I always loved this day. It was not only “Little Christmas Eve,” but my dear mother’s birthday, as well. My mother was an RN. She received her training in the 1920’s, when one hundred women were accepted into the nursing program and only about thirty graduated. It was a very difficult vocation and the training was grueling. The women lived in a dormitory with only one day off a week- Sunday. This lasted for three years! When they received their pins and caps, it was a grand day indeed!
Back then the uniforms were important. The caps were all different, depending on the schools where the nurses were taught. A doctor could look at the cap and know just what type of training the nurse had, what philosophy she was schooled in. My mother graduated from Columbus Hospital and was taught by the Mother Cabrini nuns. She was rightly proud of this feat and she worked as a nurse for over fifty years. On her deathbed she had a nurse who prayed for her and she received the Last Rites from a true Jesuit. Having been consecrated to the Blessed Mother and wearing blue and white for the first three years of her life, the Blessed Virgin made sure she had the sacraments.
With all the beauty of this season it is important to remember all the heartache and tears that also come with this time of year for many people. Christmas sees more suicides than any other time of year. How sad. How much more are we called to be cognizant of the suffering around us and to remember all these souls in our prayers. If you come from a fractured family, know that God offers you the perfect family- the Holy Family. Your true family is in Heaven and God knows the pain you are experiencing now. Offer it to Him in union with the Cross of Christ. May He heal you and give you consolation so that your heart may sing with the love of the Babe of Bethlehem.
Lovely Lady, dressed in blue, teach me how to pray! God was just your little boy, tell me what to say!
