Being Open to Life

I was recently reflecting about the "openness to life" that our faith calls married couples to.  I realize that this can be a hot topic for many faithful Catholics regarding when/why using Natural Family Planning is morally acceptable. Nevertheless, this debate is not my focus.  Instead I found myself reflecting on the annunciation.

These days it seems as though there are many more "reasons" NOT to have children than ever.  For example, society says that simply being a "newlywed" qualifies couples to refrain from openness to life.  For some newlyweds the adjustment to marriage may constitute a serious reason to postpone children, but this (and other grave factors) are not what I am referring to.  Isn't it odd that babies who arrive 9 months after a honeymoon are suprising (and few) nowadays?  Society tells us to take two, five, ten years to get to know each other, buy a home, travel ect... and then we can start thinking about "trying".  Perhaps it is not the children who should be postponed, but rather the wedding date!

When we examine Mary's situation from our own cultural perspective, we realize that she had every reason not to be open to life.  She was barely a teenager, very poor and unmarried.   If you consider the world she lived in, these reasons could constitute even more graveness than they would today.  There was no Medicaid, no crisis pregnancy centers or shelters, and adultery could be punished by death.  Despite this however, Mary said YES to life.  It is through her YES, her fiat, that Jesus our salvation, came into the world.  Moreover, it might be also be fair to point out that God only asked Mary to be receptive to a child once in her life.  God's will for the Holy Family was to always remain a home of three.  This is also a reminder for us as Catholics, that a marriage that is open-to-life will not always fill a twelve-passenger van.

There are many wonderful Church documents such as Humanae Vitae and the Catechism of the Church that can help us understand the Church's teaching on Christian marriages.  Ultimately, husbands and wives must always pray to follow Mary's example of "thy will be done".  Only He knows what is best for our marriages and families.  It is by following God's will that we can work to build a culture of life... and what is more beautiful than that?

Andrea Bocelli and Abortion

I think I listened to his Romanza CD just about everyday in high school.

I love it when people who have amazing talents turn out to be amazing people also!

Today's Society Longs For More Mr. Darcys

I love Pride and Prejudice and I know many other women who agree with my sentiment. I love the way the men treat the women. Men in Jane Austen's world refer to the women as Miss or Mrs. Men would bow upon entering or leaving a woman's presence and in return the ladies would curtsy. The way they flirted was subtle and might be as simple as the brush of hands. There was a clear distinction between "good" women and women who were, well, less dignified, to put it kindly. The way couples courted was taken seriously so as to protect the woman's fragile heart. Men would have to ask a woman's father's permission in order to even court her. Men faced personal and social consequences if they mislead a woman, which at times even included the man having to move away. Taking a man's name was a sign of his total and complete commitment to a woman. Respectable men would not dare think to kiss a woman until he knew he was going to marry her, including having received her fathers blessing. I love the last scene of the movie when Elizabeth asked Mr. Darcy what he will call her once they are married and he answers her by saying "Mrs. Darcy" over and over again while gently kissing her face.

So why have women so dearly loved this book for almost 200 years now? I think it is because we all long to go back to those days. Women long to be treated with the respect and honor the men in Austin's novel are treated with. Today women are called all sorts of degrading names and not only do men not bow to us but often time don't even open a door for us to go through. Today dating is very casual and men have lost a sense of the delicate nature of the female heart. Men will even lie to a woman to lead her heart in order to obtain from her something men of that time would have known no good girl would even consider. Women today don't seek their father's permission to date. Often times this is because many women do not have a trusting relationship with their father. And most frustrating of all to me is that we live in a time where women after getting married use the dreaded hyphen because they do not want to give up their last name.

Now, this blog in not meant to berate men. I fully blame feminism for men's behavior but women, if we want our Mr. Darcy, and if we want to go back to a day where we were treated with the dignity God designed for us it is up to us to change things. We need to start acting like woman of that time. We need to wear dresses, let men pick up heavy boxes, refuse to kiss on a first or even third date, and allow men the pleasure of chasing after us trying to prove that they are worthy of giving us their name. Fulton Sheen got it right when he said the following, "To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood. When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women."

A Little Meditation

Over the past week I have been reminded how much the world can affect us so I thought I include an excerpt from The Imitation of Mary:

"Bear in mind that never yet have you had dealings with the world without being worse off in God's eyes than when you began.
You must love solitude if you are safely to appear among men. For it is in solitude that you learn to act when you are amid the world.
To live withdrawn from the world is one of the most effective means of preserving your own innocence of soul. Nothing weakens a man's virtue more than the frequent companionship of men.
Can anyone breathe the poisoned air of the world without being infected by it? Pull back into solitude and breathe its purer air.
The holy hermits tell us that they were never better able to converse intimately with God than when they had withdrawn from worldly affairs and worldly company."

As I grow deeper in love with Christ and His Blessed Mother and learn to trust completely in His will for me, I become more innocent. I don't go to many public places: restaurants, movie theaters, ball games etc. since having babies. Most gatherings include only devote Catholic people. Having said that, a couple of weeks ago I went to a Dodger game with my sister and I truly felt scandalized. It was just in the way people talk to each other especially in mixed company. I forget the language people use. My sister and I would look at each other embarrassed at what we were hearing. I think that this meditation on secluding yourself from the world really helps me to remember that everything I do should be for Him.

3 Awesome Catholic Movies

Since my husband and I turned off our television set for lent, we thought that it would be a good opportunity to explore that shelf of Catholic movies that we have never found the time to watch. I was pleasantly surprised by each of them-- I definitely did not expect to enjoy these films so much! If you haven't seen the following, drop what you are doing immediately, head to amazon.com and click on buy (or update your Netflix queue).

1) Into Great Silence- This documentary of the Carthusian monks provides a fascinating and inspiring glimpse of the order's contemplative way of life. The monks live a life of solitude, silence, poverty, fasting and prayer. One aspect about their daily schedule that I found most interesting was that they pray their matins every night from 11:30pm until 2 or 3am. I thought parenthood was the only sleep-challenging vocation!

2) Molokai: The Story of Father Damien- This biography tells the heroic story of Saint Damien, the first missionary priest who went to the Hawaiian leper colony of Molokai. Knowing that he would never be allowed to leave the miserable island, Father Damien brings the love and hope of Christ to the sick and exiled, caring for their bodies and their souls.

3) Padre Pio: Miracle Man-- This made-for-TV movie surprised me the most. It was almost four hours long, but I honestly could have watch it for even longer! The film tells the beautiful story of Saint Pio, a great modern saint who, as he describes, witnessed many of God's miracles. Experiencing this excellent movie felt more like a meditation than a form of entertainment.