Advent Blessings

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Four Sundays and a few more days until Christmas! Advent: an entire season dedicated to honoring the coming of the Christ---and among other things---an entire season to honor and reflect on pregnancy! I have begun to write a new book. Initially, its focus was natural conception, but in reflecting on it, I have realized that the focus will be broader. I will be writing about the gift of fertility at the heart of marriage. It is so easy to be bogged down by the very real sacrifices that children require of us parents and lose the innocent joy we may once have taken at the thought of welcoming a new child. May we be given the grace like Mary to renew once again the wellsprings of joie de vivre that make us "love like fools" and open our hearts once again to the mystery of a new child.