Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • May 4, 2018 6 I sat in my favourite rocking chair checking email on a foggy and frosty December morning. It was then that I heard some gentle tapping on my win- dow so I glanced up to find its origins. Was it someone coming for a visit and they wanted to announce their arrival in a dramatic way or was it a dead twig from one of the nearby barren trees hit- ting my window as it cascaded to its death? It was then that I noticed a red breasted robin bird tapping frantically at my window. Initially, I thought the little bird was confused by the windowpane, thinking he could fly through it or that he was hoping that he could enter into a warmer place and escape the morning chill. In the beginning, I dismissed the encounter as the effort of a confused robin. Then, I thought about it some more. In the back of my mind, I recalled an old Irish tradition that I had heard of from several persons down through the years. One part of the tradition began to scare me. In Irish folklore and mythology, the robin has an interest- ing part to play. Robins are thought to be helpful to humans, occasionally granting favours. St. Francis may know some- thing about this because he was able to communicate with animals. In the Christian tradition, it is thought that a robin tried to remove the thorns from Jesus’ head during the Crucifixion, and that drops of his blood fell onto the bird and stained his breast feathers red forever. In another myth, the robin gained his red breast from flying into the fiery wastes of hell to carry water to the stricken sinners who were suffering there for all eternity Robins with their cheery red breasts adorn many of our Christmas cards and decorations In literature, robins feature in “Babes in the Woods” when the little bird buried the children, who had died of cold, with leaves. So, what was it about our pecking red breasted robin that caught my attention? In the back of my mind, I remembered an old Irish saying that if a robin comes into your house, it is a sign that someone there is going to die soon. Well, at least for now, I am very much alive and I may take some consolation from the fact that, technically, the robin did not enter my house. A short time later, I was visiting with my family and was told of the death of a family friend earlier that morning. On hearing the news, I thought about the pecking robin, seeking my attention. I told my family about the incident and they concurred with the tradition of associating a visiting robin with an immanent death. Two days later, we were on the road to a funeral in North- ern Ireland. There, I concelebrated the funeral Mass with a packed church of over five hundred people. Following the burial, we sat down with family and friends to soup and sand- wiches that stilled the chill of the winter air for a few hours. On the way home, driving through the fog, my mind kept turning back to the window tapping robin a few days earlier. Was there a connection between the visit of the robin and the untimely death of the family friend? Or, was it a mere projec- tion of an outdated tradition? I could be rather cynical about the possible association, or, become more cognisant of the gift of St. Francis Assisi and his ability to communicate with animals. Assuredly, I am not asking God to give me the same gift as he gave St. Francis. After all, I have enough trouble communicating with human beings rather than including the ability to communicate with animals. So what am I do in the interim? Go on living each day as it comes without giving any further thought to the red breasted robin incident or will I need to head off to the doctor and have a complete check up to make sure that all parts of me are functioning as they should? In the meantime, while I decide on my next course of ac- tion, I think I will keep looking out my window just in case… Father Michael Tracey is retired and lives in Ireland. He can be contacted by email at mtracey1@bellsouth.net . His website is www.michaeltracey.net Looking in the window Across the Pond Fr. Tracey Actress, producer, and Irish native Roma Downey may not be a member of the heavenly host like Monica, the character she portrayed for nine years on the hit TV se- ries “Touched by an Angel,” but she has lived a life that is deeply connected to God -- and she continues doing her best to serve as one of His messengers. That certainly holds true in her new memoir “ Box of Butterflies: Discov- ering the Unexpected Blessings All Around Us.” During an interview with me on “Christopher Close- up,” Roma recalled her mother Maureen’s shocking death from a heart attack a week before Roma’s eleventh birth- day: “Nothing could have prepared us for the absence that her loss created in our lives. It was as if the color had been removed and the lights had been turned out. My father leaned into prayer to help us cope and get us through that painful time. Of course, we had the promise and the hope through our faith that we would see our mother again. But I was still just a little girl, and I really missed my mom.” It was the first Mother’s Day after Maureen’s death that Roma developed her lifelong affection for butterflies. She and her father brought pansies to the grave because they were one of her mom’s favorite flowers. Suddenly, a real butterfly flew by and her father suggested it could be a sign from her mother that she was still with them. Roma said, “That was sort of the beginning of the butterfly helping cre- ate some sort of comfort. But I missed her all through my life … I don’t think you can be too old to feel the ache in- side of losing someone that you love. I wrote this book hoping it would be a comfort to someone who has experi- enced loss.” Though no one could ever replace Roma’s mother, she did find an adop- tive mother of sorts in her “Touched by an Angel” co-star, the late Della Reese. The two hit it off immediately, forming a bond that could be called transcen- dent. It was also a bond that ultimately proved necessary to both of them. Roma said, “Della’s only daughter passed away unex- pectedly while we were working together. Not long after, Della took me aside and said, ‘You know, baby, God is so amazing. I always knew that He brought me into your life because you needed a mother. I didn’t realize that He was bringing you into my life because I was going to need a baby girl. Will you be my daughter?” “Yes,” responded Roma affectionately. “Then I am your mama,” declared Della. For 20 years, Roma says she benefited from Della’s “wisdom, love, strength, and courage,” and Della became godmother to Roma’s own daughter Reilly. But Della was a larger-than-life personality who loved everybody. Roma said, “She would come on the set of ‘Touched by an Angel,’ and we probably had to give at least 15, 20 minutes just for her to get around the room because she hugged everybody. It was like equal opportunity hugging, whether you were the star of the show, the director, the janitor, making a cup of tea, she came in the room and she said, ‘God bless everybody in here.’ She changed the energy in the room. She truly was an angel, one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever known.” This Mother’s Day, Roma will remember both her bio- logical and “adopted” mothers with love. Tony Rossi is the radio host/producer for The Chris- tophers. For a free copy of the Christopher News Note, GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP, write: The Christophers, 5 Hanover Square, New York, NY 10004; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org . Light One Candle Rossi Roma Downey remembers two mothers To include your parish and school events and activity information in “Diocesan Briefs”, email that information to: tdickson@biloxidiocese.org.