For the first time in my life I attended a quinceanera. How this celebration escaped my Latina generation is a mystery. Both of my maternal grandparents were from Mexico, from Aguascalientes and Zacatecas; but when they crossed over to the United States they may have left that beautiful custom back in the old country. My father was born in Arizona and my mother was a native Californian, so they, too, seemed to have left this custom behind. I called my oldest cousin Connie, who confirmed that, indeed we had no quinceaneras in our generation or for this current generation as well. When our daughter Sonja was 15-years-old, I was still steeped in finding my new religion. I had made my exit from the Catholic church for a long season, so Sonja never got to experience this religious transition.

We traveled to Adelanto, a city in the high desert, for this blessed event. One street off the main exit from Highway 395 sits the small, quaint Christ the Good Shepherd Catholic Church. We arrived five minutes late due to a charging situation with our all-electric car, which sometimes proves to be a great inconvenience. Valerie, the young celebrant, sat facing the altar. Her beautiful, full gown connected the aisles of the modest church. Valerie’s dress was covered with flashing white lights, and an array of delicate lavender butterflies caught the light to enhance her dress.

Mexican Culture

The tradition of the quinceanera goes back to the Aztec and Mayan cultures. The Catholic Mass and the elegance of the waltz and ball gown was introduced by the Spaniards, but the original tradition belongs to the indigenous people of Mexico. The Mayas and Aztecs believed that once a young girl turned a certain age, they were set apart from the boys to prepare them to become young ladies.

During the Mass Valerie recited a prayer of thanksgiving:

Quinceañera Prayer of Dedication

I offer you, O Lord, my youth. Guide my steps, my actions, my thoughts. Grant me the grace to understand our New Commandment to love one another, and may Your grace not be wasted in me. I ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Redeemer.

Oh Mary, my Mother, please present my offering and my life to the Lord; be my model of a courageous woman of Faith, be my strength and my guide. You have the power to change hearts; take my heart then, and make me a worthy daughter of yours. Amen.

 

 

Since this was my first quinceanera I wore a navy blue linen dress with silver shoes, but I felt a little underdressed.  Mike was casual with his Tommy Bahama button down shirt and a dressy pair of light-colored jeans. It seemed that most of the other guests were better suited than us.

The Parents

Whatever the cost, this beautiful, blessed coming of age event for their daughter Valerie was well spent. She will forever hold this day in her heart.  Her parents, Tony and Elizabeth, will have to repeat this same celebration next year. They have four daughters and the next one is 14-year-old Amy. So next year they will have this experience to repeat this all over again. These events are not for the faint of heart; it’s going to cost a sizable amount of money. Once you factor in all the expenses it could reach from $5,000 to $50,000. Globally this is a 49 billion dollar industry.

The Rite of Passage

We all need to spiritually prepare our children for what lies ahead. We can help by making sure they are properly educated; but, more importantly, if you do not introduce God into their lives at a young age you may be in for a great disappointment. We need to teach children about God because this is what sustains their minds. Knowing that there is a God Who watches over you is of great comfort when parents are not around. Knowing that they can call on God for any of their needs brings the confidence that establishes trust in the Lord. As I watched and interacted with some of the families, I was impressed with how well they are connected with one another, I also loved that all the mothers I spoke with were stay-at-home moms, all living within their means. That’s how I live too!

To be a young lady today takes courage; to stand up for your beliefs develops character. No man can change the mind of a young person who is engrafted in God. This is another reason why we must teach our children to be strong in their beliefs. We have so many crazy ideologies to confuse our youth, but if you believe in God you realize that nothing else matters because the truth of God will always prevail. Nothing can supersede the truth of the Word of God.

Lord, I pray for Valerie and all young ladies entering into this rite of passage. Lord, guide parents to do right by them and give them a fighting chance in this world by introducing God into their lives. I thank You for Tony and Elizabeth and for the work they are doing in raising their girls with You in their hearts. Lord, I pray for all  youth, that they seek and find You. Give them hope and appear to them in dreams and visions. Move in the lives of all our youth. Lord, without You we are lost. May You, be the Father of all the fatherless and hold these babies in Your loving arms. Amen.

This past week I had the privilege of participating in two ceremonies of the Sacrament of Confirmation at St. Norbert Catholic Church. It was important for me to follow through with the students I helped on this special journey.

The night before the first Confirmation class received their sacrament, I had a dream that I would stand in proxy for one of the candidates. On the day of the confirmation, I was asked to stand in proxy for a young man whose sponsor was running very late.

Saturday was the Spanish Confirmation, so I arrived extra early to help. As I was sitting in my car sipping my coffee, a student and his family were walking toward the church. The young man’s tie was hanging around his neck untied. The Holy Spirit alerted me that the candidate did not know how to tie it. Without hesitation, I went up to the family and asked if he needed help tying his tie. Both of his parents answered, “Si, por favor.” God guides us when we are needed.

The Sacrament of Confirmation

Confirmation is the outpouring of the special gifts God has in store for us. It increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us; wisdom, making the right decisions, knowledge, and understanding. It gives us courage when we need it and, most importantly, instills in us the fear of God. By being confirmed in the Catholic Church, we also experience an abundance of graces. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is more intimate. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given boldness to take a greater role in the Church. You receive an indelible mark or character on the soul that can never be removed.

God First

If we can make a connection with the mass shooters who have terrorized our schools, it is that they did not have God in their lives. Jillian Peterson, PhD, and James Densley, PhD, collaborated in a study and authored the book “The Violence Project.”  With years of studies of mass shootings,  they have developed a database to explore the shooters, their backgrounds, guns and motivation. According to this study, there are four commonalities in mass shootings:

1. Childhood trauma, violence in the home, sexual assault and parental suicides;
2. Crises weeks or months leading up to the shootings;
3. Most mass shooters study and copy the actions of other shooters. They want notoriety for their heinous killings; and
4. The shooters all had the means to carry out their murderous plans.

The Perpetrators

In most cases the perpetrators suffered from severe bullying. We know this because they shared the information via social media. Nearly all the shooters made threatening communications before carrying out their attacks. 93% of the attacks were pre-meditated; they had it in their hearts to kill and developed a plan to carry out their hatred. The perpetrators were aware that this was their final act because they, too, would either kill themselves or be killed by the police. These broken souls were determined to bring others down because they expressed their grievances through violence.

The Fight

We are all in this together. If we do not come together as a God-fearing country, nothing will change. We need to put aside all of our prejudices and fix this once and for all. I believe in the right to bear arms, but we need to come to a consensus as to how to improve the laws so that these mentally deranged individuals will never be allowed to purchase guns. This is a different type of mental illness because these individuals are out to make a name for themselves. They believe their infamous behavior will make those who hurt them suffer, we all suffer! The family life of the Uvalde shooter is slowly trickling in: his mother was a drug abuser; he was raised by his grandparents; he was a loner. I was sickened while watching a news reporter at the home of the perpetrator’s grandparents. The perpetrator’s mother was sitting on the porch praying a rosary! Why now? And why in front of the cameras? Only God knows what went on in that house that spawned a demon.

The NRA 

Shame on your organization for not canceling this convention! Shame on all those who attended and spoke there as well! How can you not have the decency to respect the loss of these babies and their teachers? What’s wrong with you people? Is it more important to sell more guns than to respect life? Your organization projected a heartless attitude to the world.

Why?

I have asked God, “Why? Why is this happening in our country?” The answer is simple: we are a killing nation. We continue to kill babies in their mothers’ wombs, not only in this country but around the world. Our murderous benevolence is coming back to haunt us. We give and give to Planned Parenthood 500 million dollars a year! Our tax payer money is spent helping illegal immigrants who are flooding our country with financial burdens. These statistics are from Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas:

• Texans pay between $579 million and $717 million each year for public hospital districts to provide uncompensated care for illegal aliens.
• Texans paid $152 million to house illegal criminal aliens for just one year.
• Texans pay between $62 million and $90 million to include illegal aliens in the state Emergency Medicaid program.
• Texans paid more than $1 million for The Family Violence Program to provide services to illegal aliens for one year.
• Texans pay between $30 million and $38 million per year on perinatal coverage for illegal aliens through the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
• Texans pay between $31 million and $63 million to educate unaccompanied alien children each year.

We pay Big Pharma to continue creating more vaccines for children! What about protecting them from violence? In an article by Jan Phillips, “Big Pharma Makes Big Bucks at Tax Payers’ Expense.” “Congress appropriated nearly 10 billion tax dollars to support development and manufacturing of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.”

What we need to do is reallocate this funding and hire armed security for all public schools and hire school nurses with special training in psychology in order to defuse these mass shootings.

My Prayer

Dear Lord, all these beautiful lives were taken way too soon. As You receive them in Your loving arms, comfort the families with peace in knowing that they are with You. Lord, fill the void of these families with Your merciful love. Lord, I pray that our senators will come to the consensus to better improve our antiquated gun laws. Lord, wake parents up from their spiritual slumber and tug at their hearts to raise their children with God in their lives. Amen.