Tag Archives: death

PROTECT ABQ WOMEN & CHILDREN APPLAUDS ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN

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PROTECT ABQ WOMEN & CHILDREN APPLAUDS ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE, FOR COMING OUT IN FULL SUPPORT OF THE PAIN CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ORDINANCE

09/27/2013

Statement by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan on Late Term Abortion

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Friday, September 27, 2013– – IMMEDIATE RELEASE

—Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan has issued the following statement:

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe congratulates the grass root efforts of so many to place a late term abortion ban on the ballot of the City of Albuquerque. This achievement demonstrates the people’s will to defend life.   As Archbishop of Santa Fe, I encourage all the people of Albuquerque to support the proposed ordinance to ban late term abortion after the 20th week. These children are able to feel pain and suffer greatly when aborted.   The campaign to pass this proposal will bear much fruit. First, if the ordinance passes, it will protect children. Second, the energy, time, and resources dedicated to the campaign will educate the public. I daily meet people who are shocked to know that New Mexico permits late term abortion. The public will be educated as to the reality of what is happening in our State.  New Mexico now attracts those seeking late term abortions from around the Country because of the lack of laws. During this campaign many people will learn the immorality of abortion and some children’s’ lives will be saved by the education of their parents.  I hope the State Legislature will pass a Statewide Bill banning late term abortion, given the support in Albuquerque.   Please join me in supporting this effort with energy, time, and resources. Together we can get out the vote on November 19, 2013.   Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan Archbishop of Santa Fe

via PROTECT ABQ WOMEN & CHILDREN APPLAUDS ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE, FOR COMING OUT IN FULL SUPPORT OF THE PAIN CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ORDINANCE – PROTECT ABQ WOMEN & CHILDREN.

#Choice,#Life, #Abortion, #Morality–Life after #Death?

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"And because the homicides involved in abortion are ”little murders” – the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives – it’s easy to look the other way." "Cardinal Francis George said recently, too many Americans have ”no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood. This can’t be something you start playing off pragmatically against other issues.” Archbishop Charles Chaput
"And because the homicides involved in abortion are ”little murders” – the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives – it’s easy to look the other way."
"Cardinal Francis George said recently, too many Americans have ”no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood. This can’t be something you start playing off pragmatically against other issues.”
Archbishop Charles Chaput

 

So much has already been written on life, choice and abortion. What is important is life and truth, not my opinion or anyone else’s. The women having abortions are as much victims of the Big Lie as are the innocent fetuses they choose to abort. Politics, consumerism, relativism etc. reign like gods with promises of life after death, but in their world it is the fetus that must die in order for life to be lived as a selfish society deems happy and liberated.
Bishop Martino’s response to the social argument, “As wrong as abortion is, I don’t think it is the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote.” He wrote:

This reasoning is sound only if other issues carry the same moral weight as abortion does, such as in the case of euthanasia and destruction of embryos for research purposes. Health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes are very important concerns. Neglect of any one of them has dire consequences as the recent financial crisis demonstrates. However, the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does. Being “right” on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that “pro-choice” candidates have come to support homicide – the gravest injustice a society can tolerate – in the name of “social justice.
#Life 
lionessblog.com

Prayer for a Dying Friend

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Please pray for Deacon Ken Hill who is now facing his last hours:
We commend to Thee, Lord, the soul of Thy Deacon, Kenneth Hill, and we pray Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, that as in mercy to him Thou became man, so now Thou would be pleased to admit him  to the bosom of Thy patriarchs. Remember, Lord, he  is Thy creature, not made by strange gods, but by Thee, the only living and true God; for there is no other but Thee, and none can equal Thy work. Let his soul rejoice in Thy presence, and remember not his  former iniquities. For although he has sinned, yet he  has always firmly believed in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; he has had a zeal for Thy honor, and faithfully adored Thee as his God, and Creator of all things. Remember not, Lord, we pray Thee, the sins of his youth, but according to Thy great mercy, be mindful of him in Thy Heavenly glory. Let the heavens be opened to him, and the angels rejoice with him. Let the archangel St. Michael, whom Thou didst appoint the chief of the heavenly host, conduct him. Let the holy angels come out to meet him, and carry him to the city of heavenly Jerusalem. Let blessed Peter the apostle, to whom God gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, receive him. Let St. Paul the apostle, who was a vessel of election, assist him. Let St. John the beloved disciple, to whom the secrets of Heaven were revealed, intercede for him. Let all the holy apostles, who received from Jesus Christ the power of binding and loosing, pray for him. Let all the saints and elect of God, who in this world have suffered torments in the name of Christ, intercede for him; that he may be admitted into the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with Thee and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary

May Mary the most merciful Virgin Mother of God, kindest comforter of them that mourn, commend to her Son the soul of this His servant , that through her maternal intercession, he may overcome the dread of death and, with her as guide, joyfully reach his longed-for home in the heavenly fatherland.R. Amen.

Prayer to St. Joseph
To thee I have recourse, St. Joseph, Patron of the dying; and to thee, at whose blessed death watchfully assisted Jesus and Mary, by both these dearest pledges I earnestly recommend the soul of this servant  in the sufferings of his last agony, that he may by your protection be delivered from the snares of the devil and from eternal death, and may merit to attain everlasting joy. Through the same Christ our Lord.R. Amen.

There is a time to be born, and a time to die

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From a homily on Ecclesiastes by Saint Gregory of Nyssa, bishop There is a time to be born, and a time to die

There is a time to be born and a time to die. The fact that there is a natural link between birth and death is expressed very clearly in this text of Scripture. Death invariably follows birth and everyone who is born comes at last to the grave.

There is a time to be born and a time to die. God grant that mine may be a timely birth and a timely death! Of course no one imagines that the Speaker regards as acts of virtue our natural birth and death, in neither of which our own will plays any part. A woman does not give birth because she chooses to do so; neither does anyone die as a result of his own decision. Obviously, there is neither virtue nor vice in anything that lies beyond our control. So we must consider what is meant by a timely birth and a timely death.

It seems to me that the birth referred to here is our salvation, as is suggested by the prophet Isaiah. This reaches its full term and is not stillborn when, having been conceived by the fear of God, the soul’s own birth pangs bring it to the light of day. We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good. Such a choice becomes possible for us when we have received God into ourselves and have become children of God, children of the Most High. On the other hand, if what the Apostle calls the form of Christ has not been produced in us, we abort ourselves. The man of God must reach maturity.

Now if the meaning of a timely birth is clear, so also is the meaning of a timely death. For Saint Paul every moment was a time to die, as he proclaims in his letters: I swear by the pride I take in you that I face death every day. Elsewhere he says: For your sake we are put to death daily and we felt like men condemned to death. How Paul died daily is perfectly obvious. He never gave himself up to a sinful life but kept his body under constant control. He carried death with him, Christ’s death, wherever he went. He was always being crucified with Christ. It was not his own life he lived; it was Christ who lived in him. This surely was a timely death – a death whose end was true life.

I put to death and I shall give life, God says, teaching us that death to sin and life in the Spirit is his gift, and promising that whatever he puts to death he will restore to life again.

By one death and resurrection the world was saved

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From the book On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil, bishop

By one death and resurrection the world was saved

When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Savior made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, and recover our original status as sons of God by adoption.

To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life.

We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.

Our descent into hell takes place when we imitate the burial of Christ by our baptism. The bodies of the baptized are in a sense buried in the water as a symbol of their renunciation of the sins of their unregenerate nature. As the Apostle says: The circumcision you have undergone is not an operation performed by human hands, but the complete stripping away of your unregenerate nature. This is the circumcision that Christ gave us, and it is accomplished by our burial with him in baptism. Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist, and I shall be whiter than snow. We receive this saving baptism only once because there was only one death and one resurrection for the salvation of the world, and baptism is its symbol.

Passion

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Bloody sweat,
Pillar and scourge,
Bloody body,
Crown of thorn,
Bloody head,
Bloody face,
Hammer and nails,
Cross,
Bloody hands
Bloody feet,
Pain upon pain,
Thirst and abandonment,
Death and sword,
Broken heart,
Pierced heart,
Blood and Water,
All that Blood,
Washing me.

©2013 Joann Nelander
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