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Recently, I decided to write an article about someone who deserves to be commemorated. The first person to pop into my head, was my five-week old old granddaughter, not some famous person who has accomplished great deeds.
What I found most startling about this little person, called Lila, was a look of utter surprise as she surveyed the world. When Lila turned at the sound of my voice and looked at me for the first time, her eyes widen suddenly in recognition. It was if she thought,
“Ah, so this is what you look like. I remember your voice.”
She remembered the sound of my voice from her time in the womb, and at 6 hours old, finally put a face to that voice. Lila has been thrust out from the safety and security of the womb into a huge, cold world, with bright lights and loud abrasive sounds. She is wise, an old soul who connects with my spirit when we look at each other. It would be an unnerving experience, if it were not so profoundly sweet.The words of C.S. Lewis reverberate within me:
“You do not have a soul. You ARE a soul. You have a body.”
Although Lila’s body is helpless and fragile, she is a person, albeit a little person with a definite personality. The looks we exchange with each other are not fleeting, but penetrating, because our eyes truly are the windows of our souls. Without words, we recognize each other as sisters, fellow travellers who have come from God, who are made from the same stuff. This soul knows I see past appearances, right to her true self, just as she sees past my appearance right to my core, my inner spirit.
So I salute this brave person.In fact, I salute all infants for bravery, in the face of powerlessness, as they begin their life on earth
- i have stumbled upon wonderful art by Marianne Stokes Madonna and Child
joy of nine9 
Thank God that your granddaughter was born safely. Congratulations to and God’s blessings on all concerned in her coming into the world. Here is what Pope Francis said on 20 September to a gathering of gynecologists about Lila and others while she was waiting to be born: ‘Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world. And every old person, even if infirm and at the end of his days, carries with him the face of Christ. They must not be thrown away!’ [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1303991.htm] Thank God that in the photo of Lila we can catch another glimpse of ‘the face of the Lord’.
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Pope Francis’s words are powerful and they bring tears to my eyes..they should be shouted from the rooftops to the world
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Beautiful paintings of the Virgin and Child with Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. I’ve always loved the word ‘swaddling’ and have never seen it used outside of the context of ‘she wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger’. I never needed the word ‘swaddling’ to be explained to me when I was very young. Some years ago some ‘enlightened’ adults in the USA, including one or two bishops, I think, wanted to translate this in some other way so that children could understand. And they wanted to change ‘manger’ to ‘feedbox’ for the same reason!
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Congratulations, she changed your name to a lovely Grandma. Babies are so magical and serious. Because discovering this new world is a very serious business. How lovely!
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ah..you understand
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