This year was my first time attending the March for Life, as well as the Pro Life Summit, and saying that I left feeling inspired, would be an understatement. I had never been to the Summit before but as I learned about all the talks I could attend, I became overwhelmed with excitement. As I was going through the pamphlet trying to figure out what talk I should attend, I saw T.O.B (Theology Of the Body) and immediately knew where I wanted to be.
Then I realized that it was being given by Mr. and Mrs. DeMaio and became even more resolved that I wanted to attend this session. My first experience with TOB was actually at a talk Mr. DeMaio gave a year or two ago at a local high school and Mission Love and Life were handing out copies of Christopher West’s Theology of the Body For Beginners. I absentmindedly took a copy because I knew JPII had written it and figured that it must be good, also it was free, who’s not gonna take a free book? Little did I know that that absentminded action would lead me on a path of not only discovering more about myself, but about what it means to love and goodness knows that as a teenager I definitely need some help in that department.
Theology of the Body For Beginners got me through one of the most difficult parts of my high school career and I kid you not, I would not be who I am today without it. However, reading what it means to love and hearing a testimony of what that love looks like are two different things. Being able to listen to Mr. and Mrs. DeMaio’s story and to see the emotions on both of their faces as they discussed their lives together, touched my heart in a very special way. Society tells us that love is supposed to look or act a certain way but society has it all wrong and if we listen to the way society tells us we should love, we’ll likely end up feeling hurt or confused and that is certainly not what God desires for us.
Seeing and hearing Mr. and Mrs. DeMaio’s story was a beautiful reminder that while none of us will ever be perfect, God’s love for us is and our relationships should reflect the love that He has for each and every single one of us.
-Lucy Rice
