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There are those who, perhaps the majority of us, are now convinced that the least number of children must, in total terms, rely on purely material reasons such as low labor, inconsistent high and certain incomes, unacceptable tax burden most of all, with equal income, on those who have to share it on a large family, and finally the almost total lack of social support for those who decide to form a family. If we considered the material and social conditions in which children were once brought into the world, doing all sorts of personal sacrifice, we should soon have serious doubts about such reductive statements.

It should also be considered to be a small group of families based on marriage, that is, on a stable bond, assumed as a public-social commitment, and which among the founding elements still has to put children into the world; the consumed separation of the sexual act from reproduction, the increasingly weak individual responsibility in the couple's ties, based on the most mutilative, taken for granted, of human elements: feeling; and the charm that exercises, both singles and couples, a life without institutionalized bonds and without the prospect of children.

To be firmly tied up, to take on the commitment of mutual support that is not only dictated by the passion of passion, the innocence of all attraction, and the generation of children is a decision that involves the whole horizon of a sense of life and, therefore, the existential vision of a couple. In modern Western society, the reason for a life, fulfilling in itself and per se, seems to be pursuable, achievable here and now, regardless of the presence of only one partner and the offspring. The thousand experiences, the many opportunities and opportunities that each one can grasp with a willpower, therefore offer much to replace the final choice of children.

That being said, it is also true that as in these years in the West, such a rhetorical rush to maternity / paternity is found. How to explain this apparent paradox? It is true that spasmodic attention is being paid to children both by parents and society, but it is no less true that children prefer an ever more free life, trying to impersonate a different role each day more stimulating, to the risk of anesthetizing the same senses for too much motion. Rather than completely rejecting the prospect of having children, although this is a statistically increasing option, today's society seeks a compromise, a balance between individual aspirations, aimed at ultimately consuming the rich glass of modern life and maternity / paternity, that is, a look beyond my own ego looking not of objects and sensations that pass, but of another ego that drives us out of the asphyxial world of ourselves. This research is embodied in the "single child model" to be at an advanced age. It is under the eyes of all the kind of son of a mother who often exceeds 35 years of age. How to say that the push to achieve the desires and ambitions that the children and the family have, especially the roaring years of youth, does not necessarily support an entire life. So the most biologically fit age for reproduction is the least exploited, pregnancies become more complicated and infertility / impotence increases when children are desired.

Even love for their children has become so limited, in a society whose children are rarefied, it is often so exclusive that struggling to turn into love for the world of children in general and too often is stained with selfishness. Anxious sentimental and affective attention, focused on that one child to be defended and covered with tools and material opportunities to face the competitive sea of ​​life. Too many are the children who come out of the insecure nest, with no sense of responsibility, rich in knowledge and emotions, at best, but poor in the only vital treasure vital to life, a shiny intellect and a strong will.

On this horizon, one understands the importance of Giuseppe Brienza's last work, "Philosophy of Life in the Servants of God, Licia and Settimio Manelli" [Giuliano Ladolfi Publisher, Borgomanero (Novara) 2017, pp. 70, € 10], an agile and precious booklet that, without pretending to exhaust the subject, wants to indicate a way, that accomplished by Servants of God Licia (1907-2004) and Settimio Manelli (1886-1978), offers a an example of their heroic exercise of human and Christian virtues.

The Manelli Family, belonging to the middle class, saw, in fact, the birth of 21 children, 45 grandchildren and 84 great-grandchildren!

Since the engagement, the Manelli are a sign of integral association, not the experiment of reciprocal use of the lowest instincts and of blind and changing sentimentality, but preparation for a full union between a man and a woman: " A short, intense, chaste, noble, loving and high-to-to-be engagement. A pure and holy engagement, beautiful as the "light of the dawn on the way" [...] that brings the sun of the Sacrament Wedding "(page 17).

A full union, then, prepared wisely and open to the innumerable riches that married and parental life can offer us if faced with joyful sacrifice.

"Every birth strengthened the faith of Dad and Mother by increasing their inner wealth; for no one can imagine the joy they felt when we were surrounded by children who grew healthy, strong and devoted, always with the help of God, the Madonna, and St. Pius by Pietrelcina. For their mission of educators, we can say that since we were little, we were educated: from our father, to God's sense, to trust in Providence [...] from our mother, to the will to make Jesus happy, to aspiration to love and to love him, to pray for the salvation of souls "(pp. 29-30).

In more than fifty years of marriage, they were able to lead the struggle that led to the most beautiful and lasting joys, and they also succeeded in studying until the graduation of almost all the children at school: "So was their life, a continuous struggle and Dad, in the most dramatic moments, said that "as long as there is struggle there is life" and therefore courage and always forward, trusting in the "God of the living and not of the dead" and in the aid of the Immaculate (page 30).

Manelli's spouses not only managed to grow their children as gifts, but also to impart them an integral education to face the adventure of existence. In addition to the life of prayer in common, it is significant as Anna Maria's daughter reported: "Often my mother, while working in the kitchen, listened to Daddy reading her verses from the Divine Comedy or the Greek tragic, like the play of Oedipus and Antioco while she was reading crying because she was moved by the tragedy of the human soul upset by her passions. Or cite thoughts of Epictetus and Pascal, to end always with words and examples of the Gospel, exalting the greatness and power of God "(39).

The life of the Manelli emanates such a force of spiritual and human fertility, transmitted, in particular, to "the son of Stephen who is flooding the land of so many Franciscans who, through the strict observance of St. Francis's teachings, Massimiliano M. Kolbe and Saint Pious want to establish, with the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Kingdom of Christ in the World "(p.15).

 

Un profilo biografico, questo di Brienza, da leggere e meditare per comprendere come, nonostante le difficoltà che non mancano in qualsivoglia vita, un’altra via è possibile, una via d’amore integrale che travalica le generazioni ed accresce l’intera società.


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