Hilarem familiam diligit Deus

Sometimes you just have to sit down and laugh. There's nothing so absolutely, insanely wonderful as a good Catholic family life. We received a belated Christmas newsletter (now re-edited as a Valentine's Day newsletter) from one of my sons. I was reading the letter aloud and had to stop, because my eyes had become so blurred from tears of laughter that I could not go on. Here are some bits of what I was reading about his own family of six sons, all named after one of the Church fathers (Ambrose, Augustine, Cyprian, Basil, Cyril, Clement):

• "... And Cyprian goes to art class -- alone, since both Augustine and Ambrose have been withdrawn after decorating nearly every piece of art they produced, over a space of two years, with depictions of a zombie apocalypse."
  
  
• "... Augustine (10) and Ambrose (8) are in the 5th and 3rd grade, respectively, and taking on a rapidly expanding curriculum under the ever-vigilant and never-blinking Eye of Sauron (i.e., their mother)."
  
  
• "... Unfortunately, the six kids we have render us ineligible to resume foster care in the future (for utterly unintelligible reasons, the State of Kansas considers six children a large family!?) ..."
  
  
• "... [Basil] also, quite earnestly, asked the other day if he could have his own socks, which no one else could share. No, Basil: you have to get them out of the 'sock bucket' like everyone else."

Why anyone would not want to have kids -- lots of them -- I find incomprehensible.