Sunday Meditation: Family Matters

Larry's dad took a terrible two-story fall from a scaffold while painting the house.
He spent months in the hospital, but Larry's Mom made sure he kept up with new babies!

We’ve been visiting family in Wheeling the past few days to celebrate a bridal shower for one of our granddaughters, a lovely event. So many aunts, cousins, and friends reunited for a delightful afternoon. At our stage in life, reunions occur mainly at weddings and funerals.

Our entire weekend was focused on family including departed family members who have gone before us. While we were visiting at my brother-in-law's house, he brought out a large box filled with photos and memorabilia. How many memories of my husband’s family filled that box.

Sadly, many of the photos were unmarked or didn’t identify the relationship. Who was Fr Leo and the two unidentified monks? Who were the nuns and the people in the wedding photos? We spent several happy hours puzzling over the contents of the treasure box. 

Who is this handsome mystery monk? He definitely looks like a Kreitzer!

No one knew the identities of the nuns in the boat! I had to laugh,
 because it made me think of the contrast with the nuns on the bus.

There were plenty of familiar faces among the photos that brought back happy memories. Larry's dad was always busy building or gardening or taking grandchildren off to see bunnies or a calf or ride on the tractor. On a machinist's salary with nine children to feed, the family needed to keep a huge garden and I remember Larry's mom canning and canning and canning.

After the bridal shower Larry and I enjoyed dinner with two of my husband’s brothers and their spouses and then went to the cemetery where Larry’s parents, grandparent and other family members are buried, including two baby siblings, Jimmy and Carol, who died as infants — gone from us but far from forgotten. 

Many family members are buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Wheeling.

Please pray for Albert and Margaret Kreitzer, my husband's parents.

Little Jimmy was born the same year I was, but only lived three months.
 My parents lost a Baby Jimmy too who died at birth.

From the cemetery, we drove to visit our niece and her darling family. Her four little girls attended the shower, but the two youngest, little boys, stayed home with Daddy. What a happy hour we spent watching the children skipping little discs on the pool surface and wading on the steps. I got to “ride away to Boston” with the baby bouncing on my knees, a game I loved to play with my own children. All we "girls" finished the evening working on a Harry Potter jigsaw puzzle while the men talked.

And then it was back to my in-laws' home and to bed with plans for Mass in the morning and the ride home.

Our Lady told Sr. Lucy of Fatima that the "final battle" would be over marriage and the family. Sr. Lucy mentioned it in a letter to Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna, before her death in 2005. The cardinal described it to the Italian Press in 2008. Catholic News Agency repeated it in an article in 2021:

On Feb. 16, 2008, the Italian cardinal had celebrated a Mass at the tomb of Padre Pio, after which he gave an interview with Tele Radio Padre Pio. He was asked about the prophecy of Sister Lucia dos Santos that speaks about “the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan.”

Cardinal Caffarra explained that Saint John Paul II had commissioned him to plan and establish the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. At the beginning of this work, the cardinal wrote a letter to Sister Lucia of Fatima through her bishop, since he could not do it directly.

“Inexplicably, since I did not expect a reply, seeing as I had only asked for her prayers, I received a long letter with her signature, which is now in the archives of the Institute,” the Italian cardinal said.

“In that letter we find written: ‘The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.’ Don't be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. Then she concluded: ‘nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head’.”

Cardinal Caffarra added that “speaking again with John Paul II, you could feel that the family was the core, since it has to do with the supporting pillar of creation, the truth of the relationship between man and woman, between the generations. If the foundational pillar is damaged, the entire building collapses and we're seeing this now, because we are right at this point and we know it.”

“And I am moved when I read the best biographies of Padre Pio,” the cardinal concluded, “about how this man was so attentive to the sanctity of marriage and the holiness of the spouses, even with justifiable rigor at times.”

The battle is joined! Marriage and the family are under assault. The statistics outlining the state of marriage today are dismal. Forbes Magazine reports this about divorce:

So, what about the famous statistic that half of all marriages end in divorce? That’s a bit of an exaggeration when it comes to first marriages, only 43% of which are dissolved.[2] Second and third marriages actually fail at a far higher rate, though, with 60% of second marriages and 73% of third marriages ending in divorce.[3]

But in order to divorce you have to get married in the first place and more and more couples choose cohabitation without benefit of marriage. Unfortunately for them, they are less satisfied than those who marry. (source)

That data is no surprise to Catholics. At the same time, however, marriage requires on-going effort to nurture the relationship and keep it strong. My husband and I recently attended a Marriage Mission given by Fr. Ludgur Grun. One of the things he said that resonated with us was, "If you want to save the culture, save marriage." And that begins with every married couple putting their spousal relationship front and center. I recommend Fr. Grun's website with videos giving his conferences on marriage.  I also recommend his book, The Wine of Cana. Married couples are called to be branches deeply grafted onto the vine, Jesus Christ who embraces the Church as His bride. Every married couple is called to imitate that spousal relationship of Christ and the Church. 

Check out Fr. Grun's introductory video. There are more videos here.

Are you willing to change society by strengthening your own marriage and encouraging others? The family is the basic building block of society. And the family begins with husband and wife. Pray for young people who are embracing the dream of marriage and family life that their little branch will always be deeply grafted to the vine. That's my prayer for all those preparing for marriage. Those young couples represent the future. Please join me in praying for them and all young couples taking that great step into mystery.

St. Joseph, Pillar of Families, pray for us.