Listening...

'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." Mathew 25:28-29

This Sunday in Mass the gospel was Mt 25:14-30 and as our Deacon began to expound on this idea of talents and possible of loss through miss use or lack of use of them.

Emma sat up straight and I heard a little gasp from her. My head swiveled in her direction to see what ailed her and her eyes looking like a little owls were wide and clapped on my face.

"Did he mean that Mummy? Was he joking?"

"The Deacon? I asked. "Did he mean we can lose our talents if we don't use them?" is that what you mean?

"Yes!" she whispered back

"Yes he did mean that, if we don't use the gifts God gives us - we will lose them."

Her breath drew in sharply and her face grew more anxious. "But Mummy, I am too young! I don't know my talents yet!"

I smothered my smile and settled down to an act of mental bi-location while I kept one ear on Deacon's solid homily and at the same time tried to quietly whisper to Emma what it means for a six year old to use her talents. I was not too successful at the bi-location part but while I missed a good deal of Deacon's homily, I was able to make use of a great teaching moment and best of all, I learned that my six year old is actually listening to the homily - at least some of the time!