You know the way for me
You know the time
Into your hands
I trustingly place mine 
Your plan is perfect 
Born of perfect love
You know the way for me
 That is enough 

Reflections written by Schoenstatt members 
         
 
            7 years ago, I learned a truth about myself and I struggled with it frequently the years following it. The truth was that for no particular reason at all, my body had betrayed me, and having another child would have to be one of a miraculous nature. After learning that truth, I grieved, I bargained, I hoped, I denied, I fell into despair, I hated, I resented the empty captain’s chair I would see in the rearview mirror, I filled the void with “things”, I prayed for other impossible cases of infertility or high risk pregnancies, and I dreaded supper with my family. I would make the food and sit with a smile on my face as that one chair would sit there and stare at me in its silent emptiness. I so desperately wanted an answer as to why, so I could stop believing the lie that I deserved the punishment rendered by a God who I questioned might hate me as much as I did myself. In honor of this respect life month, and parents, grandparents, and extended family everywhere who are grieving the loss of a child, born or unborn, by natural death or abortion, and those grieving the dream of a child, I would like to share what I was given. After 5 years of struggling, I was given an answer or maybe a consolation to ease the ache so I could release it to our Father. I was sitting in mass one morning and it came flooding through my head as if God Himself was speaking it. I pray our Mother will use it as a comfort to you and give you hope in the Father’s plan for your life on this anniversary of the Founding Document. No matter what, God has a purpose for the events in your life and HE LOVES YOU…let that be YOUR Founding Document.
 
The Empty Chair
It sits alone
Around the table there,
You and your family
And the empty chair.
 
Calling to mind
Sufferings that passed,
Where you pleaded and begged
For it not to last.
 
Reminding your heart
Of a missing child,
Whose love and innocence
Are not free to grow wild.
 
Allowing your mind
To race and stir,
Of memories not made
In the life you would prefer.
 
In one dark moment
A light, it did rekindle,
And a prayer crossed your lips,
My Spirit refusing to dwindle.
 
I heard you as you cried,
“Lord let it not be in vain.
Let the empty chair inside of me
Bring joy within my pain.”
 
And ever so slowly,
You began answering My call.
With every trip and stumbling block,
A prayer would catch your fall.
 
So, to thank you for your obedience
And to show you My love even more,
I give you an answered prayer
For opening My knock at your door.
 
Your prayers will never fall on deaf ears
And your suffering is never in vain, you see,
For the emptiness that you once perceived to be there,
It no longer exists for the chair is filled by Me.
 
 
“I firmly believe that no one will be lost who remains faithful to the covenant of love.”
                                                                               ~ Heavenwards
        
                                                                                          Submitted by an anonymous Schoenstatt  member