Today is my oldest daughter Claire's birthday, please pray for her!
Deuteronomy, Chapter 1, Verse 17
In rendering
judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the
great alike, fearing no one, for the
judgment is God’s. Any case that is too difficult for you bring to me and I
will hear it.”
Deuteronomy
is the last of the five books of Moses. The book explains to the Israelites how
to make a success of their life. To be a success we must as General Patton said,
“Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.” After appointing Elders this was
Moses advice to them; fear no one except God. The greatest of our church is
that we when we are troubled and don’t know what to do we can always approach
Him in prayer and seek the advice of his elders (Mary and the Saints) anywhere
we are. If we desire we may also approach our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament
Chapel and bring any case that is too difficult for Him to hear and He will
answer us. Likewise we may approach a priest in confession or connect with a
local parish spiritual director. How great is our God that He does not abandon
us. Furthermore there is a multitude of great Catholic websites and
organizations where there are elders of the church who can assist us in our
difficult moments.
Today is Valentine’s Day by his love you can see
we truly are His Valentine. The idea of Valentine's Day seems to have originated
during the Middle Ages, somewhere around the 14th or 15th century. The
holiday is named after a Saint Valentine who was martyred. Chaucer, a
famous poet, wrote about "Seynt Valentyne's day" in his famous
Parliament of Foules. Other historians attribute the holiday as a
celebration of the life of Saint Valentine who lived in Constantinople 150
years after Constantine turned the city into a Christian one. There was a
pagan celebration on February 15th where lots of unmarried men chose a bride
and were married on this day. Married men didn't want to go to war, so
Roman Emperor Claudius II forbade young men to marry. Valentine ignored
the decree and was executed on February 14, in the year A.D. 270.
The Two Ends or Purposes of Marriage[2]
Marriage has two
fundamental ends or purposes towards which it is oriented, namely, the good of
the spouses as well as the procreation of children. Thus, the Church teaches
that marriage is both unitive and procreative, and that it is inseparably both.
Unitive
Pope John Paul II‘s
theology of the body speaks of the human body as having a spousal significance.
This means that the human body by its very nature signifies that we humans are directed
to relationship—that we are to seek union with others. For it is only in relationship
that we achieve a true wholeness as a communion of persons. Before Eve was
created, Adam was alone. His joy upon perceiving Eve indicated that with Eve he
achieved the―original unity that human nature seeks. God clearly made human
beings to love and to be loved, to be in relationships wherein the act of
giving oneself and receiving the other becomes complete. In this context, the
word ―original means not only that these experiences go back to the dawn of
human history but, more importantly,
that they are key to understanding our most basic human experiences. The
experience of Adam and Eve speaks powerfully to our search not only to
understand ourselves but also to love and be loved, to be in a relationship of
love with a person of the opposite sex. God established marriage so that man
and woman could participate in his love and thus selflessly give themselves to
each other in love. A man and a woman who by their act of consent are no longer
two but one flesh (see Mt 19:6ff.) render mutual help and service to each other
through an intimate union of their persons and of their actions.―My lover
belongs to me and I to him (Song 2:16; see Song6:3).With all the dignity and
simplicity of poetry, the Bride in the Song of Songs sings of the unitive
meaning of married love.―You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. . . .
How beautiful is your love! (Song 4:9-10). So responds the Bridegroom of the
Song, overcome with the wonder of conjugal love that is extended to him by the
Bride. This is the love that is strong as death (see Song 8:6b). Just as
beautifully, Tobiah prays with his wife, Sarah, on their wedding night,
awestruck at the mercy of the God of their fathers, that is, the God of the
covenant, in bringing them together in a union of true conjugal love: Blessed
are you, O God of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the
heavens and all your creation praise you forever. You made Adam and you gave
him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race
descended. You said, ―It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a
partner like himself. Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not
because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on
her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age. (Tb 8:5-7) The love that
is as strong as death is the love that prays and praises, caught up into divine
love.1413See Pope John Paul II, General Audience, May 30, 1984.14See GS, no. 48:
―Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.
Procreative
It is the nature of love
to overflow, to be life-giving. Thus, it is no surprise that marriage is
ordained not only to growing in love but to transmitting life: ―by its very
nature the institution of marriage and married love [is]ordered to the
procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its
crowning glory. Married love itself is ordered to the procreation of children, for,
after all, the first command given to Adam and Eve is―be fertile and multiply (Gn
1:28). Tobiah‘s prayer, even as it asks for a happy and lifelong union,
remembers that the human race descended from Adam and Eve. His prayer for
happiness certainly includes, even if implicitly, a prayer for offspring. God
indeed sends the couple seven sons (Tb 14:3) and long life (Tb 14:14). Again,
in the words of the Second Vatican Council: Children are the supreme gift of
marriage. . . . Without intending to underestimate the other ends of marriage,
it must be said that true married love and the family life which flows from it have
this end in view: that the spouses would cooperate generously with the love of
the Creator and Savior, who through them will in due time increase and enrich
his family. Children are a gift in a myriad of ways. They bring joy even in the
midst of heartaches; they give added direction to the lives of their parents.
Children, who are the fruit of love and meaningful commitment, are a cause of
love and meaning. It is true that some marriages will not result in procreation
due to infertility, even though the couple is capable of the natural act by
which procreation takes place. Indeed, this situation often comes as a surprise
and can be a source of deep disappointment, anxiety, and even great suffering
for a husband and wife. When such tragedy affects a marriage, a couple may be tempted
to think that their union is not complete or truly blessed. This is not true.
The marital union of a man and a woman is a distinctive communion of persons. An
infertile couple continues to manifest this attribute. Even when their child-bearing
years have passed, a couple should continue to be life-affirming. They can do
this by staying involved in the lives of young people, and especially their grandchildren,
as spiritual mentors, teachers, and wisdom figures. They can also continue to
be nurturing through the exercise of care for those who are needy, disabled, or
pushed to the margins of society, and by their support for or participation in
works of charity and justice.
Daily Devotions/Prayers
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