English
EspañolMay the happiness of a pregnant woman increase every day as the child in her womb grows! May nothing and no one dare to extinguish that happiness! Think about it: do not be on those blackbirds of ill omen!
Text
“Keep happy and let nothing rob you of the interior joy of motherhood. Your child deserves your happiness. Don’t let fears, worries, other people’s comments or problems lessen your joy at being God’s means of bringing a new life to the world.” (The Joy of Love, n.171)
Commentary
My mother told me that her second pregnancy was a bit difficult because she received much criticism from friends and family. My older sister was only a year old when she found out that my brother was on the way, so they considered it more a problem than a joy. For a while, these comments filled my mother with grief and sadness, but eventually, she could ignore them and once again appreciate the joy of bringing a child into the world.
The news that you exist and will be born is essential joy. That you do so in the womb of a mother, your mother, is a priceless blessing. Something is very wrong when the coming of a child is considered a curse. Who tarnishes a mother´s joy? Who curses the blessing of a new child?
I dare, with my mother´s forgiveness, to share this anecdote because I am sure that she was not and will not be the only woman that our hedonistic and individualistic society attempts to make her forget what the gift of motherhood means, the beauty and importance it holds because every person is loved by God and created with a special mission.
When a woman, who is pregnant, is deprived of the joy of being a mother, it is precisely those specific people from her immediate environment, who darken her maternity, fill her will fears and bad omens, and lead her to think that the child is terrible news, a curse, when they should actually help her if there are any problems and rejoice with her for this new child that is coming. Even if they are oblivious, they are birds of ill omen – blackbirds with wings of sadness.
