Mother’s Milk

Mother’s Milk Vs Virtual Milk

17 December – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: The Virgin held her Baby in her arms, and nursed him at her breast. Every mother who nurses her baby is giving herself to God, feeding him with love. Apt image by Dvacet4 who captions it ‘Digital Breastfeed II’ (flickr.com/). I selected this image because it provides perfect contrast to what the pastoral text is saying. I imagine this photo saying: Feed your baby with real mother’s milk, not cow’s milk, not imaginary mother’s milk! Guilty mothers would try to give their babies or children virtual milk, otherwise known as quality time, but that is not quality enough because in fact there is no quantity of love in it. ‘The quality of mercy is not strained / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven’ says Shakespeare. I say the quantity of love should not be strained either, and that quantity is real mother’s milk. ‘Mother’s milk is best for babies’ is not true – There’s no substitute for mother’s milk.