Expecting A Baby in a Culture of Truth and Love

Expecting A Baby in a Culture of Truth and Love

The recent good news that Britain’s newest Royal Couple, Prince William and Princess Kate, are expecting their first child—the third in line to be the successor to the Royal throne—gave great joy to many in the United Kingdom and in the world.  The news brought about by the confinement of Duchess of Cambidge in a London hospital due to an acute morning sickness did not escape paparazzi reporters and the official media.  Other trivia or facts on this news were capitalized as sensational for the day, even stories reminiscent of how the late Princess Diana and husband Prince Charles years ago anticipated their first born—Prince William.

Recent knowledge that the Royal Couple--the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge--is expecting their first baby has been  a great global news. 

The arrival of a baby in a family is normally viewed as a blessing and a cause for joy.   In the Philippines, the parents’ usual understated enthusiasm is also mixed with expected tensions as they prepare for this new  member of the family.  The crib, the little clothes, and the baby’s booties...all these are prepared one by one as much as possible before the baby comes.  The mother takes more than the usual precaution of herself while the father works harder to save more to cover the needs of his spouse and the soon-to-be-born daughter or son.  Once the bundle of joy arrives, everyone at home suddenly acquires light, color, and life.  The baby now becomes a center of attraction and the family members are entertained and awed with the little one’s growth and development.

Each life from the moment of conception
in the mother's womb is sacred,

Amid various perceptions on each child that is to be born, I sigh with relief when a child’s life is safeguarded by both the baby's mother and father.  Is it not at this point where we should really secure the future of a human being’s quality of life?  Is it not here when we protect the sacredness of the person and endeavor to thwart the various threats to the survival of the greatest value on earth?  Definitely, the world welcomes a V.I.P.’s especially if the one to be born has good social and economic standing.  If one is not a prince but only a “commoner” or “indigent” in  society—another mouth to feed they say—many frown.  The poor or weaklings, they say, should not be so many because they will frustrate the ideal of a great, intelligent, and progressive society.  And the birth of many poor ones unsettles and disconcerts even those who benefit from the families of these children.  And if it is in their power, they will even legislate laws or ordinances to control births with this in mind--an apparent quality of life.

May they be allowed to celebrate their birthdays and their first "Christmas" as well.

On the other side of the issue, a new life that begins from the moment of conception means news of good tidings.  Protection of that fetus, the baby-in-potency starts for the parents. And for a parent’s caring and loving heart—for that father or  mother, especially for the mother who bears and gives birth to a new life—that child will always be a treasure, her Prince or her Princess, no matter what.  In these days of Advent, may we also thing of the children to be born whose lives just started to be formed… May they be allowed to have birthdays and celebrate their first “Christmas” too.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is known to be the Protector of the Unborn.  Know also the beautiful story of the Virgin of Guadalupe from this link: http://www.catholic.org/about/guadalupe.php

John Paul II wrote one of the best prayer in promotion of a culture of life with Our Lady of Guadalupe as inspiration:

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,

Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
Of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or

out of  misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love
to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely,

in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, 

the Creator and lover of life.

Blessed Pope John Paul II

Getting Sick and Getting Well

“Getting Sick and Getting Well” is my crash course on time.  Two weeks ago, a sudden painful condition required that I submit myself for surgery.  Much as I have been avoiding this, an emergency operation was seen as the only solution.  Well, that period of hospital confinement and my current convalescence at home have helped me much to understand time.  These experiences sharpened and enriched my self-knowledge and my view of  various relationships in life.  And when we view something from another perspective, our knowledge of it increases in breadth and depth.

My friend Marie lent me a good read during those time of rest and convalescence in the hospital:
"How to be sick and spiritually profit from it"

It started with the pain that robbed me of sleep.  It came more acute at night yet, I was moving about during the day, managing with the usual tasks.  But three nights without much improvement of what I felt after the usual medications made me a qualified candidate for the hospital’s emergency room (ER).  I had an inkling of what could ail me yet after further study of my condition, more things were diagnosed by the doctors which alarmed me.   And my rowdy imagination made me afraid of what will happened next.  Fortunately, with caring people beside me, I accepted the doctors’ advice and in a few hours, I was wheeled into the operating room (OR).  The next thing I know was I moved in to a room where I will stay put for five more days.

At the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation Philippines

I work in a craniofacial center and I am used to coordinate the treatment of patients with their doctors.  Frequently, I work with caregivers and other hospital personnel.  At the center, we endeavor to give the best possible care we can give our patients which includes social services like financial sponsorship and accommodation during long periods of treatment.    Now, my routine was completely changed to becoming a patient.  This drastic shift in my state of affairs gave an extraordinary change in perspective.  It had deepened my understanding of the differing stances of the health care giver and the patient.

Early this year, Pope Benedict XVI had said from his Angelus Message in Rome (5 February 2012):

Flowers from NCFP

It is nonetheless true that illness is a typically human condition in which we feel strongly that we are not self-sufficient but need others. In this regard we might say paradoxically that illness can be a salutary moment in which to experience the attention of others and to pay attention to others!

I learned to value in a special way all who cared for me in the hospital and at home, and the affection from relatives and friends.  It also gave me that solidarity with others who are sick especially those who have no one to care for them.  I keep them very much in my prayers now.   Aside from this new sensitivity, the windfall price of getting sick is the chance of spending more time talking with God.

Smiles of health caregivers greatly cheer the sick.  

What happened to me when I got sick may not be so different with what happens to others in similar situation.   Our moments of sickness may at times be prolonged which is definitely very far from our liking.  How I wish others will not experience what I went through.  But I know that all of us will not be spared in getting ill.  Hippocrates said that “Healing is a matter of time, but it is also a matter of opportunity.” That “evil” moment of ailment can also be the great opportunity of “love” where we can experience what is unique and beautiful.  

Good people are like kaleidoscope mirrors

When I was young, one of my favorite toy is a kaleidoscope that my mother would buy from one of the sidewalk vendors near school.  It was a simple cylinder wrapped with local gift wrapping paper with three slides of mirrors inside and lots of very small colored chips.  Looking through one end of the cylinder, I was fascinated by the beautiful random patterns created by the symmetrical and colorful reflections from the mirrors and from the light coming from the opposite end of the tube.  Those unique and colorful designs were so interesting.  They were just charming.

Good people are like kaleidoscope mirrors that transform the simple bits of colored chips to exquisite and magnificent motifs.  Loved ones and friends enable the humdrum and even life’s terrible situations co-exist with smiles, joy, and courage.  When I was clumsy in holding my kaleidoscope (I broke several when I was in grade school), I discovered that the mechanism inside was very simple.  Yet I cannot bring back the shattered mirrors and the ordinary colored bits in place.  

Nonetheless, in sickness we all need human warmth: to comfort a sick person what counts more than words is serene and sincere closeness.

~Benedict XVII 

The way children are: happy, simple, natural, loving.

Truly, we all need that "serene and sincere closeness" of the others most especially when we get sick.  The human warmth given to the sick is the kaleidoscope's mirror that reflect the magnificent images of colors and shapes.  Definitely, the light of faith in God will make it possible for us to see the beauty and greatness amid the mundane and the humble--even frightening--events that go with the human condition.

On the day I was admitted in the hospital, I was just fortunate to hear the voice of Saint Josemaría Escrivá from a recorded homily which he gave at the University of Navarre on October 8, 1967.  Little did I suspect that this will be the theme of my confinement.  Here is my choice excerpt:

I assure you, my sons and daughters, that when a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God.  That is why I have told you repeatedly, and hammered away once and again on the idea that the Christian vocation consists of making heroic verse out of the prose of each day.  Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon.  But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives.

Thanks to Love, the one who suffer endures and is liberated from the  tyranny of time.   ~o0o~

"Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon.  But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives."
From a homily of St.Josemaria "Passionately Loving the World"
(Photo taken in Nongaya Beach, San Felipe, Zambales)