This blog contains quotes from Sister Maria Corazon Cruz Gonzales’ Master thesis on “Caring for and educating a child from conception to three years old” (Rome 1994). We met this Filipino nun at a family congress in Rome in 1994 and she sent us her work on conception through the first three years of life.
“Researchers observe that breastfeeding provides enhanced protection against many infectious diseases. It is also this essence of mothering which is the most important means of immunizing the baby against the greatest of emotional hazards….anxiety.”
“Each newborn infant carries within himself life’s greatest promise: a new hope for the world. For each tiny baby has the potential to love and be loved, to value himself yet care for others, to develop his unique abilities and talents and one day become a human being who can help change the world—-for the better!”
“Love prevails as the vehicle in the development of the child’s sense of trust in others and in himself, an essential in the growth process to produce emotionally stable individuals.”
“The power of love is so strong in the early years of a child’s life that it can make sick babies well, as its absence can make well babies sick.”
“Good early Mothering makes a man or woman capable of deep and enduring relationship. Our enjoyment in caressing and being caressed, in holding and being held, in the sensuous delights of our own and each other’s bodies, all have their roots in these earliest love experiences.” (her emphasis)
“Raising children can be considered a genuine apostolate.”
“The Pope considers the family as the ‘first seminary where the faith is nourished and priestly religious and missionary vocations have their origin.’ ”
“It is common knowledge that it is difficult for a young child to grow up physically healthy and emotionally stable when his parents are too preoccupied to parent. Today’s buzz word in mental health is ‘bonding.’ No less than the Holy Father, doctors and psychologists have unequivocally said that it is extremely necessary for parents to bond with their children from the moment of conception. But the truth is: that a child cannot bond with a moving target. He can’t become attached to someone who is not there, or is only occasionally there. Parents who are preoccupied with their jobs, themselves, or their problems are not available to their children.”
“There is nothing on this earth that can match the excitement and joy of creating and nurturing a child from the moment he is conceived to his journey into adulthood. There are moments when parents see their child’s first smile, or first step, or hear him utter his first word, and a lump sticks in their throat, and their hearts expand until they are ready to explode. They do not give Nobel prizes for Parenting, but if it is done right, they should!”
Sheila Kippley
The Crucial First Three Years