Photo is my Grandmother Stephanie from 1918, in her Traditional Slovak Dress.

As I unpack from the weekend trip, meeting my sister Pat, to pick up a box of photo memories to share with my children, I found myself contemplating “Family Tradition”. My sister surprised me with another package I was not expecting. It was a bag, containing the Traditional Slovak Folk costume my grandmother had made for my mother when she was about 12 years old. I had forgotten about it. It drew me back into the heritage of my family and with good reason, that same heritage I could now share in a very special way with my children.

I found myself pondering Family Traditions.

Family tradition, is defined as an aggregate of attitudes, ideas and ideals, and environment, which a person inherits from his/her parents and ancestors. Which one can definitely see, our Lord being the main portion. When we look at “Family Tradition”, that which has been handed down, its easy to see the importance of “Sacred Tradition” in our Faith Family.  We can easily assess the Truth of our Lord being Abba Father, as our Lord Jesus Christ gave us, through our spiritual Ancestors, the Apostles, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist, and Word of God, also sending the Advocate, to continue His teachings in Love. We can look at the beautiful paintings, read His Word, participate in His Holy Sacrifice and yet there is still a longing for more, because when you truly love Him, you want to know everything you can about Him. Every detail, every aspect, every breath He takes, every step and every moment, you want to spend with Him. Details about Him, become important, the deeper the love is in Him. Prayer life blossoms and you hear Him.

Just as my Grandparents and Great Relatives would speak with love, sharing memories of their family members, my family members, and this love rings in our hearts with a smile of remembering that we, also, shall one day, be a memory. So to does our Catholic faith, carry on this same Love of our Lord, teaching us about Him, and He does come to us, ringing deeply in not only our hearts, but our entire soul bringing us conscious, waking up a place deep in Love for the good of others for Him. What we hear, should spark a deep delight for pleasing only our Lord. Which within the soul produces a desire and longing to learn more and more about Him.

Getting back to the folk costume. You can look at the pictures above and assume, but the assumptions we have, tend to miss out on very detailed information if we don’t look closer, just as we miss detailed information when we assume things about our Faith. When we go back to look closer, we see many things we missed before.

This is the shoulder of a sleeve of the blouse, from the traditional costume my grandmother had made.  Do you see the detail? Can you see every stitch that went into this work? Can you see the beauty of what once was a simply story and a black and white photo? This is how it is, when you delve deeper into our faith.

And the detail put into the building of the apron. There is so much. And every detail of this has a special meaning to it. Such is our Faith! In every detail is a meaning interwoven into the entire Church. If one were to say they know everything there is to know about our Catholic Faith, that one would be seriously mistaken. Just as if one were to say they know everything to know about each family member, they would be mistaken.

The vest. How the details are made known the more we look. Many different parts, coming together. Just as we are all many parts to the Body of Christ.

I was able to try it on both of my younger daughters, and it fit my youngest daughter. Granted, it needs to be cleaned, pressed, and cared for a bit, for it to be worn as it should be. Just like we do, when we put on the full armor of our faith.

Please read “Faith Of Our Fathers”, a post of mine from a few years ago.