Denver Catholic

23 DENVER CATHOLIC | MARCH 11-24, 2017 Oh, the gift of life-giving love F ollowing God's design for how he created us as male and female brings great peace, harmony and unity to mar- riage, family and our world. I can remember vividly feeling as though I was a bystander with each of the seven cesarean sections that Mindy endured. "Lord Jesus," I would pray, "help me to be a supportive husband and please, Heavenly Father, give me your grace to be a worthy father." Witnessing the gift that my wife made of herself in childbearing and beyond gives me the desire to lay down my life as Christ does for his bride, the Church. It is always amazing how God created women to be the "Garden Enclosed" — the paradise where new life begins. With each daughter and son, I can recall the lump in my throat, fi lled with deep emotion, some trepidation and lots of gratitude that God would entrust us with these pre- cious children. For certain, God is generous - now our oldest, who married her hus- band in late July, is carrying their fi rst precious child due in late May, our fi rst grandchild. What joy and anticipation we have, although the thought of being "Grandpa" makes me feel seasoned. When they went to their fi rst doctor's appointment to have an ultrasound and determine the due date of the baby, their OB/ GYN introduced herself along with some small talk and then turned to Josh, her husband, and said, "We are now going to talk about some female issues that might make you uncom- fortable." Josh then said, "I learned in marriage prep how to chart Karlie's fertility symptoms and temperature through Natural Family Planning and all of this fascinates me." The physi- cian was pleasantly shocked and put at ease by Josh's passion and concern for his 'bride' and mother-to-be. Father Brendan Rolling, the Benedic- tine priest who witnessed their mar- riage, said, "Josh is a scholar of the Catholic faith disguised as a football player." After the good news was confi rmed at their doctor's o¡ ce, they let others know, along with posting the news on social media. Not everyone had a positive response. "So soon?"; "Don't they want to have time for them- selves?" And some even had their sus- picion, "Were they pregnant before they were married?" Comments rolled o' peoples' tongues. As parents and grandparents, we were taken o' guard as to how to respond. Then it came to me: "There is a nursery rhyme that we learned as kids which has deep theological meaning." One person responded, "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do." I responded, "God knows what to do." However, the one that came to me was, "Karlie and Josh were sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N- G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage." Pope St. John Paul II put it this way, in Familiaris Consortio ("On the Family"), Article 28. With the head- ing, "Cooperators in the love of God the Creator," he wrote: "Thus the fun- damental task of the family is to serve life, to actualize in history the original blessing of the creator — that of trans- mitting by procreation the divine image from person to person. ... Sex- uality is not just something biological but concerns the 'innermost being of the human person'" (Familiaris Con- sortio, 11). This narrative of God's love for each of us is far more important than any guarantee of wealth or fame — but possibility…ªin a word – hope. Why hope? JPII gives us the answer: "The fruitfulness of conjugal love is not restricted solely to procreation of children… It is enlarged and enriched by all those fruits of moral, spiritual and supernatural life which the father and mother are called to hand on to their children, and through the chil- dren to the Church and to the world." There is no other glorious blessing for parents, now grandparents, to be caught up into the experience of our own children cooperating with the Lord and giver of life, the Holy Spirit. It makes real and visible the reality of the eternal exchange of the life-giving love of the blessed Trinity that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit long for each of us to participate in. Marriage Missionaries Matt and Mindy Dalton can be reached at matt@marriagemissionaries.org, 303-578- 8287 or at www.marriagemissionaries.org. MATT & MINDY DALTON appalled that those "rights" come at the cost of the lives of unborn children. Nor have I ever found my gender to present a barrier in the workplace. I have found that the workplace sometimes doesn't know how to best utilize women's unique gifts. I may write about that in more detail some day. But in the mean time, I hardly see how anarchy in the streets is going to open anyone's eyes to our interpersonal sensitivity. We live in a world with two very di' erent visions of women. There's the "let's hit the streets and show them that we can be as aggressive and vulgar as men" school of thought. And then there is the Christian vision, championed by our own St. John Paul II, who extolled our "feminine genius" — the uniqueness of women's giftedness as we are. He also spoke out against all violence and unjust discrimination against us, called for our presence and infl uence in every aspect of society, and said that wom- en's dignity is closely connected to the love we receive and give in return. (That's the Christian kind of love, not the "love and liberation" variety that stops tra¡ c.) Which vision do you suppose will actually lead to true respect for women? I know which one I want to refl ect. And so, on March 8th you will fi nd me in the o¡ ce, hard at work. And I think I will wear . . . blue. In the Feb. 25 edition, the article titled "The Hidden Figures of the Space Race" misspelled the name of Apollo XI Command Module pilot Michael Collins and misstated the facts sur- rounding the Apollo XI Moon landing. Collins did not set foot on the moon; he remained in orbit around the moon while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface. We apol- ogize for the errors. In the Feb. 25 Ash Wednesday story, Father Anthony Ariniello's name was misspelled. We apologize for the error. CORRECTION

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