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It’s Day 226!!
THE OPENNESS TO FERTILITY
Remember the FOUR MARKS OF GOD’S LOVE
Love is FREE
Love is TOTAL
Love is FAITHFUL
Love is FRUITFUL
It is the Sacrament of Matrimony
BUT…
It is also the sacrament of marriage and the family
It goes hand in hand
What are the two ends of Matrimony?
The good of the spouses, getting each other to Heaven
The procreation and education of children
That is the point of marriage
That’s the whole thing
Not to make myself happy
Not any other thing other than sainthood and children
THE DOMESTIC CHURCH
We only have a couple days left in PILLAR 2: HOW WE WORSHIP
Dealio bedilios? That’s a new one, Fr. Mike!! 😉
Let’s pray!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, wow, gosh, Lord, you are good, and you have given us the gift of life. All life flows from you. All life, Lord God, flows from you. Your Holy Spirit-life exists where your Holy Spirit exists. Life radiates where your Holy Spirit penetrates. Lord God, we ask you to please penetrate our hearts with your Holy Spirit. Penetrate our relationships with your Holy Spirit so that your love, your life can radiate in our hearts, in our lives, in our relationships, especially those relationships, Lord, where it seems impossible, where it seems like there is no hope. Bring us that same Holy Spirit, that same Holy Spirit of hope, the same Holy Spirit of life, the same Holy Spirit of love, so that in this broken world, with our broken hearts, we can still be holy. We can still be yours. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”
So there we have it!!
The call of married life is the call to marriage and family
It is the call to be open to life
Remember the FOUR MARKS OF GOD’S LOVE
Love is FREE
Love is TOTAL
Love is FAITHFUL
Love is FRUITFUL
It comes from the very nature of what marriage is
Remember the chocolate chip cookies?
An essential part of marriage is the sexual act
By its very nature, the sexual act is oriented towards procreation
That is what it is for
The sexual act is for creating children
What it is FOR reveals the very nature of what it IS
In Scripture, the command is “be fruitful and multiply”
The primary good of marriage is the procreation and education of children
It’s not just about having as many kids as possible
It highlights the fact that this fruitfulness of that kind of love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that parents hand onto their children by education
Procreation AND education
Commandment IV(4), VI(6), and IX(9) are all about family
The roles and obligations of parents to their kids and kids to their parents
The parents are the principal and first educators of their children
Paragraph 1654 says, “Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of sacrifice.”
The Church definitely wants to support those couples that are open to life but are unable to achieve pregnancy
The Church supports them, prays with them, and prays for them
Yes one of the ends of marriage is procreation and education of children
Another end of marriage is helping each other to be saints
That also means in grief and in sadness of not being able to have biological children
AND YET…
Even these couples can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, hospitality, and sacrifice
Well what about same sex couples that are not able to have children?
Isn’t that kind of the same thing?
No
It is not the same thing
The long answer is to stay tune to PILLAR 3: THE MORAL LIFE
To be able to sit here with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are married and unable to conceive we must pray for them
So many couples can’t wait to have children
There is a lot of pain for so many couples who have been trying in vain to have children
They think about a teenager who got pregnant and maybe get upset at God because here they are ready to have children and they wonder how this can happen
It may not make sense to them
It does not make any sense in this broken world
AND YET…
We have to care for each other
Maybe it is the call of hearing about that 16 year old and saying, “Ok, maybe that is our child. Maybe that is the child that God has for us.”
Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s story about the documentary about an athlete…
In this broken world, what do we do?
WE DO OUR BEST!!
WE TRY TO HELP EACH OTHER!!
THAT IS IT!!
How many couples would love to have kids?
BUT…
There are all these other couples that can’t have kids
There are so many heroic couples that continue to adopt children
Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s story about the family with 16(!!) kids…
8 were biological and 8 were adopted
ALL OF THEM were their mom and dad’s children
INCREDIBLE!!
AMAZING!!
THE DOMESTIC CHURCH
This is the first place where kids learn the faith
This is the first place where kids learn to forgive
This is the first place where kids learn to have the joy of work, that fraternal love, generosity
And above all, divine worship and prayer and offerings of one’s life
This last note is for those who are single and for those without a family
In this broken world, we need each other
There are so many people who wish they had a child
There are individuals who wish they had a spouse
Their hearts break on a daily basis
Because of circumstances out of their control, they never had the opportunity to get married
They wanted to get married
They would have said yes to getting married
They never had the chance
This is why the Church has to be the Church
IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE
That does not automatically mean that you have to have a romantic partner
BUT…
It does mean that it is not good for us to live life alone
It is not good to be alone
It is not good to try this alone
WE NEED EACH OTHER!!
So what do we do?
Do we walk by that person and say, “Oh, that stinks. That’s so hard.”
OR…
Do we step up and say, “Hey, would you want to step into our family?”
It doesn’t always work
It isn’t always pretty
BUT…
Sometimes it does work
Sometimes it is beautiful
If we are the family of God…
If we are the people of God…
If the home is the Domestic Church…
Then for those who are without a family, we have to remind them what the Church reminds us today
NO ONE IS WITHOUT A FAMILY IN THIS WORLD
The Church is a home and family for EVERYONE
Especially those who labor and are heavy laden
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
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