Sometimes it’s the second take that reveals a deeper truth.
That’s what happened to photojournalist Jeffrey Bruno after he snapped a photo and posted it on social media from his time at an ordination in Denver, Colorado.
![two boys and a dad at ordination in Denver cathedral](https://wp.en.aleteia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/AA-JB2_7199.jpg?w=1024)
As his did, ours eyes go to the sweet and touching scene of two little boys imitating what they’ve seen with no self-consciousness or fear — just a desire to experience what it’s like to lie on the cold floor of a beautiful cathedral giving your life to God.
A sign of things to come for them? Maybe.
But Bruno looked again and saw something else in that image — a father, off to the side in the shadows, standing near his sons, praying with his eyes closed…
When we look a little deeper, we too can see what Bruno sees and it makes this image more meaningful.
Not long ago, Bruno captured another scene that touched a lot of people when he posted it on social media. This time of a mother, coming up to communion with her children, the youngest carried in a sling.
![young mom and little children in church receiving eucharist](https://wp.en.aleteia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/AA-DSC_4363.jpg?w=1024)
When Bruno posted the photo, he called it “A Mother’s Strength.”
The photo captures a moment we might easily overlook, but is really the backbone of faith: Parents showing up with their children — no matter how hard it is to get out the door — to receive the Lord, to be counted among the family of God, to celebrate the sacramental life of the Church.
The heroic work we do is in the day-to-day witness we give through our actions, like taking little ones to Mass to encounter the Lord and His grace.
Good photojournalists tell a story with their images, to move or inspire us. These images of the quiet witness of a mother and a father, in two different churches at two different times, reveal the ordinary heroism of Christian parenthood and the hope it brings to us all.