{"id":44117,"date":"2015-04-08T09:06:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T13:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=44117"},"modified":"2015-04-08T09:06:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T13:06:20","slug":"children-are-never-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2015\/04\/children-are-never-a-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Children are never a mistake&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p style=\"color: #343434;\"><span style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Dear Brothers and Sisters: Today we continue our reflection on children, the greatest blessing which God has bestowed on man and woman. I wish to focus our attention on the suffering which many children are experiencing. From the first moments of their lives, some are rejected, abandoned, and robbed of their infancy and future. There are those who say it is a mistake to bring these children into the world, due to their fragility, and the hunger and poverty they suffer. But children are never a mistake, and their sufferings are only reasons for us to love them even more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #343434;\"><span style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Every child who begs on the streets, who is denied an education or medical care, is a cry to God. Too often, these children become prey to criminals, who exploit them for commerce or violence. Even in wealthy countries, they suffer due to family crises and living conditions which are at times inhumane. In every case, their childhood is violated in body and soul.\u00a0 How did Jesus respond to the children and their parents who brought them to him: \u201cLet the children come to me\u2026 for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven\u201d (<\/span><em style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Mt<\/em><span style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">\u00a019:14). How beautiful the trust of these parents, and the response of Jesus!\u00a0 And there are many extraordinary parents who daily make sacrifices for their children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #343434;\"><span style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">The Church offers her maternal care to all children and their families, and she brings them the blessing of Jesus. May we always care for our children, not counting the cost, so that they may never believe themselves to be mistakes, but always know their infinite worth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #343434; text-align: right;\">\u2014 <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.va\/en\/news\/pope-francis-at-audience-children-are-greatest-ble\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pope Francis, General Audience, 4\/8\/15<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Brothers and Sisters: Today we continue our reflection on children, the greatest blessing which God has bestowed on man and woman. I wish to focus our attention on the suffering which many children are experiencing. From the first moments of their lives, some are rejected, abandoned, and robbed of their infancy and future. There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":42153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pope"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Children are never a mistake&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dear Brothers and Sisters: Today we continue our reflection on children, the greatest blessing which God has bestowed on man and woman. 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