Our Reunion Ritual

The saddest part of my day occurs each morning when my husband leaves to go to the farm. I love him. Dearly. I love being with him, and the forced separation each day is a heavy blow.

This is pretty much how I look when we part...

Image credit: "The Farewell" by Eugene de Blaas.

... with brown hair and a modesty panel, of course.

But the happiest moment is when he returns home after dark. What joy! It delights him that I am so excited to see him, and the whole reunion ritual is so transcendently beautiful, para-liturgical almost, I can hardly contemplate it without reverence and awe. The privilege and responsibility of being a woman, and his wife, is almost too much goodness to bear.

Reflecting upon this deep joy has made the Fourth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary (The Assumption of Mary into Heaven) so much more real to me. I never really understood it before. But now I know: to be reunited with her love after separation must have been such an indescribable ecstasy! I can feel some small part of our Blessed Mother's bliss each time my husband returns home. The marriage covenant truly is a foretaste of heaven on earth.

Image credit: "Jesus Christ Receiving the Virgin in Heaven" by Jacques Stella, 17th Century

Though the inevitable ups and downs of life (and original sin) mean that not every day is heaven, I have the incredible power and privilege as the heart of our home, as a woman, as his wife, to set the entire tone of the evening by those first few moments of our reunion.

He'll be home in just a few hours. I can't wait!