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.

“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, Illustration by http://www.genevievegodboutillustration.com/

We should get used to extracting from ordinary day-to-day life whatever can increase our joy, rest, and legitimate satisfaction, and whatever can fill us with optimism. There is a thrill of joy and satisfaction in the thought that we are the objects of God’s love and can ourselves sincerely love Him…

Make a statement with this lovely and graceful Blessed Mother handcrafted apron….fully lined….made with care. Aprons tell a beautiful story…..a story of love and sacrifice….of baking bread and mopping floors, of planting seeds and household chores. Sadly, many women have tossed the aprons aside and donned their business attire. Wear your apron with joy….it is a symbol of Femininity….”Finer” Femininity! 🌺 💗Available here.

Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family

In this joyful and charming book, Maria Von Trapp (from The Sound of Music) unveils for you the year-round Christian traditions she loved traditions that created for her large family a warm and inviting Catholic home and will do the same for yours.

Here are the songs they sang for feasts and holidays, as well as Maria’s personal recipes for traditional holiday foods. Here are stories and games to delight your children, and countless other ways to turn events such as anniversaries, baptisms, graduations, birthdays, wedding receptions, and even funerals into feasts celebrated in the Lord.

Most people only know the young Maria from The Sound of Music; few realize that in subsequent years, as a pious wife and a seasoned Catholic mother, Maria gave herself unreservedly to keeping her family Catholic by observing in her home the many feasts of the Church’s liturgical year, with poems and prayers, food and fun, and so much more!

With the help of Maria Von Trapp, you, too, can provide Christian structure and vibrancy to your home. Soon your home will be a warm and loving place, an earthly reflection of our eternal home.

My Way of Life

My Way of Life presents small, concise portions of the Summa in a manageable format. This work will allow the reader to consider some of the highest thoughts of one of history’s greatest minds and apply them to the modern world, including:

• The Oneness of God
• The nature of Angels (p. 63)
• The hierarchy of angels, demons, and humans (p. 121)
• Man’s disposition to pursue happiness
• The Divine Life in man
• The Incarnation Jesus and its ramifications (p. 443)
• The Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell)

With My Way of Life the timelessness of the Summa is now accessible to all. In a world that seems to simultaneously advance in some areas and regress in others, the Summa Theologica powerfully reminds the reader that by definition, the true, and the good, and the beautiful never change.

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