Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. John the Evangelist, author of the 4th. gospel. I have always had a spiritual connection with him. His gospel is all about God's love and he calles himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved". He is the only disciple who stayed with Jesus to the end, standing at the foot of the cross with Mary. Jesus said to him,"son, behold thy mother" and said to Mary "woman, behold thy son". John took Mary into his home from that day on. The church teaches that this was Jesus' way of "giving" his Mother as the Mother of the church (His body). For 17 years in NY, we attended the church of St. John the Evangelist and then when we considered the move to CO, the fact that our town is in the San Juan mountains, was very significant to me. My 3rd. son as baptized on his feast day.

Thanks for letting me share.

Correction - my 3rd. child, who is actually my 2nd. son.

Bluebird, I appreciate your knowledge of St. John. I also appreciate your sharing that your child was baptized on this holy day. I enjoy spiritual connections that involve our children.

All three of our children share the same meaning for their names. All three mean "a gift from God" which couldn't be more true because the first two are adopted and I got pregnant while waiting for the second one to arrive from Korea.

Is one named Matthew? That means a gift from God. Our 5th. child is named that and he was the one born with the heart defect.

BTW - today is the feast day of the Holy Innocents.

Matthew is a beautiful name Bluebird and what a wonderful reason to name him that!

Of course, I do believe all our children are truly miracles from God and wonderful gifts He gives us.

Ladybug, our daughter actually decided on the name! She was 12 when he was born and very upset about having yet another brother. So when we found out they were flying him off for surgery
an hour away, I wanted him to have a name before he left. I asked her and she said Matthew. We didn't know what it meant till later! His middle name is Joshua, which is "God will save"...and God did save him. He's fine now.