I hope everyone had a blessed and happy weekend as we entered into the joyous season of Easter. We spent the weekend feasting and spending time with family per our usual traditions at this time of year. As we begin this time of celebration and good cheer in honor or the Resurrection of Christ, today’s post is all about Catholic love, joy and hospitality.

I’ve written on this subject before, most often in reference to the aggressively hospitable woman who raised me. Over the last few years my mom has nurtured a thriving network and culture of deep love and friendship in her home and parish. We joke sometimes that she is the Glenwood mom for all current or potential Catholics in the area looking to grow their faith and community. She’s the woman people seek out to set them up with that cute boy from mass or to give them a lift over the occasionally treacherous passes on their way to Denver. For those looking for a home cooked meal and a riveting theological heart-to-heart, my mom is the person to call. Through all this she has solidified for herself and my dad deep, true and lasting friendships. I aspire to be just like her. Recently, God gave me my chance. 

Despite being incredibly shy, I love people and for years I have craved holy friendships like those that my mom has cultivated. However, my lack of social confidence has frequently been a barrier to achieving that goal and I once confessed this to one of our priest friends. To my surprise and delight he didn’t scoff at me and my poor social skills or brush off the comment as meaningless small talk. He simply offered to set my husband and I up with other young Catholic couples in the parish. It was an offer I could not refuse though it did require a little courage to take him up on it. 

A week after our initial conversation I contacted him expressing a desire to connect with those young Catholics he’d mentioned. Three short hours later I received a text from a young woman from the parish asking us to dinner with her family at their home. She sent a picture of her and her husband with their two adorable kids as a little introduction. I was a bit taken aback at how seriously and quickly the father had gone about his work of finding us Catholic friends and I felt a little awkward about the situation as these new Catholic friends had come into our lives somewhat inorganically. However, I didn’t dare turn down the dinner invitation. 

On the day we were to meet my husband and I hopped in the car and headed down the road. We both chuckled to learn that the little family lived less than ten minutes from us. We were first greeted by their two kids who opened the door and welcomed us inside, closely tailed by their mother. Throughout the evening we learned all about them, their faith journeys and even some shared Colorado experience as they’d spent some time there before moving back to the midwest. 

We were also happy to discover that they were also expecting a baby. After dinner had been cleared away their son recruited my husband to build a toy car race track in his room and all the boys headed that direction. This gave us gals a chance to chat about all things pregnancy related and she even gifted me Made for This; The Catholic Mom’s Guide to Birth by Mary Haseltine, a book which I’m still in the process of reading and thoroughly enjoying. Eventually their little girl got bored of watching her brother play with his cars and climbed up next to me on the sofa with a book of her own in hand. Needless to say, we ended up staying and visiting much later than we’d intended and excitedly chatted about promising new friendship in the car on the way home. 

They’ve since introduced us to a newly engaged couple from the parish as well and we all had a great time chatting about weddings, babies and of course, all things Catholic over a card game one evening. I firmly believe that God answers all prayers in His own way and His own time and rarely does this occur as we’d expect. However, I’ve also been blessed with a wonderful epiphany after meeting this welcoming Catholic family. Sometimes, all we have to do is ask.