Triplets from Texas by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.
Triplets from Texas by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.
Michaela, Gabriela, and Raphaela are at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The three (3) of them are wearing Pro-Life sweat shirts, emblazoned on their backs: Michaela wears a picture of Saint Michael the Archangel with the exhortation: Saint Michael, pray for us!, Gabriela wears a picture of Saint Gabriel the Archangel with the exhortation, Saint Gabriel, pray for us!, and Raphaela wears a picture of Saint Raphael the Archangel, with the exhortation, Saint Raphael, pray for us!
On the front of all three (3) of their sweatshirts is written: GOD LOVES LIFE!
Being from Texas they are wearing warm bulky jackets, but for their interview with the television station they take off their jackets to reveal their beautiful sweatshirts. They decide to keep wearing their red woolen gloves and red hat with ear muffs. Their flowing, long dark black hair adds an added layer of warmth against the fidget, winter weather in our nations’ capitol.
They are beautiful representatives of the youthful pro-life generation.
The camera shows all three of them then comes in for a close-up as the interviewer moves the microphone to each of them as they say their name: Michaela De La Paz, Gabriela De La Paz, Raphaela De La Paz.
Interviewer: Where are you attending college?
Michaela: The University of Dallas, a Catholic university in Irving, Texas. It’s a campus where friendship blossoms in the sacraments, and a deep love of learning flows from a deeper love of Christ.
Interviewer: Did you come with a group?
Gabriela: We came with a bus load of students from the university. Several students behind them cheer enthusiastically.
Interviewer: Why did you come to the March for Life?
Raphaela: We come from a large family of nine (9), our father and mother and seven (7) children. Our parents always instilled in us a reverence and respect for God’s gift of life, and I believe we can be a voice for the voiceless.
The interviewer ends the interview: Thanks and God bless all three (3) of you.
The triplets smile as the camera pans across their faces.
Unbeknownst to them a sinister set of young male triplets happens to come across their interview video and malevolently hatches a plot to flip them over to the dark side.
They are wizards and warlocks tasked with making their mark and climbing the ladder to the top in the world of the occult.
One sure fire way to accomplish this in record time is to snatch these good Catholic girl triplets’ souls and cast them into the fires of hell forever.
They locate the girl’s social media account “Triplets from Texas”
They discuss sending them a message with their picture from their social media account “Triple Threat of Trouble”.
The are proud of themselves: the Doloroso brothers: Dungeon, Dragon, and Dagger.
Dagger: Shouldn’t we be more cunning and conniving, and disguise ourselves as good guys, instead of showing our true colors right away?
Dragon: Deep down all girls love bad boys. Let’s give them what they really want right up front.
Dungeon: All girls think they can change guys and these girls look like they would like the challenge of converting us. But we’ll convert them and become Master Wizards and Warlocks of the World!
All three (3) of them laugh uproariously.
The De La Paz Triplets receive the message from the Doloroso Triplets.
Michaela: This looks like danger coming our way. Let’s pray for them and delete and block their messaging us.
Gabriela: Maybe God put them in our path for a reason. God gave us a family of prayer warriors: our brother Father Jesús, our mother Sister Noelle and our sister Sister MarÃa; plus a stockpile of spiritual weapons. Who better suited to take on this battle, to fight this war?
Raphaela: Let’s prayerfully discern this with a Triduum of Holy Hours specifically for this intention and then we’ll call Father Jesús our spiritual director and make him aware of our combined decision. We all have to be in agreement before we proceed.
Michaela: Hello Father Jesús, I have you on speaker. Gabriela and Raphaela are here.
Father Jesús: Hello “mis angelitos”, my little angels! He’s called them by that name since before the triplets were born.
Gabriela and Raphaela both respond: Hello!
As an older brother he inquires, “Is everything okay?”
A chorus of yeses gladly responds.
Father Jesús: Thanks be to God. Glad to hear from you.
They take turns explaining the situation they are currently involved in discerning.
We each made a Triduum of Holy Hours and each one of us separately discerned we should undertake this commitment. But as our brother and our spiritual director we wanted to make you aware of our decision and request your prayers. We’ll also be calling Sisters Noelle and Angela. MarÃa is pregnant with her first child and we think it best not to worry her with this situation.
Father Jesús: As your older brother my first instinct is to say, “Get as far away as you can from evil, but as your spiritual director I concur with your decision. Keep me posted with everything that happens.Right now what comes to mind is, never be alone with any of them and never allow them to separate you from each other. Always do things in public or with a group of friends. You and those young men will be in my prayers.
Those also praying for them and the young men include: Sisters Noelle and Angela and as the oldest brother and now head of the family, José Jr.
The De La Paz triplets are in Dallas, Texas and the Doloroso triplets are in Austin, Texas.
The Doloroso triplets suggest the girls take a motorcycle ride with them from Dallas to Austin. The De La Paz triplets quickly shoot down that idea. The girls think to themselves: They mistakenly think we’re naive, gullible, and will easily fall for their lies and manipulative tactics.
The De La Paz triplets suggest taking turns coming up with ideas of things to do that they can all agree to.
The De La Paz triplets suggest the Doloroso triplets come to Dallas on a Sunday and they all go to Mass and then out to eat.
The Doloroso triplets immediately nix the idea of going to Mass, but they are amenable to going out to eat.
The Doloroso triplets drive to Dallas in a rent-a-car since they only own motorcycles, and the girls won’t be riding with them on their motorcycles.
The Doloroso triplets are waiting across the street from where the De La Paz triplets wanted them to attend Mass with them. They are not hard to spot because they definitely stand out in their motorcycle attire even though they are not riding their motorcycles.
Black boots, black jeans, black t-shirt, black leather jacket, black shoulder length hair, and the only thing that’s missing is their black motorcycle helmets.
Introductions are made. The boys invite the girls into their black car. The girls see that they’ll be squeezed in, and say there’s a restaurant walking distance from the church.
The boys stop dead in their tracks when then notice it’s a homeless shelter soup kitchen.
Michaela: When you help serve, you get to eat free.
The girls walk inside and leave the boys standing outside.
The boys are starving, their stomachs are growling with hunger, and besides they came to be with the girls. How could helping serve meals at a homeless shelter do any good anyway? These people are a bunch of losers, deadbeats and drunks!
They fist pump each other and walk in as tough guys.
An old lady gives each of them a white apron and a hairnet for their long hair that they put in a ponytail.
They don’t look so tough now.
After they finish eating a little girl with big brown eyes and long brown braids hands each of them a homemade heart made by the children at the shelter that says, “Thank you for helping. God loves you.”
The little girl smiles at each one of them and they can’t help but smile back at her.
Old ladies and little girls, is that the secret that causes a small chink to appear in their bad boys’ hearts of stone?