Since Damien goes to Mass at the Birmingham Oratory, he knows many of the responses and chants in Latin. A favourite game when we meet is for me to sing "Dominus vobiscum", for him to respond "Et cum spiritu tuo" and for me then to ruffle his hair while we both shout "Aaaargh!"You could tell me that Damien's life is not worth living or you could start trying to chew a brick. Either way you will lose some teeth.
22 comments:
"You could tell me that Damien's life is not worth living or you could start trying to chew a brick. Either way you will lose some teeth."
Outstanding! Thank you Father for this post!
Everyone who's ever dealt with children who have Down's, myself included, will be right behind you, with bricks ready.
God bless him
quite right too...
secular society thinks it can define what is "genuine" life... people like damien can teach us how to live and love each other...they've shown and continue to show me a gret deal about hoe God views each of us
thanks for this post...and thank god for the christian teaching of life from conception to natural death
please pray for the siege of jericho vigil going on this week in birmingham
Damian loves the liturgy and he loves the Mass. He knows lots of it by heart, and it is clear that he treasures it. To my mind, he stands as an eloquent witness to the vital evangelical importance of the ars celebrandi.
i know Damien quite well. He is a credit to his parents. He cut quite a 'dash' on Sunday in his lovely suit..i wish i'd taken a picture of him. whilst other young adults are giving you a 'mouthful' or 'tirade', Damien is serene & well-mannered.i've always found him a pleasure to have visit...but a lot of work & love has clearly been given by his parents, particularly since Damien is the eldest of 6.
Thanks for the post Fr.
I recently had lunch with a friend whose son has a severe disability, and she explained how because of him her other children have become better people. Her disabled blessing has actually enriched their lives to an unmeasurable degree. God bless these wonderful families.
WOO HOO, Father!
A very dear friend of mine has DS, and he went to Mass with me when he was up visiting. He's terribly shy and sticks close to his mother.
After Mass, he watched me, my husband, and his sister all genuflect as we left the pew.
He kept looking back toward the Tabernacle as we walked down the aisle.
We got the the back of the extremely crowded church, and he matter-of-factly told his mother, "I'll be right back."
He marched, solo, back up the aisle and genuflected (perfectly executed)in front of the Tabernacle.
He had not been told anything about it, and it was his first time at a Mass.
Um, yeah, my eyes welled with tears.
Well put, Father!
I've a pile of bricks out the backs if you ever run short.
Wonderful Father. Damien is a credit to the congregation.
Hello Father,
I have a 14 month old son with Down syndrome and I wouldn't have him any other way! I think the next time someone tells me his life isn't worth living, I am going to tell them to go try chewing a brick too! Well put!
Joey is too young to say the responces with us at mass, but he's always the best behaved baby there and he LOVES hearing the choir and organ playing! Thank you for your post!
Thank you, Father, for this post.
My son has Down's Syndrome and is serving at the altar at the Latin Mass where we go. Our pastor wanted him up there and he knows the responses also.
Thank you again and God bless both you and Damien.
Mike Yoder
GREAT POST !!! my son is autistic and constantly amazes me with insights into our faith. My faith is constantly being checked by my son's devotion to the church, the Mass, altar serving duties, family prayer ( we can`t miss it ). Yes, I know - AS people like order and rules and sticking to routine..BUT I notice when he steps inside a church and faces that tabernacle, his awe and wonder and reverence show ME a true glimpse of the mystery of our faith. Thank God that He uses the "foolish" to shame the "wise."
A fellow "Uncle Father" here in the States with a neice with ACC, which is similar to Autism. Can you spare a few bricks if I need them?
You can add Tara, whom I met in a cafe in Dublin where I had lunch a few weeks ago. She works there, though she has a mild form of Down's Syndrome. She told me proudly of the five medals she won at the Special Olympics in Dublin a couple of years ago.
You can also add Lala, left in a bin in Cebu after her birth and raised by the Daughters of Charity. She now lives in the L'Arche Community in Manila. In 2001 she was part of a group that dramatized one of the Old Testament readings during the Easter Vigil in Lourdes while on the international Faith and Light Pilgrimage. Lala, whose full name is 'Louella' (after St Louise de Marillac) 'Vicente' (after St Vincent de Paul, since nobody knew who she was, is one of nature's great 'ice-breakers'. Put her in a room full of 100 strangers and after five minutes they'll all be talking to one another, even though Lala hardly says anything. She just smiles.
Bless him, he is wonderful!
Has he heard the Litany of the Saints and with the mention of his saintly namesake St. Damian?
God love him! Thank you for posting his photo.
Thank you for all those great stories.
Fr. Tim,
I’d like to add one more story if I may. When I was a college student, I volunteered to help with the teaching at a centre for people with learning disabilities.
I was assigned to help a young man called Andy with his arithmetic skills. Andy had Downs Syndrome and found it difficult to remember number sequences. After the tuition, we used to head off to the games room at the centre where Andy would routinely thrash me playing pool. The mathematics tutor was utterly humiliated!
I always remember the pleasure Andy took in outwitting, outplaying and outmanoeuvring me ─ but our health services just write people like Andy off as an inferior life-form. All I can say is that Andy taught me far more than I ever taught him.
The most valuable posters here - valuable from an apologetic POV - are those mothers who write about their own Downs or disabled children. That's because, working with secondary school girls (11 - 18), I find that they're almost all against abortion EXCEPT... One exception they all assert is for babies who will be born disabled in any way: and when you press them, it's nothing to do with 'quality of life' - only an adult, as a rule, can use this sort of reasoning. No - they're all terrified of actually HAVING child with 'something wrong' (as they'd put it), because they see it as ruining their own lives.
Adults, being less honest than children, will continually bring up this quality-of-life business; but their real fear, at its root, is that of having to cope all their lives with a child who won't necessarily mature, leave home and live an adult life. I don't blame them; but the only people who can convince them of their errors are those, like the mothers who've commented here, who care for disabled, Downs, autistic and otherwise handicapped children. So thank you!
Just one more story Fr Tim....
As a Karate instructor I had the priviledge of being asked some years ago to join a team of Martial Arts instructors for a full day instructing disabled (I hate that word as we are ALL disabled in some way) children and adults, many with Downs Syndrome at a sports centre in Gillingham, Kent.
Never have I had more attentive or more enthusiastic students in all my years of teaching Karate. The day was both exhausting as well as humbling. It culminated in what I can only describe as a 'spiritually uplifting' experience as the entire hall (some two hundred students and twenty instructors) fell silent as one of the Judo instructors gently hauled a young lad out of his wheelchair and began to roll around the Judo area floor-mats with him. The young lad (severely handicapped) just laughed and giggled as the safe hands of the instructor held him tight while they tumbled around for a few minutes. I don't think a single hardened Martial Arts instructor could hold back the tears. Rapturous applause when it ended!
I have never been hugged so many times by grateful karate students as the affection shown by Downs Syndrome children and adults is legendary. God Bless them all and reward the parents and carers abundantly for their love.
Fr, I am writing a comment on today's article in the Telegraph on Downs Syndrome and would like to use the picture and your quote from this piece. May I. I'm a new blogger.
http://thatthebonesyouhavecrushedmaythrill.blogspot.com
Laurence - yes, do by all means. See the note in the sidebar "Can I quote/copy your stuff?" Congratulations on starting your new blog.
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