Pondered In My Heart

Two Things

It is that time of year when we mourn the 44 year old legalized culture of death in this country. Leila has posted some thoughts on this matter, namely that

 "the remedy for the great pain and evil we are suffering as a nation is this sacred covenant given by God, on which all society is based, for the very sake of the child. It’s God’s plan. There is no other plan."

Please do go and read her post if you haven't already. The rampant breakdown of the family and abandonment of God's plan is the cause of so much sorrow and evil in our culture today.

And secondly, please note that a 54 Day Rosary Novena begins tomorrow that will end on the vigil of the feast of St. Joseph, patron of fathers and of the domestic church- the family. Chari and Willa have posted some information on this novena, and you can sign up to receive daily reminders to pray. The novena consists of praying a five decade rosary in petition for 27 days (three novenas), followed by 27 days of praying in thanksgiving. We will be praying and asking St. Joseph's intercession especially for husbands and fathers, marriages and the family.

I'm sure you know of marriages in dire need of prayer and healing. Please consider joining in this rosary novena to pray for them.

Note the picture up top is of Eliza praying the rosary by herself. When you ask her to pray for someone, she gets right on it.

Congratulations Cards for Moms

Some time ago I read a post over at Faith & Family Live in which several ladies were discussing the announcing of pregnancies to friends and family members. Some of the women mentioned the unfortunate fact that when you already have a few children, those announcements aren't always met with the joy and support and encouragement that a mother carrying a new baby blessing always deserves. Whether it's her first baby or her fifth or even her fifteenth.

It gave me the idea that it would be fun to create some cards designed especially to congratulate veteran moms who are expecting again. So I came up with this one-

The inside reads-

I embellished the cards with tiny baby feet in hearts, because we moms know that our hearts always have room for another wee one to love-

No matter the number or the circumstances, a baby is always a blessing from the Lord -
 

I know this is true, as Scripture tells us so-

 
I had a lot of fun making these, and I hope they bless with encouragement and joy. They are available here in our shop.

Can You Spare 40 Days? For Life.

Today is the first day of the fall 40 Days for Life campaign, following the Biblical principal of setting aside forty days as a period of intense prayer and fasting for a specific goal. 40 Days for Life seeks to draw attention to and to end the evil of abortion in our society. The focus of the campaign is prayer and fasting, peaceful vigils at clinic sites, and community outreach through awareness and education. The use of a forty day period dedicated to intensive prayer goes back to Biblical times with examples in both the Old and New Testaments. The 40 Days for Life campaign is happening in 212 cities across the United States and Canada, and even one site in Denmark. As Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine stated, "40 Days for Life is the work of the Holy Spirit, a divine inspiration in the ongoing effort to end the plague of abortion."

At Mass tonight I thought of how appropriate it is that the campaign is starting today, Ember Wednesday and a day of fasting. The reading from the Gospel of Mark 9:16-28 told the story of Our Lord healing the boy possessed by a demon. His disciples secretly asked Him: why could not we cast him out? And He said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. Surely the greatest evil possessing our society is the killing of the unborn, and clearly this evil is not going to be cast out but by prayer and fasting. And who is there to fast and pray but the people of God? It is up to us.

The other main component of the campaign is keeping vigil at the clinics. There are people who faithfully pray at clinics week after week, year after year, but there are also many, many people who consider themselves prolife yet resist this form of work. Our family began regularly praying at clinics during the fall 40 Days campaign last year. Many prolife leaders stress the importance of being a witness at the clinics, the front lines of the battle for life. During the kickoff rally last year we listened to a local prolife leader read this profound testimony of the effect of prayer warriors stationed in front of the clinic (please do read it). When David Bereit visited our campaign, he said the most important thing we can do is witness at the clinics. When we heard Joe Scheidler speak in January, he said the most important thing to do is witness at the clinics. When Fr. Pavone visited our 40 Days campaign, he said the most important thing to do is witness at the clinics. He said if hundreds and thousands of people started showing up on the sidewalks everyday, the scourge of abortion would end. Quickly.

We recently attended a prolife symposium and the speaker challenged us to examine our own views about abortion. He pointed out that everyone in the room agrees that we want abortion to end, but that is not the same as saying we want to end abortion. That involves doing something, not just wishing someone else will get the job done for us. We must be willing to sacrifice and actively work to bring about the end of the slaughter of the innocents. 

One reason many people resist visiting the clinics is they want to protect their children's innocence. This is a valid concern, and one I used as an excuse for many years. But the reality is that our children are going to learn about abortion sooner or later. I know that this past presidential elections provided the unwelcome but necessary opportunity for many to discuss the topic with their children for the first time. I have come to realize that as my children grow older and gradually grasp an understanding of this most horrific practice in our society, I want them to simultaneously know how we spend our lives actively trying to end it. I don't want any of them to ever learn about it and then ask why don't we do anything about it?

I confess I also resisted going to the clinics for a long time because I thought I couldn't handle it. I rationalized that going and standing around crying like a fool wasn't going to help anything, and so I didn't go. But last fall I came to the realization that my personal discomfort was a pretty lame excuse for not going there. I was right - I can't handle it. No matter how many times we go I still get disturbed and my stomach ties in knots and I am filled with dread. But God wants us to cry, to care, and to do something about His little ones. Sometimes I wear sunglasses. Sometimes I put up my defense mechanisms and turn off my brain and just pray. Sometimes I allow myself to think just a little and I let my mind wander in behind those gruesome walls. And I know that when I allow myself to think, to feel, to weep, to ache for those women - that is when I am most able to unite my sufferings with His and beg Him to use them to bear fruit that is Life. And in His goodness and mercy He answers.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you  - standing in front of a clinic is surely one way to have evil screamed against you, but Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great - surely there is no greater joy than when you have been standing there praying and a life is saved.

So I ask you to please consider joining in this 40 Days for Life campaign. You can sign up to receive a daily update and devotional message via email, or check the daily blog. You can check the location map to see if there is a campaign near you. There is no greater witness to life than mothers with babies and families standing outside the clinics praying! Even if there are not local events in your area (and praise God if you have no clinic nearby!), you can unite your prayers and fasting and sacrifices to the cause of life for the next forty days. Please join us. For Life!

God Doesn't Make Mistakes...

We've always known this, we've been blessed by doctors who know this, and I know you know too, but you just have to watch this:

Grand hat tip and bow and giant Thank You to Cheryl.

The Saddest Day

On this, the 36th anniversary of the most tragic of all days I can't help but wonder, how as a country did we get to this place? And how long before we wake up and get out?

The other night we went to hear a talk by Joe Scheidler. The first thing he talked about was the energy and enthusiasm of the pro-life people gathered at his previous speaking engagement (as Bridget blogged about). Rather than finding the attendees discouraged and despondent due to the current political situation as one would expect, he noted that people were more passionate and eager to get to work than ever. This seems to be the case further east as well, as many more protesters turned out for today's March for Life than has been the case in recent years. Mr. Scheidler spoke of how God can 'write straight with crooked lines' and how things often seem to be at their darkest right before the dawn. We know God is in the habit of bringing good out of apparent evil, and of accomplishing His will through our meager efforts and paltry offerings.

Still, it's hard to imagine any kind of dawn anytime soon with Obama in office. But as the posters candidly tell us, there is always HOPE. Since the election I've been thinking about how much we should be fasting and praying for a change of heart for this man regarding Life issues. It's not easy, this love your enemies business, and it's only by God's grace that we can even consider it. Pro-lifers hoped and prayed the McCain/Palin ticket would prevail, and their victory would have been seen as a triumph for the movement. But how much greater it would be to have President Obama become convicted of the sanctity of human life, and all glory be given to God. In this Year of St. Paul we can pray especially for his intercession that Obama would indeed be knocked off his horse and see the Light, the Light that is Truth.

Father T. spoke this morning at Mass of how the whole abortion movement is founded upon and fed with lies. Satan, the father of lies, has blinded the eyes, closed the ears and turned to stone the hearts of so many. I keep thinking of Obama taking his oath on Lincoln's bible. His words 'so help me God' keep resounding through my head and I pray that God will help him. I pray that in His mercy God will help this man to see the truth and have courage enough to face it. Oh, I know our puny little minds and wee bits of faith scoff at the mere thought of such a thing happening. But we have St. Paul as our example and hope, and we can call upon him as our intercessor in the cause for life. I'm sure Paul's contemporaries had a hard time believing that the man who once travelled far and wide in order to find Christians to murder had become a believer. Can you imagine the potential if Obama were to inform his throngs of zealous followers of the value of every human life? If all that 'powerful', 'rousing', 'eloquent' speech of his was used to defend life?

And that Bible of Lincoln's. Nowadays we struggle to try to comprehend how it could possibly be that slavery was legal in our very own country. We try to teach history to our children and we really are at a complete loss attempting to explain that people actually believed you could own another person. It really is incomprehensible, and trying to make sense of such madness to a child seems preposterous. With this past election so many mothers have had to grapple with and try to explain the inexplicable to our children. And so we labor on in hope that this too shall end. The battle will be won. People will look back with horror and disbelief and shame and wonder how, HOW was it, that it was legal to kill our own unborn children, to cut them up in little pieces and throw them away like so much trash all in the name of the ideology of 'choice'. But it doesn't matter how confused and bewildered they will be trying to understand how.

All that matters is that it ends.

May God strengthen us in our resolve and have mercy on us all.

VOTE! (please)

Guest blogger:  Michael

We in America have the opportunity to choose those officials who will govern us.  As stated in the Declaration of Independence, this is the foundation of our government:

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

Men and Women have fought and died to establish and preserve these rights for generations of Americans.  People of all colors protested, were imprisoned and even murdered to secure the right to vote for women and blacks, to affirm the truth that, “all men are created equal”.

Vote for a Viable Candidate

There are only two Presidential candidates who have a possibility of winning this election.  There may be third-party candidates who better express your views.  Unfortunately, choosing one of these candidates has the same effect as not voting.  It may be far easier to vote for a third-party candidate, or to not vote so that you can later say, “I didn’t vote for him” – but this is cowardice.

You may say to yourself, “I cannot, in good conscience, vote for either of these candidates”.  Please reconsider this position.  Regardless of your vote, one of these two men will become President and have a great power to determine the direction that our society takes.  This will affect your family, and it will affect the world.  Is there really no distinction between these two candidates that matters to you?

Do Not be Discouraged by Polls

The election is by no means “over”.  The discrepancies between the polls are very large this year, due to uncertainties about who will actually make the effort to vote.

Even if you are reading this post on Election Day, and “exit polling” data has been released and different states have been “called” for one candidate or the other, please do not let this discourage you.  Pray.  Vote.  Pray.

Be encouraged by the fact that the 2000 election was decided on December 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas and Protectress of the Unborn. The Lord answers prayers!

Where Ever You Live, Vote!

Even if you live in a "red" state like Texas or a "blue" state like California or New York, it is your obligation to vote. Although your vote may not effect the Electoral College, the media and the next President  will look at the popular vote and declare a "landslide" and a "mandate", or will be forced to admit a "closely contested election" with a "need for bipartisanship" based on the popular vote totals. This will affect the way that our country is governed.

If You are a Catholic, Heed the Advice of the Bishops

This year a large number of Bishops have forcefully expressed the view of the Catholic Church that the issue of “Life” towers above all other issues. See this impressive list: Our Bishops Speak

Barack Obama is pro-Choice and John McCain is pro-Life (to use the terms that they choose for themselves).  The positions of the two candidates on the issue of abortion could not be more different.  If you have any doubt about their personal views, please watch this video of both candidates speaking on the issue of Life.  America's Choice Now

Other Issues

If you are not a Catholic, and if the abortion issue is not the most important issue to you, the choice is more difficult, I imagine.  There are many other reasons to vote for McCain or against Obama, but I mention only one....

What will happen if the Democratic Party controls the Presidency, House of Representatives, and has a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate?  What will happen if Barack Obama appoints two to five new Supreme Court justices, bringing Democratic control to even the judicial branch?

Will there be any reason for Barack Obama to shape a moderate consensus that takes into account the views of the Republican Party on any issue?  If Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pursue a Liberal agenda, it is possible that there will be a backlash in two or four years – but that is a long time!  Our country can be changed quickly and permanently by a government that does not have real “checks and balances” – especially at a time when our country is in a financial crisis that has already led to an increase in the power of the Federal Government.

By contrast, if John McCain is elected President, he will most likely be faced with a Democratic House and Senate.  In order to get anything done in this divided government, John McCain will need to work in a bipartisan manner as he has done throughout his career.  Even appointing Supreme Court Justices will require a certain level of moderation, with judicial appointments more like Alito and Roberts than Scalia and Thomas.  A divided government will better represent the country in which we live, and will allow our shared views to move forward, while our more partisan views are held at bay.

Your Vote Counts!

On Tuesday, November 4^th it is our responsibility to elect those who will govern and serve us; It is our moral obligation to advance the “culture of Life”, and to promote a society in which our faith and our families can thrive.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.  Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Puddleglum, We Need You Now

It's getting down to the wire, the eleventh hour as it were. I have faith and I try to trust and I try very hard to resist the temptation to fret, or even to despair. We are just days away from the election and it is very hard to think about anything else. Will God have mercy on us and spare our nation from a man who purports to do great and mighty things to advance the Culture of Death? Will He hear the cries and pleas of His people and accept the countless acts of prayer and sacrifice being offered for the cause of life? Is it enough? I think of Abraham asking God again and again if He will spare the city of Sodom if enough righteous men are found dwelling there (Genesis 19). Will He spare us? Will we continue on the journey to reverse the damage of Roe and begin to heal our land? I have long tried to believe that He will indeed save us - He is kind and merciful and we must trust in His everlasting goodness. I have said over and over that He will do something to turn this thing around.

Or will He not? Because Scripture tells us that God hates lukewarmness (Revelation 3). If standing by and doing nothing while 48 million innocent children are slaughtered isn't lukewarm then I don't know what is. As our priest said in one of his excellent sermons on the election, people act as though their economic prosperity is the most important issue in this electon, even in all of life. They are like those mentioned in Philipians 3 - their god is their stomach and they live contrary to the cross of Christ. Can God have mercy on a people who vote according to favorable economic promises rather than to protect the lives of millions of innocents?

These are the questions that swirl through my head, and I try to get them to rest, I try to find peace. But it isn't easy.  So many good preists and bishops have been clarifying the issue over and over again, correcting errant politicians who have attempted to muddle things up, but it really is a nobrainer as Fr. Corapi so clearly explains (hat tip of gratitude to Suzanne's moving post). Yet I am startled by how many people are confused and ignorant and swayed by the facade. Just last week a Catholic collegue of Michael's revealed he planned to sit out the election but he would vote if McCain was pro-life. We got that one cleared up. The next day someone sent me information about a Catholic group supporting Obama and explaining how he really is prolife. That one sent me through the roof. The next day we received an email from a fellow church member exhorting people to refrain from voting, calling the election 'a sham' and our government 'the two party axis of evil'. I was then horrified to visit the sites of third party candidates who are still begging for votes for themselves, in essence encouraging people to be sure their vote doesn't count instead of trying with all their might to defeat Obama.

I find all of this simply incredible and I wonder how long people are going to go on listening to the thrumming, swayed by the smooth words and sweeet smell and swooning from the heady rush of it all. No, abortion is not the only issue in this election. It is clearly the most important issue, the issue which our priests and bishops have told us over and over again towers above all others, the issue on which Obama's own words and voting record are absolutely chilling. But yes, there are indeed many other issues. So many of his ideas are disturbing such as government run health care, loss of educational freedom, drafting women, a new civilian national security force to name but a few. Then we have all the other red flags like ACORN and Ayers and Alinsky and Wright and campaign finace and the list goes on and on.

But it is his utter contempt for human life, for the common man, for the truly Christian man who clings to his God, for our Constitution, for our very country that makes me so sad that our nation is so blindly trying to elect this man to its highest office.

The throngs of people following Obama because he promises to make their lives better with change is just amazing to me. So few people actually know anything of his true political ideology intended to take us down the road to socialism or worse, and the lack of an objective or investigative media concerning this man is appalling. I am not lulled by his smooth words and frankly I find the sweet smelling smoke rather sickening. And so I wait, fasting and praying and hoping like so many others. Every day I read of more families' sacrifices (like this and this and this and this) and I beg Him to graciously hear us. I look at my children sleeping on the floor every night, cold and uncomfortable without their pillows, and I plead with my Lord and my God. I stand in front of the clinic and weep and I plead for our nation of wretchedness. I wait for  a brave marsh-wiggle to stamp in the fire and I wait for the enchantment to end. I wait for my beloved country to clear its head and its heart and soul and open its eyes and remember the mission we are here for.

Jesus, I trust in You!

Sarah!!!

Guest blogger:  Michael.  (Kimberlee is busy with Saturday Night Bath.)

How would you feel if you had to spend over an hour waiting and walking in a line that was over a half mile long?  And this after first walking from the car to the front of the line, following your way along the line, around corners that always promised to be "the end of the line", until finally reaching the end of the line - which happened to be near the car?  We were thrilled!   And so was everyone else standing in line for the rally with us.

 

The show of support for Sarah Palin was overwhelming.  The people in the line were genuinely friendly and cheerful - happy that McCain/Palin has not given up on Pennsylvania, in spite of the polls.  This is, after all, the state that elected pro-life Democrat Bob Casey and pro-choice Republican Tom Ridge to the Governor's office.  This is truly a battleground state, even though polls show Pennsylvania as being as "blue" as California right now (ha!).  Other than the cities, particularly Philadelphia and Pittsburg, the state is very conservative.  This is a state where Catholics can make a difference, if only they can be made aware that Barack Obama has a radically pro-choice view of the world, and that John McCain and Sarah Palin have both demonstrated their personal and political commitment to a culture of life!

There were, of course, protestors along the way.  All of them (I counted 20, plus two dogs) are shown in the photo below.  People in line were amused by the red sign in front of the protestors :-)

The protestors were not a happy lot, as you can see from the signs that they carried.  But the media was there to get "both sides of the story" - the 20 protestors, and the thousands of supporters of McCain/Palin!

We were in time to hear some of the live musical performances - minus Jonathan's stainless steel thermos that looked too much like some type of explosive device.  (We missed the hot tea!)  For some reason, most people packed the seats in the stadium and did not go down to the field.  After sitting in the stands for about a minute, we went down to be in the middle of things!

Eliza danced on the round tarp that covered home plate:

From time to time, she would take a sign (the thing to do at a rally), and walk or sit with the sign until she decided it was time to dance again!

Here is Eliza holding a big sign, apparently the center of the whole show.

The "center of the show" was, of course, Sarah Palin, who spoke from a podium at first base.  Her standard stump speech was well received.  Lines about "drill, baby, drill" and promoting "clean coal" (certainly a big issue in these parts) were applauded, but not with the same enthusiasm that Sarah got when she started talking about Special Needs children.

 

At this point in the speech, Sarah Palin actually pointed to our signs, which Kimberlee had made at 1 AM.

Here is the text of the pro-life part of Sarah Palin's speech:

John and I have talked a lot about the missions that he’d like me to focus on with him and ... government reform, energy independence being top of the list, but another mission too he’d asked me to lead on.  I’m so honored and privileged to be able to do so.  That’s an issue that is close to my heart and that’s to help our families who have children with special needs.

It was a Pennsylvania governor, Robert Casey, he was asked how society should treat those who are most vulnerable among us, including children with special needs, and the governor said, “It’s simple - you put them first in line.”  Governor Casey understood that children with special needs can inspire a special love, and I am convinced that that is a love that our country needs more of.

These children are not a problem, they are a priority.

We need to show them the good heart of America.  You know as Governor I have sought more funding, succeeded there in funding for our children in our schools with special needs, but we’ve got to do more than that in showing that good heart of America.  As Vice President I’m going to make sure that these children, that all our families know that they have a friend and an advocate in the White House.

That is important to John McCain and to me because we have a vision of an America where every child is cherished and life is given a chance. 

Thankfully we have pro-life candidates who share our most important values.  It is great to be able to take our children to a political event every four years, to develop within them a desire to be a part of the political process in America.  And thankfully Kimberlee will not have to run for President or VP this year, as suggested by some commenters to a previous post.  There is already a pro-life young mother of many children, including a special needs child, who is on the ticket!

After the rally, Eliza was happy to make "angels" in the perfectly-grained dirt between the bases while the rest of the family tried to get as close as possible to Governor Palin.

 

Kimberlee and the girls (minus Eliza) got very close, but not quite close enough for a hand shake or an autograph.  Sigh!

 

Mary Rose was very disappointed that she did not get to meet Sarah Palin.  I told her that if she wants to, maybe Mary Rose will one day be President.  And then we will all be able to shake her hand, hug her, and sit down together for tea!

 

Pondering Being John McCain...

John McCain did a fine job expressing his pro-life views at tonigh's final debate, but there is so much more I wish he could have said, so much more I wish the country could hear. All these words just swirled around in a tirade in my head right after the question. It's not my typical blog fare and it's not for my children to read so I've posted it on a separate page here. 

Forty Days for Life: Respect Life Sunday

 

Eliza does her part at the clinic on Saturday morning.

Today is Respect Life Sunday.

At Mass we were treated to a reading of the Pastoral Letter from Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Powerful writing.

There were lovely holy cards of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the children. They have the spiritual adoption prayer of Bishop Sheen on the back, in easy-to-read large type and laminated for durability - they are so very thoughtful and beautiful. We are keeping ours in our fall pumpkin jar which is usually filled with candy corn at this time of year. They are a nice visual reminder of why we continue our forty day fast from all sweets and treats and baked goodies and sugar(and if you read here often you know we normally bake every day and keep about twelve cartons of ice cream on hand).  

I encouraged each of the children to choose a boy or girl to adopt and to give the baby a name. The church's pro-life group will provide little monthly updates on the growth and development of the adopted babies, and at the end of nine months they will host a baby shower with all of the gifts going to a local maternity home. Dear Mary Rose asked if there was anything else she would get to do with her Baby. I couldn't help but tear up as I answered, Well yes, hopefully you'll get to meet her in heaven.