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April 4, 1994. I knew Spring had truly arrived when I stepped out the back door today. I saw a scene which always made my heart swell with the joy of motherhood. My backyard was full of children! The swing set was alive with laughing, singing children. It was “Mary Had a Little Lamb” at the top of their little lungs. Such contentment filled me as I watched the flashes of colored sweaters going up and down, up and down and those outstretched sneakers trying to see if this year they could touch that branch over the swing set.
The rest of the yard was filled with the season’s first backyard baseball game. A pile of discarded jackets lay by the forever-bare patch of lawn known as “home plate.” All the neighborhood boys – and a few tomboys too – always played ball here.
I realized just how long the winter had been and how much I’d missed all this activity: the baseball hats all cocked in different directions, the young leg muscles aching to stretch themselves in a dash between bases, everyone shouting advice or just shouting to be heard. All winter I’d tolerated loud children’s voices from within the confines of small rooms. Now how soothing it all was!
I smiled and thanked God for this rejuvenating scene. I could view my half-dozen children as blessings again. Just as they were reveling in simply being “children,” so I was completely content with the honor of being simply “a mother”.
Maureen McCaffrey
Maureen McCaffrey is a Catholic mother of six and grandmother of four. In addition she is an artist who paints out of Fort Collins, CO. She wrote this piece nearly two decades ago when her children were all young.
“Laws and policies that impede the freedom of individuals to choose a faith, practice a faith, change their religion, tell others about their religious beliefs and practices, or reject religion altogether remain pervasive,” says a State Department release on religious freedom throughout the world in 2012.
“Numerous governments,” continues the release imposed such undue and inappropriate restrictions on religious groups and abused their members, in some cases as part of formal government law and practice.”
None of the countries mentioned is the United States, of course.
Interesting that the United States is criticizing other governments for something that the Obama administration is doing here in the U.S. with its HHS mandate forcing some religious entities and businesses to pay for employee insurance that provides contraceptives, sterilization and abortifacients against their religious beliefs.
Maureen Williamson
Our thoughts and prayers go to those who have suffered in the Oklahoma tornado. We pray for the souls of those who were killed and for their loved ones.
Read an interesting interview in Catholic World Report with Russell Shaw, the noted journalist and writer on all things Catholic. Archbishop Charles Chaput calls him, “One of the best informed and most articulate observers of the American Catholic experience; a writer of elegant clarity, fairness and impeccable research.”
Mr. Shaw’s most recent book is American Church: The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America (Ignatius Press) which takes a searching look at the cultural assimilation of Catholics in America. Shaw’s study is thought-provoking. To read his interview with Catholic World Report and get a taste of what is in the book go to http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2247/the_rise_fall_and_future_of_catholicism_in_the_us.aspx#.UZVRv0oQOHs.
Maureen Williamson
I don’t know how much you know about Edith Stein; but she was a fascinating woman. Time magazine called her, “One of the most remarkable women of her time.”
Born of wealthy Jewish parents in 1891 in Germany, she lost her religion early. Yet gradually she broke away from her agnostic paganism and on January 1, 1922 was baptized a Catholic and eventually became a Carmelite nun, taking the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
On August 2, 1942 Sister Benedicta and her sister Rosa were removed from a convent in Echt, the Netherlands by two Gestapo officers. Shortly thereafter, they disappeared into the gas chamber at Auschwitz.
Sister Benedicta was canonized in 1998 by Pope John Paul II.
Those interested in a good biography of Edith Stein should try Hilda Graef’s The Scholar and the Cross (www.BooksforCatholics.com). One of the most interesting observations in this biography is one on why an intellectual like Edith Stein chose the Carmelite Order rather than an order more in line with her “intellectual and liturgical inclinations.”
“There are souls for whom God intends the religious life to mean using their natural talents in His service,” says Miss Graef. “There are also others to whom it must mean the renunciation of these talents and of all their natural self holds dear. In this case, although their gifts are left unused in the natural way, they are made fruitful in a supernatural way.”
In addition to the Hilda Graef biography, Roman Catholic Books has just published an interesting essay by the noted Catholic writer, lecturer and philosopher, Alice von Hildebrand, wife of the philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand. Published in booklet form, it is called Dietrich von Hildebrand and Edith Stein: Husserl’s Students (also available at www.BooksforCatholics.com). Alice von Hildebrand has taken on the task of briefly profiling these two great 20th century Catholics, using as her point of reference the memoirs of each. In the case of her late husband Dietrich von Hildebrand, she is the only person who has read his memoirs in their entirety. This, and her life as his wife, make Dietrich von Hildebrand and Edith Stein: Husserl’s Students a study like no other.
Maureen Williamson
EWTN plans special programming on Mary and Marian devotion this Sunday, Mother’s Day. Go to www.EWTN.com for more info….Speaking of mothers, Our Sunday Visitor is publishing Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s Catholic Mom’s Café: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year….The National Catholic Register recently made public the experiences of two Catholic priests during the aftermath of the Boston bombings. Both were denied access to the injured and dying. According to the Register, one of the priests, Father John Wykes, suggested that priests be recognized as first responders so they can attend to the spiritual needs of those injured. Read the story at http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/anointing-of-the-sick-at-the-boston-marathon ….After my blog earlier in the week where I mentioned Students for Life of America, I received a note from Alexa Coombs of the organization, telling me about another of the groups’ endeavors: “I thought you would also be interested in this initiative we are running to keep the pro-abortion Catholic Prime Minister of Ireland from speaking at Boston College: http://notatbc.com.” She continues: “Here’s a statement from SFLA President Kristan Hawkins: ‘I find it incomprehensible that Boston College, a Catholic university, will honor Prime Minister Kenny while knowing he is advocating for legal abortion in Ireland. Legalized abortion here in America has led to the deaths of over 55 million preborn baby girls and boys, the victimization of millions of women, and the crumbling of families. After our painful experience for the past 40 years, we know what legal abortion will do to Ireland.’”
Maureen Williamson
Last week the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would allow the morning-after pill (technically known as Plan B One-Step) to be sold without a prescription to anyone as young as 15-years-old. The pill has been available without a prescription for those ages 17 and older.
“The FDA has acted irresponsibly by approving sales of the powerful drug, single-dose Plan B, for those 15 and older,” said Deirdre McQuade, of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Secretariat, pointing out that, “The rule change subjects girls to risks of STDs and manipulation by others, a risk that is compounded by allowing males to purchase the drug even for girls under the age of 15.”
The morning after pill can act as an abortifacient.
Separate from the FDA’s ruling is the decision by U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman in early April ordering the FDA to allow the drug to be sold over the counter to anyone regardless of age. The government is currently asking the judge to delay this ruling.
I wish I could be optimistic and predict that the pro-life side would prevail and somehow the FDA’s ruling as well as Judge Korman’s directive would be overturned. Unfortunately, I’m not optimistic. Interestingly enough, however, as I was writing this blog I got a phone call from Students for Life of America asking for a donation to fight the FDA’s ruling. I checked out their website and it looks like a worthwhile group. I urge you to check them out as well at http://studentsforlife.org/. The next generation is so important in our fight against abortion and this group concentrates on them.
Maureen Williamson
Recently I was at a Mass where 30-some odd children received their first Holy Communion. As is the custom today, each child sat with his or her family. Personally, I prefer that the children be seated together and receive the Eucharist together; but that is a matter of preference.
What I found disconcerting was the behavior of the children when they returned to their seats. Long gone are the days when the children walked back to their seats standing straight with their hands folded in front of them. Slinking is the way I would describe the way some walked back. Once in their seats I saw children wiggling around instead of kneeling and praying or sitting respectfully.
I can’t imagine that these children are not taught the importance of the Eucharist in their instruction for this most important sacrament. What then is the problem? Well, it is partly the times in which we live. Dignity is long gone in general. Children don’t see it, so they don’t understand that their behavior isn’t proper.
First, there is little discipline even in Catholic schools today. In my day children walked two by two in line when class moved from one place to another. Not so now – at least in many places. Behaving in a dignified manner requires discipline.
In place of dignity we also have sentimentality. There is no any sense of decorum or restrain today. Nor any sense of awe. Given all these factors what can we expect at a first Holy Communion?
Maureen Williamson
USA TODAY ran a headline recently which focused on charges of bigotry leveled against anyone who opposes same sex unions. I am not sure I can articulate the point, but someone has to try to tackle the problem with a same sex union at the most basic level, the theological level.
Our secular society has radicalized thinking with a common refrain that boils down to “I believe this. You believe that. But let’s accept each other, and it’s all OK.” Except that it’s not all OK. Put aside for the moment that such an attitude turns relativism into The Absolute. More to the immediate point, “it’s all OK” unless one believes in God and accepts absolute Truth.
As things stand, anyone who opposes same sex unions is labeled a bigot. People lose their jobs and their reputations for simply upholding values dating back to Moses and before. Tim Tebow, as an example, cancelled a planned speech at a Baptist church because the pastor opposes same sex unions. Should Mr. Tebow have met his obligation, he risked being an outcast. That is unfair; and is, of course, antithetical to free speech.
Theology is the study of God. That some do not believe in Him does not diminish God. The corollary to this is that the number of people who do not believe in God is so small that it creates a tail wagging the dog situation, as society ignores God to satisfy the minority. Such is the paradox of a society claiming freedom of religion.
The basis for the moral opposition to abortion, birth control, and same sex unions, is very simple. God is by nature a continuing act of creative love. He created mankind in his image, and sustains mankind with His continual love. God expects that same creative love from us. Therefore love that is not open to creation is counter to God’s will.
Furthermore, God ordained the married state as best for a man and woman to nurture a family. However one looks at it, on average children of stable married families fare better throughout life than those from non-traditional family situations.
Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Its principal goal is procreation. This is the closest human measure to our creative God.
To be sure, the marriage definition is not mine. “Have you not read,” says Christ, “that the Creator from the beginning made them man and woman, and that he said, ‘this is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two shall be one body’?”
Orwell and others have warned us about the consequences of changing language to meet political ends. Unless we change the definition of the word, call a same sex union what you will, but it is not marriage.
This then, is why so many oppose same sex unions. It is not out of hatred. Unfortunately, there will always be some like the pastor who pickets military funerals. And that is a problem because such hatred obscures legitimate moral concerns.
Do I argue that it’s “my way or the highway?” No. That’s for another blog. But even if so, I turn it around. Those who would level that charge want their way. Actually, this is an attempt to remove the same sex union question from the emotional level and place it firmly where it belongs, at the theological level.
Neil McCaffrey III
According to LifeSiteNews.com President Obama ended his talk to Planned Parenthood today with the words: “Thank you Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”
Just writing this makes me cringe. Does this president actually think that God would bless the work of this organization? I don’t know; but I certainly think his words were meant as an insult to the God-fearing people who oppose abortion and Planned Parenthood. This is a president who has acted more and more to thwart those of us who are pro-life.
I venture to say that asking God to “bless” Planned Parenthood is blasphemy pure and simple. God loves sinners and he will forgive them if they repent. If they don’t repent he condemns them to hell when they die. He certainly would never “bless” their evil actions.
Maureen Williamson
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