In observance of Memorial Day, the parish office will be closed on Monday, May 31, 2010.

The parish office will be open again on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 9:00 a.m.

This does not affect the mass schedule. Mass will be held at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, May 31, 2010.

Sunday's Readings: Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalms 8:4-9 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

Here are several commentaries on these readings:

• St. Charles Borromeo Lectionary Site (PDF)


• Glorious Processions (Also available to be heard as an MP3) from St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology


• Trinity Sunday - Is the Trinity Relevant? (en español ¿Es importante la Trinidad?) from The Crossroads Initiative


• We Give You Thanks for Your Great Glory from Salt+Light Television


• "Word to Life" -May 28, 2010 from The Dominican Province of St. Joseph

Saint Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, is a contemplative monastery of monks of the Benedictine Order about thirty miles from London, England. The monks live the Benedictine life in its classic or 'continental' form. At the heart of their life is the solemn celebration of the liturgy, sung in Latin to Gregorian Chant.

The website is a door into their cloister. They hope that by sharing their life and work through this medium, visitors will learn something of the joy and peace that attracted them to this family, and come to appreciate the strength and vigor of the Lord’s call in our age.

The abbey also has the largest relic of England's Protomartyr—St. Alban—a thigh bone in a beautiful reliquary on the Altar of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

From Catholic Culture.

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Devotion to Our Lady, Part 3: Litany to Our Lady of Fatima

The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. On May 13th, the Church celebrates Our Lady of Fatima who appeared to the three shepherd children. This year, our Holy Father visited Fatima and called the faithful to an even greater devotion to Our Lady.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for our dear country.
Our Lady of Fatima, sanctify our clergy.
Our Lady of Fatima, make our Catholics more fervent.
Our Lady of Fatima, guide and inspire those who govern us.
Our Lady of Fatima, cure the sick who confide in thee.
Our Lady of Fatima, console the sorrowful who trust in thee.
Our Lady of Fatima, help those who invoke your aid.
Our Lady of Fatima, deliver us from all dangers.
Our Lady of Fatima, help us to resist temptation.
Our Lady of Fatima, obtain for us all that we lovingly ask of thee.
Our Lady of Fatima, help those who are dear to us.
Our Lady of Fatima, bring back to the right road our erring brothers.
Our Lady of Fatima, give us back our ancient fervor.
Our Lady of Fatima, obtain for us pardon of our manifold sins and offenses.
Our Lady of Fatima, bring all men to the feet of thy Divine Child.
Our Lady of Fatima, obtain peace for the world.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Let Us Pray:
O God of infinite goodness and mercy, fill our hearts with a great confidence in Thy dear Mother, whom we invoke under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary and our Lady of Fatima, and grant us by her powerful intercession all the graces, spiritual and temporal, which we need.

Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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This post is from the Holy Comforter Catholic Church eNewsletter which is sent out once a week via email. If you would like to subscribe to the eNewsletter, click here.

"You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me": Superstition and Idolatry

There is only on God and we are to only worship Him. As the Catechism teaches us, the Lord commands us to not put anything or anyone in the place the rightfully belongs to Him.

2110   The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.

2111   Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.

2112   The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, (of) silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living God" who gives life and intervenes in history.

2113   Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.

2114   Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. the commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Pentecost

Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the book of Acts, ushering in the beginning of the Church. 50 Days after Jesus' resurrection (and 10 days after Jesus' Ascension), the apostles were gathered together, probably confused and contemplating their future mission and purpose. On the day of Pentecost, a flame rested upon the shoulders of the apostles and they began to speak in tongues (languages), by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus Pentecost is a time for many Catholics and other Christians to celebrate two important realities: the Holy Spirit and the Church. Pentecost has long been a very important feast in The Catholic and Orthodox Churches because it celebrates the official beginning of the Church. It is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Church, second only in importance to Pascha (Easter). Pentecost always falls on a Sunday, fifty days after Easter Sunday (inclusive of Easter Sunday), and occurs during mid-to-late Spring in the Northern hemisphere, and mid-to-late autumn in the Southern hemisphere.

Pentecost is also the Greek name for Jewish Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), falling on the 50th day of Passover. It was during the Feast of Weeks that the first fruits of the grain harvest were presented (see Deuteronomy 16:9). New Testament references to Pentecost likely refer to the Jewish feast and not the Christian feast, which gradually developed during and after the Apostolic period.

In the English speaking countries, Pentecost is also known as Whitsunday. The origin of this name is unclear, but may derive from the Old English word for "White Sunday," referring to the practice of baptizing converts clothed in white robes on the Sunday of Pentecost. In the English tradition, new converts were baptized on Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints Day, primarily for pragmatic purposes: people went to church these days. Alternatively, the name Whitsunday may have originally meant "Wisdom Sunday," since the Holy Spirit is traditionally viewed as the Wisdom of God, who bestows wisdom upon Christians at baptism. In other parts of the world, Pentecost has other names, including "Green Sunday" in the Ukraine and "Green Holiday" in Poland. These names are derived from Pentecost customs that involve taking green plants into homes and churches as symbols of new life. These customs also may hearken back to the harvest festival themes of the Jewish Pentecost.

As with the term Pascha, in Pentecost Christians borrowed a Jewish term and applied it to their own festivals. Tertullian (3rd century) knew of Christian Pentecost, and the Apostolic Constitutions (4th century) speak of the Pentecost feast lasting a week. In the Western Church the vigil of Pentecost became second only to the Easter Vigil in importance. Eventually in the West, Pentecost became a Sunday set aside for baptisms. Pentecost was not kept with an octave (an 8 day celebration) until a later date, although now that practice has been largely abandoned. For the most part, Pentecost is now in Western churches celebrated for only a Sunday. Traditionally, the Sundays between Pentecost and Advent have been designated "Sundays After Pentecost." However, this has been dropped in the West, although it continues in the East. The date of Pentecost is determined based on the date of Easter, and since Western churches calculate Easter differently than Orthodox Christians, usually Western and Eastern Christians celebrate Pentecost on different dates. Using the Western Easter calculation, the earliest possible date for Pentecost is May 10, and the latest possible date is June 13.

From ChurchYear.net

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This post is from the Holy Comforter Catholic Church eNewsletter which is sent out once a week via email. If you would like to subscribe to the eNewsletter, click here.

Sunday's Readings: Acts 2:1-11 Psalm 104:1,24,29-31,34 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 John 20:19-23

Here are several commentaries on these readings:

• St. Charles Borromeo Lectionary Site (PDF)


• A Mighty Wind (Also available to be heard as an MP3) from St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology


• The Feast of Pentecost: The Gifts and Charisms of The Holy Spirit (en español La diferencia que hace el Espíritu - Pentecostés) from The Crossroads Initiative


• The Humble, Yet Powerful Beginning of a New Age from Salt+Light Television


• "Word to Life" -May 21, 2010 from The Dominican Province of St. Joseph

Sunday's Readings: Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9 Ephesians 1:17-23 Luke 24:46-53

Here are several commentaries on these readings:

• St. Charles Borromeo Lectionary Site (PDF)


• Ascension - What's in it for Me? (en español Qué Saco Yo) from The Crossroads Initiative


• In Jesus, the Future Has Already Begun! from Salt+Light Television

Catholic First is dedicated to providing orthodox Catholic information, prayers, news, and extensive reading material for the word hungry. Though this site's design is a bit busy, it is filled with good resources. Here you can find an excellent source for a large number of the Church's documents, classic writings of the Saints and the Fathers, and prayers.

From Catholic Culture.

The Ascension of the Lord

Thursday in the Sixth Week of Easter, which is 40 days after Easter, is the traditional day for the celebration of the Ascension of the Lord. Many dioceses in the United States, including our Diocese of Richmond, transfer the celebration of the Ascension to the following Sunday--May 16th this year.

Forty Days after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Acts of the Apostles records Jesus' ascension into heaven. The ascension is an important Christian feast attesting and celebrating the reality of the God-Man Jesus Christ's returning to the Father, to return again in the future parousia. The Ascension is the final component of the paschal mystery, which consists also of Jesus' Passion, Crucifixion, Death, Burial, Descent Among the Dead, and Resurrection. Along with the resurrection, the ascension functioned as a proof of Jesus' claim that he was the Messiah. The Ascension is also the event whereby humanity was taken into heaven. Finally, the ascension was also the "final blow" so-to-speak against Satan's power, and thus the lion (Jesus) conquering the dragon (Satan) is a symbol of the ascension. Early Christian art and iconography portrayed the ascension frequently, showing its importance to the early Church.

The Catholic Catechism summarizes three important theological aspects (with which most Christian churches agree) of the Ascension concisely:

Christ's Ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus' humanity into God's heavenly domain, whence he will come again (cf. Acts 1:11); this humanity in the meantime hides him from the eyes of men (cf. Col 3:3).

Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father's glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with him for ever.

Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for all, intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who assures us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit (665-667).

Evidence from John Chrysostom, Egeria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Church historian Socrates, suggest that Ascension Day probably originated in the 4th century AD. However, Augustine says the festival is apostolic. Often the feast was celebrated with a procession, symbolizing Christ's journey to the Mount of Olives. Until rather recently, the Paschal Candle (lighted at the Easter Vigil) was extinguished on Ascension Day. It is often celebrated as an octave, the proper preface and Ascension collect being used until the Saturday before Pentecost. In many Catholic dioceses, the Ascension is celebrated on the 7th Sunday of Easter, which is the Sunday following the traditional date. Likely, this is done to make it easier for the faithful to fulfill their obligation to attend Mass on this day, but it removes the connection with the biblical chronology.

From ChurchYear.net

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"Him Only Shall You Serve": The Social Duty of Religion and the Right to Religious Freedom

The Catechism makes clear that the virtue of religion enables us to serve the Lord and Him only through acts that demonstrate and strengthen the virtue of religion. In this excerpt, our social duty and the right to religious freedom are discussed.

2104   "All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it."26 This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human person."27 It does not contradict a "sincere respect" for different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men,"28 nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith."

2105   The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ." By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works toward enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they] live." The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies.

2106   "Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limits." This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it "continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it."

2107   "If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional organization of a state, the right of all citizens and religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well."

2108   The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error, but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, i.e., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the juridical order of society in such a way that it constitutes a civil right.

2109   The right to religious liberty can of itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a "public order" conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner. The "due limits" which are inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with "legal principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order."

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Devotion to Our Lady, Part 2: Litany of Loreto

The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Litany of the Blessed Virgin–also called the Litany of Loreto–is one of the many Marian litanies, or praises of Mary, composed during the Middle Ages. The place of honor it now holds, in the life of the Church, is due its faithful use at the shrine of the Holy House at Loreto, which, according to tradition, was the small cottage-like home where the Holy Family had lived and which was miraculously transported by angels, in 1291, from the Holy Land to its present location in Loreto. It was definitely recommended by Pope Clement VII and approved by Sixtus V in 1587, and all other Marian litanies were suppressed, at least for public use.

Its forty-nine titles (fifty, or fifty-one, or even more, in some versions: with "Mother of the Church" and "Mother of Mercy" and being the 'official' 'newcomers' in recent times and which are included on the Vatican website version) and invocations set before us Mary's exalted privileges, her holiness of life, her amiability and power, her motherly spirit and queenly majesty. Reflection on the titles of the litany, therefore, will unfold before us a magnificent picture of our heavenly Mother, even though we know little about her life.

In form, the Litany of Loreto is composed on a fixed plan common to several Marian litanies already in existence during the second half of the fifteenth century, which in turn are connected with a notable series of Marian litanies that began to appear in the twelfth century and became numerous in the thirteenth and fourteenth. The Loreto text had, however, the good fortune to be adopted in the famous shrine, and in this way to become known, more than any other, to the many pilgrims who flocked there during the sixteenth century. The text was brought home to the various countries of Christendom, and finally it received for all time the supreme ecclesiastical sanction.

Sixtus V, who had entertained a singular devotion for Loreto, by the Bull "Reddituri" of 11 July, 1587, gave formal approval to it, as to the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and recommended preachers everywhere to propagate its use among the faithful.

Courtesy of Catholic Culture

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Sunday's Readings: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8 Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29

Here are a couple of commentaries on these readings:

• St. Charles Borromeo Lectionary Site (PDF)


• Counsel of Jerusalem (Also available to be heard as an MP3) from St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology


• Divine Providence and Murphy's Law -- the Role of Trials (en español La Divina Providencia y la Ley de Murphy) from The Crossroads Initiative


• Council of Jerusalem, the Advocate, and Pastoral Strategy from Salt+Light Television

The Sacred Heart Nightly Devotion website exists to fulfill the request of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary as promoted in the writings of the world famous Apostle of the Sacred Heart, Fr Mateo Crawley-Boevey SS.CC.

The Sacred Heart Nightly Devotion is a means of making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well as a channel to win graces and blessings for our families and for society in these perilous times, when the family and Christian values are under attack more than ever.

Night adoration consists of family members giving up one hour a month in between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., to make a Holy Hour of Reparation within the home.

This website is available in Spanish and will soon be translated into French as well.

From Catholic Culture.

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The Swiss Guards and the Sack of Rome

The official birth date of the Pontifical Swiss Guard is January 6, 1506. One of the most well known times upon which the Swiss Guard have been called upon to defend the Holy Father was during the sack of Rome in 1527.

On the morning of May 6th, 1527, from his headquarters set up in St. Onofrio's Convent on the Gianicolo hill, Captain General Bourbon launched a series of attacks on Rome. During one of them, at the Torrione Gate, while leading the assault of the walls, he himself was mortally wounded. After just a moment's hesitation, the Spanish mercenaries broke through the Torrione Gate, while the lansquenets invaded the road of Borgo Santo Spirito and St. Peter's. The Swiss Guard, standing firm at the foot of the obelisk (now in St. Peter's Square, but then near the German cemetery within the Vatican close to the Basilica), together with the few remnants of the Roman troops, resisted desperately. Their Captain, Kaspar Röist was wounded, and later killed by the Spaniards in his quarters in front of his wife, Elizabeth Klingler. Of the 189 Swiss Guards, only 42 survived, the ones who, when all was lost, under the command of Hercules Göldli guarded Clement VII’s retreat to safety in Castel Sant’Angelo. The rest fell gloriously, massacred together with two hundred fugitives, on the steps of the High Altar in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Clement VII and his men were able to escape to safety, thanks to the "Passetto", a secret corridor which Pope Alexander VI had built along the top of the wall connect­ing the Vatican with Castel Sant’Angelo. The savage horde was in a hurry, for fear that the League troops would cut off their retreat. Across the Sisto bridge the lansquenets and Spaniards fell on the city and for eight days committed every sort of violence, theft, sacrilege and massacre, even the tombs of the Popes, including that of Julius II, were violated in search of spoils. There were as many as 12 thousand dead and the booty amounted to ten million ducats. All that happened cannot really be regarded with surprise because the imperial army and in particular Frundsberg's lansquenets, were animated by a violent spirit of crusade against the Pope. In front of Castel Sant’Angelo where the Pope had retreated, a parody of a religious procession was set up, in which Clement was asked to cede the sails and oars of the "Navicella" (boat of Peter) to Luther, and the angry soldiery shouted "Vivat Lutherus pontifex!" (Long live Luther, Pontiff!) The name of Luther was incised with the tip of a sword across the painting of the "Dispute of the Most Holy Sacrament" in the Rooms of Raffaello, out of disdain, while on another wall a graffito hailed Charles V, emperor. Concise and exact was the description given by the Prior of the Canons of St. Augustine at that time: "Mali fuere Germani, pejores Itali, Hispani vero pessimi." (The Germans were bad, the Italians were worse, the Spaniards were the worst.) Besides the irreplaceable damage of the destruction of the relics, during the Sack of Rome, inestimable art treasures, namely the greater part of the Church's finest artisan-made gold and silver ware, were lost forever. On June 5th, Clement had to surrender and to accept heavy conditions: he had to cede the fortresses of Ostia, Civitavecchia, and Civita Castellana, to hand over the cities of Modena, Parma and Piacenza, and to pay the sum of four thousand ducats. Moreover, a ransom for the freedom of prisoners was demanded. The papal garrison was replaced by four companies of Germans and Spaniards, and two hundred lansquenets took the place of the Swiss Guard which had been suppressed. The Pope obtained permission for the surviving Swiss Guards to join the new Guard, but only 12 of them accepted, among them Hans Gutenberg of Chur and Albert Rosin of Zurich. The others wished to have nothing to do with the hated lansquenets.

From the Vatican

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"Him Only Shall You Serve": Promises and Vows

The Catechism makes clear that the virtue of religion enables us to serve the Lord and Him only through acts that demonstrate and strengthen the virtue of religion. In this excerpt, promises and vows to God are discussed.

2101   In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also promise to God this action, that prayer, this almsgiving, that pilgrimage, and so forth. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a faithful God.

2102   "A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better good which must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion," A vow is an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or promises him some good work. By fulfilling his vows he renders to God what has been promised and consecrated to Him. The Acts of the Apostles shows us St. Paul concerned to fulfill the vows he had made.

2103   The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels:

Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to the obedient Christ.

   The Church can, in certain cases and for proportionate reasons, dispense from vows and promises.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Devotion to Our Lady, Part 1

The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Church and therefore the example, as well as the guide and inspiration, of everyone who, in and through the Church, seeks to be the servant of God and man and the obedient agent of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, as Pope Leo XIII reminded us, is the soul of the Church: All the activity and service of the members of the Church, beginning with the supreme participation of the Blessed Mother in the work of the Church, is vivified by the Holy Spirit as the body, in all its activities, is vivified by its soul. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, Advocate, and Comforter which Christ Himself sent to be our consolation in the sorrowful mysteries of life, our source of moderation in the joyful mysteries of life, our added principle of exaltation in the glorious mysteries of life.

So He was for the Blessed Mother; so also He is for the least of us; so also He is for the rest of the Church, even for those who are its unconscious but conscientious members.

Wherever there is faith there is the example of Mary, because she lived by faith as the Scriptures remind us....

If, then, piety is the virtue which binds us to the sources of all life, to God, to our parents, to the Church, to Christ, certainly Christian piety binds us, in grateful love, to Mary — or our acceptance of Christ and of the mystery of our kinship with Him is imperfect, partial, and unfulfilled.

— Cardinal John Wright

Courtesy of Catholic Culture

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Sunday's Readings: Acts 14:21-27 Psalm 145:8-13 Revelation 21:1-5 John 13:31-35

Here are a couple of commentaries on these readings:

• St. Charles Borromeo Lectionary Site (PDF)


• New for All Ages (Also available to be heard as an MP3) from St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology


• Divine Providence and Murphy's Law -- the Role of Trials (en español La Divina Providencia y la Ley de Murphy) from The Crossroads Initiative


• The New Jerusalem, Coming Down Out of Heaven From God from Salt+Light Television

Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. - Luke 22:46

The Holy Father's prayer intentions for May are:

General:   That the shameful and monstrous commerce in human beings, which sadly involves millions of women and children, may be ended.

Mission:   That ordained ministers, religious women and men, and lay people involved in apostolic work may understand how to infuse missionary enthusiasm into the communities entrusted to their care.


Pro-Life Prayer Intention

That Mary, Mother of Life, give all mothers courage in their pregnancies.