A PATRIOT OF PAST GLORY:

A SOLDIER'S PRAYER 

 DIARY OF A FETUS

October 5: Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet. I am as small as the pollen of a flower, but it is I already. I will be a girl. I will have blonde hair and blue eyes. Nearly everything is settled already, even that I shall love flowers.

 

October 19: I have grown a little, but I am still to small to do anything myself. My mother does almost everything for me, though she still does not know she is carrying me under her heart. But, is it true that I am not yet a real person? That only my mother exists? I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is still bread. My mother is, and I am.

 

October 23: My mouth is just now beginning to open. Just think—in a year or so Iʼll be laughing; and later Iʼll start to talk. My first word will be “Mama.”

 

October 25: Today my hear began to beat. It will beat softly for the rest of my life, never stopping; after many years it will tire, it will stop, and then I shall die.

 

November 2: I am growing continually. My arms and legs are taking shape but I must wait a long time before these tiny legs will raise me to my motherʼs arms; before these little arms will be able to conquer the earth and befriend people.

 

November 12: Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hands. How small they are; one day I will stroke my motherʼs hair to my mouth and sheʼll say, “Oh, dirty.”

 

November 20: Only today the doctor told my mother that I am living here under her heart. How happy she must be Are you happy, Mother?

 

November 25: My mother and father are probably thinking about a name for me; and they donʼt even know that I am a little girl, so they are probably calling me “Andy.” But I want to be called Barbara. I am growing so big.

December 10: My hair is growing. It is as bright and shiny as the sun. I wonder what kind of hair my mother has?

 

December 13: I am almost able to see, though it is night around me. When mother brings me into the world, it will be full of sunshine and overflowing with flowers. I have never seen a flower you know, but more than anything I want to see my mother. How do you look, Mother?

 

December 18: My mother seems unhappy. She paid another visit to the Doctor. I hope you are well, Mother.

 

December 24: I wonder if my mother hears the delicate beat of my heart? Some children are born with sickly hearts, and then the gentle fingers of the doctor perform miracles to make them healthy. But my heart is healthy. It beats so evenly: Tup-tup, tup-tup. You shall have a healthy daughter, Mother. 

 

December 28: Today, my mother killed me.

 THE FAMILY ALTAR

September 14.

"Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor untc

him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed

mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

Luke 10:36-37

In answer to a certain lawyer's question : "Who is my neigh-

bor?" our Lord tells the story of the Good Samaritan. But note

how He changes the question of the self-righteous scribe! The

scribe had asked: "Who is my neighbor?" The Lord in reply

asks: To whom are you a neighbor? meaning to say: "If there

is true love in your heart, according to God's holy Law, you will

not debate long with yourself, when you find a fellow-man in want

or danger, whether you are to help him or not, but you will assist

him at once ; for it is just this needy fellow-being whom God now

shows you as your neighbor." So the Good Samaritan acted. He

did not, like the priest and the Levite, in cold indifference pass by

the wounded man lying helpless by the wayside, but helped him

at once in self-sacrificing, tireless, sympathetic love. If this scribe

ever followed the pattern of true love for the neighbor which the

Lord held up to him in the example of the Good Samaritan, he

no doubt soon learned that he did not have this self-sacrificing love

and therefore could not inherit eternal life by his keeping of the

Law. For if he did not even know who his neighbor was, how

could he love his neighbor as himself? And if he did not love his

fellow-men whom he could see, how could he love God whom he

could not see? Through this example of the Good Samaritan this

scribe and we all are to learn, first of all, our utter inability to

save ourselves by our own imperfect deeds of love, and are to be

led to believe in Him who came down from heaven to save in His

self-sacrificing, merciful love our human race, wounded unto death

by sin and the devil. Only when His mercy has filled our hearts

will we learn to be Good Samaritans to our needy fellow-men and

to show mercy even to our enemies.