Pretoria Catholic

I am fortunate to still have three grandparents alive, and this year two of them will be 90 years old. My grandparents, Reginald Edwin Joel (1932) and Edith Johanna Van Dyk Joel (1934) are still alive on my Dad's side. My grandfather João De Menezes (1923-1985) passed away on my Mom's side before I was born. While my grandmother Maria de Jesus Afonso De Menezes (1932), is still alive but currently struggling with dementia and recovering from breaking her leg in a fall late last year.  Maria De Menezes with my son Leo, 15 September 2021 My granny Maria grew up on the tiny Portuguese island of Madeira with limited resources. She often recalls eating only a sweet potato a day as a little girl. Her father sought new work opportunities in the US. Still, with the Great Depression, he soon returned and set off to South Africa to work on a mine. My gran left Madeira by ship in the early to mid part of the 1940s decade for South Africa and recalls fearful inspections by sea and her moth...

We set out for a holiday this year to the north coast of South Africa. There is nothing like the big ocean, a wondrous mystery in itself. The sound of crashing waves has a calming effect, and the waves simply never rest. Noah often exclaimed, "Wow, what there!". Mark of "sin" in the sand before the wave, 1 January 2022 As the day progresses and people fill the beach, soon footprints dent the sea sand in all shapes and sizes. However, the waves pick up momentum as the tide turns, and water is progressively pushed higher and higher up the beach. The water fills the dents in the sand and erases the footprints, resetting the sand and returning the beach to smooth and level ground. Although the sand levels out, the imprint sometimes leaves a stain from the former dent or a scar in the newly levelled sand. I find it a cool analogy to explain our own human defects. God made us in His perfect image and likeness. Adam and Eve did not really eat the apple, and then suddenly, ...