What a grace!

What a grace! That same thought inside me last Palm Sunday after, once again, the pregnancy test announced that a new son had given us: again nausea, malaise, choking and revisions, ultrasound and hospital admissions for my wife; and then, crying, diapers, cars, cribs, sleepless nights ...

What a grace! Once recovered from the initial state of shock, my head began to reason and to engage in an agitated inner dialogue asking for answers that came from above.

Why one more child? Was not enough already 8? Do not you see that we are over 40 years old and we would like to start enjoying life a little? Where are we going to accommodate one more child if we hardly have space in the house for which we are? And the van? If we are eleven, two of our children will no longer be able to travel with the whole family. We will have to buy another car but ... with what money?


And the ironing ...; If we are already drowned now, we will definitely explode. And the jokes in the neighborhood? And the parents of the school? They will go back to the classic supposedly ingenious comments: you do not have TV, right? You already have the soccer team. And my wife's health, nausea and lack of sleep? In short, I concluded, what a grace!

I could continue to detail, one after another, different negative thoughts that clouded my vision and presented before me a closed, dark night, without light to which I could cling to find a way out. However, after a few days, as if it were a flu, my defenses began to keep at bay this virus of ingratitude that rushed us without mercy. And so, I remembered what Paul VI said in the Humanae Vitae: "transmitting human life has always been for the spouses a source of great joys, although sometimes accompanied by many difficulties and anguish".


Let's talk now, really. Why one more child? And why not? Certainly having a child is a responsibility but it is not less to stop having it. Does this event prevent us from enjoying life? Absolutely not. I think I've enjoyed life for the last 20 years much more than I ever imagined. The key is to define the meaning of "enjoy life". If by this we understand, living thinking about you, giving you pleasure in everything, without worrying about anything, certainly with so many children this type of enjoyment is impossible because it is difficult to find a minute a day to dedicate it to your personal leisure.

My experience shows me that there is a categorical truth expressed by Christ in these terms; who seeks his life in this world, loses it; and on the contrary, whoever loses his life for Him finds it. And so it has happened, in our case, after the birth of each child; losing our life, all of it is gaining meaning, despising our comfort, we feel more and more comfortable. Feeling drowned, we breathe day by day better. Almost no time to talk to each other, each time we communicate more clearly. The Council said that man "can not fully find himself but in the sincere gift of himself". This might seem like a contradiction, but it is not at all. It is, rather, the great and wonderful paradox of human existence of which my wife and I are witnesses.


On the other hand, man yearns to enjoy life by dreaming great experiences, wonderful events, intrepid adventures, passionate romances. And, habitually, it meets cruelly with the stubborn reality that teaches again and again that true joy does not come from the enjoyment of experiences that are born from outside the heart of man; on the contrary, it is in our interior where our joys and our dissatisfactions are debated.

Otherwise Who can think of a greater adventure than to raise a family with 9 children? Be in a single life, confessor, teacher, psychologist, doctor, lawyer, guerrilla, manager and banker? Does anyone want to try strong sensations, adventures never seen? I invite you to contemplate any day in our lives. Disneyland is boring compared to "Gavínland".

St. John Paul II said that "the family is for the believers an experience on the way, an adventure rich in surprises, but open above all to the great surprise of God, who always comes in a new way to our life".

And finally, maybe the most important thing. How much I love my wife! How much I admire her! How the mother of my children continues to love me every day! What an extraordinary communion we feel as we approach the daily battles! What a gift to contemplate each child as the fruit of our love, being part of it and part of me without differentiation.How satisfying to be, in fact, one flesh! While around us marriages break down, apparently, have everything that the world considers necessary to be happy, however, end up dissolving, helpless, the project that, excited, one day had begun.

I believe that there is no greater condemnation for man than to live for himself. The children are a fantastic help to stop contemplating our navel and raise our eyes to the mountains asking where the help will come from and to feel, then, that the consolation comes from the one who made heaven and earth. (Ps 120)


It only remains for me to kneel and contemplate with devotion this great mystery that is the family.


And exclaim with joy and jubilation the expression with which this article began; but now, it will be understood that, being the same words, their meaning does not coincide with the first one: a new son. What a grace!

It may interest you:

- Pregnancy tests: when is it better to take the pregnancy test?

- Ten tips to strengthen the relationship as a couple

- How to make negative thoughts disappear

- The 7 secrets of a lasting love

Video: What a grace !! شو ها النعمة


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