Salvation,
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. The sanctity of marriage and the fruits thereof, are the backbone and and heart of our faith. The argument is very well stated and an excellent read. I feel it is missing one point when it states in the beginning that our juvenile courts and mental hospitals are proof of this; there is also much proof, and more damning proof in our abortuaries.
I am grateful for the pointing out of marriage as a vocation. It is an important to define it in these terms.Too many think its about feelings, self satisifation, and self fufillment. While these things necessarily grow from marriage, when we put them as a burden as an expectation from marriage, and then they do not happen just as we hoped, we reduce marriage to a job we don’t like, or a place we no longer want to live, and deal with it accordingly, through divorce.
After 20 years of marriage, I am not in the place I thought I would be when I married. We are broke, and struggling just to put food on the table. Our business didn’t work out, so we are swamped in personal debt that was built up while trying to get it off the ground. We live in an area that we moved to start the business and very far away from our beloved families, and we do not get to see them very much at all. They are getting old and their health is not great anymore, and my heart aches to be closer to them, as does my husband and our children, but our house is upside down by so much that we couldn’t even imagine selling it. No, I never imagined being in this situation when I gleefully walked down the aisle all those years ago.
That said, had I not stuck it out there would be some things that would be different. My oldest son, would probably not be so ready at 22 to assume the role of husband this coming January, and our family witness would probably not have caused his fiancee to convert to Catholisism. My middle son would not be entering the seminary next fall. My youngest son would not be considering a vocation to some form of religous life and be a pro life warrior. The rough spots (and there were more than I care to remember, especially financially) would have probably destroyed our marriage. Sometimes its easy to overlook the blessings in the midst of a storm. Our faith and the practice of it have been the glue throughout all of this.
I know God can, and more importantly, will provide all that we need to survive. I may not like how He does it, nor when, nor where, and sometimes not even why, but that is irrelevant. My parents taught me that. It was not my business how they put dinner on the table, nor a roof over my head, just that they did it every day. I didn’t always like dinner, but it was there. God does the same, who am I to question. I am also aware, painfully aware, that the Devil will seek to attack and shake the faith even more violently, those who are sending a faithful one into the priesthood, which he takes a particular, personal interest in. We have known our son was called since the age of 8, and each year it gets successively harder as the moment approaches. Now, with 2 sons on that path, Oy, I do not look forward to the attacks!
Please pray hard for them. Please remember all young men called to the priesthood or religous life; young women too. They are your military as well. They prepare us for a warfare that cannot be quantified. You cannot see this enemy, only the destruction he brings. It is a difficult battle when all you witness is the destruction of the wounded and dead all around you, but an invisible, silent enemy wreaking the havoc is long gone, destroying somewhere else before you know it. The men and women who answer this call to duty, not with guns and tanks and body armour, but with faith, and prayer, and the promise of God, need our support as well. Our war is not going as well as Iraq, our enemy is already firmly entrenched and has already got a whole lot of active home grown terrorists in our land. We also have a whole lot of warriors out there wielding their weapons of faith, prayer, and themselves in this battle, and to them I offer my deepest gratitude, thanks, and prayers.
I apologize if this is too long, or seems off topic, but I assure you, it is not. Godly children are raised by Godly parents, and Godly parents are deeply committed in their marriages. Thanks again Salvation, for the post, and I agree, saints would be a great topic, as would great Catholic authors for todays readers.
**pointing out of marriage as a vocation. It is an important to define it in these terms.**
Very good point. I did some “Pray for Vocations” notebooks for the pray-ers of our parish and included
priests
discernment
seminarians
religious life
married life
husbands and wives for one another
parents for children
children for their parents
single life
It turned out to be much larger than I ever anticipated. But I have received numerous compliments on it. So-——there you go.
We do a three month stint of praying for vocations Sept-Oct-Nov
Then take off December
And start a two month stint in January and February, ending when Lent starts. There is also a copy in our Adoration Chapel so that people can pray for vocations at any time.
Oops, I forgot the prayer for deacons in it! LOL!
**The rough spots (and there were more than I care to remember, especially financially) would have probably destroyed our marriage. **
Thank goodness for vows that we took. My husband was ready to throw in the towel, but I got us on a Marriage Encounter weekend. It turned our married life around — and our children and we enjoyed eight wonderful years before his death.
**as would great Catholic authors for todays readers.**
Another great suggestion.
Your entire family has my prayers. What a blessing. One of my two sons went through a year of discernment (and then some) about the priesthood. He is now married and an attorney. He has talked about future plans of permanent deacon. So pray for him too.