Gifts from my Mom

I wrote this out 4 years ago, when we had just started our home-schooling journey. It is about my dear mother and how she continues to give me gifts of faith- actually, I have been thinking of her a lot lately, as she died long before my children were born, and she must be happy to have the two precious babies that I miscarried with her. I normally wouldn't presume anyone is in heaven, but she had such great faith and suffered so much with her Scleroderma, most of her purgatory just had to be here on earth.

I was at my father's house recently with my children, and I asked him
if I could take some of my mother's books- (my dad gets headaches from
reading, especially in English- he was born in Italy).
My mother had great faith and most of her books are Catholic. She died more than 19 years ago, and I am the only practicing Catholic left in our family.
I have taken a few books here and there over the years, and am amazed thatGod's
timing is so awesome. I found two very special treasures. One is an Ave Maria reader, the other is called My Name day- come for dessert.

I hadn't heard of the Ave Maria readers until that same week, when I was going through my Seton lesson plans and they were mentioned, so it immediately caught my attention. Then I opened the book up and found this inscription:
" December 1973
When I was a very small child my mother's friend Mary Stack gave me this book. It had belonged to her son , who was getting too old for such books (how lucky for me!) I had many happy hours reading the beautiful little stories in this book. Now I would like to pass this most beloved book on to my daughter, Cristina. It is getting a little old and some of the pages are ripped or torn, but I hope Cristina enjoys these stories as much as I did.
Her Mother,
Evelyn"

With tears in my eyes and many thoughts running through my head, I showed this to my father and told him that Mom had just given me a gift. I do not remember this book from my childhood, but I fondly remember my grandmother's friend Mary Stack and her husband, as they lived up the street from my grandparents again in the 1980's (at the time the book was given to my mother - the 1950's- they all lived in East Boston). I am now reading this book to my four children.

The other is a book that an on-line Catholic friend highly recommends. I remember her mentioning it in the recent past and instantly recognized this as another tool to help me celebrate the liturgical year, and feast days. There are many wonderful ideas to celebrate the different Marian feast days and each are a little different. (BTW- this is available for download at EWTN.com) This book also has a little of my mother in it as she wrote her name and 'Christmas 1978' inside. This is wonderfully amazing as I have just started homeschooling and I am trying to build my library to help us celebrate the feasts of the church.

As I told my father, I consider these books gifts from my dear mother, whom I miss so very
much. God knew when she inscribed them and put them on the
shelf that I would find them now, when they have more meaning than at
any prior period in my life. His timing is awesome, and I can't explain how I
missed them over the years, except that He wanted to give me these
gifts now. I continue to grow in respect and awe of Our Lord,
and also in respect for my dear mother- I always admired her faith in God and His Church, and I am sure she is responsible for my re-version to the faith (I was barely luke-warm for many years after her death). What a privilege that God is allowing her to continue to teach
me and my children the faith she so loved even now- almost 20 years after her death.