Valentine's Day
Nothing says love like being open to having children with someone.
Just think about it for a minute.
A person who is willing to conceive a child with their partner is saying with their whole body, "I'm willing to have a child with you. That means I love everything about you so much that I want another person to exist who is like you. I want to see your eyes and your smile in my child. I want someone who walks like you, talks like you, makes decisions like you. I want to help create someone who's made in your image." That's pretty darn romantic.
Conceiving a new life also is a profound commitment to doing whatever it takes so that this new, unique "image" of their beloved flourishes in the world. When partners commit to having a child, they are signing up for a lot of self-sacrifice, which is the heart of real love. Blessed John Paul II describes love as desiring and acting towards the good of another human being. Parents have to do this constantly, from the moment they know their child exists. Babies are hard work. Little Children are hard work. Teenagers are hard work. Even adult children are hard work sometimes.
However, all of this work is completely worth it, because you're nurturing in your child the good you see in your spouse. A person who has a child with someone is signing up for a lifetime commitment to putting their needs second to their children's needs, and to working with their partner to build a life for themselves and their children. That's not just pretty romantic, that's swooningly, deliciously, heart-breakingly, wonderfully romantic.
15 Awesome Resources to Spark Love
Mary Beth Bonacci takes chastity education very seriously, making it her life’s work. The people (mostly young adults) she has spoken to have asked her thousands of questions. In this book she gathers hundreds of these and delivers witty, convincing and workable answers. This book is hard to put down.
In a question and answer format, Catholic Answers apologist and author Jason Evert, discusses every aspect of chastity. He emphasizes that saying no to premarital sex is saying yes to authentic love. Using anecdotes drawn from stories he has heard in his speaking to youth and his own experience, Evert writes clearly and persuasively on the questions about dating, relationships, sexuality, and chastity that young people have asked him wherever he speaks.
“Single women often feel left alone to find answers to their deep questions about love and intimacy. Some hang out and hook up, hoping for love. At some point, every woman needs reassurance that she—and her standards—are not the problem. Here the single woman will find 21 strategies to help her raise the bar—instead of sitting at it, hoping for Mr. Right.”
John Paul II’s philosophical masterpiece Love and Responsibility has been called THE great book of the 20th Century. It takes our understanding of human sexuality and of male-female relationships to levels not previously experienced outside the Bible. ES takes the philosophical language of Love and Responsibility and opens it up for us with wonderful clarity and effectiveness.
The story of St Gianna Berretta Molla, a modern-day wife, mother, and physician, who fully engaged her faith in her medical practice. In 1962 she faced the agonizing choice between saving her own life and that of her unborn child, and chose to save her child. She is a wonderful reminder that saints still walk among us.