Birthdays need to be celebrated!

   Birthdays need to be celebrated.  

I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory.  Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone, Thank you for being you.  Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it.  On a birthday we do not say, Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.  No, we say, Thank you for being born and being among us.

On birthdays we celebrate the present…  

We lift someone up and let everyone say:  

We love you.

--Henri Nouwen        

Father Pat, thank you for being you -- 

we are so very glad that you were born,
that you entered into our existence
(borrowing from your Easter homily), 

and that you continue to share our journey!

Image source:  Photo courtesy of Ann Oberg.