40 Days for Life-He descended to the Dead

            We are now well into the 40 Days for Life campaign at the Haworth abortion clinic; praying to end abortion.  I arrive there late this morning, knowing that there will be abortions going on since it is a Friday.  When I arrive on this beautiful sunny morning, it is the chaotic scene of spiritual warfare:  people praying, sidewalk counselors standing at the ready and women and men going in and out of the clinic.  There is agitation on the sidewalk as I step onto the grass:  a girl who had walked away Tuesday, gone to the local crisis pregnancy center and had an ultrasound, had just arrived back at the clinic today to have an abortion.  We are asked to pray for her, that she will change her mind.  She is in there and all we can do now is pray.

            I stand with a lady who has been there for a while.  We start to pray together, a spontaneous prayer and then I tell her I would like to pray the rosary.  I begin with the Apostles Creed:  I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.  I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried….while I pray these words, there suddenly seems to be a barrage of action going on around us:  a sudden flurry of people are walking in and we can hear the sidewalk counselors calling out to them:  Your baby’s heart is beating three weeks after conception, there is a clinic around the corner, it is free, they will show you a picture of your baby for free.  Please, we are trying to save your baby.          

            This sudden flurry of people coming into the clinic and their verbal interaction with the sidewalk counselors distracts me and I start to stumble over the words, was crucified, died and was buried…He ascended into Heaven, no I mean He descended to the dead.  He descended to the dead.  He descended to the dead.  In that moment, I cannot think of the next words of the creed.  I am stuck on ‘He descended to the dead’.  It hits me so hard, why we are there, how all those people just walked in without stopping to talk to the counselors and I just cry my little eyes out for a while.  My sister in prayer stands with me silently.  We just stand there.  I cannot think of the next words.  Only, ‘He descended to the dead.’

  

March for Life 2009 Slideshow

Photos from the March for Life 2009

more about "March for Life 2009 Slideshow", posted with vodpod

Interview with Bp. Burbidge

Bishop Michael Burbidge spoke briefly with me as we were walking at the March for Life in Washington, DC on January 22, 2009

more about "Interview with Bp. Burbidge", posted with vodpod

A tale of two demons

                Today at the abortion clinic, there is a large group of prayer warriors.  Some of the young pro-lifers have organized a procession for life around the clinic block.  They are doing it now on the first Saturday of every month, which coincides with our parish visits there.  So it is a big group today because of that.  That is good because the clinic parking lot is packed: many are there on this cold Saturday morning to get abortions.

                We are late and miss the start of the procession.  So we join in the rosary already going on in front of the clinic, led by Jim and Nina.  They stand there faithfully praying as they do every week.  There are three sidewalk counselors there also, patrolling around, praying their rosaries, watching what is going on.  It is soon after our arrival that I notice two young men in front of the clinic, smoking, and looking at us.

                We see the procession turn the block and the group joins us.  Now what was a prayerful group of seven becomes a prayerful group of almost fifty.  I still see the young men watching us.  They are smiling, they are smirking.  They gesture to us.  A member of our group walks up to one of the Truth Truck signs and flips it around so that the young men can see it.  They openly laugh at her.  For those of you who don’t know, a Truth Truck sign is a picture of an aborted baby.  This one is of a baby aborted at 7 weeks.  It is grotesque.  The limbs are no longer attached to the body and the head looks caved in.  Debates rage over whether it is ‘proper’ to even show these signs.  The truth hurts sometimes.  Most people feel sick when they see one.  But these young men just laugh at it.

My own remembrance of the Omaha shootings

One year ago today, a troubled teenager walked into a mall and killed eight people and then himself.  I was visiting Omaha for medical reasons and I was staying in a hotel next to the mall when the shootings happened.  The tragedy had a big effect on me and so I remember it today.  I remember it by looking at the email I shared with family and friends the day after the tragedy. 

I remember it.

l————————————————————————————

Hello everyone.

On Tuesday, December 4, I flew to Omaha, Nebraska for my week of medical testing.  I had my appointment and then went to the Westroads Mall to take a little walk & see what was in the mall.  I walked through JCPenney, in front of Von Maur and all around.  It’s a nice mall.  I had parked my car right between Von Maur & JCPenney, the view that you keep seeing on TV.
Then I checked into my hotel, the Hampton Inn Westroads, on a little hill between Dodge Street and the mall.  

Yesterday afternoon around 2pm I was talking to my Dad on the phone.  I kept hearing sirens over and over and eventually thought, gee I’m hearing a lot of sirens.  I came downstairs to the lobby to use the computer and see all these people crowded around the TV.  I look out the window and see all the police.  I sit down and log on & start looking at emails but I do not really understand what is happening.  But as I start looking at emails, I am distracted by what’s on the TV.  A gunman entering the mall and shooting five people, one dead.  I do write a couple of emails (in a very distracted manner, send a note to Mark & my Dad and log off.

National Night of Prayer for Life 2008

National Night of Prayer

for Life

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church

Rocky Mount, NC

 

December 8, 8:00pm- December 9, 1:00am

 

 

Spanning the Feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe’s first apparition to St. Juan Diego

 

• Five hours of prayer in the Real Presence of Our Lord for the conversion of hearts toward life and in reparation for the sin of abortion

 

• The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed after the 7pm Feast of the Immaculate Conception Mass and adoration will continue until Benediction at 1am

 

• The National Night of Prayer is celebrating its 18^th year of uniting parishes across the country in an effort to end abortion and make prayers of reparation through Eucharistic Adoration

 

• The hour of unity will be from midnight-1am when parishes in all four time zones will be praying simultaneously for life

 

• Adoration will take place in the church and not in the St. Joseph’s chapel.  The St. Joseph’s chapel will close with Exposition in the church at 8pm and the Monday evening adorers will transfer to the church for adoration

 

Come and pray.  Come and listen.

The Pennsylvanian Brother-in-Law’s Two Cents

I wanted to post the following note that I got from my brother-in-law in Pennsylvania:

Even if one makes no claims about whether life begins at conception, I
believe the following argument shows that it is unjustified for the
government to permit the practice of abortion.

Consider the possible scenarios regarding whether life begins at
conception, and the possible policies regarding abortion:

-B1: If life begins at birth and the government bans abortion, then the
liberties of Americans are restricted.
-B2: If life begins at conception and the government bans abortion, then
no harm is done.
-A1: If life begins at birth and the government allows abortion, then no
harm is done.
-A2: If life begins at conception and the government allows abortion
(the situation we believe we are currently in), then untold numbers of
lives are lost.

Since Americans in general cannot agree on whether life begins at
conception, the government should compare the average harm done by the
two scenarios in which abortion is allowed (i.e., A1 and A2) with the
average harm done in scenarios in which abortion is banned (i.e., B1 and
B2).

Assuming that substantial loss of life causes more harm than the
restriction of certain liberties, then more harm is likely to be done by
allowing abortions than banning them.  Of course, this assumption is
generally accepted, and thus the government should disallow the practice
of abortion.

(Note: this line of reasoning is quite similar to Pascal’s Wager.)

Of course, for those of us who believe that life begins at conception,
such an argument seems wholly unnecessary.  And yet even so, there are
some who irrationally hold the simultaneous beliefs that life begins at
conception and that abortion should be allowed.  I cannot understand how
such people can abandon
both their faith and their faculty of reason.

A Pilgrimage to Newton Grove

            For a while now I had wanted to visit Newton Grove, North Carolina.  My friend, Father Frank Stangl, is buried in the church cemetery there.  He died in February and I was not able to drive out to his burial after the funeral because of motherly commitments.  So I had wanted to make the drive there, to see his grave and mark his memory.  After his death, however, I learned other things about Newton Grove that gave me the sense that visiting this destination would not only allow me to see and pray at my friend’s grave, but also to take a walk through North Carolina Catholic history.

            A couple of months after Fr. Frank’s death, a good friend gave me a book to read about Father Thomas Frederick Price.  Father Price is the co-founder of the Maryknoll Fathers—a foreign mission society—and is often referred to as ‘The Tarheel Apostle’.  Father Price’s roots in North Carolina run deep and his influence on the growth of the Catholic faith in the state is extraordinary. Father Price was born in Wilmington in 1860 and grew up in a Catholic family.  As a boy, he was an altar server for then Bishop Gibbons, who was to become the future Cardinal Gibbons.  Bishop Gibbons had corresponded with a man from Newton Grove, whose name was Dr. John C. Monk.  The book describes Dr. Monk’s story.  After leaving the Methodist church, Dr. Monk discovered an article written by the Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, in the New York Herald.  Impressed by the sermon published there, he wanted to learn more about the Catholic faith and wrote a letter addressed ‘To any Catholic Priest, Wilmington, NC’ to ask more questions.  The letter found its way into the hands of Bishop Gibbons and the correspondence began.  Sometime later, Dr. Monk and his family came to Wilmington to receive the sacraments and officially join the church.

            Dr. Monk went back to Newton Grove with his new faith, but there was no Catholic Church there.  In fact, there was some hostility towards Catholics at that time.  But faithfully, a priest named Father Mark Gross traveled to the area once a month and administered the sacraments in Dr. Monk’s home to the little and growing Catholic community there.  Finally, the day came when the church was built and dedicated in Newton Grove.  It was the young boy, Thomas Price, who was the altar server who accompanied the bishop to Newton Grove to serve at the dedication Mass.

           

Father De Luca’s Visit to OLPH this weekend

Father Joseph De Luca M.S.S. from the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament will be our guest, speaking at all the Masses the weekend of September 13-14 on the benefits and necessity of Perpetual Adoration. 

Father De Luca is currently living at Our Lady of Queen of Angels Church in Opelousas, Louisiana.  he was invited there by the bishops of four Louisiana dioceses-Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria and Baton Rouge-to establish Perpetual Adoration. in parishes throughout their dioceses.  He has dedicated himself to visiting a parish every weekend throughout the U.S. where the desire to establish Perpetual Adoration has been expressed.  The fruits of his labor have been bountiful with a great spiritual renewal within each parish.

Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, said that “Our essential commitment in life is to grow spiritually in the climate of the Holy Eucharist.”  There is no greater love given to Catholics than Christ present in the Eucharist-truly a powerful stone to slay the Goliath of sin!

Please do not miss hearing Father De Luca’s homily.  It will be most inspiring and has touched the hearts of thousands of people bringing them to a deeper understanding and love of the Eucharist.

The Impact of Hanna

            All night long, Tropical Storm Hanna had been battering North Carolina with rains and wind.  I woke up in the morning and was dreaming while I dozed…today we were going to go to the abortion clinic to pray again and I was thinking about Hanna and dreaming that perhaps when we got there, we would find the clinic closed because of the storm.  Maybe our prayers would be of thanksgiving because on this Saturday, the busiest day for abortions, it would be closed.  That the delay might somehow convert hearts that it was a sign from God not to abort their child.  Could Hanna make a save today?

            We left a little later than usual because of the storm.  Even while driving there, I kept thinking, maybe it will be closed.  Maybe it won’t be crowded there because people were afraid of the storm.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

            But when we arrive I have to catch my breath….it is crowded.  It is packed.  I feel suddenly overwhelmed, like the peaceful time in the car was shattered and I was immediately hitting the ground running into the war zone.  Right away, a car comes out of the driveway, I’m not fast enough to get my Project Rachel and Birthchoice cards out to even attempt to speak to them. 

Perpetual Adoration Video Preview

Here is a link to a preview for a perpetual adoration documentary that will come out later this year.  I think just about every pro-lifer out there understands the link between the pro-life movement and eucharistic adoration.  Click here to see the video preview.

Converting from a pro-choice atheist to a pro-life Catholic

I was sent a great article by one of our committee members that describes a conversion from a pro-choice atheist stance to pro-life Catholic viewpoint: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10904&o=32712. The article talks about the link between the ‘contraception mentality’ and the support of ‘abortion-on-demand’.

Being a single issue voter

I’ve been reading a lot of articles and seeing a lot of blogs/groups etc. about the upcoming election in November and the Catholic vote etc. etc. I read an article in the Notre Dame Alumni magazine that talks about religious groups ’selling out’ on the abortion issue since they make it ’so important’ and they shouldn’t do that because we need to face the facts that legalized abortion-on-demand is here to stay. According to these people, being a ’single issue voter’ (but apparently ONLY if that single issue is abortion and not anything else for example ‘the environment’ or ‘the war’) is backwards and wrong and we are holding the faithful hostage by demanding that they vote a particular way based on a ’single issue’. After stewing on this idea for a day and having a hard time understanding how easy it could be for a Catholic to discount the abortion issue as simply unimportant, I was sent another blog entry that defends the so-called ’single issue’ position—written by a Southern Baptist preacher. In his blog, he talks about how a single-issue is NOT enough to make him vote FOR someone but it is enough to make him vote AGAINST someone. For example, he says that racism is a single issue whereby if a candidate said he is a racist, he would not vote for that person based on that single issue. And again, here is my personal commentary on that: If support of abortion-on-demand and the barbaric partial birth abortion procedure is not important enough to disqualify a candidate from receiving my vote based on that single issue, then I don’t know what is.

If you haven’t already looked at it, I encourage you to go to the USCCB website on being a ‘Faithful Citizen’ at http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org/ This is your guide to the election and how to decide on who to vote for in good conscience. You need to be careful to read the entire document though—some groups are putting out only excerpts of it in their blogs and articles which again, in my opinion, ignore the whole context of the document. Do not be deceived—go directly to the source.

there is a lot at stake in this election—keep praying!!! The good news is that Jesus has already won the overall victory for us and we just need to cooperate with His will through His grace.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

from www.gloria.tv posted with vodpod

Hats Off to the Pope: My experience at the Washington DC Papal Mass

          All week, I have been fretting over what to wear to the Papal Mass.  My husband and I won tickets to the Mass in our diocese lottery….this is a once in a lifetime event, an opportunity that will not come again any time soon.  So I am thinking, a dress and heels.  Sure, the Mass is in a baseball stadium, but it’s still Mass.  The King of King and Lord of Lords will be there.  I need to get dressed up. 

          I am constantly checking the hour by hour forecast for Washington DC on Thursday.  Hmm, earlier it said it would be sunny and 80.  Now it’s supposed to be cool in the morning and then warm up later.  What if we’re sitting in the shade?  I will be cold.  But I don’t have the ‘right’ dress up jacket to wear.  What shall I do?

            As I ponder this, Jesus’ words from Matthew’s Gospel chapter six run through my head….do not worry about what you are to wear…But it gets worse for me:  I start thinking that I need to wear a hat.  Why, I’m not sure.  I have never in my life worn a hat.  I don’t think there is a rule saying, ‘it is proper when going to an outdoor Papal Mass, for a woman to wear a hat’.  I go to the mall to look for a hat.  I spend an hour trying on hats, being indecisive, wondering if this is the right hat.  I finally buy one that is black with a cream/white bow.  The only problem is that it has big white feathers on it.  Well, I think, I can cut off the feathers.  It takes me another day and a lot of looks in the mirror before I finally reach the decision to take the scissors and cut off the tag and the feathers.  The encouragement of some older women from my parish finally pushes me over the edge.

            Jesus said…do not worry about what you are to wear…well, I also remember from later in Matthew’s Gospel that the man who came to the wedding feast not properly dressed was thrown out where there was wailing and grinding of teeth.  This somehow makes me feel better.

            I decide rather easily to ditch the heels.  You have to draw the line somewhere.

            So I am ready.  The outfit, the babysitters, the hotel, the plan.  It’s all set.  We are ready to go to Washington to see the Pope!