Week 6 Questions

Please share your thoughts at the bottom of the page in the Discussion Forum.

Question 1

Dona Lucilia saw her father as an instrument of the Holy Spirit in directing her life. Combined with her own determination that fulfillment of the Will of God was the only way to decide her vocation, she embraced Dr. Antonio’s suggestion about marriage, even abandoning her own natural inclination towards a religious life. She accepted this as the “Will of Divine Providence.”

The footnote on Page 97 reveals some flaws in her understanding of what she then thought religious life would involve.  She herself would have told this, probably as a humorous story, later in life.  How does this show that she was confident that her choice of vocation was the correct one?

 Question 2

What a spiritual deprivation! Not receiving the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist all during her young years must have been a true suffering in the life of one so filled with love for the Sacred Heart and Mary Most Holy. 

It is noted that Dona Lucilia’s piety increased with her marriage. How would the spiritual enrichment of the Sacraments have influenced this new stage in her life.

Question 3

There would have been no dilemma for a woman like Dona Lucilia as to whether or not she wanted her baby killed to guard her own life. This doctor, however, was willing to take the life of her child.

Was there ever a time, then, when women and their unborn children were not at risk?

How must women protect themselves and their unborn children, spiritually and physically, and help other women to do the same?

 Question 4

Young Plinio seemed completely aware of the care and even the treatments Dona Lucilia gave him.

Were these the thoughts and realizations of an ordinary infant and young child? Are we starting to see that this is the infancy of a man destined by God for a unique place in the Church and in history?