A Message?

I really don't know what I'm to perceive from the coincidences this afternoon. A message of peace, of hello, of remembrance...? I'm not dwelling on it as some kind of a 'message', though I know God speaks to us in many ways. I'm just kind of taken aback by it all.

This Saturday evening we went to 4:30 Mass at St. Boniface. We haven't been there in years as we go to a different church on our side of town, but were planning our weekend with friends around the guys' dirt biking plans and chose to join them at their church tonight so they would ride motorcycles tomorrow.

I notice after we sit down that there is a banner with a picture of a baby in utero on the lector's stand. I don't look too closely and can't tell what the details are right then.

The lector begins the first reading with, A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Amos. It always makes me jump a little to hear that. Since it's been long enough, this time it was with a smile. Twenty-two months ago to the date, I gave birth to a stillborn son at 18 weeks that we named Amos. The name means carrier of heavy burdens, and our prayer was that he would take our burdens and that of others heavenward with him.

After Amos was born, I didn't go to Mass until a few weeks later. That day was the first time I had ever heard a reading from the Book of Amos at Mass. Matt and my jaws dropped open as we looked over at each other. The following weekend we're at Mass, we hear it AGAIN! I googled and found that it only occurs 3 times in the 3 year cycle of readings in the Catholic church. And 2 of them were right then! I didn't think much about it again. Until today!

Then later I squint and see that the unborn baby banner has the number 4 on it. 4 months. It's of a baby in the 4th month. I was 4 months pregnant when he died. There's a ruler marking out his size and everything. I was stunned. I still don't know specifically what to make of it all, but I don't need to know. I guess I just need to keep on listening.