And Mary said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." ~Luke 1:38
A very touching story from the book God Moments III: True Love Leads To Life (Joseph Karl Publishing: available January 2013). By Father Benjamin Kosnac
In the late 1960's, my parents lived in Bratislava, Slovakia, which at that time was Czechoslovakia and a Communist country. Abortion was promoted by the government and provided as health care for free. My Mom and Dad already had three sons, my brothers who were born two years apart.
After having three babies in a short time span and being devout Catholics, they practiced what was an early form of Natural Family Planning. When they learned that God had blessed them with a fourth child, they welcomed the news with an open heart.
Since they already had three sons, my parents were eager to have a girl this time. They used to make regular pilgrimages to Marianka, near Bratislava. Pregnant with their fourth child, at the next pilgrimage they asked God to give them a daughter. However, God and Our Lady had a different plan. It was a boy. Again. They named him Benjamin.
Tridentine Holy Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord
Celebrated by Fr. Benjamic Kosnac, January 2012
I was that fourth baby, born on November 21, 1969, The Feast Day of the Presentation of Blessed Virgin Mary, and am now a Catholic priest and pastor of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Fr. Ben prior to the next Confession, May 2012.
Within five
years, my parents were blessed with a
fifth child. During the third month of
that pregnancy, my mother visited her doctor for a prenatal checkup. Instead of being given a maternity
information booklet, as was the practice during her first four pregnancies, she
was given an abortion consent form instead.
Bewildered,
Mom asked if she had been given a new maternity booklet.
Her doctor
responded, "Are you seriously thinking about having this baby? You already have four boys."
My mom
replied simply but clearly: "Absolutely YES! There will be no abortion. We don’t believe
in it."
The doctor
shrugged her shoulders and accepted mom's decision.
To the
doctor's credit, she presented flowers to my mother during her next prenatal
checkup to apologize for suggesting the abortion, and to express her admiration
that mom was willing to have more children.
During that
fifth pregnancy, my parents went on the usual pilgrimage. This time, they did not ask God for a
girl. They prayed instead for the well
being of the baby. Guess what was born?
A girl! When their first daughter was born, my parents were so grateful to God
for having granted their request, after they had welcomed the fourth son He had
given them first.
They named
my sister "Maria" in honor of our Blessed Mother.
After Maria
was born, Mr. and Mrs. Kosnac were blessed with their sixth child, another girl
named Veronika. Today, Maria is 38 and
has three sons, Veronica is 35 and has two children, and my parents are the proud
grandparents of 17 grandchildren.
"Thy will be done."
"God, the Creator of Life, is pro-life. Are you?"
~True Love Leads To Life
If you, or anyone you know,
is in need of post-abortion help and healing,
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