Family & More Family

It's certainly been a busy week here in Massachusetts as we make the rounds visiting our children and grandchildren.

New grandchild, Benedito,and family at his Baptism

Last Friday I baptized our newest family member, one-week-old Benedito, who was a perfect gentleman throughout the ceremony. Born on the feast of St. Gregory the Great, Benedito obviously has within him the seeds of greatness. As if to confirm this, just as the ceremony was about to begin almost a hundred people unexpectedly entered the little church and filed into the pews. For a moment I couldn't understand who all these people were, but then I remembered that St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis on Cape Cod was not only the home parish of my daughter's family, but also that of the Kennedy family. Apparently buses of tourists regularly stop by to visit the church where the late president worshiped whenever he was at the family's compound in Hyannisport. As it turned out, these two busloads of visitors were very respectful and sat quietly in the pews until the baptism was over. They then broke into spontaneous applause for young Benedito, an especially warm welcome for this newest member of the Body of Christ. (You can see some of these visitors in the background of the above photo.)

On Saturday our younger son, Brendan, and his girl friend, Amari, came over to the mainland from the beautiful island of Nantucket to join us at the home of our daughter and son-in-law for an afternoon cookout. We don't get to see Brendan too often so this was a nice treat for Diane and me. And we simply love Amari, so her presence made the day especially wonderful. Our entire two-week stay on Cape Cod was a joy for us. We stayed with our dear friends, the Greens, welcomed little Benedito into the world and the Church, and had the pleasure of spending each day with five of our wonderful grandchildren, our elder daughter, and our son-in-law. Life is good.

And it continues... We spent the past three days in New Bedford visiting our elder son, his wife and their beautiful six-month-old daughter, Veronica (photo left). It was a relaxing visit and included a night out on Monday at a local seafood restaurant in honor of my 66th birthday. I especially enjoyed my dinner of New England clam chowder and broiled scallops. Can any meal surpass that? It was followed by the surprise appearance of a delicious birthday cake topped by a single, discreet candle, an especially kind embellishment thanks to Jessica, our daughter-in-law.  All in all, another pleasant visit.

While in New Bedford I even managed to take some time to go down to the waterfront and photograph a few of the vessels that make up New Bedford's fishing fleet. As you can plainly see (below) by the names of many of the vessels, these Portuguese fishermen are men of faith.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived at our younger daughter's home in North Andover, Massachusetts. And so she and her husband and their two little boys will be the focus of our attention until Saturday. More to follow...