Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1945 / Verhovay Journal
VOL. XXVIII. NO. 9. MAY 9, 1945 31 MOTHERLY LOVE... This coming Sunday we are honoring our Mothers. We will dedicate a day to pay tribute, to them for all that they have done for us. Our lifestarted in our Mother. With anguish and pain she brought us to life. With anxiety and constant vigilance, she kept us alive. After God, she is the one whom we should thank for our lives. * Hi Hi However, it isn’t right to generalize on any one theme, nor is it right to generalize on the love Mothers have for their children. We have seen women who did not want children and were unhappy to have them. We have seen women running around having a good time while their children were left to themselves in neglect. And we are not only talking about physical negliance. A Mother may provide food and clothes and everything else in the physical line for her children and still be far away from what a Mother can be to her children. We believe that there are relatively few Mothers who neglect their children physically and that there are many more who are guilty of emotional negligence. They love their children but they don’t understand them. They care for their children but they don’t share their cares. They love their children but they don’t gain their love. Theirchildren grow up well-fed and well-clad and yet they are the most lonesome people in the ivorld. They have Mothers who feel motherhood is a duty, an obligation and not a happy privilege. They have Mothers who don’t want their children to have a life of their own; they want their children to live their Mother’s life and for this reason, while playing tribute to the ideals of Motherhood, we would like to write a few words about the real meaning of what it is to be a Mother. * * # To be a Mother is to share in God’s creative work. It is a great joy to see tha fruit of love come to life. At the same time, it is a sensing of respect for the new life that has come to the world. It is also a sensing of deep respect towards a miracle that, even though it has happened ever since mankind came to live on earth, never ceased to be a miracle. To be a Mother gives a new sense, a new meaning and a new purpose to life. From tha hour of her child’s birth, the Mother ceases to live for herself and she begins to live for someone else. , Then as the child grows, the true Mother will care not only for the physical welfare for her child but she will search for its soul. It is a mistake Mothers generally make that they make every effort that the child should understand their soul instead of them trying to understand that little soul. How can a little child, who has had no experience, understand the Mother who has gone a long way through life? Why reverse the general process? Why expect the one with no experience to understand the one with lots of experience? If Mothers would try to understand their children so, instead demanding blind obedience from their children, there would be many more happy families than there are now. * * >i= To these Mothers we pay tribute Today. We honor them for the care they have given to their children and for the love with which they understand them. We honor them for loving imperfect children. We pay tribute to them for understanding what, without their love, would be beyond their understanding. For it is easy to love one who conforms in every respect to our own tastes and standards. The greater thing is to love one who is off our own way of thinking. That is where the greatness of motherly love is really shown: when they love their children even if everyone blames them and when they sympathize with them when no one understands them. True love is stronger than objections and greater than conventions and only when a Mother has that type of love will her child bless her until his dying day. , * * HON. GREGG L NEEL, INSURANCE COMMISSIONER OF PENNA. VISITS HOME OFFICE It was a most unusual experience for the Supreme Officers of our Association to welcome the Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania at the Home Office of the organization. Never before in the history of fraternal life insurance has it happened that an Insurance Commissioner of the State would have honored a fraternal organization by his personal visit. But Pennsylvania's present Insurance Commissioner is a most unusual man. He left the path his predecessors followed consistently for more than a century. He welcomed Oscar A. Koltler, the former Most Excellent Recorder of the Artisans Order of Mutual Protection, a fraternal Association, as the Assistant Insurance Commissioner of the state, upon his appointment by Governor Martin. Then already he had shown that he respected fraternal -organizations more than any of his predecessors and -that he saw that the fraternal organizations have an important place in the world of insurance business which they gain by their social and humanitarian activities which distinguish fraternal organizations from the insurance companies. And if a Mother does not have this kind of love, she will experience the bitterness of being left by her children as soon as they can stand on their own feet. For that is what children yearn for: understanding, forgiveness and a kindly overlooking of their faults. Hi Hi ❖ Yes, every Mother deserves our honorr gratitude and love. But since there is no perfection in human beings, there is always room for improvement. And the misery and sadness of millions of Mothers who are disappointed by their children’s attitude could be re leived if Mothers would not expect their children to rise to their Mother’s level but would descend to their children’s level. Life is brief and happiness more brief. In these last years, thousands of Mothers experienced the undescribable agony of losing their sons on the field of battle yet many: of them were nearly as unhappy when their sons were with them because of their lack of respect, obedience, kindness and gentleness. Even if parents lose their children there is great comfort in the memory of having been happy with their children while they were with them. Perhaps we are a bit out of tune with the mood of this day. If we are so, it is because experience had taught us that a Mother’s happiness in her children depends more on her than on her children or how they turned oiit to be. We would like to see all Mothexs happy but flowers presented to them on Mother’s Day won’t make them happy beyond a passing moment of sentimentality. A Mother’s happiness depends on whether or not she is in full harmony with her children. And the secret of this harmony lies in the heart of the Mother, not in her children. Blessed and honored is the Mother who has stich great love for her children that she found these truths led by gratitude for her child and the love to her child who, whether it lived for two or twenty years, made her life richer for as long as it lasted. • Now Insurance Commissioner Gregg L. Neel went one step further. In the past, the Insurance Commissioners of Pennsylvania were in contact with the fraternal organizations only by correspondence and strictly within the requirements of insurance laws. Hon. Gregg L. Neel feels differently about that, too. He stated to the Supreme Officers of our Association on the occasion of his visit that he would like to establish a personal conlact with the leaders of fraternal organizations which can consider him their sincere friend. The purpose of his visit was to get acquainted with the Supreme Officers of the Association. He was accompanied by Oscar A. Kottler. Assistant Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania. Due to the exceptional nature of his call and to the winning personality of the Insurance Commissioner, the Supreme Officers of our organization were very happily surprised when the two distinguished gentlemen called on them a few days ago. They had an (informal talk during which Insurance Commissioner Gregg L. Neel emphasized his belief in the importance of fraternal organizations and in the importance of knowing their leaders personally, and then the visitors were shown around the Home Office. Several Verhovay portraits were ready to be sent away for presentation and when shown to the Hon. Gregg L. Neel, he expressed his sincere admiration of the spirit which led the Directors to have the I (Continued on Page 2)
