Mary Magdalene...So close to my heart...

16th Anniversary Gift Ideas

I want to make my sixteenth wedding anniversary as blissful an occasion, like all other anniversaries. For this I am going to buy a Silver locket and Fountain pen – the modern gifting ideas. Unfortunately, unlike milestone anniversaries, the 16th anniversary does not have any traditional gifts associated with it. So I will go for these two modern gifts.

As there are no long-standing, traditional gifts associated with 16 years of marriage, I will have to happy with contemporary 16th wedding anniversary gifts of silver hollow pendant and fountain pen – out of the other options – these two I love the most.

But it seems tourmaline is a gem that come in variety of colours, and is the traditional gift to give to a wife on the sixteenth wedding anniversary. But I will be content with the above two.

19th July, 2015 (Sunday)

Today’s a landmark day in my life. Today’s the day I had my catechists training course (CTC)’s first evaluation. My group animator came to evaluate my teaching in the class and praise God, everything went well. She appreciated my way of teaching and didn’t find anything that I shouldn’t be doing in the class. I am so very happy today.

I was very nervous and had surrendered this evaluation to the Lord and asked Him to be with me while teaching. I asked Him to guide me the way I should be teaching, for His glorification, and indeed Jesus heard my prayers and everything went well. Thank you, Jesus, for being with me while teaching.

Secondly, today’s daily Bible To Do message said – list the five most important roles you play in your life and account for everything you do under each role.

So, the five most important roles that I play in my life are that of a Lover of Christ, Mother, Wife, Catechist and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. And the sequence is absolutely correct.

And if I have to give an account for everything that I do under each role, then as a Lover of Christ, I love Jesus Christ from the bottom of my heart. I exist only because I love Him otherwise I would be non-existent. In my role as a Mother I try to be as peaceful, patient and polite to my daughters as possible. I try to be more of a friend to my daughters than a typical mother. I try hard and I hope to be successful. In my role as a Wife, I try to be as patient as possible with my husband. I try to be affectionate and cooperative with him and try to agree with the decisions he takes. I keep him informed of all the happenings in my life and try not to nag him much. I support him whenever I can. As a Catechist to Std VII ‘B’, I try to share as much knowledge I can about the lessons to be taught. I try not to make it dull for the students and not behave like a typical teacher. I don’t allow the students to take too much advantage of me. Lastly, as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, I serve the children’s mass every Sunday and take homebound communion whenever possible. We have to give homebound communion compulsorily once a month and since I am doing my CTC, from last two months I am going for homebound communion on the second Sundays as on the first Sundays I have to go for CTC. I try to be sweet to the four old aunties whom I give homebound communion and patiently handle the situation if the table is not kept ready. I try not to get flustered.

So these are the five most important roles that I play in my life and I pray to Jesus Christ to be my strength because I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.

Dress Code...

Every place and event has its appropriate dress code.

In the church, I cannot dress the way I dressed up for my birthday.

As an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, I have to foster a deeper respect and reverence at the Eucharistic Celebration or the Mass. I have to worthily serve at the altar of the Lord and for this, dress respectfully and with decorum. For us, casual dresses are inappropriate and do not meet the standards for assisting at the Eucharist. As Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, we have a very important role in the sacred action of the Eucharistic Celebration. Our attire should demonstrate our appreciation of the role we play as we are Christ's faithful. As Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion we should show the greatest reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist by our demeanor, attire, and the manner in which we conduct ourselves.

Likewise, as a Catechist, I should be dressed properly and modestly, in particular, to set an example for the students as we expect the students to dress in attire appropriate to a visit to the church. As a Catechist, I demonstrate the qualities of a person who has responded to the call of Jesus Christ and therefore, my attire should be appropriate for the Mass – modest and respectful.