I’ve never “gotten” Flannery O’Connor. Maybe I’m not gifted enough to be tormented, or something.
The Catholic Church makes me happy. I’m not upset, I’m not desperately enduring, suffering agonies ... maybe I’m just dull. I love my family - married forever to Der Prinz, eight children so far. I accept the Church’s teaching on marriage and children without reservation. Not without nightmares (what will Mom say?) but without reservation.
And I’m happy with my parish, old Bostonian Democrat priest and all. I’m happy to be serving in the Hispanic ministry, even if some of the congregants are illegal. I could go on, but you get the point.
Maybe one of the blessings of a large family is that it doesn’t leave you the time and energy to get upset over a lot of the things that other people allow to make them unhappy.
I love that! Funny, but so right on. You remind me of a few other ladies I know, also Catholics in happy, good marriages with large families. These people are a joy to be around, some have handicapped kids, but that doesn’t hardly come into the picture, they are all loving and giving and alive. There is wisdom in what you say about large families.
I’m more like Flannery, ill, alone and almost housebound, too literary and read too much - one must be careful that knowledge or even ‘torment’ does not become a sort of vanity. However, even with such a different perspective, I still feel as you do, that the Church does make me happy.