Thoughts on the birth of my grand-daughter

Yesterday, on the feast of St. Margaret of Antioch, my lovely daughter Ashley bore Margaret Rose Canter to my son-in-law Matthew. I am of all men most blessed. In a little over a month, they will move to Nashotah House, where Matthew will continue his formation to, God willing, become a priest of Christ's one, holy, catholick, and apostolic Church. Some weeks back he said to me, "I've never been in a place where so many people my own age and akin to my own situation share my faith and values." Looking back on it all, I think that it is no accident that Matthew was accepted this year and reccomended for the House by +Shaeffer. God knew that it was time for this family to move to their next level of preparation for ministry, and to enter such a setting where their own daughter might be formed at the beginning of her life to serve Christ faithfully all her days.

Over the years, Ashley and I have talked much about how God might have her to serve Him as a Christian woman. Like many traditionalists, I have serious reservations about the tendancy of modern culture to see the roles of men and women as interchangable. I suppose I have set the stage for my daughter's questions about what our Lord might be calling her to do. When I would go to military drills, and when Matthew and Tristan went off to serve the Republic, or when the stories were told about how grandparents and great-grandparents had rallied to the colors, Ashley seemed to want to serve so very much, but felt uncomfortable working outside traditional roles. We would often talk, sometimes tearfully, about God's will for us, and of the vocations we receive that ultimately are seldom of our own choosing. We spoke of Penelope and of the Matrons of early Rome, and how there was no greater calling than to bear children for God and the Republic, and to rear them to love God and honor their fatherland. When I saw the joy on her face at the hospital last night, I knew that she had found her place, as the wife of a good and strong Christian man, who loves his family and his home, and has offered himself in service as a citizen, a soldier, and a priest. There is no greater joy than to know that one's values have been passed on to one's children, and that God's Holy Word has borne fruit in one's own family.

Every sermon should, they say, have three points, and this musing would be incomplete if I did not comment on the miracle of life, and the beauty of God's design which is so evident in little Margaret, and in every child. Few things are more moving than the picture of the interdependence and love between mother and child. Few things are more noble than the strong example of a man both tender and strong as he commits himself to the protection and nurture of those with whom God has blessed him. God alone is capable of taking us fallen human beings, and bringing us into a sacramental unit where He causes us to love so deeply. Perhaps that miracle of human relationship, lived out in the Christian family, is more wonderful even than the gift of biological life itself. But in any event, a new child, parents so filled with love and thankfulness, tearful grandparents, and the sharing of the Holy Communion and the blessing of the newborn within hours of her birth, all seemed a fitting testimony to God's work among us. I will never understand the ability of so many in our world today to destroy this sacramental work of God through abortion, selfish acts of criminality, or war designed only to coerce others and control their property. And yet even in the midst of these horrible sins and evils, every time a mother holds her child, every time a father adoringly looks on the miracle of their love, God is glorified, and we are reminded by a loving heavenly Father that He has for us a better way.

O God, bless Matthew and Ashley and little Margaret. Lead Tristan, her uncle and godfather, to provide for her an example of constancy, strength, and faith. Pour out Thy Holy Spirit on all of these I love that they might find strength and courage to face life's difficulties, tenderness and compassion to comfort and encourage each other, and grace to serve Thee faithfully all their days. Be with Chuck and Cathy, and with Rebecca and me, that we might support them and love them by our prayers and our actions. And help us all so to live in this life, that in the life to come, we may have life everlasting. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who lives and reigns with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and forever. AMEN!