maybe it was the Blessed Virgin Mary who carried you." And he looked me square in the eyes and said, "Yeah, I think your right." ♥