I hope you all had a blessed Christmas. Now that the weather settled down and we dug ourselves out of the snowbank, we've been having fun family times all week at Grandpy and Yai's house in Minneapolis. We attended a Children's Christmas Eve Mass nearby (they sang "Kermit's Christmas Wish". Not very Liturgically Correct. But cute!) It's fun to see Ana growing and soaking in everything.Then we had the Prescott Christmas dinner. The word "present" now rolls off Ana's tongue quite well. And Ana loves her cousins! It was a busy Prescott household.
Not to be overlooked is that Christmas is also the feast day of Ana's patron saint, St. Anastasia the Martyr. Although little is known for certain about this 4th century saint, legend holds that after she converted to Christianity, her husband, a Roman nobleman, became upset at this and started to mistreat her. No doormat of his, she remained firm in her Christian faith, while staying faithful to him as well. Later, after his death left her as a widow, she spent her days giving alms to the poor and sick. (One of her titles is "Anastasia the Healer" - and she is often depicted as above - holding a vial.) This activity of hers caught the ire of the officials as being a dead giveaway that she was a Christian, and eventually she was exiled and martyred atop a burning pyre.
The name Anastasia means "resurrection," and it's fitting that this saint, named after Christ's resurrection, was given the honor of giving her life for her faith. Pope John Paul II frequently reminded us that the blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the faith - meaning that when some sacrifice mightily for their faith, it brings forth new life.
We chose her to be the patron saint of our daughter for this reason. She exemplified the spirit of fidelity and charity that we hope to inculcate in Ana. But we can't do it alone. Saint Anastasia, please pray for her!
No comments:
Post a Comment