"Needed: Good Families to Restore Hope"

This is a phenomenal article! And it's not just because my good college friend and roommate wrote it. Valerie Pokorny has always had a wonderful way with words, and her journalism and theology background allow her to articulate some profound truths. It's well worth the time to peruse her reflections.

To further convince you:

It was a summer holiday (pick any of them) and the majority of my mom’s side of the family was gathered at my grandparents’ small lake house. The adults were inside — sitting at the table, doing dishes in the kitchen, feeding the little ones — engaged in a lively discussion about some current event in their community. The kids — almost two dozen of them, the oldest in high school and the youngest barely born — were EVERYWHERE. Snitching cookies, catching frogs, playing tag, vying for a spot on the hammock, gathering the uncles for a backyard game of softball. The oldest kids were talking to their favorite aunts or uncles, raving about the latest Christian rock band or answering questions about sports and school. The youngest, sweetly sleeping or cooing infants, were being passed around ­— or, rather, snatched as often as possible from Grandma’s greedy hands.

This was an almost weekly occurrence for our family. All six of the children in my mom’s family are to this day happily married with kids. My mom had five, the next brother four, the next brother six, the next sister and brother four apiece, and the youngest brother three.

Each and every child was welcomed, a cause for celebration, a much-anticipated drama to watch unfold. Each baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation offered the opportunity for a mini family reunion. Every Christmas found us gathered in a tiny cabin somewhere in that hometown area, a flurry of food, fellowship, and tiny fingers itching to unwrap the presents under the tree. As family members (like me) grew older and pursued careers and vocations outside of the community, Grandma exercised her legendary arm twisting methods to try to keep the family as close together as possible.

Sure, there were disagreements and difficulties. Sure, the family’s high standards would challenge each budding young adult as he or she came of age. Certainly, parents sacrificed time and again to make sure their children received quality education and even more important, quality family time.

But the beauty of life as I knew it growing up was that no child was ever seen as a burden. Everyone in that family community created a loving, safe, encouraging environment that expected great things of each and every little person entrusted to them. And by “great things” I mean a happy, moral life leading to a fruitful vocation in the form of either marriage and family or priesthood or religious life.

Read it all here.