Welcoming the newly born

Infuse into the spirit and heart of the mother and father the esteem, desire, joy, and the loving welcome of the newly born right from its first cry. The child, formed in the mother's womb, is a gift of God, Who entrusts its care to the parents. With what delicacy and charm does the Sacred Scripture show the gracious crown of children united around the father's table! Children are the recompense of the just, as sterility is very often the punishment for the sinner. Hearken to the divine word expressed with the insuperable poetry of the Psalm: "Your wife, as a fruitful vine within your house, your children as olive shoots round about your table. Behold, thus is that man blessed, who fears the Lord!", while of the wicked it is written: "May his posterity be given over to destruction; may their name be blotted out in the next generation".

Immediately after birth, be quick to place the child in the father's arms—as the ancient Romans were wont to do—but with a spirit incomparably more elevated. For the Romans, it was the affirmation of the paternity and the authority which derived from it; here it is grateful homage to the Creator, the invocation of divine blessings, the promise to fulfill with devout affection the office which God has committed him. If the Lord praises and rewards the faithful servant for having yielded him five talents, what praise, what reward will He reserve for the father, who has guarded and raised for Him a human life entrusted to him, greater than all the gold and silver of the world?

Your apostolate, however, is directed above all to the mother. Undoubtedly nature's voice speaks in her and places in her heart the desire, joy, courage, love and will to care for the child; but to overcome the suggestions of fearfulness in all its forms, that voice must be strengthened and take on, so to say, a supernatural accent. It is your duty to cause the young mother to enjoy, less by your words than by your whole manner of acting, the greatness, beauty and nobility of that life which begins, is formed and lives in her womb, that child which she bears in her arms and suckles at her breast; to make shine in her eyes and heart the great gift of God's love for her and her child. Sacred Scripture makes us understand with many examples the echo of suppliant prayers and then the songs of grateful happiness of many mothers who, after having longingly and tearfully implored the grace of motherhood, were finally answered.

Even the pains which, after original sin, a mother has to suffer to give birth to her child only make her draw tighter the bond which unites them: the more the pain has cost her, so much the more is her love for her child. He who formed mothers' hearts, expressed this thought with moving and profound simplicity: "A woman about to give birth has sorrow, because her hour has come. But when she has brought forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for her joy that a man is born into the world." Through the pen of the Apostle, St. Paul, the Holy Ghost also points out the greatness and joy of motherhood: God gives the child to the mother, but, together with the gift, He makes her cooperate effectively at the opening of the flower, of which He has deposited the germ in her womb, and this cooperation becomes a way which leads her to her eternal salvation: "Yet women will be saved by child bearing".

This perfect accord of reason and faith gives you the guarantee that you are within the real truth and that you may continue your apostolate of respect and love for incipient life with unconditioned security. If you succeed in carrying out your apostolate at the cradle where rests the newly born child, it will not be too difficult for you to obtain what your professional conscience in harmony with the laws of God and of nature, obliges you to prescribe for the welfare of mother and child.

On the other hand, it is not necessary for Us to show you who are well experienced, how much this apostolate of respect and love for the new life is necessary today. Unfortunately, cases are not rare in which it is sufficient only to hint at the fact that children are a 'blessing" to provoke contradiction and even derision More often in word and thought the idea of the great "burden" of children is predominant. Inasmuch as this mentality is opposed to God's plan and to Scripture, so is it also contrary to sane reason and the sentiments of nature! If there are conditions and circumstances in which parents without violating God's law can avoid the "blessing" of children, nevertheless these unavoidable and exceptional cases do not authorize anyone to pervert ideas, to despise values and to treat with contempt the mother who had the courage and honor to give life.