The Bible ( Old and New Testaments), the Word of God that we Christians and Jews pay lip-service to, tells these truths wrapped in mystery -
WEAKNESS IS THE PATH TO STRENGTH
SACRIFICE IS THE PATH TO GAINING
GIVING IS THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE
DOING BAD TO DO GOOD IS FORBIDDEN
SURRENDER IS THE ONLY MEANS OF VICTORY
These are headscratchers, Bretheran and Sisteran, to be sure. Yesterday, I received this comment on my tease about President Obama playing at being Italian by flashing the Corna - The Horn sign with the hand.
wow you have alot of time on your hands! how bout helping me with something ? i need help! i read your blog about how mothers are the Divine plan...i truly believe this with all my heart. that is why I've always wanted to be a full time mom. i was. for more than 15 years. the courts awarded my x with sole custody with my three children because he has higher education and the finances. i was thrown away and my children just started today at st caj. i was only informed 24 hours ago. the courts in the city are selling our children please help us
I do have time on my hands, thanks be to God, from 4Am to just before 6AM when I pound the keys to practice my writing. More so I have had time to think about the sadness of the note. I know nothing of the situation other than the words above.
I can only imagine the sense of loss, because I have lost my wife to brain cancer. My three children have been without a mother since January 17, 1998. A great woman went home to Christ.
It took me years of courtship, remonstrances and litanies of 'What, are you just Stupid? Yeah, going to Prairie Tavern is a great way to get ready for that job interview tomorrow morning. You are going to iron your shirt and go the bed before 10, Bub! Go read and think great thoughts . . .Move it!' Got the job.
However, witnessing the power, courage, tenacity, and superhuman love from a woman in three very difficult childbirths grew some whiskers on this Boy Male.
To learn that I was in the company of a woman and not a girl was a Blessing from God. We boys, if we are to become men, must learn that the center-folds in Playboy are air-brushed conceits - two-dimensional images. Women are flesh and blood embodiments of God's Divine Plan, without whom males would wallow in filth and end up eating one another.
Women are the most powerful force for good, because they constantly renew humanity. They pick us husbands up off of the sidewalk, more than their little boys who fall off the Schwins when Mother let's go of the guiding fender. Women are our training wheels.
They nurture our better selves and introduce us to better interests, foods, habiliments and inclinations.
Boys believe in fairy princesses, as much as little girls, who will wave magic wands and make the dishes disappear from the sink, clean the toilet-in, out, and behind, make groceries appear out of nowhere, and provide a balance in the checking account at the end of the two week pay cycle, bathe the kids, check homework, call the appliance man, cut the grass and make love to them, while they play fantasy football and blow off steam at the local gin-mill.
Women spark the creative will in males to be better than they were the day before and salve the self-loathing impulse when we fail miserably to overcome our inclination for grandiose and usually very public self-pity.
Girls believe that being a two-dimensional image is the path to happiness. Happiness is hard work. Boys and Girls hate hard work, shoot they hate easy work. Spending, acquiring and ingesting are no paths to happiness.
Boys and Girls make one another wildly unhappy.
Men and Women are happy because they mutually sweat and labor until each task is complete - love making, bill paying, and child rearing.
I prayed that the poor woman who wrote the note works her way to happiness, last night and this morning; more so, I prayed that I can avoid being a boy.
Here are two Catholic Prayers - One for Couples, which is pretty safe and dull
Married Couples: Gracious God, you joined couples together in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Your Son, Jesus sanctified the married state by his miracle at Cana. Bless with your loving grace the married couples of this parish that they may see you in each other, raise their children to love and serve you, and in the fullness of time live forever with you in the joys of eternal life. AMEN.
One for the Divorced, which is more compelling and powerful . . .and needs to be so.
Separated and Divorced: Gracious God, for some among us, dreams and hopes have died. Marriages have ended. Promises and hearts have been broken. Heal those broken hearts, we pray. Help those persons whose marriages have failed to know that the one never failing love can be found in you. When they feel lonely, make them aware of your Spirit. When they feel guilty, help them to know your forgiveness. When there is anger, send them your peace. We pray for these gifts in the name of your Son, Jesus. AMEN
Happiness is not easy, but it is possible. Pray, it can't hurt.
