• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Rita Buettner and her husband, John, "marvel" at this image of them, taken during the early days of their marriage. (Courtesy Rita Buettner)

Saying ‘yes’ requires enormous leap of faith

September 20, 2022
By Rita Buettner
Catholic Review
Filed Under: Commentary, Feature, The Domestic Church

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

When we were first dating, my husband and I used to take day trips together. Often, we built the day around a drive to a used bookstore, where we could spend hours, scanning the covers and spines of books and maybe choosing a few to take home.

We still enjoy going to used bookstores, although there are fewer around. The other day, though, we decided to drive to one outside Washington, D.C. Before we climbed into the car with our sons, John and I scanned our shelves at home to see whether we had any books we wanted to pass along to the store.

I pointed to one book on the bookcase I had forgotten. “I could let that one go,” I said. “I haven’t read it in years.”

“Are you sure?” John said, and he slid it off the shelf and opened it. Sometimes there’s an autograph or a special note from a friend. This time, there was nothing written on the first pages. Instead, an old photo of us fluttered to the floor.

I picked up the picture, and we stood there looking at it together – marveling at this image of our former selves, taken during the early days of our marriage. We are dancing, so it must have been taken at a wedding. But whose? And when? And where?

We might never figure that out. But I was struck by how young and carefree the couple in the photo looked, happy as can be, not a gray hair in sight, just dancing the night away together.

What did that young couple know, I thought, of the years that lay ahead? What did they understand about being married and creating a family and raising children and balancing work and extended families and all the busyness to come?

Their marriage vows were real and true, but “for better or for worse” seemed hypothetical. They could not have guessed what the years ahead held. They didn’t care. They were together, and they were in love.

That was enough for them. And it is enough for us today. But it struck me what a gift it is that we don’t know all that the future holds. Life is better taken a step at a time, navigating it as it comes, rather than worrying about what tomorrow might bring.

Sometimes I think of the Blessed Virgin Mary and how when St. Gabriel asked her to be the Mother of God, she might have had a sense of what she was saying yes to. But her “yes” still required an enormous leap of faith. I marvel at her depth of faith and her absolute trust and obedience to God.

We do not know what struggles and suffering lie ahead. We cannot guess what wonders and joys tomorrow holds. All we can be certain of is that life will hold joy and sorrow, struggles and celebrations, turbulence and peace. And so, we, too, step forward in faith, knowing God will be with us through whatever comes. We will bring what we need to every situation because he will make sure we have what we need.

“Lay all your cares about the future trustingly in God’s hands and let yourself be guided by the Lord just like a little child,” St. Edith Stein tells us.

That naïve young married couple didn’t know what lay ahead. After 18 years of marriage, they still don’t. But as I look at that photo from what feels like so long ago, it’s so clear to me that God has been accompanying us on our journey – just as he walks with everyone through the trials and victories of our everyday lives.

Read More Commentary

The virtue of patriotism

Sculpture of St. Rita and St. Therese with a cross and holy water font at the center sits on a table

A Gift and a Connection to the Past

Expert discusses serious harms of smartphones for children and how to limit their use

Cupcakes with 2025 graduation toothpicks in them and a bowl of cookies

Our 31-hour Road Trip

St. Paul and discovering that sin is ‘missing the mark’

Six lit candles on a chocolate birthday cake

Making a birthday wish come true

Copyright © 2022 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

The virtue of patriotism

Sculpture of St. Rita and St. Therese with a cross and holy water font at the center sits on a table

A Gift and a Connection to the Past

Expert discusses serious harms of smartphones for children and how to limit their use

Cupcakes with 2025 graduation toothpicks in them and a bowl of cookies

Our 31-hour Road Trip

St. Paul and discovering that sin is ‘missing the mark’

| Recent Local News |

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • 80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons
  • Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope
  • Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal
  • The virtue of patriotism
  • Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says
  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies
  • Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says
  • Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter
  • Jesus did not ignore those in need, and neither should Christians, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en