Faith

This past Sunday we went to a very special 'Family Mass' at our Church.  At this Mass there was a Blessing for expectant mothers and the fathers too.  Each couple came up to the altar (and in some cases whole families as some couples already had children), and Monsignor did the Blessing and prayed over them, and the congregation prayed also.  He also thanked each couple for choosing life even though he knew it was a hardship for many couples.  And each couple was then given a hand-made baby shawl.  It was really a beautiful ceremony and our oldest son Brian and Flora were able to participate (Baby Ray is due in a few weeks).


This Mass was special in another way too.  After the Gospel was read the sermon entailed the Christmas story with a live Nativity depicted.  The 'players' in this scene were parish family members:

After Monsignor was done with his sermon he stepped forward to introduce "Mary and Joseph", and he told us that "Baby Jesus" did not actually have the name 'Jesus' but that his name was 'Creed', and he asked Creed's Mom to tell us the story of how he came to be Creed.
She told us that when she was six months pregnant she and her husband were advised to terminate the pregnancy as tests showed their baby had only half of his brain developed.  The doctors said there was no hope of the baby developing normally or of having any kind of productive or meaningful life.  She said at that moment she decided to place herself and her baby in God's Hands. She said that she and her husband met with one of the priest at Church and he prayed with them. She and her husband decided to have faith that what they and modern medicine could not do for their child God Could Do.  And they decided to trust that He would do it.


Their baby boy was born three months later, happy, healthy, and perfectly normal.  They wanted to honor God in some small way, so they decided to name their baby boy Creed after The Apostle's Creed, which is a statement of our faith and belief, and it is a prayer we say every Sunday at Mass:

I believe in God, The Father Almighty

Creator of Heaven and of earth,

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord and Savior,

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried,

He descended into hell,

on the third day He rose again from the dead,

He ascended into Heaven,

He is seated at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty,

from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead,

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord, the Giver of Life,

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church,

I believe in the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting.  Amen.