Latin of today

April 19, 2012 9:36 am

What an amazing time! People from several dozen states and a dozen or so countries. They came here for a week to learn the language of the body, of fertility. /to learn how to assist married couples in the process of becoming parents. To help them understand the beautiful and difficult gift of fertility, which in their own marriage may take different shapes (from: “it’s enough that he hugs me and I’m pregnant again” to: “Why has God punished us so mercilessly – we’ve been trying to have a child for so many years and all that to no avail”).

The lectures are given by the people who have been assisting the others their whole lives. They’ve been there for the ones deceived by in vitro, or by the comfort of contraception – the ones waiting for years for the miracle of birth.

The only problem is that the whole training is in American English.

When I pass by the course participants, I meet people from Polynesia, France, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada… not to mention the guy from Bronx of the southern, Mexican part of Arizona

We’re talking to one another at the lunch table, not worrying too much about the pronunciation, accent or vocabulary. We’re talking to one another because we’ve got something to talk about. Those people in here are not incidental. They might have not known one another before, but they speak the same language, they live by the same values.

Is English “the Latin of today” –  lingua franca – or is it love and caring, respect for the other person’s dignity?

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…”

But things are tough when you don’t speak English…

Maybe today you could speak to your wife in English – and put all your heart and love love and caring you have for her in it? And if you’re reading this blog in English, because you know neither Polish, nor German, then… maybe try to show it to her. I know you can do it.

Fr. Jay

 

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Categorised in: Fr Jarosław Szymczak