In the past 12 hours, I've received 3 sacraments: Confession, Communion and the Sacrament of the Sick.
The Sacrament of the Sick was especially sweet. I got blessed by a priest from Romania. (One of the joys of living in Washington D.C. is that we get to hear homilies by the best priests around the whole world at our own regular parish Masses. Priests come to get PhDs at Catholic University and our Archbishop assigns them to celebrate Mass at local parishes on the weekends.)
The Sacristan couldn't find the find the right prayer book, so Jon and I had a lot of time to chat with Father about his experiences growing up as a Roman Catholic under a Communist Regime. His history was so fascinating.
The Sacristan actually never found the book, so I received the majority of this Sacrament in the priest's native Romanian. I'm sure God didn't mind. It will be a funny story to tell my daughter in the future. I'll laugh if she announces one day that she wants to study abroad for a semester in Romania in 20 years.
My Carmelite sisters organized a beautiful prayer session in front of the Blessed Sacrament at 2 pm. The baby hadn't moved all day. As soon as I sat down during Adoration, she started dancing around like crazy. I ended up having to stand for a while in the back because her little kicks were so strong.
This was my first time being blessed by a priest with the new Catholic pregnancy prayers. The prayers were so powerful. I wish I had done this blessing earlier in my pregnancy, because they helped clarify how motherhood is so closely aligned with the Sacrament of Baptism. I now see my pregnancy and the baby's birth as being part of one single thread to the beautiful Sacrament of Baptism.
I highly recommend that all pregnant gals contact their local parish priest and request this new "blessing of pregnant mothers and their babies" as soon as possible. This prayer service (and the graces from the Sacrament of the Sick) greatly relieved most of my anxiety about tomorrow. I was only sad that my husband and my older children didn't celebrate this meaningful blessing with me.
Thanks in advance for all of your prayers!
