Here is my second blog post guys! Hope you enjoy it and please if you have the time, read it and send me some feedback if you have any. Hope you guys are having a great Christmas and Sunday! Well, today is the Sunday after Christmas and if my observations are correct, people are rejoicing during this joyful time of the year. Whether religious or not, this time of the year brings a lot of joy, peace, and love to our homes. We receive gifts, people are generally a little bit nicer, and we all seem be a little more at peace. I can personally attest to that sense of peace for this Christmas has been a time for me to direct my life in the direction of something new. I have chosen to not continue on the current path that i have been on for the past three and a half years, and that path was the path of the Catholic priesthood. I have chosen instead to pursue the vocation of marriage and I cannot help but feel so much peace and joy in my own life because I have made that decision. It has been very affirming to see all the support of my family and friends after I know I have made this decision after thinking and praying about it for an extensive time period. This Sunday was a special Sunday for me, I have personally felt a lot of joy from the actions I have done today. I went to mass (if you are not Catholic, that is our word for going to church) and at mass we celebrated the feast of the Holy Family, which is the family of Jesus. Christian or not, I think we can agree that that family was a pretty good example of living a good life built around serving others and the greater good. The Holy Family, I believe, can be a compass not only for families, but for us as individuals and also our society. We do not need to mention Jesus being the Son of God to know that the lives of the Holy Family exemplify a great level of love and sacrifice, which are two elements that I dare say are vital to fulfillment for human persons! If we take a closer look at the specific people in the Holy Family, we see love and sacrifice exemplified in every single one of them. Mary, the mother, was a young woman with her whole life ahead and she gives up any selfish desires to give birth to a child whom she did not plan on having. Joseph, the father, a man who admitted celibacy and gave up his normal and satisfying life for a journey full of worry and struggles (but also immense joy if we are honest). Jesus, the son, who ends up voluntarily giving his life up to save the same people who were torturing and killing him. It is obvious, that the lives of these family members were something extraordinary but they happened in ordinary ways. So why do I mention these family members and why did my reflection of these people make me incredibly happy today? Thats the million dollar question and here is my answer: I mention the lives of this Holy Family because they help guide me and maybe they will help guide you in finding out how to live the life that you and I feel called to live! And that in itself is something for me to rejoice because I am given a blueprint on how to pursue the vocation of marriage! As I said earlier, I have chosen to pursue the vocation of marriage because I feel God calling me to do that and also because I have come to realize that it is my greatest desire to marry a woman I love and out of the love that she and I would have for each other, allow for more life to result: children! I must say and here is a warning to anyone that is not a big fan of chivalry, romance, and etc., but I have come to know that in my heart, I desire with everything that I am to love that special woman (whoever is holy enough to accept the goofy guy I am but also proud to be) with all my heart, mind, and soul and through that love, allow for children to come about (children are in my eyes an immense gift that help give marriage a majority of its beauty). Here is my chivalrous and romantic moment so bear with me for I am a young man who is ready to enter into the mystery of love and that might include some foolishness. I was so happy today when reflecting on the Holy Family because I look at the love that Mary and Joseph had for each other and it is a self-giving and sacrificial love that I would dare call the perfect love in life and I cannot help but desire to want to love a woman with that same fervor, effort, and intensity. I have learned that within myself is the desire to love a woman to the fullest and that means laying myself down for her no matter the circumstance. To love a woman in the way that leads to marriage is to give yourself up for her and to lay yourself down for her because in loving her, you only desire the very best for her and you vow to do whatever you must do, in so far that it is not immoral or wrong, so that her happiness may be achieved. Because it is her happiness that then becomes your happiness. And in loving her in that sacrificial way, it should be assumed that the woman loves the man in the same manner. This perfect and selfless love that the man and woman should strive to have for each other then produces the greatest fruits of marriage: children. The greatest fruit of the love of Mary and Joseph was Jesus, not only because he is our Savior and Lord but because the child is that selfless and sacrificial love made incarnate. I cannot wait to participate in that love and in this vocation of marriage and now you can understand the reasons for my joy today on the feast of the Holy Family. I thank you guys for taking the time to read this and I hope that these many thoughts might provide for you guys something to reflect on during this joyful time of the year. If I may, I ask that you guys pray for me or send me your best wishes so that I may continue to strive to be the best man that I can be. I want to be that man so that I may be worthy of loving a woman to the fullest one day but I also desire it because I know God is calling me to be that man. Have a great Sunday and happy Christmas to all!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:12:29 +0000