Abortion and Notre Dame

Today, Obama said at commencement, "Let's reduce unintended pregnancy!"

NO! NO!  NO!

The Blessed Virgin Mary's pregnancy was unintended. 

Jesus was a COMPLETELY unintended pregnancy!

My brother was an "unintended" pregnancy...because Mom had been told she'd never have children. By that definition, in spite of the fact that my brother came before me, the doctor's diagnosis didn't change, and although we were wanted and desired, we were not "intended" for our parents did not know we were even possible. Then along came...ME! My imperfect self.  Unintended by Obama's definition. 

Never mind all those who have sexual relations without realizing the natural ends of those sexual  relations. It amazes me that someone can look at such intimacy and be "surprised" at "unintended" results of an action that, as its natural end, is a child.  

HI!  

I might be a "willed" child, but very likely "unintended".  

I thank God that Mom didn't "decide" to end her "unintended pregnancy".  

Just because a pregnancy is "unintended" doesn't render the created life to be useless or without merit. If anything, ending the life of an unborn child has a greater chance of rendering the life of the mother and father (or whoever makes the "decision")  without merit...not the child they slaughter in the womb.

What is abortion but an act of supreme judgment?   Judge not lest you be judged...

Good luck if you think abortion is A-OK!   Hope your own particular judgment goes better than that to which you just sentenced an innocent child! 

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PSST!  If you still HAVE a conscience...there's ALWAYS  time for Divine Mercy....please go there! No matter WHAT you've done or advocated...Jesus is waiting to forgive you.  

He forgave me MY sins....He will forgive anyone...

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On Abortion...

At my friend Cathy's blog, a typical anonymous poster who doesn't have the backbone to put ANY kind of name behind her words queries the following:

"When you say no abortion, what alternative are [sic] proposing to women? What, personally, are you willing to do {to help those who have a [sic] unwanted pregnancy} if you propose to stop all abortions?"

In return, I can't help but to pose this reply to our anonymous friend:

When you say yes to abortion, what alternative are you proposing to the unborn baby?  What, personally, are YOU willing to do to help those "unwanted children" if you propose to endorse their slaughter?

Are YOU willing to take the place of the unborn baby?  

Pro-Life

Many of you are familiar with Jen. F. of Conversion Diary.  

Although I don't comment there much, she writes one of my favorite blogs, and this woman has incredible insights. 

But her post at Prolife Coalition is maybe one of her best, and I firmly believe EVERYONE, without exception, needs to read what she has to say. 

For those who don't know her, she was a a pro-choice atheist.  Quite honestly, the only people who wouldn't want to read what she has to offer now are those who are narrow-minded anti-intellectuals afraid of facing a challenge to their own opinions.  

Find her post HERE. 

You CANNOT be Christian and Support Abortion!

This post was originally published on June 22, 2007. Given that Advent begins in a week, and given that this weekend we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, I can think of no better way to honor Him than by fighting for the life of the unborn by citing Jesus as the most perfect example of an "unplanned pregnancy." Those who profess to believe in Christ speak with forked tongues if they proclaim Christ in one moment and deny life to the unborn in the next.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."
29 But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
33 and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
34 But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"
35 And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
36 And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
37 for nothing will be impossible for God."
38 Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
39 During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,
40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit,
42 cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
43 And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
45 Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

It is not possible to be a Christian and support the "right" to an abortion. It is not possible to be a Catholic Christian and support the "right" to abortion. You certainly have a choice...you are EITHER what society calls "Pro-Choice", OR you are a Christian.

If this is not clear to you, re-read the text of Luke 1 which I posted above. Especially focus on the parts in bold.

When the angel appeared to the Virgin Mary, he announced to her she would conceive and bear a son to be named Jesus. The birth of Jesus would follow the conception, because that's how it works. The angel did not announce to her that she would conceive and lay and egg...he announced that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and AT THAT MOMENT she would conceive in her womb the Christ, the Holy Redeemer.

Something very special happens to each woman at the moment of conception, the very same thing that happened to Mary when she conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Every single human life begins in the same way; with a touch from God, a touch that infuses body and soul together, forming a complete human life in the most minute detail.

When the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Blessed Mother, the human and Divine nature of Jesus were fused together. As we know that Jesus, born of a human woman, was fully human in all ways, we also know that he was fully Divine.

Any Christian would certainly be offended at the idea that Jesus was a lump of flesh or just a conglomeration of cells until he was born. Scripture clearly spells out the fact that the children in the wombs of Mary and Elizabeth were, in fact, children, not accidents of the universe. They were not cancer, they were not impersonal "fetuses"; no, they were CHILDREN, they were God's wonderful and abundant blessings, and through the womb of Mary, the Mother of God, Jesus, both Human and Divine, emerged to redeem humanity.

He did not become Jesus from birth; he was Jesus from conception.

Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is the one who penetrated in a unique unrepeatable way into the mystery of man and entered his "heart". Rightly therefore does the Second Vatican Council teach: "The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling". And the Council continues: "He who is the 'image of the invisible God' (Col 1:15), is himself the perfect man who has restored in the children of Adam that likeness to God which had been disfigured ever since the first sin. Human nature, by the very fact that is was assumed, not absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For, by his Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way united himself with each man. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin"47, he, the Redeemer of man.(RH, 8)

From the very moment of his Conception, Jesus was both God and Man; as by his conception he dignified humanity even further, it cannot be denied that EACH AND EVERY HUMAN LIFE has an innate dignity, raised even even more by virtue of the Incarnation of God, the Word made Flesh who dwelt among us (John 1), showing us by EXAMPLE of his very own CONCEPTION that this is a child of God FROM THAT VERY MOMENT!

I can understand how atheists or agnostics or religions that do not believe in the Virgin Birth can argue when life begins. But I simply cannot FATHOM how those who claim to be Christian, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, can support the unmitigated and unquestioned slaughter of the unborn children of God. The reality is that the Holy Spirit overshadows all women at the time of conception in order for the soul to be infused into the moment of conception; God touches each one of us at that moment. God touches each woman especially at that moment, a blessing of life, a blessing of love, in the creation of a unique human being designed from the beginning to grow according to the will of God.

If you have the audacity to claim that abortion is an authentic "right", then at least have the integrity to announce you are no longer a Christian. To do anything else is to deny the Lord, the Redeemer who shed his blood so that you might live and have eternal life.

Should you be faced with an unexpected pregnancy, spend some time meditating on the passages of Luke, on Mary's fiat ("let it be done unto me according to your Word"), meditate on the face of the Crucified Christ, place your hand over your womb where that child grows, and consider how God has literally touched you and the life you carry within you. Imagine the face of the Christ child, the infant, and realize that just as Jesus, who loves you enough to die a horrible death for you, loves your child just as much. Imagine how the two natures of God, both Human and Divine, were joined at the moment of Jesus' conception, just as the body and soul of your unborn child were also joined in that same blessed moment.

Do any of us really want to deny life to any of the children of God? To do so is to justify the abortion of Christ Himself.


Bibliography:

"The Redeemer of Man (Redemptor hominis), Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul II", Pauline Books & Media, 1979, p. 16

America in Historical-Critical Biblical Artistic Terms

In class, as we study Isaiah and Jeremiah, in reading the prophecies in historical context, it's impossible to ignore the lessons for today.

We all know the old adage: Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. There are variations, but that's the basic line, and the meaning never changes. Stephen King even has his own version from one of his books: "Those who do not learn from history are bound to be beat up by it again."

Something like that.

And it's true. In Christian Anthropology, we study the nature of man, and in Spiritual Theology, we study the masters, from the pagan philosophers to the great Catholic Saints and Doctors. In all of these subjects, we can't help but mesh them together and see the tapestry that has been woven before us. We have not learned from history; we are repeating it.

We are, in artistic terms, a Diego Rivera melting into a Salvador Dali.

Biblically, we can substitute "America" in place of "Israel" or "Jerusalem" and have a pretty good idea as to what's coming next. We can take an objective look at the immorality of our culture, the secularization of our country, and all the people crying "Peace, peace" where there is no peace. The American false prophets (Obama, Oprah, etc.) are advocating all sorts of social change, even as those they claim help are the most victimized by their ideologies.

In the siege of Jerusalem, the captives were forced to eat their own dead children, among other horrors. What's so much worse about America is that not only does our new leader advocate abortion, but the slaughter of children born alive in spite of the attempt on their lives, and we're using embryos....THOSE ARE CHILDREN....in vaccines and to study various cures. How is that better than the cannibalism of Jerusalem? It's worse because it's been CHOSEN and ADVOCATED!

Let me make this comparison again:

In the siege of Jerusalem, the people were forced to eat their dead children. They had a water source, but were cut off from food for, what...three years? How long was it? Long enough for them to resort to cannibalism out of desperation. Those who thirst without respite will die. Those who hunger...get creative. In their desperate creativity, they ate their own children.

Can you imagine anything more horrible?

No?

Check out modern-day America:

America is not under siege. We have abundant food and water. We are a wealthy country, in spite of our huge national debt. The milk and honey are flowing, wine is being poured out copiously, and there is much rejoicing.

We are under no duress. Yet the abortuaries are doing brisk business in in-the-womb slaughters these days, and our new President-elect has voted THREE TIMES against the Infant Born Alive act, which would require medical treatment for babies born alive in spite of the intention of the abortionists and the mothers to kill them in utero.

You say that no, we're not eating our children. Maybe not as the inhabitants of Jerusalem did...but what we're doing is much worse.

Remember....they were under duress and seeking survival. Doing the abominable just to try to live. They were not in their right minds.

We are...in theory. We have more than we need.

But we ARE eating our children. We ARE cannibals.

In our culture, human embryos are being used in vaccines, in research, in ways that benefit us in expensive ways. Not only are we eating our children...we are paying for the privilege.

This is the stuff of sci-fi horror genres. This is the stuff born out of the depths of Hell. And as a country, we're voting it in and choosing it.

Human nature doesn't change. We are the same now as the people in the fertile crescent, B.C.

The ONLY thing that has changed is our ability to harness science to our own moral destruction.

America/Jerusalem. Same Diff.

Same result.

Wait and see.

Conscience, Dignity, and Prayers

This morning I headed out to Caribou Coffee in order to get out, get some caffeine, and organize my Vatican II paper on "conscience". When it comes to crunch time and I still have 3 papers due in one short week, well, I find that if I try to do this at home it's too easy to putz around with the computer or other household duties. Amazing....I hate cleaning house, unless my other option is to do some serious intellectual work, and then I'm right in there with the scrub brush and the detergent!

So I took my books and my notebook and went methodically through my notes, trying to figure out the major themes and how to organize them. And then I came across this gem:

16. In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.(9) Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor.(11) In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality. Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin.

~ Gaudium et spes, Vatican II document on the Church in the Modern World

I've read this before, but something about it today convicted me, stopped me in my tracks, and made me put my head down. And then I read on:

17. Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure. Often however they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that man remain "under the control of his own decisions,"(12) so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, not under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. Man achieves such dignity when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself through effective and skilful action, apt helps to that end. Since man's freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God's grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full flower. Before the judgement seat of God each man must render an account of his own life, whether he has done good or evil.

~ Gaudium et spes, 17

And then, when I finished my sudden attack of conscience in recognition of my sinfulness, I happened to look up. There in front of me was a coffee display, which, of course, in a coffee shop is not out of place. It would be odd had the display not been present. It wasn't the existance of the display, then, but WHAT the display supported, and it seems that I will nevermore darken the door at Caribou Coffee.

Caribou is offering a coffee called "Amy's Blend"; apparently Amy was a roastmaster who succombed to breast cancer, and in that, I ask you all to offer prayers for the repose of her soul. However, Caribou has decided that the proceeds from the sale of Amy's blend coffee and other specific items will be donted to the Susan B. Komen Foundation.

On the surface, that's not such a bad thing; we all agree that breast cancer is horrible, and breast cancer research and prevention are good things. Being that I had my own scare a year or so ago, I am all for the search for a cure; but not at the cost of support to Planned Parenthood. I'd give up both my breasts to whatever horrible disease, and even my life, if it meant an end to abortions.

There is a very well publicized link between Susan B. Komen and Planned Parenthood; the former has donated over $400,000 (as of 2002, I think) to the latter, ostensibly for breast cancer screenings. However, given the other obvious link between contraception and breast cancer, abortion and breast cancer, Planned Parenthood and the slaughter of innocents (to include their mothers), well, that kind of support cannot be justified.

Right now I feel literally ill. I should have dumped my coffee and walked out.

So I am now asking for all of you to contact Caribou's corporate offices and voice your concerns, and your willingness to go elsewhere for your coffee until such time as they choose to donate the money from Amy's Blend to a research organization that does not also happen to cause the very disease and death that killed the woman they are tying to honor.

Additionally, I'm also requesting all of you to offer Divine Mercy prayers on behalf of the soul of Emily X, a pseudonym given to proud abortionists and workers at Planned Parenthood. "She" obviously believes in what she is doing, and why not? Consciences are deadened in this world, and with what she sees every day, what she does every day, in reality, she HAS to be dead to it! One day, by the grace of God, she will realize with indescribeable horror what she and her cohorts have done. Pray that we as a pro-life community will be there for her when this happens for she will not be able to pass through that horror into the mercy of Jesus Christ without other hands to assist her through that dark passage.

Did I Kill My Little Girl?

This was originally posted on the ides of March, and I took it down. I am putting it up again in honor of Respct Life Sunday. It may come down again soon.

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I am terrified to write this post. There are some parts of my past that I have alluded to but have never come out directly to admit, and part of that is pride; I want to be seen as a "good Catholic girl." The truth is that maybe today I'm mostly a "good Catholic woman" but in the past, I was not. I got lost and I bought into our culture, and it's terrifying and even humiliating to admit the mistakes I made while I was wandering around in the desert of my own creation.

But I am even MORE terrified that someday, I may meet another woman with the same questions I have now, and she will ask me why I never brought this up. She will ask me why I didn't warn her and why I didn't try to save her babies. I can't undo my past, but I CAN influence someone else's future.

A few years ago, I was involved in a "long-term relationship", and we used contraception. I remember my willful ignorance, most of which I gained from "informed" sources, even when that information was contradicted. I had a roommate, a left-wing liberal Democrat social worker, who told me that contraception does, in fact, cause abortions. It does this because contraception cannnot necessarily suppress ovulation. And if ovulation occurs, and a child is conceived, that zygote cannot be implanted. Contraception makes the womb uninhabitable and flushes the new life out and away and into death.

I rejected what she said because I didn't like it, even though it struck me as truth. She let me live out my denial. After all, it was nothing to her; she was pro-"choice" to the core. She would have been the first in line to drive me down to Planned Parenthood for an abortion (and she expressed this to me on one occasion). Yet truth can come even in these unlikely packages. My friend told me the truth because she was my friend and she knew that I didn't believe in abortion. It must have cost her to somewhat compromise her own liberal agenda out of love for me, her friend, to help me not carry out something she knew was against my own values.

People are puzzling, aren't they?

But I still didn't listen to her. Not then, anyway, but even today, I hear her voice, and I ask questions. I have to wonder; in those years, did I kill a child that was supposed to come into the world?

One day at work as I counted down the night-shift hours, I saw a black-and-white photograph of a little girl and I KNEW I needed to reproduce this image. I took out my art supplies and carefully began to draw. I tenderly began to form the features that made up her face, her eyes, and her hair. I put deep, deep love into each and every stroke of the pencil and then of the charcoal. And then I carefully colored in her own personal hue, trying to infuse life into her pudgy baby-fat cheeks. I kept the sadness in her face, the solemn gaze in her eyes, and the subtle pout to her lips.

This child spoke to me. This child could have been mine.

I don't have a lot of my own art work on my walls, but this is one that was destined from its conception to face me every single day. Several people have asked me if she is mine, if she is related to me, or if she is someone I know. These questions have always amazed me because I do not see any outward connection to me, especially given her skin tone (I'm white), yet by their questions they prove to me that some of the artist goes into each work of art; just as part of the parent goes into each new life. This is why, when I look at this picture, I see what might have been. I see myself and I see her father. And by the comments of friends, they see us, too.

I see my little girl. A little girl who never came to be because I might have killed her.

Please, please, I beg you from the bottom of my heart and the depths of my soul to throw away your pills, your condoms, your sponges, your IUD's, and, please, don't kill your baby.

Can you really look into the eyes of this child and deny her life?

Unexpected Blessings

I just love how the Lord works. He constantly blows me away with his love and mercy, with the smallest of concerns. In fact...there are no concerns too small for God. Today was a lesson in that.

I went to Adoration this afternoon, and ne of the things I prayed about was my dreams involving Fire. I know I did the right thing, I was there, I said goodbye, and yes, I miss him. Jesus and I had a great discussion about that, and he said that he speaks to us in dreams...why am I not listening? I so rarely understand when such cryptic things come to me in prayer, so I just threw my hands up as usual (so to speak) and asked him to reveal himself and what he meant. That part of my prayer was answered today; it is that other people feel as I do when they suffer a loss, and sometimes, we are in the circumstances in which we can provide that answer to another soul. I will explain.

While I was there, I sensed that I should take my dog to the dog park this afternoon for awhile. I didn't really want to go; while I love going there, today is a warm day, it's rush hour, and a thousand other excuses. And then I was guilty for being distracted in prayer. I wasn't sure what I would do, but en route home from the church, I knew I had to go to the dog park. I figured I'd let her chase a ball for awhile, give her water, and come home. And that's what happened...but there's more to the story.

This is where it gets good...

There was no one at the park when we arrived, which wasn't surprising. 4 pm on a Thursday afternoon? People are at work, and it's a hot day. My German Shepherd and I are the only nutjobs dumb enough to be out on such an afternoon.

I was thinking about leaving when a car pulled up behind mine and a woman got out with her dog. I figured my dog could use some canine contact so decided to stay. Sure enough, the new dog made a beeline for us, and the woman who arrived commented that my dog looked just like Sadie.

She asked me where I got her? "The Humane Society", I told her. "A few years ago."

She was insisting that she never thought she'd see this dog again...that was Sadie. I told her that when I adopted her, she was called "Sugar Bear" and I had to change the name.

By this time, the woman was very excited, and I was a little shocked. "That's Her! When we got her, she was called Sugar Bear! We called her Sadie! CAN I HUG YOU? We were heartbroken when my parents had to give her up!"

So this afternoon, that's how I found myself hugging a stranger in a dog park in suburbia.

For a little backstory....when I adopted my girl, the Humane Society gave me her history. First she was brought in by a girl who was going to college, so had to give her up. Then a woman adopted her for her parents, who had recently lost their dog. She had a good home with that couple, but the man was diagnosed with terminal cancer, they realized they could not care for her, so found her a home. Those people couldn't care for her so brought her back to the Humane Society. She was adopted once or twice after that, and then came to me, where she has been ever since.

The woman I met today is the same one who adopted her for her parents! She explained that they were heartbroken; they LOVED this dog to death and always wondered what had become of her. J., the woman I spoke with today, revealed that she and her husband wanted to adopt her but they had cats and "Sadie" was not good with cats. So they, too, were heartbroken because they'd fallen in love with this sweet-natured German Shepherd. J. said that she had prayed to God that she'd found a good home, and was worried she'd gone to some crazy family that ignored her or treated her badly. All she wanted to know was whether their "Sadie" was all right.

She looked at me, then, thrilled. She could see with her own eyes that "Sadie", now Tikaani, is wonderful. She's healthy, happy, and has a good home. I told her how she came to be with me and how she's been...she was familiar with some of her behaviors, asked how that had gone, and it was just an amazing conversation.

And just to make the Hand of God so clear; she was there today with a dog that does not belong to her. She is taking care of her while her relatives are out of town, but they are coming back and today was her last day at the park as she does not have a dog of her own right now.

Can there really be any doubt that my presence there today had nothing to do with me, or my dog, but the answer to a prayer for a woman who wanted a little grace,a little peace, and made her request out of love? I'm not sure which of us was more blessed today:  me, for having a front seat to God's abundant love, or her, for having recieved the answer to a humble prayer?

But there's another facet to our meeting, perhaps a much deeper one. When she pulled up behind my car, not knowing at the time that she was about to be reunited with a favored pet, she took note of my bumper stickers. I have a pro-life sticker from a verse from Isaiah: "Before you were formed in the womb I knew you..." (It says more but I forget the rest.)

She commented, "Oh! A woman after my own heart!" She explained she and her husband are trying to conceive, so abortion really ticks her off. Here they are trying so hard to bring a new life into the world, and others are slaughtering their children. They are now looking to adopt, but still have hope God may bless their marriage with their own children.

I had the sense she is not Catholic, but is a practicing Christian. I asked her if she'd heard of the Pope Paul VI center. It's not based in MN, but she asked if they have something local? She knows people who went through a Christian fertility center, but doesn't know what it's called. Since I'm not married and don't have children, I'm not familiar with local resources, so I just suggested she look into NFP or look for an NFP only doctor...I explained that there is a ton of science behind NFP and couples have used this method TO BECOME PREGNANT when faced with fertility issues. She didn't seem thrilled, so didn't comment and slightly changed the subject.

So I am asking you all for prayers for her and her husband. She seems to be a delightful person, is my age, maybe a little younger and had she not told me she has no children, I would have assumed she was a mother. She SEEMS like a mother, and is clearly a very loving soul.

She did take my email down, so if any of you, esp. from the Mpls.- St. Paul area are familiar with good Catholic and other Christian fertility clinics (read: no in-vitro, no contraceptive chemicals, no tube babies, no surrogate, etc.), please post links. I know about omsoul.org and the Paul VI Institute (I think that's what it's called)and the Couple to Couple League, but is there anything else locally? I'd love to be able to send her some links if she does email me.

Above all, keep this couple in your prayers, that the Lord will bless their marriage and grant them a new life to nurture and offer for His glory.

Consequences of Contraception

Sometime in the late 1900's people decided that it would be fun to sleep with as many people as possible without the "consequences", and this mentality resulted from the mass acceptance of the innovation of "The Pill" and the passage of the right-to-kill-your-infant laws.

Sadly, some Catholic clerics outright rejected Pope Paul IV's Encyclical, Humanae Vitae, yet we've seen that his words are prophetic.

17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.


Yup, that's happened. What woman hasn't had the experience of being out on a date with some guy who gets "overly friendly" and when his near-assault is met with resistance, he askes, "But you're on the Pill, right?" or "Are you a virgin?" (this latter translating as: you're a whore so why can't I have some?). The former question can be translated to mean, "If you're on the pill, then I should be able to gratuitously inflict my testosterone upon you because you're a convenient receptical."

Yup. Women have become objects of desire, and we're actually EXPECTED to "give it up" upon demand or risk facing a life of "lonliness". Sadly, I remember a girl in college who didn't really want to sleep with her boyfriend, but she felt like she had to. This she expressed by saying, "If he doesn't get it from me he'll get it from someone else."

Thanks, rabid feminism. You're "sexual revolution" has made us slaves to the very thing you said we'd be liberated from. How uplifting to know that we're expected to spend our nights on our backs with anyone who finds us attractive. We're all assumed to be a bunch of whores.

And never mind those consequences; what about the health and spiritual consequences?

The FDA makes the pill manufacturers publish info about blood clots, strokes, and other things, a "warning" that comes as an afterthought of every commercial. By then they've build up the product to such a degree of "carefree living" that no one is even listening anymore.

But the FDA won't force them to warn women of the later consequences; that of actual infertility resulting from the use of artificial hormones for years and years. The consequence of moral questions such as mine and that of thousands of other women; could I have killed my baby?

This is information that doesn't get out very much, but the Pill does, in fact, cause abortions. Yup.

You say that you support the use of the pill but you're against abortion? Hypocrite! Get thee to a medical tome and educate the ignorance out of yourself!

The Pill works first by suppressing ovulation. Should a woman ovulate in spite of the unnatural hormones which have been inflicted upon her, the secondary "safety" of the pill is to think the uterine lining, making it uninhabitable for the newly-formed life. Thus that tiny life is just flushed away, and only God knew he or she had been sent into the world and rejected. It's like a tiny Jesus, rejected in complete brutality.

Thousands upon thousands of woman are unknowingly and uncomprehendingly flushing their children down the toilet. Many of these woman do not believe in abortion and would be horrified at this thought, and well they should be.

And then there's the affect upon marriage; when you stand before God and proclaim your vows, you are saying that this is a reflection of God that you intend to live out; it is a sacrament of sacrificial love, which is all-giving to the other. It is a mutual self-giving, for love is not love without actual sacrifice and suffering on behalf on another. And just as love is givng, it is receptive. This is how we are designed; this is how God created us to be and to live.

Yet when we use barriers such as contraception, what we are saying is, "I give myself to you...except that which will make us whole." It rejects the love and designs of God in favor of self-fulfilling pleasure, it rejects life in favor of recreation. It does not unite a couple; it creates an artificial union in which there is no true sacrifice.

No wonder so many marriages fall apart; when even married men and women reject each other in their most intimate moments, how can they possibly remain in each other's company?

Contraception is not about love; it is the antithesis of love.

And it just gets worse; no one will talk about abstinence to teens who have been taught to be "free" - to even suggest it is worth nothing more than a derisive laugh. They have gone so far as to try to legislate a required vaccination against HPV, which is a sexually transmitted disease. This is not like measles, cholera, or any other commmunicable illness; HPV requires action on the part of the person who gets it in order to get it! It involves at risk behavior!

We have all these organizations formed to help victims of at-risk behavior, but none of them consider actually suggesting that the at-risk behavior stop. Oh, no, we can't do that; we can't suggest that someone change their lifestyle and give up their lusty habits.

We demand that people stop smoking, we demand that they stop drinking, using drugs, what have you. But there is no greater cause of suffering in our modern world than irresponsible sex, which is, by definition, any sexual union outside of the context of marriage.

Instead of addressing bad behavior, we address how to enable bad behavior and redefine the behavior as "good".

And now we come full circle and we see and experience the consequences of this behavior; and in no way can we call it "good."

When will people wake up out of their self-induced hypnotism of denial and realize that the consequences of their actions are far greater than what they can see?

When will women everywhere wake up and realize that they are killing their children?

Warm and Fuzzy Jesus? Not so much

This is the second point made by the anonymous commenter referred to in my previous post. (Long post alert!)

2. During the time of Jesus, homosexuality and abortion were just as prevalant then as they are now. Plato and Aristotle, who lived 500 years before Jesus, talk about abortion. Homosexuality and pederasty were a notable part of Greek (e.g. Plato's Symposium) and Roman (e.g. Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars) culture. But yet how much does Jesus himself say about these issues? Virtually nothing. What Jesus *does* talk about is being renouncing your possessions, helping the poor, being unmaterialistic, etc.

Good point, unfortunately not very well grounded in reality and easily decimated by simple logic, early Church documents, and the Bible (which this commenter clearly has not actually read).

Let's remember, first of all, that Jesus came to save sinners. So the fact that all this death and immorality was going on in the time of Jesus only underscores what He did for us on the cross.

Plato and Aristotle were pagans and thus they got to make up their own "moral" code. Not everything they did or said was wrong, but using their error to justify immoral behavior in any age isn't exactly appropriate. The fact that they lived in a time of a decadent culture and thus had the attitudes of that culture is not a bit surprising. Suggesting that their attitudes and teachings on abortion, homosexuality, pederasty, validate such things makes no sense whatsoever.

The Catholic Church has ALWAYS taught against abortion and other immoral anti-life acts. The Didache , which is the Lord's teachings through the Apostles, clearly discusses these things:

Chapter 2.—The Second Commandment: Gross Sin Forbidden
1. And the second commandment of the Teaching; 2. You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, Exodus 20:13-14 you shall not commit pæderasty, you shall not commit fornication...

Chapter 5.—The Way of Death
1. And the way of death is this: First of all it is evil and full of curse: murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rapines, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, greediness, filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness; 2. persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing a reward for righteousness, not cleaving to good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for that which is good, but for that which is evil; from whom meekness and endurance are far, loving vanities, pursuing requital, not pitying a poor man, not labouring for the afflicted, not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the handiwork of God, turning away from him that is in want, afflicting him that is distressed, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utter sinners. Be delivered, children, from all these


Abortion and Homosexuality was wrong in the time of Plato and Aristotle, it was wrong when Jesus walked the earth, after He died and rose again, these acts have REMAINED wrong and they remain wrong today. And the Church has always been consistent in these teachings, in spite of bad Popes and other Church heirarchy who lost their way. Saying that these things happened in history as a way of justification for today's immorality is simply not an argument at all.

Moving on to the next point, all about the idea of an "I'm ok, you're ok Jesus":

As to what Jesus said, let's look to the Bible and let's stop taking it out of context to support the popular "wishy-washy" Jesus people WISH existed. Jesus was very clear in his moral teachings; the fact that people choose not to read what He actually did or said speaks more to the ignorance of those who only want to be comfortable in their favorite sins. Jesus did not want people to be comfortable with their sins; he demanded that sinfulness be renounced!

The most common section people cite in wishy-washy-ness fashion is the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned. Jesus said, “Let those without sin cast the first stone.” No one does, and Jesus said to the woman, “Has no one condemned you? Nor do I.”

Everyone likes to use this phrase to consider the comforting thought of forgiveness. And indeed, Jesus forgives, but not without a strong caveat

Jesus said to the woman, “Go….and SIN NO MORE.”

Jesus clearly condemned sexual immorality. Perhaps he did not speak specifically of homosexuality, but he didn’t need to as he was discussing sexual immorality in general. It would be commonly understood he was speaking to all people of all sexual proclivities, all sinful tendencies. He often emphasized the impurity that comes from within.

Matthew 5:18-23

18 He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
19 since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
20 "But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.
21 From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
23 All these evils come from within and they defile."

So you see, Jesus is discussing those things that defile a person, commonly known today as "sin". We sin from within for our sin comes from our own human nature and our choice to sin. Unchastity, adultery, licentiousness...all this applies to all people, regardless of what they think their sexual orientation happens to be.

Let’s look at another section in the Bible, where Jesus develops this even further:

Matthew 5:27

27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'
28 But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
31 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.'
32 But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Especially check out Matthew 23;23- 39; it is a long section, so pick it up and read it, but I found this quote to be especially enlightening:

(Ignatius RSV-CE) MT 23:33:

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

Wow. That really takes away the “warm and fuzzy” idea about Jesus, doesn’t it? In the first section, (Matthew 5:27) he’s really driving home the point that we are judged for our willful sins, such that if we find that they are habitual it is better to remove the offending appendage or organ rather than face judgment and be thrown into Hell.

Admittedly, Jesus is speaking in hyperbole in order to make a point; He does not want us to mutilate ourselves or lop off appendages. What he is doing is driving home the point of the gravity of the sins he is describing.

Then, in Matthew 23, He is going so far as to warn people that if they persist, they are not going to be able to avoid hell.

People, rather than persist in saying that Jesus did not condemn certain behaviors, please save yourself some embarassment, pick up the Bible and really READ what it says. Instead of reading what you want to read, if you are truly seeking God, then SEEK GOD and look for the TRUTH. Don’t waste everyone else’s precious time on this earth trying to change the Bible to fit your justification of your favorite sin.

Any of us can "justify" anything we want; but it will NEVER, not in a million years, make our behavior good and natural and moral.

Jesus indeed preached love, understanding, forgiveness, and against materialism, however, those teachings need to be understood in full context. Jesus came and died for our sins in a very horrible death; He did not do this to allow us to wallow in depravity. Rather, he taught us to renounce depravity and follow him! To live lives of virtue. He spoke of fraternal correction, for it is not loving to allow another to persist in a life of sin, a depravity that seperates that person from God.

One day we will all face our own personal judgment, and Jesus will not hold us accountable only for our actions, but whether we took the time to assist others in the pits they have dug for themselves.

Utopia

Life issues are a big deal for Catholics. As sacred scripture proclaims, we are created in the image and likeness of God. "Male and female...He created them". It is the family, the very foundation of society, which is the reflection of God...not Man alone, not Woman alone. It is the love of man and woman together and their cooperation with God's creation in the form of a little baby that is the full reflection of God.

This is beautiful.

Recently, a bioethitist in Europe agreed that abortion involves kiling a human baby. He has no problem with this. He took it a step further, though; he feels that there is likewise no problem in taking the life of an "imperfect" baby--that is, a newborn child who happens to meet the subjective definition of "defective".

Well, as the daughter of two "defective" parents, I have to take issue with this. My mother was born with only one hand. She is thus, defective. My father suffered from the defect of Spina Biffeda and always walked with a limp, even after many many surgeries in his youth.

My mother was told that she could never have children, thus when she was pregnant with her first miracle child, my brother, she was overjoyed, and even more so when pregnant with me...another gift from God!

In that time period, during which Roe V. Wade legalized the murder of unborn children, people actually had the gall to approach my mother in her pregnancy and suggest to her that people like her shouldn't have children. Yes, really! Perfect strangers approached my one-handed mother in the grocery store, at the gas station, etc., and suggested she should murder my brother and I because she (Mom) was "defective" and might "pollute" the gene pool by pro-creating.

As you might understand, I am quite offended by this attitude.

But alas, I was also an "imperfect" child. I was born with a very lazy eye. One doctor told my parents that their daughter would never so much as stack blocks...due to my lack of depth perception. I was supposed to have had a very difficult life as a result of this genetic problem which I was not supposed to be able to overcome. Thankfully, no doctors suggested at that time, as they would in Europe somewhere, that I be taken out behind the woodshed and shot to spare everyone the agony of my "quality of life" issues.

It's a slippery slope, isn't it? It's a slippery slope...first contraception, the idea that we should have pleasure at whim, without communication, without God. Yes, how liberating that must have been to realize a simple pill could prevent a life from forming, but where did that lead us? It lead to this idea that we could have sex with multiple partners without consequence, we could engage in the act of procreation without procreating, and then...oops! Procreation happened anyway. That kind of put a cog in things, didn't it?

What to do?

Oh, right...kill it. Kill the inconvenient child resulting from sexual indescretions. And because we all know that killing is wrong, it was easier to redefine that embryo, that fetus, that little boy or girl as a "mass of tissue" and depersonalize it, because without depersonalization, that bond happens...that incredible, mystical bond between mother and the baby growing and forming within her, in her own likeness. There is power there, people. Real power.

But I guess murder is easier than power.

And our society keeps telling us that it's not a baby, but a mass of tissue. And it's not murder, because murder involves a human being--and this is just a mass of cells, something like cancer.

And the deception goes on.

Now there's embryonic research and cloning. Now people, living people who developed from the meeting of a sperm and an ova, have begun taking other ovum and other sperm, and creating life in petrie dishes and test tubes. In the beginning, they were creating many of these little lives and using something like a turkey baster to "implant" the embryos into the wombs of women struggling to have children. Ironically, those women killed more children than they could ever have had in life, and many times, it was a failure and the embryo did not implant. So the lives lost were for nothing. Nothing at all.

The "doctors" knew that the lives were being lost, but I'm not sure the women and men choosing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) had any idea. When it comes to "reproductive rights", the medical community is amazingly close-lipped with regard to what is really happening.

Then things move on...to cloning, and now, some joker in Europe (Britain?) has declared that the "contents of the womb" which are barbarically scraped out in pieces is indeed a baby, just as we pro-lifers have always announced loudly and repetitively. He agrees with us. But in the next breath, he says that, if we are going to kill a baby in the womb, why not after birth if the baby is "defective" in some way? Why not indeed?

Let's go back to Plato's "Utopia", where he suggested that children who were not up to par should be killed at birth, because there was no room in his vision of a perfect society for those who could not, for some reason, support themselves.

Well, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we are living in Plato's Utopia. How do you like it?

We are killing unborn children, just for the crime of being conceived, contrary to our convenience. We are, with a large margin of error, identifying genetic illnesses in the womb, and encouraging parents to kill the child and try again for something perfect, as though the womb were a department store and the mother a machine! We are cloning animals and ourselves, we are combining animal and human DNA, all in defiance of God.

Life is not a toy. It is not a mistake. It is not defective. Never. Period.

I used to work with the disabled, ranging from the severely disabled who could not care for themselves in any way, to higly functioning people who just needed some supervision. Some of those people were like that from birth, and some suffered traumatic brain injuries which left them shattered and unable to go about their lives as they had before.

In one location, I remember reading the charts, and in every single one, there was a DNA (Do Not Rescuisitate) order--Every. Single. One. This defies statistics, and it nagged at me. Were all of these lives seen as "not worth saving"? That's what it said to me. Was it an institutional requirement that they have a DNA order on file?

I will never forget the joy in the charges' eyes when I cared for them, or the simple things that gave them great pleasure--things you and I take for granted. They were grateful for everything. Their small successes were worth, in their eyes, far more than our large successes.

I would argue, therefore, that the measure in any society is how we treat those who are vulnerable, how we value them, and what we are willing to learn from them. Their lives are not in vain; I am still coming to realize lessons these beautiful "defective" people taught me during the months I spent in their presence. I still remember many of my clients with great affection, realizing that my life is better for having known them, for having looked into their eyes, for having recognized their souls.

We live in a dangerous world...for if we think that it's ok to kill a normal child, then it must be ok to kill one who is imperfect in our eyes, thus it is ok to kill someone who is older and maybe cannot speak for him or herself.

People, I am the voice for those dear people who cannot speak. I am the voice for those who are imperfect in some way. I am the voice for those who are being deemed "useless" in this world that some are trying to turn into Plato's Utopia.

And I stand here with the armor of God, for I am His daughter, I am in his image, my imperfections and all, and if you want to kill all of those innocent souls, then you'd best kill me and all those who stand with me first, for I would rather be dead than to live in the "Utopia" that this world is headed for. I would rather be dead than to acquiesce to the barbaric practices being placed on ballots and taking place every single day. I would rather die then let another soul be lost to such a demonic agenda.

Each child that dies through abortion is God's own son or daughter. Each embryo killed via the thin veneer of "research" is a son or a daughter of God. Each soul born into an "imperfect" body is a son or a daughter of God.

Each one of us is a son or a daughter of God, whether we deny that reality or embrace it. I am a defective daughter of God, born of defective parents who were told to kill my brother and I only because of their own "defects", not ours. Thus, I am a voice for the defective, and I ask that you all join me in your own defects, and realize that if you do not, then you may be next. You may be the next target of this culture of death, or perhaps your son or daughter, or your mother or father.

Will you remain silent while those you love are slaughtered? No? Then why remain silent now?

Plato's Utopia is really another word for "Hell"--it might have a pretty face, but then again, so does the predatory spider have a pretty web, so much the better to ensnare.

Show me a world without those who are "imperfect", and I will show you a world which has forsaken its very soul.