My Family

VINCENT PIEGA

Behind the Smiles
Every day, I am overwhelmed with God’s love for me through my family. Sometimes I feel so humbled, because I feel so unworthy to be showered by God with this much love.

When I first got to know Jesus, I immediately felt his love, his pure love. I know that it was the Holy Spirit that I was feeling. Maybe the apostles felt the same thing during Pentecost.

Now I still feel that same love, but God is expressing it through my wife and my kids. Before, it was just my heart feeling it. Now all my senses are involved. God’s love is present all around me every single day.

At the beginning of my journey with Jesus, I told him that my ultimate dream was to be a family man. I had so much desire in my heart to be the best father that I can be, and the best husband to my future wife.

Today, I’m living that dream. When I was single and searching for the future wife God was preparing for me, I had my own list of criteria, my own requirements. However, in God’s infinite wisdom, he knows me better than I know myself. He knew exactly what I needed.

One specific criteria wasn’t on my list, for example. God gave me Rose, a woman who was a homebody, someone who didn’t like going out much, who just enjoyed being at home. For my ultimate dream to be fulfilled, I needed a partner who just loved being with her family. Don’t get me wrong. She works, but after work, there’s no other place she’d rather be than to spend time with our kids and me.

When our children were still little, we decided to join Couples for Christ and attended household meetings. We both grew more in our faith and love for God. Although we are no longer active in CFC, we are more active in our parish.

Our two daughters, Juliette and Mia, have attended Kids for Christ (KFC).  Seeing them worship gives so much joy in our hearts. Both of them have attended Catechism at our parish and have received their first communion.  They go to Confession regularly and have grown to love and enjoy attending Mass like me.

I’m so proud of these girls. They are wise beyond their years. Every day they surprise me. I can’t even begin to tell you how much wisdom they have. They are both growing to be such kind-hearted, generous, loving, respectful, and God-fearing children.

I remember one time we were at Mass, and the priest had a question for the crowd. It was a rhetorical question. He asked, “Are you ready? Are you ready today to meet God?” My younger daughter, Mia, who was just a toddler at the time, suddenly yelled, “YES!” Everybody turned around, looked at us, and smiled. I guess Mia was the only one who was ready.  Both of them love God so much.

During the pandemic, we were only able to attend Mass online. We were able to attend Mass online every single day, for forty days, during the Lenten season. My kids would imitate everything that the Priest would do. It made them sad when I told them that only men could become priests. I told them they could be nuns if they wanted and they both said, “But we want to celebrate Mass though.”

Juliettte and Mia have memorized a few of the Latin prayers. They pray and sing the Hail Holy Queen in Latin. I can truly see God’s hand working in our their lives. There is so much ungodliness here in America. It makes me so proud that my children are different from the majority. The love of God just radiates from them and wherever they go or whomever they meet, they are always loved.

I remember when the girls were little they would sing their bedtime prayers. I told them that St. Augustine said that whenever you sing in prayer, you pray twice. For our morning routine, I would wake them up, gently kiss them all over their faces starting on their eyelids as they greet Jesus good morning. While still half asleep, I would carry each one of them to the table for the breakfast I had prepared for them.

Nowadays, I’m only able to carry our younger one, Mia, because Juliette has grown a bit too heavy for me to carry from the bedroom to the dining area. But I still wake her up with my good morning kisses and my good morning song.

When I drive Rose to work and my kids to school, we would pray together in the car. Mia would start her own personal prayer. After her, Juliette would say her prayer. Then we would all together pray the St.Michael prayer, followed by a Hail Mary, and lastly the Come Holy Spirit prayer. We would end with Jesus we trust in You.

I’m very expressive in showing my love to my wife, too. I’ve set the standard really high for my daughters, so that when the time comes and they’re old enough to marry, they wouldn’t sell themselves short. They see how much I love their mom, how much I care for her, and respect her. They also know how much I love and care for them.

Everything that I longed for as a kid or was hungry for between a father and son relationship, God gave me a chance to fill it up, through my relationship with my daughters. I would take Juliette and Mia on individual dates.

Juliette loves Laufey and her music. So, last year, I took her to a Laufey concert. I actually just watched her the whole night. I watched her more than the concert. I’ll be honest, I was bawling my eyes out. Just seeing her so happy gives me so much joy in my heart. At one time, I surprised Juliette with a bouquet of flowers and balloons at school on her birthday. Juliette was ecstatic.

Mia is not much into concerts, so I’d just take her to the arcade, the movies, or the park, where she has more fun.

Every Valentine’s day, there are three people that I buy flowers for – my wife and our two daughters.

We are not a perfect family. We have our ups and downs. We’re actually pretty wacky too, but I can confidently and honestly say, with God’s help, I am doing a pretty good job. I hope someday, when my kids have the chance to write their own stories, hopefully somewhere in there, they could include how much their Papa loved them.

After I finished writing this, my wife, Rose, actually gave me the best compliment ever, which she wanted me to include in this article.

Rose said, “Baby, do you know what your greatest achievement is? It’s actually not being a great father, or being the best husband in the world for me. Your greatest achievement is being the priest of our family, God’s priest in this house. That’s what you strive for every single day, from the time you wake up to the time you close your eyes at night. You were very instrumental in my life in bringing me closer to God. Seeing you with our daughters, how you teach them, how you love them, how you care for us and how you protect us. It gives me so much peace of mind to have someone like you in our family, someone who prays at every opportunity, who goes to Mass everyday.

I know that we are always in good hands, in God’s hands.”