Reflections During Lent #1

I have been directed to a wonderful book, so this lent I am going to post a little of what I am reading. Part of my lenten discipline will be to read "Children in the Church Today," which was recommended to me by Fr. Stephen our priest. It is a collection of talks given at a monastery in England that were so popular that people begged the nuns to publish them. I am glad they did. If anyone is interested, it is published by St. Vladamir's Seminary Press, or is available on Amazon.com. My slightly used copy was all of $.60.

From Ch. 1- Marriage and the Christian Family
"All you learn about marriage, all of your work for your marriage, is work for the salvation of your children, and this is not something small, but something which is of eternal value. "

This is a beautiful and sobering thought. Children are brought into a family. They are conceived in love and born into the love of their parents. That love serves as an anchor and a guide for them in all future relationships. Children need love to survive, that everyone knows. If they do not receive it, they not only struggle on earth, but their soul becomes fragmented and all things spritual are harder for them.

Since being pregnant, an awareness of all the broken people in this world has become to me more acute. People I meet at work, or just around town. I am more and more grateful for the family that I had and the the family that nurtured Nathan.