Friday, May 11, 2007

Mothers


† ♥ † Mothers † ♥ †

By a stroke of luck or by mere chance, any woman can become a mother. Nature has endowed her with the unique “maternal instinct” with the purpose of preserving the human species.

If it were not for that, what she would do when she heard that little, small creature weeping, wrinkled and constantly crying, would be to throw it into the garbage can.

But, thanks to that “maternal instinct,” she looks at it in ecstasy, and finds it precious, and disposes herself to take care of it for free until it turns 21, at least.

To be a mother is to ponder that blowing noses and changing diapers is much nobler than to finish school, to triumph in the business world or to remain thin.

To be a mother is to exercise that vocation without rest, always singing “brush your teeth, go to bed, do your homework, don’t smoke, drink milk.”

To be a mother is to worry about immunization, clean ears, school, offensive language, boyfriends and girlfriends without feeling offended or hurt when your children hush you up or slam the door in your face… just because they do not have anything better to do…

To be a mother is to stay awake waiting until your daughter comes back from a party and, once she gets home, pretend to be asleep so as not to disturb her.

To be a mother is to tremble when your son learns to drive, rides motorcycles, starts to shave, falls in love, takes exams or has a terrible accident.

To be a mother is to sob when you see your children happy and bite your tongue and smile when you see them suffering.

To be a mother is to be a baby-sitter, a chauffer, a cook, a doctor, a policeman, a confessor, a mechanic and do the laundry without getting paid.

To be a mother is to give all your love and your time without expecting to be gratified or thanked.

To be a mother is to say, “It’s normal for their age” when they rebel against you.

Mother is the one who loves us and takes care of us every single day of her life and cries with emotion because we remember her once a year: on Mother’s Day.

The worst defect that mothers have is that they die before we are able to reward them for part of everything of what they have done. They leave us feeling handicapped, guilty and irreversibly orphans.

We are lucky to have only one… because NO ONE would be able to cope with the pain of losing her twice.

- Isabel Allende

9 comments:

  1. latinmass1983, with your Isabel Allende posting you blog has lost authenticity. To post the thought a socialist secularist like Isabel Allende confirms by suspitions about your so called traditional catholicism: not much substance; but considering your background it does not surprise me. A.M.D.G.

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  2. humboldt,

    If you read the post attentively, you will see that there is nothing socialist in it. To clarify, I did not even know what kind of person Isabel Allende is or what her political stand is because I do not read the papers or the news that much.

    However, when I received this e-mail, I did not (and I still do not) find anything wrong. I could have omitted her name, but since she wrote it, she needs to be given credit for it.

    It would be like reading Humanae Vitae. We all know that Paul VI wasn't a traditional (in general terms) Pope, but that does not mean we cannot read that encyclical. Or, if you want to go farther, Origen and Polycarp, the Church accepts their writings despite what they did later in their lives. Or St. Augustine, he used to be a Manichaean, remember?

    Or another example: The changes accepted by Pius XII for Holy Week? We all know that it was Bugnini's idea, does that mean that we should not attend the traditional (post-1954) Holy Week Services if we can?

    Now, when you say: "but considering your background it does not surprise me," what do you mean exactly? I have not given any information before as to what I am (racially, ethinically, politically, economically, etc., etc., except religiously. I would like you to clarify that for me.

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  3. Please, how can you compare Isabel Allende with Pope Paul VI?; even though Paul VI was a bad and liberal pope he was a pope, the Vicar of Christ, and moreover he was a catholic. But Isabel Allende? this woman is the like of the current chilean president. If you really did not know (which I don't believe) who she is then you live in Mars.

    Following your logic then it is fine to quote Lenin on motherhood.

    ¡Please, have a little self honesty!

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  4. humboldt,

    READ CAREFULLY,

    I did not say that I did not know who she was. I do know she is a writer; other than that, she could be the worst murderer in the world, I wouldn't know. What I said was that I did not know her political points of view (I do not read her books). I did not know, and still don't know, whether she is a socialist or a communist, etc. (If you don't believe me, WHY should I believe you?).

    I do not live on Mars and I don't need to. I just prefer not watching or reading the news. My life does not need to revolve around writers and politicians, otherwise, I will go crazy like and with them.

    Now, comparing her to Paul VI, well, I can make that comparison BECAUSE Paul VI is actually a suspect of having been very strongly associated to the communists during the Reign of Pius XII. So much so that Pope Pius XII had to get rid of him and promoted him to the Patriarchate of Venice after he had been informed that Archbishop Montini had been very friendly with communists. Also, read what Socci and Alive von Hildebrand have to say about Paul VI.

    There seem to be worse things in his life than being friendly with communists. Whether they are true or not, I do not know, but the fact that he destroyed or accepted and enforced the "destruction" of the Liturgy (as communists and others wanted), says a lot!

    In addition, Paul VI, in the last days of his pontificate, SAID A MASS for his personal friend Aldo Moro, WHO had very strong socialist inclinations. The Vicar of Christ (Paul VI) personally said a Mass for a POLITICIAN who was not in complete accord with the teachings of the Catholic Church. This was sooooo out of line with Tradition that the media brought it up.

    [If you need to see proof of this, go to youtube.com and look up the video. You will find it there AND also pay attention to the prayer (or sermon) that he (Paul VI) says in which he (indirectly at least) accuses God for not protecting the life of Aldo Moro].

    Now, the fact that Paul VI was the Vicar of Christ MAKES things worse. Isabel Allende is not, has not been, nor will ever be the Pope. Even if she is a socialist as you say, she won't go farther than that.

    Also, I STILL would like that clarification.

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  5. Very well latinmass1983, then why did you quote Isabel Allende in your blog, if you do not know anything about her and you have not read her books?

    As for Aldo Moro, he was the leader of the Italian Christian Democrats, and they were anti-communist. I do not know why you say he was a socialist, or what socialist means to you.

    As for Paul VI, as I wrote before he was a terrible pope, a bad pope, but still he was the pope. Maybe we should go deeper and analyse why did the Catholic Church elected a man as Montini as Pope.

    As for communists in the Church, there were communists in the Church, which is a contradiction in terms because as traditional popes have taught a true socialist cannot be catholic, and as part of the failure of the papacy of Paul VI was to not take note of the teachings of the traditional popes of the church, who up to Pius XII had unequivocally condemened communism. We should analyse why after Pius XII the church changed her position in an unwarranted way.

    There are many things which we don't know about the conciliar church but they are locked up in the secrecy of the Vatican. I am sure there are skeletons there that would scare Satan himself.

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  6. humboldt,

    As I said before, I got that thing in an e-mail. I did not as much quote her for who she is, but for what she said (or how she said this) regarding motherhood, which is not wrong at all. In fact, I am reading "The Mother" by Card. Mindszenty and they agree in the basic duties of the Mother.

    Just because Isabel Allende might be a socialist, that does not mean that she cannot come up with something good. Everyone has or does (or in this case says/writes) something good at one point in their lives. Isabel Allende did it when she wrote this piece on what it is to be a Mother.

    Aldo Moro, at first, was not a Christian Democrat and even after he became a Christian Democrat, he did not really hold all Catholic teachings as a fervent Catholic really would. He held socialist or communist tendencies. He wanted to find a way to unite the Christian Democratic Party and the Communist Party in an attempt to find a "middle ground" for both. Traditionally, we all know that there is no way that Catholicism and Communism can ever be combined successfully. They are totally the opposite. Paul VI did not think so and was very pro-communism.

    Regardless of why he was elected Pope, Paul VI had duties to fulfill and one of them was to denounce communism openly or fight it secretly. He did not do any of these two. And being Pope did not exempt him from being wrong or above criticism. When they should not be argued against is when they declare dogmas, but he did not declare any dogmas at all.

    Paul VI was not a Communist (not officially, at least). What I said was that he was VERY friendly towards their views and goals. This is why Pius XII sent him to Venice where he would have a lot of communists to befriend!

    But going back to the original point: There is nothing wrong in this piece written by Allende, otherwise I would have not included it. You can bet I would never actually quote any of her words if they are liberal, feminists, or just outright anti-Catholic.

    Another example would regard Dante's Divine Comedy. Benedict XV praised him and his work (by writing the encyclical "In Præclára Summórum" to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his masterpiece. However, we all know that not everything he wrote in his work was or would be ideal catholicity or respectful of the Popes - since he put Boniface VIII in Hell.

    Now, if you or any other reader of this blog find something wrong in this piece (by Allende, not something wrong WITH Allende - since I am not promoting her political views), then let me know. Only then would I be glad to remove it. So far, I do not see anything anti-Catholic, anti-Family in this poem - I think it was meant to be a poem, but not sure.

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  7. latinmass1983, I don't understand your way of thinking because I don't see the reason for quoting from a person that is well known in Latin America about her political views and being a relative of the marxist-leninist chilean president Salvador Allende, of whose political views she shared. I find it shocking to be quoting from a person that does not share catholic principles, especially when she is so prominent as Isabel Allende is. So either you are too naive, which I doubt, or you are trying to confuse your readers, which in my case you will not. Lenin and all the leftist say very nice thing about many things, also many bad clerics, but that belies their true nature.

    As for Aldo Moro well I don't know if he was a socialist or pro-communist. Why do you say this? Perhaps you are better informed. What I know is that he was Italy's prime minister for the Christian Democratic Party when he was kidnapped and killed by the Italian Red Brigades; and I know that he was a friend of Paul VI, but it wouldn't surprise me about his alleged links with communism. Remember that Italy was and is the country with the largest communist movement in Western Europe, even though it is traditionaly a Christian country. After all Europe is the big Babilon.

    As for Paul VI I cannot argue against what you say of him because I am sure that had it been for Paul VI and the catholic church then, Latin America would be under communism and the Soviet Union and her empire would still exist. That is what you get when the Church abandons in practice, traditional teachings. Now Paul VI condemned in theory marxism, but in practice believed that marxism could be used as a theory for social transformation. In the light of hegelianism theory, very much liked by the Catholic Church, a sintesis between Christian beliefs and marxism was possible. Remember that many Latin American bishops believed this, therefore the heretic Liberation Theology. And Paul VI instigated these views. So yes he was guilty.

    Now, also in the U.S. there were politians that believed that coexistance could be possible with communism and believed that Eastern Europe was not oppresed by the Soviet Union, as the republican president Gerald Ford did. So certainly many people argued in favor of coexistance with communism and actually saw positive elements in communism. The Catholic Church under Paul VI, in practice, believed this also.

    Had it not been for Ronald Reagan, the world would certainly be much different than it is today, and certainly more oppresed. I thank God for Ronald Reagan.

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  8. To be frank, of Isabel Allende I only knew her name before all this.

    If you say that she is too prominent and you know about her a lot, then I think that you personally might be reading too much about her too - hopefully, you have not supported her financially by buying and reading her book).

    I do not think I am naive nor am I trying to confuse anybody. I already tried to clarify why I posted that piece on what it means to be a mother. If you do not agree with that "explanation" I gave, then that's something else.

    Now, Isabel might be prominent in Latin America, but I do not live in Latin America. I try hard not to watch the news, read newspapers, or read books related to politics (one way or another). Exception sometimes is made when the Church or Her teachings are directly involved, but even then it is rare.

    Even when people lie about what they say, they could be saying something that is true, even though they themselves might not really mean what they say. That is something else, though - it does not mean that what they are saying is not true at all.

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  9. Well since you say that you are from Nicaragua, the I assumed that you knew what you were talking about.

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