Our Story I: the Three Kings and an answered prayer

So, we're going to post "our story" in a few installments and we've decided to do it by referring to our special patrons in Heaven who have helped us along the way. Honestly, our relationship is so surprising to us that we can only acknowledge the role of a loving, unseen hand.

(Mary Clare writing). Well, in the summer of 2005, a bunch of practical things fell into place at the last moment and I amazingly had to opportunity to attend World Youth Day in Cologne. Basically, that's an international Catholic youth rally that the Pope attends. (We're gonna try to go to the one in Sydney this summer.) Anyway, Cologne is a beautiful old city and the cathedral there--the Dom--houses the relics of the Three Kings (at right). One of the things I prayed to them for was my future husband. That Fall semester, as part of my Masters from Queens College, I registered as a permit student for a graduate philosophy course on St. Thomas Aquinas at the City University of NY Graduate Center. I was trying to expand my philosophy background and was pretty intrigued that a public university would offer such a course. In Cologne I had also visited the tomb of St. Albert the Great, Aquinas' mentor. Anyway, I carried my Koln Weltjugendtag pilgrim backpack to every class. Dan says he noticed me as a good Catholic girl because of that bag. He never actually spoke to me in class, though he admits to listening in on my conversations with our classmates. In the next installment, I'll tell how he finally decided to e-mail me.

Suffice it to say that finding Dan, my husband as of this January, is an answer to prayer. Thanks Drei Konige! They're a good model for Christian life; they noticed God's signs and followed that star to a foreign land simply on faith...and what humility for such prominent figures to then worship a child! If you're ever in Germany, try to stop in on them. The WYD logo above features the 2 cathedral spires and the star followed by the Three Kings.

In case your wondering about why we chose our wedding date, January 5th, well...besides the fact that we are on vacation from school at that point, it's also the Vigil of the Feast of the Epiphany

(the day the Three Kings visited the Christ Child). It's our little nod to their role in our relationship. Plus, Dan was born on Christmas, so it's only fitting that his wedding should take place around Little Christmas.