Tag Archives: Defending Life

That They May Be One, Father

by

As the 14th day of Lent draws to a close, Nelson shares these thoughts from the letter of Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch (Melkite) for  Lent that I’m passing on:

“Indeed, if the cross, with all that it represents, with all that it signifies, symbolises and indicates, of sufferings, sicknesses, disasters, various afflictions, catastrophes, pains and injuries to which all people are subject, if the cross is a constituent reality of all human life, there is an obligation for all people, like Jesus, to carry the cross together, in order to disburden the one charged with it and together to bear it with love and solidarity.  In this letter, I am urging my faithful sons and daughters of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the Arab world and throughout the world to be in solidarity with each other and stand shoulder to shoulder with their brethren, friends, neighbours and fellow-citizens to bear the cross together on the way of the cross, especially during these days of Great Lent on our common spiritual Lenten way towards the Feast and the joy of the glorious Resurrection.”

I pray that all Christians may be one and bear faithful witness to the One who is all in all.

Judgment Day Distractions? – Another Mercy!

by

The Anchoress gave new hope for Judgment Day saying:

Well…be not afraid. If that day comes, everyone else will be looking at the records of their own lives being exposed. It may well have the effect of bringing us – finally – together, as we realize that we are all faulty, flawed, capable of great good and great evil, creatures of lightness and dark. It will emphasize that “none are perfect save Christ.” Remember what Michel Montaigne said:

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

Phew!!!!!!!!!!……  It’s great to imagine everyone being so distracted.

I heard one rendition of the Day in which everyone is trying to outdo each other with the greatness of God’s Mercy for what He’d forgiven them. Actually, I remember some prayer meetings which made me feel as though no one would be interested in my story after hearing the soul-curdling tales of conversion of some of our bunch.

General Public – Generally Duped! Update

by

1

Update:

Thoughts From the Great Unwashed – putting it in the vernacular so no one has a reason to be uninformed or unconcerned – simplifies the thinking behind the   Obama/Pelosi/Reid attack on America and human life:


If We’re Going to Murder Babies We Might As Well Use the Tissue.

Update: Cardinal Rigali :

Obama stem cell order  “a sad victory of politics over science and ethics”.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the Cardinal explained:

” that embryonic stem cell research is wrong due to the fact that it destroys “innocent human life” by “treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested,” and also noted that the executive order “disregards the values of millions of American taxpayers who oppose research that requires taking human life.” “It ignores the fact that ethically sound means for advancing stem cell science and medical treatments are readily available and in need of increased support.”


Bishops, Unity, Church, and Vigilance

by

Who wants to separate us from our bishops?

Reading the Church Fathers for Lent has been eye opening in the light of present day attacks on the Church, such as the State of Connecticut attempt hitting the wires here and here.

The battle plan against the Church is evermore visible above the horizon, although it has been on the rise for a long time out of sight and mind of many.  Divide and conquer! No big surprise.  I think we feel all too safe having our Constitution to protect us.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Archbishop Chaput writes in response to the Connecticut attack:

“But prejudice against the Catholic Church has a long pedigree in the United States. And rarely has belligerence toward the Church been so perfectly and nakedly captured as in Connecticut’s pending Senate Bill 1098, which, in the words of Hartford’s Archbishop Henry Mansell, ‘directly attacks the Roman Catholic Church and our Faith.’”

“In effect, SB 1098 would give the state of Connecticut the power to forcibly reorganize the internal civil life of the Catholic community. This is bad public policy in every sense: imprudent; unjust; dismissive of First Amendment concerns, and contemptuous of the right of the Catholic Church to be who she is as a public entity,” the archbishop criticized.

I want to focus on the role of the bishop in the Church.  He is not just one voice among many.  For Christians, he is the voice speaking with clarity for Christ.  In our loud and intrusive culture, we listen to the voice speaking loudest in our heads, and exhortations like “listen to your bishop” have long since faded in the background of our day to day struggle.  Time to refocus!  Time to be vigilant!  Our fallen natures find it hard to submit to valid authority, but now is not the time for pettiness or self-serving arrogance.  We need our bishops and our bishops need to speak and speak clearly.

The Fathers say:

St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Magnesians:

Let nothing exist among you that may divide you ; but be ye united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality.

As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and presbyters. Neither endeavor that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart; but being come together into the same place, let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy undefiled. There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Do ye therefore all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one.

Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans:

It is reasonable for the future to be vigilant, and while we have yet time, to repent unto God. It is well to honor God and the bishop; he who honors the bishop, is honored of God; he who does anything without the knowledge of the bishop, serves the devil.

Note for our Christian brothers and sisters outside the Roman Church:

Responding to the Connecticut Bill, Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut writes:

“We need as big a turnout as possible for the public hearing on Wednesday, especially from non-Catholics. As Ben Franklin told the Founders while they were signing the Declaration of Independence, “either we hang together or we will all hang separately.” Legislators need to understand that this bill is an attack on everyone’s religious liberty.”

If the legislature can replace a bishop with a board of laymen in the Catholic Church, they can just as easily replace the governing lay structure of Congregationalist or Baptist churches with someone set up as a bishop. In fact, it was resistance to such government interference in the internal life of the church that gave birth to several of our most historic denominations. Thanks to this awful bill, our generation must now rise up to defend those hard-fought victories for religious liberty that were won for us by our ancestors.

The Anchoress waiting on the Remnant writes:

The Remnant is much deeper than any movement, and it will surface on its own – full of surprising and surprised people – in due time, when it must, and that may be soon, but neither you nor I know the day or hour. The thing about remnants is that they identify themselves after a carpet has been laid or a robe has been cut, not before.

Remnants do not stop a construct from happening…they survive it.

Exhaustive list of Catholic bishops condemning voting for pro-aborts here.

From the Anchoress UPDATE: “Well, a reprieve of sorts. Seems
“The bill is dead for the rest of the legislative session. As soon as word spread about the bill, the Legislative Office Building was flooded with telephone calls and e-mails on Monday. The bill, virtually overnight, became the hottest issue at the state Capitol.”. (H/T Ace) That’s good. But it’s still on the way – next year, year after that, because as Ed Morrissey writes: They’re embarrassed, but they still haven’t learned why.”

“This battle is going to happen. Bank on it.”

Marana, tha

Maran atha


Comfort, Give Comfort

by

Isaiah speaks the words I need to hear this morning.

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. Isaiah 40: 1

The day is new and as they say” hope springs eternal.” The world has definitely been heavy on my mind. I need to turn the page if only at the beginning of this day.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

Man never is, but always to be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come. (Alexander Pope – An Essay on Man)

This is a gift to myself today.  It speaks to the heart of love and memory that even crosses the line between Man and Beast.

Have a wonderful day!

Unity,Hope,Change – Truth & Conscience

by

It been two weeks since Archbishop Chaput’s addressed over 700 participants on the campus of the University of Toronto at St. Basil’s Church.  The Archbishop urged Catholics to live out their faith in the public square.  He sounded a warning saying that in the United States Catholics “needed be on guard against “a spirit of adulation bordering on servility” that exists towards the Obama administration.  Of President Obama, he said, “There’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change”

“I think modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice. Human beings owe each other respect and appropriate courtesy. But we also owe each other the truth — which means candor.”

That Catholics voted for Obama despite his stand on life issues proved  Chaput’s point that  the “Church in the United States has done a poor job of forming the faith and conscience of Catholics for more than 40 years.” In his book, “Rend Unto Caesar” Archbishop Chaput traces the Catholic struggle to be accepted in the United States, which was formed mainly by Protestants.  President John F. Kennedy ushered in a coming of age of Catholic respectability.  What will that acceptance cost us, if, for it’s sake, we lose our sense of duty, our will, and our nerve to be outspokenly Catholic?

I have a friend who said her father taught her that she needed three things to be happy: “a wish bone, a funny bone and a back bone.”  I think our catholic back bone is being tried, but if we are found wanting, there will be no happily ever after in America.