Forever Starts Today: Tribute to Luke

Today is the feast day of St. Luke. Praise God for grandparents who help keep me on my toes. Grandma Schafer called us up to set up a little outing. And so I packed up Luke and Augustine and joined Grandma and Grandpa Schafer at 11:30 Mass at Walsh University to celebrate. They also took us out to lunch afterwards and I pulled out the cookbook to make a simple yellow layer cake for this evening.

TAH-DAH!

In 2nd Timothy we heard from Paul who is imprisoned. Many of Paul's other companions deserted him, but apparently, Luke was present. Paul sends for Mark as well and although estranged by most, Paul proclaims "But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength...". Fr. Anselm also added the words of wisdom of John Wayne in his cowboy days by stating something along the lines of "Courage is fearing for your life but saddling up anyway".

For the birds...

In the gospel for today (Luke 10:1-9) Jesus gets his disciples "saddled up" and sends them out, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few..." The disciples are to travel without money, sack, or sandals and depend on the hospitality of strangers as they minister to the sick and preach about the Kingdom of God.

Choo-choo chuckles

Stand Tall

Even though Pete and I are indeed Star Wars fans, and Luke's cousins were ecstatic knowing surely that we named our first son after Mr. Skywalker, we must give more credit to St. Luke, the evangelist and physician. Luke writes "everyman's gospel" and gives particular attention to the outcasts of society including women, the sick, the poor, and the Gentiles.

When I was pregnant with Luke, coincidentally, I was teaching numerous religious education standards to my 7th graders about Luke's Gospel which included comparing and contrasting the infancy narratives. There Luke highlights characters like Elizabeth, Mary, and the shepherds whereas Joseph and the magi get more attention in the other accounts. The evangelist's focus on humility and social justice helped us to select him as Luke's namesake.

Still, Pete enjoys using the line 'Luke, "I am your father." :-)

Eye to Eye

Bubble Brigade

Hip, hip hooray for our first son Luke Francis Schafer as he celebrates his feast day! We hope you enjoy(ed) the pictures- most of which came from an 18 month photo-shoot that we solicited Aunt Tess and Uncle Adam for capturing his natural cuteness. We have some prints so if you want us to send one your way let me know.