We are asked to trust: the beauty of Catholic teaching on openness to life.

Whew, are you scared by my title?

I am sitting here at work, doing a temp day for Cheryle (who we are living with), but so grateful for the opportunity to earn a little bit of money! Anyhow, don't worry, I'm not shirking my duties, it is a very quiet day here and so I'm just trying to be productive while I sit here. I'm so proud of my Joe, whose accreditation came through for his personal training, so he is up at the gym learning the rounds. Hopefully he can start next week! It is certainly going to take the strain off, the ability to put a little bit of money in the bank, especially with tuition payments upcoming for me, and because while we are here we really want to be able to explore the country and its surrounding countries!

Anyhow, something has certainly been on my heart lately, and that is the constant possibility of children due to our striving to live faithfully Catholic teaching on openness to life. It isn't easy being open, only because it is so tempting to be fearful and to question just how we could make ends meet if a wee one were to come into the picture. Yet, we are reminded constantly that God's plan is so much bigger than ours, that His will is manifested in our fidelity, and thus we have to know that we'd be ok! It is a grave mission to be called, in marriage, to be living signs of God's Trinitarian love to the world. We are humbled and awed by the gift of such a task. Not only this, but it truly is an expression of permanence, of deep and lasting love, to be open to every facet of my spouse's being.

We are inundated with messages about what marriage should be these days. Marriage should only happen when there is stability, dual incomes, thriving careers, when "life has been lived". But, to me, this IS living..to start with my beloved from nothing and work together towards a unified goal is precisely what marriage should be! I think that it fosters selflessness (ie: Joe has given up energy drinks for our budget and I've given up chewing gum, hehe), a minor example but significant too. Those are not the things we'd have to give up if we followed the world's message for marriage. Yet, where would our joy be then? In each other? I'm not so sure.

Anyhow, I'll close by pasting a little section from my past thesis, a good reminder of marriage and its inextricable link to openness and fruitfulness. Just some food for thought on this Friday morning (in Australia).

"One should not separate children from the aim of marriage, then, because instead of being a separate reality or end, fruitfulness is evidence of the love and unity between the lover and beloved. Love so sublime that the beloved, in the fullness of who they are, is accepted and constantly affirmed by the lover cannot help but manifest itself to the world as superabundance. Children are precisely this. As von Hildebrand says in his essay on Humanae Vitae, “Could we think of anything more beautiful than this connection between the deepest love communion, the ultimate self-donation out of love, and the creation of a new human being?”[1]"

I love you all and I miss you every day! We pray for you, as always,

xoxoxo