The following is an excerpt of a letter I received recently from my elderly prayer partner. She has been virtually blind for more than 30 years and now is almost entirely lame due to osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Nonetheless, she shines with the joy of the Lord, provides much wisdom and offers many prayers on behalf of me and my family.
We need strong men to complete our spirituality as a Christian community. The married couples with children are the image of the Holy Family in the world. It's important to strengthen that image because everything in our modern institutions conspire to eradicate it.
When I was in school, I was downcast about something which I no longer remember but it might've been the death of a young man in the neighborhood who was an excellent swimmer. As a child, he had polio but had made a good recovery. He wasn't a close friend, but everyone liked him, and he spent a great deal of time outdoors. I told my mother that it wasn't fair. Her answer has stayed with me my entire life: "People lose their children, and children lose their parents every day. Do you think that God loves them less? The ways of God are unfathomable, we are too small to understand Him. We know that we live in a fallen world which He has saved, but it's up to us to make it better because not everyone accepts the sacrifice of His Son. Pray the 91st Psalm every day, visit the Blessed Sacrament often and keep an attitude of a prayerful interior. It will serve you and the world well."
