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| Sunrise, 6:30 AM, Laetare Sunday. |
Dear Friends and Family,
Laetare Sunday was full of blessings for me--so many blessings that I was too exhausted when I arrived home, late last night, to remember to post! Many of yesterday's blessings involved individuals and so I will not write about them here. Rather, I wanted to share with you yesterday's sermon on motherhood. Here in England Mother's Day (which they call "Mothering Sunday") is always scheduled to correspond with Laetare Sunday--a beautiful custom. Hence the altar can be decorated with flowers on Mother's Day, the liturgy is more festive, and families have double cause for rejoicing.
At both Masses yesterday I prayed especially for all of the mothers in the congregation, but also for so many of you mothers who live in other parts of the world. May God bless you abundantly and guide you towards the fullness of holiness that He calls every mother to embrace.
In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari
Catechism Srm 033 Motherhood and Blessings of a Large Family
Sermon Notes
Gal 4:22-31
Brethren: It is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a slave-girl and the other by a free woman. And the son of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, but the son of the free woman in virtue of the promise. This said by way of allegory. For these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai bringing forth children unto bondage, which is Agar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which corresponds to the present Jerusalem, and is in slavery with her children. But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O barren one, that do not bear; break forth and cry, you that do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that has a husband. Now we, brethren, are the children of the promise, as Isaac was. But as then he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave-girl and her son, for the son of the slave-girl shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.Therefore, brethren, we are not children of a slave-girl, but of the free woman - in virtue of the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.
“Rejoice, O barren one, that do not bear; break forth and cry, you that do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate, more than that of her that has a husband.”
On this Laetare Sunday the Church asks us to rejoice in anticipation of the great Easter celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection. As a good mother, the Church knows how weak we are, and that even a few weeks of fasting is often quite difficult for us. So she gives us each Sunday, even during Lent, as a day of rest, in which we are not asked to fast. On this Laetare Sunday you should try to make sure to have a good meal with your family—not yet the celebratory meal of Easter, but a meal that allows you to rejoice and your body to rest, so that it will be ready to run well “the race” that lies before you: these last three weeks of training in sacrifice—meant to prepare us to live the mysteries of Our Lord’s blessed Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
In God’s providence, Laetare is always linked in England with Mothering Sunday. So we are called to rejoice in, and give thanks for, the wonderful gift of motherhood, to give thanks for the mothers in our midst. Every woman is called to be a mother. God places in the heart of every woman special capacities for love, for nurturing, for helping children grow, and for protecting them from evil. God calls some women to a motherhood that reaches to the farthest corners of the earth, to a motherhood that can reach even the children most abandoned, the children most in need. He calls such women to become His spouses, to cooperate with Him so that many souls may enter into eternal life. This is the vocation of every nun: the vocation to become spiritual mothers of a multitude of children.
But it is not only nuns who are called to be spiritual mothers. God also calls other women, living in the midst of the world but without physical children, to lay down their lives so that souls might be born to eternal life. He calls these women to nurture—with their love and sacrifice—the growth of souls. Some women feel a call to formally consecrate themselves to God alone in the midst of the world, sometimes through a private vow. Others embrace the vocation of marriage, of opening themselves to new life, but then God asks of them the severe trial of not having children. This is a very bitter cross. But since with God nothing is left to chance or accident, He only permits this where He also offers such women the grace to embrace a more spiritual motherhood, to lay down their lives for others who are in need of a mother. Still other women find themselves in this situation because a spouse abandons them. Faithful to their marriage vows, they accept the crosses that come with remaining without physical children. But if they are willing to embrace it, Christ offers them the grace to devote their hearts and souls more fully to Him, and to beget many spiritual children for eternal life.
So it is good today to pray that every woman might embrace her particular call to motherhood. I will be praying for each of you in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass today, but especially for those of you raising young Catholic children—an extremely difficult vocation in today’s world. And as a way of concluding this series of sermons focusing on motherhood and openness to life, I wanted to share with you a portion of an address to large families given by Pius XII in 1958.
Words of Pius XII
[Large families are] most blessed by God and specially loved and prized by the Church as its most precious treasures. …Wherever you find large families in great numbers, they point to: the physical and moral health of a Christian people; a living faith in God and trust in His Providence; the fruitful and joyful holiness of Catholic marriage….We would like to say a few words about each of these points.
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1) The physical and moral health of a Christian people
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Now the value of the testimony offered by the parents of large families lies not only in their unequivocal and forceful rejection of any deliberate compromise between the law of God and human selfishness, but also in their readiness to accept joyfully and gratefully these priceless gifts of God—their children — in whatever number it may please Him to send them.
This kind of attitude frees married couples from oppressive anxieties and remorse, and, in the opinion of outstanding doctors, creates the ideal psychological conditions for the healthy development of children born of the marriage. For, right at the beginning of these new lives, it eliminates all those worries and disturbances that can so easily leave physical or psychological scars on the mother or child.
Physical and moral health
Again, good common sense has always and everywhere looked upon large families as a sign, a proof, and a source of physical health, and history makes no mistake when it points to violation and abuse of the laws governing marriage and procreation as the primary cause of the decay of peoples.
Far from being a "social malady," large families are a guarantee of the moral and physical health of a people. Virtues flourish spontaneously in homes where a baby's cries always echo from the crib, and vice is put to flight, as if it has been chased away by the childhood that is renewed there like the fresh and invigorating breath of spring.
2) A living faith in God and trust in His Providence
In the modern civil world a large family is usually, with good reason, looked upon as evidence of the fact that the Christian faith is being lived up to, for the selfishness that We just pointed out as the principal obstacle to an increase in the size of a family group cannot be successfully overcome without recourse to ethical and religious principles.
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The light of Christianity
Only the divine and eternal light of Christianity gives full life and meaning to the family and this is so true that right from the beginning and through the whole course of its history, large families have often been considered as synonymous with Christian families.
Respect for divine laws has made them abound with life; faith in God gives parents the strength and vigor they need to face the sacrifice and self-denial demanded for the raising of their children; Christian principles guide them and help them in the hard work of education; the Christian spirit of love watches over their peace and good order, and seems to draw forth from nature and bestow the deepest family joys that belong to parents, to children, to brothers and sisters.
Even externally, a large, well-ordered family is a kind of visible shrine: the sacrament of Baptism is not an exceptional event for them but something constantly renewing the joy and grace of the Lord. The series of happy pilgrimages to the Baptismal font is not yet finished when a new one to Confirmation and first Communion begins, aglow with the same innocence. The youngest of the children will scarcely have put away his little white suit among the dearest memories of life, when the first wedding veil appears to bring parents, children, and new relatives together at the foot of the altar. More marriages, more Baptisms, more first Communions follow each other like ever-new springtimes that, in a sense, make the visits of God and of His grace to the home unending.
Trust in God
But God also visits large families with His Providence, and parents, especially those who are poor, give clear testimony to this by resting all their trust in Him when human efforts are not enough. A trust that has a solid foundation and is not in vain! .... God will never refuse a means of living to [the children] He calls into being.
The Divine Master has explicitly taught that "life is worth more than food, and the body more than clothing" (cf. Matt. 6, 25). … …As for you, parents and children of large families, keep on giving a serene and firm testimony of your trust in divine Providence, and be assured that He will not fail to repay you with the testimony of His daily help and, whenever necessary, with those extraordinary helps that many of you have been happy to experience already.
III the fruitful and joyful holiness of Catholic marriage.
Large families are the most splendid flower-beds in the garden of the Church; happiness flowers in them and sanctity ripens in favorable soil. Every family group, even the smallest, was meant by God to be an oasis of spiritual peace. But there is a tremendous difference: where the number of children is not much more than one, that serene intimacy that gives value to life has a touch of melancholy or of pallor about it; it does not last as long, it may be more uncertain, it is often clouded by secret fears and remorse.
Happiness in a large family
It is very different from the serenity of spirit to be found in parents who are surrounded by a rich abundance of young lives. The joy that comes from the plentiful blessings of God breaks out in a thousand different ways and there is no fear that it will end. The brows of these fathers and mothers may be burdened with cares, but there is never a trace of that inner shadow that betrays anxiety of conscience or fear of an irreparable return to loneliness. Their youth never seems to fade away, as long as the sweet fragrance of a crib remains in the home, as long as the walls of the house echo to the silvery voices of children and grandchildren.
Their heavy labors multiplied many times over, their redoubled sacrifices and their renunciation of costly amusements are generously rewarded even here below by the inexhaustible treasury of affection and tender hopes that dwell in their hearts without ever tiring them or bothering them.
And the hopes soon become a reality when the eldest daughter begins to help her mother to take care of the baby and on the day the oldest son comes home with his face beaming with the first salary he has earned himself. That day will be a particularly happy one for parents, for it will make the spectre of an old age spent in misery disappear, and they will feel assured of a reward for their sacrifices.
When there are many children, the youngsters are spared the boredom of loneliness and the discomfort of having to live in the midst of adults all the time. It is true that they may sometimes become so lively as to get on your nerves, and their disagreements may seem like small riots; but even their arguments play an effective role in the formation of character, as long as they are brief and superficial. Children in large families learn almost automatically to be careful of what they do and to assume responsibility for it, to have a respect for each other and help each other, to be open-hearted and generous. For them, the family is a little proving
ground, before they move into the world outside, which will be harder on them and more demanding.
Vocations
All of these precious benefits will be more solid and permanent, more intense and more fruitful if the large family takes the supernatural spirit of the Gospel, which spiritualizes everything and makes it eternal, as its own particular guiding rule and basis. Experience shows that in these cases, God often goes beyond the ordinary gifts of Providence, such as joy and peace, to bestow on it a special call — a vocation to the priesthood, to the religious life, to the highest sanctity.
With good reason, it has often been pointed out that large families have been in the forefront as the cradles of saints. We might cite, among others, the family of St. Louis, the King of France, made up of ten children, that of St. Catherine of Siena who came from a family of twenty-five, St. Robert Bellarmine from a family of twelve, and St. Pius X from a family of ten.
Every vocation is a secret of Providence; but these cases prove that a large number of children does not prevent parents from giving them an outstanding and perfect upbringing; and they show that the number does not work out to the disadvantage of their quality, with regard to either physical or spiritual values.
