The Center of My Life by Rev. Mark D’Silva I did not get my faith out of a text book. I got it by observing others and seeing how they lived their faith. My faith, primarily, came from my parents and those who taught me in school. I did come to know some wonderful priests when I was growing up. Their commitment to their call and their love for the poor have inspired me. And my faith is enriched by people I have known in the past and those I know now. When I see you are in the Church faithfully every week and you pray and sing from your hearts, my spirits are lifted in prayer. People have asked me what makes my family different. I don’t think my family is too different than any other family. It is big (at least it was) and is a very Catholic, normal family. All of my siblings are an inspiration to me on some level in the faith. (I have the added advantage of being the youngest of six.) They inspire me by how they live out their faith; how they have made it through adversities, how they suffered. Each of them are inspirations to me by how each is practicing their faith throughout the trials they have lived through, as well as, how they are giving what they have received to their families. And one thing that kind of hit home for me is that growing up, we did all normal Catholic things. We prayed before meals as a family, we would say all our prayers, sometimes it was more sporadic than other times, (it’s a busy house, I guess). We prayed the rosary together every day, older siblings teaching Catechism and daily prayers to younger siblings just prior to the Family Rosary. But the thing that kind of really stuck with me is every single time we went to Sunday Mass at the end we would all get down on our knees and spend a few extra minutes in prayer, recognizing that we had just received our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. And it wasn’t too long; just long enough to say an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be, and then normally my dad would get up and we were good to go. But that really, really solidified for me that we have Christ at the Center of this family and any time we went to Mass, even if our parents weren’t there, we would all do this. We would all make sure to pray a little bit after Mass. And that really, really hit home. When I grew up and went to College and Seminary, it stuck with me that Christ had to be at the center of my life. It didn’t matter what other people thought, didn’t matter if other people thought we were just being overly pious. if I just prayed a little bit more after Mass, it really stuck with me and then as my faith developed, I recognized that Jesus and the most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, were truly body and blood, soul, and divinity present before us. This had to be the center of my life. I think the idea of making an extended act of Thanksgiving after Mass is an important one for every one to think about and maybe make part of your family’s traditions.