On being a (really) young aunt

For some months now I have known that I am probably one of the youngest great-aunts in history. Jokingly I decided to check the Guinness book of world records but the position of youngest aunt doesn't seem to appear; I didn't spend too much time on it so maybe it does exist. And given that the nature of my family, with its overlapping generations, is found in many parts of the Catholic Church I am unlikely to be the only youngest aunt. It is even possible that being an aunt for the first time at the age of 11 is not that young an age.

Today hopefully my family and I will meet (or at least e-meet since I am in another country) my new niece. As we all wait expectantly next to our phones both here and in Central America it is interesting for me to in a way to watch myself watching this beautiful part of life unfold. 

As Catholics, we know that pregnancy and childbirth are a miracle and amazing, but I sometimes feel this remains an abstraction for most people until you realise what the female body does.  I spent 6 years of my life studying pregnancy and childbirth and each time I thought of the movement of cartilage, bone, muscles, blood vessels, and fluids that make it possible I was blown away with gratitude towards my mother, amazement at all the women throughout the centuries that have made it possible for the human species to exist, and awe at God's marvellous creation. All that could go wrong in a pregnancy (and which sometimes does) usually does not happen. All that could go wrong during childbirth usually does not happen. And the sheer microscopic process in which conception and the different steps in which a baby's body begins to form was for me a constant reminder of how utterly perfect God's creation really is. He spoke and we are. All that is hidden in this paraphrase of Genesis and John's Gospel hides the immense wonder that takes place daily and from the beginning of time in each woman's body. All that does happen from the exchange of cells between mother and child (explained beautifully by Dr. Kristin Collier in this article) to the fact that a human being who once on this side of the womb could not survive submerged in any type of liquid spends 9 months happily growing in amniotic fluid.  Studying this reality,  even as I studied more the 'accidents' of childbirth than the times it went well, was for me a confirmation of faith, a faith in God's marvellous, awe-some, beautiful plan for each one of us.

So I sit here surrounded by my books and papers but in my heart, I am in Spain next to my niece, that baby I met when I was 11, and watch her meet her baby, whom she has protected and fed with her very body these past 9 months and I thank God with all my being for allowing me to witness this. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On marriage: thoughts from a marriage ‘postulant’

 This may not be the easiest post to read for some people I know and may seem infinitely naive for those few I know that are actually knowledgeable and much more practiced on the subject. Edith Stein once gave a talk titled in German Muttererziehungskunst- roughly translatable as motherhood kraft. At the start of it she humourously commented on the irony of a single female academic, who had spent the better part of a decade living in a Dominican convent and college, and a year or two later would become a Carmelite, being asked for talk about motherhood. She of course had ample knowledge about spiritual motherhood, something she also commented on in this talk. There is much that one can learn from observation and talking to others about a certain topic, it isn’t only experience, though obviously experience gives a knowledge about some things that renders a depth that is missing without that experience. In the case of marriage, it is a curious thing, but the church has a clear idea about
Read more

A brief note on going too far

Image
 These past weeks have involved intense discussions, prayer, and thinking on a topic close to the hearts of all of my fellow discussants. Our concern, pain, and confusion is clear. St Catherine of Siena comes up regularly. Watch this space if you are interested in some weeks or a few months you might want to find out more. Independent of them and only briefly publicly saying what I think on one topic specifically, I write this very brief note. The role of women is one of those topics that has become a ‘hot’ topic for Catholics and one can be easily misunderstood if one is too diplomatic. It has happened to me as a theology student in Cambridge and being amongst anglican ordinands I was diplomatic and wholly misunderstood. The way I, a Catholic, think about this topic is radically different from theirs and I wanted to spare their already confused and frayed spirits. BUT being misunderstood on this important topic did no one any favours. As a Church we have some wonderful sources for thi
Read more

Edith Stein and issues with translations

Image
Part of the reason linguistic matters have come to the forefront of my work is the particular way in which they related to my work on Edith Stein’s essay’s on Woman and the comments made by several friends on what they perceived to be her narrow view on women in today’s world. I couldn’t understand it at the time because Stein’s ideas are in line with their own way of thinking. My lack of understanding stemmed from not having read either the English or the Spanish versions of her essays.  This term I am tutoring a student who is analysing an evangelical influencer group that is anti-feminism but defend what can be understood as fractional complementarity. I felt she needed to read Stein to better understand the broader context of Christian Feminism and how the group she is analysing has failed to comprehend certain aspects of metaphysics, unsurprising given their evangelical background and how since Luther this has been a weak point in Protestant theology. My student does not read or s
Read more