Parish Bulletin | November 7-8 2020: 32nd Sunday | 75th Anniversary Year
Why Sts. Louis and Zelie are role models for today’s parents (Part 2)
Leonie was the cause of much worry and anxiety.
The Martins were not a perfect family, free of problems.
Louis and Zelie were not perfect parents. They each had their favorite daughter, and Zelie’s spicy letter, in which she confides to Pauline, still a teenager, how to “manipulate” her father, will make more than a few mothers see they are not alone in making mistakes! Like all parents they, too, had their share of inappropriate attitudes and hurtful words. But being a saint does not mean you are perfect, and for years they were faced with their shortcomings as parents with their daughter Leonie.
Ever since she was born, Leonie suffered from poor health, and was more intellectually limited than the other girls; she isolated herself and became a very difficult child. The housekeeper, Louise Marais, began mistreating her while Louis and Zelie were completely unaware, which explains why Leonie would flinch away when anyone came near. Zelie says it is one of the greatest sufferings of her life. Louis and Zelie responded with a two-sided trust. First of all trust in their child, whom they refused to label the “ugly duckling.” Every time Zelie mentions something that Leonie has done wrong (and her letters are full of examples!), she always adds: “but I know she is good, I believe she has a good heart.” And above all, trust in God, whom Louis and Zelie continually beseech with prayer for their child. And look at the result: the cause for Leonie’s beatification—quite moving itself because of all the difficulties in the process—began in 2015.
To what extent can this way of educating be an example for other parents to follow?
In practice, there is no “magic recipe” for educating your children. It is striking to see how Louis and Zelie give a different education to each of their daughters, according to their personality. For Pauline, who has a very assertive character, Zelie says that she never let her get away with anything, even if it hurt her heart to do so. For Therese, on the other hand, a very sensitive child who cried for the littlest things and then cried for having cried (!), Louis is nothing but gentleness and encouragement. One could multiply the examples: it is touching to see in the letters how Zelie carefully studied the character of each of her daughters to see what would suit each one best. There is no ready-made or perfect education, but what we can take from the Martins is their desire: to walk together, with our loved ones, with God—whom Louis and Zelie considered a member of their family—on the road to holiness. Holiness that they lived in their existence here on Earth as parents.
Interview by Antoine Pasquier Edifa - published on 19/10/20
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To see Father Peter Kerin and his perform-ing sheep dogs: www.youtube.com/watch v=UiJ9PSU3sXM
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“The Church is the one thing that saves a man from the degrading servitude of being a child of his own time.” - Chesterton
"He who wants to live as a good Catholic must be on his guard against those who speak against religion and its ministers, especially the Pope who is the father of all Catholics. Let it be said quite clearly: only a bad son speaks poorly of the Pope."
Don Bosco MB 3 607
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