I always love stories about God working outside what we might consider the “normal” way of things. Here is a great example:

Back in 1920, a 43 year old German man was getting desperate that he had not met the right woman, so he placed an advert in the newspapers. Although a policeman, he worded the ad as follows:

Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past,from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition.

A woman named Maria Peintner answered the ad. She was 36 years old, a trained cook, and had been born “out of wedlock”. While carrying her, her mother, whom it is suggested was also born out of wedlock, spent some time in a home for pregnant girls. She later married a baker named Rieger with whom she had five more daughters. Maria did not have a fortune, but even so, they married four months later. In spite of their somewhat advanced years they had three children – two boys and a girl. The youngest child recieved the same name as his father : Joseph Ratzinger. He is better known today as Pope Benedict XVI.

After his election, someone dug up the “wife wanted” ad and showed it to the new Pope who, of course, smiled. His parents really loved both one another and their three children. Pope Benedict often speaks about that love. In fact, his first encyclical is entitled, “God is Love”, and it describes marriage as the preeminient figure of God’s love for us.

Meanwhile isn’t it worth reflecting on the fact that the mother of Pope Benedict was “illegitimate”. At the time, her conception and birth were possibly the source of scandal and condemnation, but she was to become the mother of the present Pope.

God is good!