We know a dear couple who were not able to have children. It was a very big cross for them. While we were enjoying the wonder and beauty of seeing our babies come into the world, this couple remained barren.
They prayed and prayed. One day they decided to adopt a sweet little girl. As the girl grew, she prayed along with her parents for a little brother and sister. Never did they give up and I was amazed at the confidence of this woman!
One day, eleven years later, they found out they were with child! Oh, the rejoicing! They brought this first baby into the world and had 4 others afterwards! What a reward for their patience!
Not all stories end this way but it is a testimony of the Power of Prayer and Perseverance. If God still deems that the couple remain barren, He will provide joy and fulfillment in other ways….
From Plain Talks on Marriage by Rev. Fulgence Meyer, 1920’s
Perhaps you have no children, and have never had any. You and your wife are eager to have children, and you would welcome them with warm thanksgiving. But for some reason or other, you say, God is not hearing your fervent prayers in this regard, and your home appears more empty and incomplete from day to day.
Whilst children are a great blessing, the greatest earthly blessing, in fact, which God bestows upon married people, still they are at the same time a great responsibility, and often prove to be a heavy cross.
If God, therefore, deems it best to withhold children from you, thank Him in humble and loving resignation.
Even without children God-loving people can be perfectly satisfied and happy with each other, and they can ward off all loneliness from their home by the practice of charity and piety in an intense degree.
A Grand Charity
Maybe by mutual consent you can adopt a child or two and educate them in the fear of the Lord.
This is a splendid and usually a most grateful act of charity. Adoptive parents often conceive for their adopted children so strong and delightful a love that they could hardly have any greater love for their own children, or derive more gratification out of their rearing.
It is God’s reward for their goodness. I know that sometimes adopted children are ungrateful; but natural or carnal children are ungrateful, too; and it is not easy to say who of the two form the higher percentage in in ingratitude.
At any rate, if you adopt a child from good motives, the result will not affect the merit of your act in the sight of God, nor interfere with its grand reward in eternity.
Jesus says invitingly: “He that shall receive one such little child in My Name, receiveth Me” (Matt., 18, 5).
If you do not know how to go about adopting a child, go to your pastor or some other priest for information and direction.
In the meanwhile keep on praying with confidence for offspring of your own. Some of the greatest saints in history, such as our Blessed Mother Mary, St. John the Baptist, the prophet Samuel of old, and a number of others were the reward of trustful and persevering prayers of their parents who received them when already quite advanced in years.
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“A desire to be beautiful is not unwomanly. A woman who is not beautiful cannot properly fill her place. But, mark you, true beauty is not of the face, but of the soul. There is a beauty so deep and lasting that it will shine out of the homeliest face and make it comely. This is the beauty to be first sought and admired. It is a quality of the mind and heart and is manifested in word and deed.” – Beautiful Girlhood, Mabel Hale http://amzn.to/2pOKmtj (afflink) Illustration by http://www.genevievegodboutillustration.com/
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I like your entries and how you always put some nice pictures and quotes in them.
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May God bless your work!
Once had a potential opportunity to adopt, but most regrettably didn’t pursue it. Now I wonder all these years what happened to the baby, where is she now, could she have been my little girl too, why didn’t we try? :'(:'(:'(
Thank you for this lovely post. So often Catholic blogs focus so much on children and being a mother (rightly so of course!) but there isn’t much out there for the wife who hasn’t been blessed with children. It’s nice that you offer both perspectives, thank you for encouraging all walks of Catholic marriage in this way!