Another Change of Heart

An actor's conversion story, in his own words. The honesty with which this man shares his past and the courage with which he publicly speaks out for the unborn is admirable. There is hope! 

Spiritual Adoption

In order to counter the propaganda for abortion, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen recommended the spiritual adoption of unborn babies. This was to be done by praying that these little ones be spared abortion, and continue to live after birth. The following prayer, said every day for one whole year, was recommended:

Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
I love you very much;
I beg you to spare the life
of the unborn child that
I have spiritually adopted,
and who is in danger
of being aborted.

During your earthly life, this child, whom you have adopted, will be known only to God, but in the hereafter, you will enjoy each other's company for all eternity.

The Beginning

All of us have experienced the excitement of learning someone we love is going to have a baby. The anticipation and expectation of a new life . . . well, there's just nothing like it! Another someone to love!

Most of us have known someone who's had a miscarriage. The sadness and loss we feel ourselves, or for that family, is intense AND real.

WHEN is the world going to wake up and realize that the desire for a baby does not make life a reality?

Whether we want a baby or not ~ life is present.

Once again, something I've been wanting to post has been sent to me through a faithful friend. This is a beautiful three and a half minute video that shows the beginning of life.

Ballad to Our Lady of Tears

O Mary, Mother of all men

Remember how one day

You rocked a little Boy to sleep

In a cradle filled with hay.



Remember how you held Him,

The long and weary night,

You fled from Herod’s soldiers

In Egypt’s dismal flight.



How the lonely stars looked down.

How the night was long;

With hoof beats in the distance

But in your heart a song.



You trod the darkness round you

You warmed the sands so cold

You lulled the winds to whispers

And turned the tears to gold.



When God was very little

And Life was very new,

With death a lurking shadow

He chose to cling to you.



He chose not Heaven’s legions,

Nor Michael’s sword of flame,

To shield Him in the darkness;

He chose your tender name.



Your tender arms to hold Him,

Your tender eyes so deep,

Your tender voice to comfort

And sing His soul to sleep.



Look down again in pity

O Mother of Our Lord

Upon a world where children still

Must flee from Herod’s sword.



Where Moloch claims his victims still

And still the price is paid

Where lust is crowned and love is drowned

And death a grim charade.



Where little ones are torn apart

Or burned with hateful brine

Where murder in a velvet coat

Is a social valentine.



These little hands, these little feet,

These little eyes and ears,

O Mother, see their misery

Baptize them in your tears.



They have never known the sunshine

Nor felt the cool of rain

Their heritage is horror

Their first caress is pain.



They were the breath of springtime.

The promise April gave,

Til winter’s vultures ravished-

Their cradle is their grave.



And now before the Father

Some ask: whose can these be?

Please wrap your arms around them,

Say: these belong to me.



For love of Him who was little too,

Who traded Heaven to be with you,

Take these children torn apart

To the playground of your heart.


Bruised and swollen, crucified

On the cross of human pride;

May their bodies perfect rise,

Take their souls to paradise.



Let them not for want of grace

Linger in a darkened place.

Ask your Son to give them joy,

He was once a little Boy.



Now and at the hour of death,

May they feel your gentle breath;

Tuck them in a bed of white,

O Mother, sing to them tonight!

~ by Therese Ickinger

Who Should Have Been Your Children

I wanted to do something special today (the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade) to honor the millions of lives that have been lost to abortion. In an answer to my prayer asking for just this, a very special someone sent me the following narrative from Bishop Fulton Sheen's book, Three to Get Married along with the poem by John Davidson that she paired with this lovely picture. It perfectly represents my desire for something special!

The first direct, human limitation of infant life in the history of Christianity took place in the village of Bethlehem through an Infant-Controller whose name was Herod. The prevention of infant life was simultaneously an attack upon Divinity in the person of God made man, Jesus Christ, our Lord. No one strikes at birth who does not simultaneously strike at God, for birth is earth's reflection of the Son's eternal generation. To those who conspire against life in Herod's way or more scientifically, there will one day come the haunting conscience described by John Davidson:

Your cruellest pain is when you think of all

The honied treasure of your bodies spent

And no new life to show.  O, then you feel

How people lift their hands against themselves,

And taste the bitterest of the punishment

Of those whom pleasure isolates.  Sometimes

When darkness, silence, and the sleeping world

Give vision scope, you lie awake and see

The pale sad faces of the little ones

Who should have been your children, as they press

Their cheeks against your windows, looking in

With piteous wonder, homeless, famished babes,

Denied your wombs and bosoms.

Imagine the Potential!

A profound message for this historic day ~

Dr. King

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.  I love his "I Have a Dream" speech.  His eloquence and passion and poetry are enviable to me.  Every single time I read this speech I get a huge lump in my throat.  If you'd like to listen to it or read it go here.

There are many resources today that say the number of black abortions disproportionately outnumber white and hispanic abortions.  Read this and this as just two examples.

I bring this up because as I re-read "I Have a Dream" this morning the following jumped out at me . . .

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of it's creed:  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are CREATED (emphasis added) equal.""

It doesn't say born equal - - - it says created equal.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that I don't think it was part of Dr. King's dream to have more abortion clinics in black neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods; or to read the above statistics about the number of black abortions.

Today ~ Dr. King's birthday and five days away from inaugurating the first black president ~ is as good a day as any to do something to end the destruction of what God has created, in His image.

I've posted an excerpt before of one of my favorite books, We and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland.  This excerpt speaks of our creation ~

"What do you suppose it means - they made man in their image and likeness?  It doesn't mean we look like God, because this happened in the very beginning, long before the Son of God came down to earth to take the form of a human baby.  And it couldn't mean that He made us out of the same stuff as Himself, because God is not made out of stuff;  God is a spirit, without a body.  God never changes, but we change.  So it couldn't be that we are like Him in our body, which changes every year and grows bigger and older all the time.  It is the foreverness that he breathed into man that is like Him, the part of us that never dies, as God never dies.  We are like Him deep inside, where our love comes from.  That is the part of us we call our soul, and we cannot see it, or touch it, because, like God, it is a spirit."

It's NOT just a "blob of tissue".  It's a soul, a living human soul.  There may not be a body, but that's coming . . . if we let it.  Doesn't it seem absurd that allowing another soul to become the person it was created to be would ever be a question . . . a choice?  We need to think about this and talk about this as simply and plainly as Mrs. Newland did ~ "foreverness" ~ "never dies" ~ "where our love comes from" ~ "like God"  

If you haven't already signed the petition to fight the so-called 'Freedom of Choice Act' please click on the link to the left to do so.  If you don't know about praying a novena for life please scroll down to my previous post.  If you're interested in attending a pro-life rally on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton, January 22nd, please go to your state's Right to Life web-page.

"The time is always right to do what is right."

          ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Novena for Life

I've been avoiding you lately.  I'm depressed about the incoming administration and I'm sickened by the attitude of our country.  There should be something I can say.  There should be something I can do.  The only thing that comes to mind is to pray.  When we're vulnerable (or feeling as helpless as I do) we're to put ourselves in Our Lady's Hands, under the protection of St. Joseph ~ as the Baby, Jesus did.

Catholics all across our country are going to be praying a novena (nine days of prayer) against the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).  Any prayer can be said, but the Rosary is encouraged ~ putting our intentions in Our Lady's Hands.  They're also suggesting at least two days of fasting during the novena.  Please join us in these next nine days and as St. Augustine said ~ 

"Pray as though everything depended on God.  Work as though everything depended on you."

Vulnerable

It's the eighth day of Christmas.  According to Jewish law baby boys were circumcised on the eighth day and given their name.  Today is the feast of the Circumcision, a holy day of obligation that honors both our Newborn King's first drops of blood shed for us and His holy name, Jesus.

Our priest gave a sermon today about vulnerability.  When our Lord came into the world as a newborn baby He put Himself in a very vulnerable position.  He was vulnerable to the elements, hunger, and everything that all newborns face.  In addition He was vulnerable to King Herod.  In His omnipotence He knew all that He would face.  He put Himself in Our Lady's Hands, under the protection of St. Joseph.

All babies are completely vulnerable to their mothers.  This one fact is what makes us all the more responsible for protecting them.  The word, vulnerable, comes from the Latin vulnero, which means wound, hurt; damage.  If it weren't so heinous, it might seem ironic that this is exactly what the pro-abortion side wants the right to do to the unborn ~ the most vulnerable.

We can even go a step further and say they want to completely destroy, so as to eliminate the vulnerable.  Then I guess they can get on with life . . . well at least their own.