Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Memorial Day

We went to Memorial Day Mass today at Holyrood Cemetery. Archbishop Sartain celebrated Mass and spoke about goodbyes. It means: God be with you.

The first Memorial Day service I went to was in Belgium. We lived for two years there in the Ardennes, while I did my post-doc work at the Max Plank Institute in Cologne, Germany and my husband worked in a machine tool factory in Andenne, Belgium. To see the places where fifty years ago these men and boys lost their lives and to see their graves made me appreciate their tremendous sacrifice. Before, Memorial Day was just a holiday with scant thought to the ones who have died so that we may have the freedom to live according to American ideals.

On the way to the cemetery we prayed the rosary. On the way back, we were listening to Matt Maher's album. And this is what I'm singing tonight: O death, where is your sting?

Listen to this song Christ is Risen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QVwC6RWUc

God bless our armed forces. God bless America!
*

3 comments:

Marcia said...

I'm in awe of the price they paid and that just about every generation continues to pay. I couldn't do it.

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

What an amazing experience to live in Belgium! Thank you for the lovely post, Vijaya!

Amy

Vijaya said...

Marcia, I don't know whether I could be so brave, even on the home front.

Amy, thank you. It truly was eye opening living there for a couple of years. My biggest regret is that we weren't religious at the time and didn't make a pilgrimage to places like Lourdes (Fr) or Fatima (Pt).