A Beautiful Promise

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, November 3rd, 2024:
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Deuteronomy
6.2-6

Moses spoke to the people:
“May you and your children and your children’s children fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long.

“Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your Fathers, has promised you.

“Hear, O Israel:
The Lord is our God, the Lord alone, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

What a beautiful promise this reading gives us! A promise of hope and a plan to secure a place for our children, their children, and their children’s children, in God’s love. 

I recently read that Deuteronomy is a framework for parenting, summed up in Moses’ instruction that “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” This got me reflecting on our home life.

We were committed to raising our two, now adult, boys in our Catholic faith. That meant supporting them through attendance at Mass, Sunday School, and the celebration of the sacraments. Our home had the added bonus of being surrounded by Catholic and Christian communities of friends through Alpha, Cursillo, and music ministries. The boys were constantly in touch with men and women who lived out a belief in Jesus through their actions. They also had the benefit of seeing us live out our faith daily. And while only one of them is a semi-churchgoer today, they are both kind, loving, and generous grown men. The oldest of our boys is now a father himself to two beautiful girls, and because they live with us, his daughters are equally surrounded by people who live out loving the Lord with all their heart, soul, and might. 

Our eldest granddaughter is full of spice and can ramp up from zero to 60 in a heartbeat. I have learned that if I’m given the chance to sit with her when she has accelerated over something, hugging her and praying a Hail Mary out loud calms her. Asking her if she feels Jesus in her heart can slow the tears. My heart soars when I hear her singing a worship song that she has heard her Poppy practising and watching her dance in the pew as we attend Mass together. I see her learning to thank her parents for simple things that many children take for granted because she is seeing a spirit of gratefulness for acts of service lived out around her. She leads us all in a simple grace at supper time, and recently her mother told us that she does the same when they are out at a restaurant. She is learning that God is with her all the time, not just when we are in the church building. 

Watching her embrace a relationship with Jesus and having the privilege of sharing our home with their little family is helping me to grow more deeply in my own relationship with Jesus. Knowing that we now have the same opportunity to welcome her new little sister into the family of God through her upcoming baptism, and that the solid foundation of seeds that are being sown in their hearts during these early years will secure their future with God, is a beautiful promise from Him. How blessed we are to live to see our children’s children live in the light of His love.




​Sandy Graves

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