"What about Cyprian!?" My husband excitedly exclaimed. "Cornelius, Chrysostom, or even Cyril?"
I leaned against the doorway to our kitchen. I leaned hard. My hand released its grip on eight pregnancy tests, all positive, and they clanged to the floor.
This baby was not in our plans. This little soul defied every chart, the past three and a half years of careful following Catholic teaching on being open to life but practicing Natural Family Planning. I had health issues, terrible pregnancies, and the last two post-partums had taken over a year each to recover from. Four kids in, and I was pretty sure we were not called to more kids.
So as I listened to my husband's litany of names including the Saints whose feasts we memorialize today, I wept.
"[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7).
He would be the one to bear everything with the kids while I spent most of the next nine months throwing up. He would believe in me when I didn't think I could go through another night of nausea and dehydration. He would hope that the baby makes it into our arms. He would be the one to endure long days in the office and long nights at home. And yet, he was ready to partake in God's gift of love for our family.
The funny thing about love is that since God IS love, when we stay close to Him in prayer and through the Sacraments as I've witnessed my husband do, we have more of it to share. I'm working on it, bit by bit, as maybe you are, too.
If you don't have someone in your life who shows you what love looks like in action, maybe God's calling you to be that person for those around you.
We can love through giving, offering up, sharing in joy, listening, and being ready to show God's love through a coffee venmo, a text, a shared prayer, or social media shout-out.
He loves you and wants you to share His life-changing love with everyone in your life. Let's start today.
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Nell O’Leary is the Managing Editor for Blessed is She, an attorney turned writer, speaker, and editor while tending to her husband and five kiddos. She also facilitates our community groups as she loves helping women find sisterhood. Her undergrad is in English from University of Minnesota and her J.D. from Ave Maria School of Law. Notably, she can down a hot cocoa in two seconds. Find out more about her here.
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