As we contemplate the challenges that come with nursing a child, I just found this link to an awesome article by Christopher West about nursing. He is such a blessing to the Catholic church...I just thought I would share. :)
I also have some awesome experiences to share regarding the Steubenville youth conference. Since we are off to Steuby again tomorrow for 5 days, I will have to save those for another post when I return. Prayers for all our friends and family!!
4 comments:
I can't stand CW. But I do love nursing, and enjoy the challenge of whipping it out DISCREETLY in public. As you know, I do NOTHING discreetly, but this, I somehow manage to do well, because the kid has got to eat. And sometimes he just wants nummies for comfort. I still have small boobs, so it's easy.
love elisa
Beautiful article!!!! Thanks for sharing.
Becky
Hi E!
In light of your post, this is a neat bit of info: Perhaps the first time a Catholic Mass was held on what would become part of the future United States, was on the shore of what is now Florida, where the city of St. Augustine is now located, in 1565. It was the first Catholic mission to Native Americans--considerably earlier than the California missions.
A Mass was celebrated on the shore, and a small shrine to Our Lady was soon erected by the Spanish missionaries. Guess what it was called? "Our Lady of la leche" (Our Lady of the milk)!
Here is a link:
http://www.missionandshrine.org/la_leche.htm
This shrine is the first shrine dedicated to Our Blessed Mother in the United States. The name of the shrine comes from a small statue of Mary nursing the baby Jesus. The statue had been brought from Europe by the Spanish and was erected in the shrine. This link is the home page of the shrine: http://www.missionandshrine.org/index.htm
I think it's pretty amazing that the first presence of Christianity on the future soil of the United States was Catholic. And that a shrine to Mary was dedicated at the location near where the Mass was celebrated in 1565!
So, an image of Mary breast feeding baby Jesus seems to be the very first image of Mary to make its home upon the land of the future United States. Isn't that cool? Andrew and I visited this shrine (you can buy holy cards and little statues of the image from the shrine gift shop) when we were there together to attend a conference for PFL. We both enjoyed learning about the historic place of St. Augustine in American Catholic history. I was tickled pink to discover that such an earthy and wonderfully Catholic image of Mary had reached our fair shores so early!
You and Paul and your baby are in my prayers.
Hi Paul & Elisabeth!
This topic is close to my heart,
especially after attending the 50th anniversary La Leche League Intl. conference in Chicago last weekend. There were 2200 registrants and 1000 children
(lots and lots of babies in slings)
from 48 countries around the world!
The message repeated throughout the
4 days: breast is best for baby; babies are born to be breastfeed; breastfeeding is good for mom and empowering.
I picked something up for you, and will either mail or pass it on
to Becky and Steve when they visit
in August.
I don't know where I'd be without
La Leche League--and am still motivated to do more. Maybe now
in the area of advocacy.
And our name (La Leche) comes from
the very same image of Mary feeding
Jesus in the church in St. Augustine. In Spanish, it is called "Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk". One of the founding mothers (Mary White) was
married to a doctor, who had this
statue in his office. He was
pro-natural childbirth and a strong
advocate of breastfeeding.
In the late 50's, it was an acceptable way to identify our fledgling group!
We continue to pray for you.
God bless,
"Aunt" Barbara
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