Comes a Time
"Comes a time when you've got to get down on your knees." This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie, I Remember Mama , adapted for screen from the play of the same name. It is based on one of my favorite childhood novels, Mama's Bank Account . In this scene , Mama is consumed with worry and frustration as her youngest child lies in a hospital recovering from successful surgery. At that time, parents were not allowed to see their children for the first twenty-four hours following surgery and Mama cannot bear the thought of not being there when her baby, Dagmar, wakes. So, home, and to her knees, to scrub the floor, pray, and wait for a solution, which does indeed come. Pope John Paul II reminded the world often of the dignity of all work, especially that of manual labor. As a young man, he was a laborer in a work camp during the Nazi occupation of his native Poland. It was a different envi...