The Sway, the Truth, and the Life

I think when Future Bill looks back on the small number of posts that went up for January and February of 2009, he’ll be smiling.

Smiling because every long stretch of postless days meant the time was wasted on his family. Yes! Wasted. Spilled out like a precious ointment on the feet of his beloved wife and son! Those were the days of grace; of Grace, and the Boy Wonder to be exact.

I’ve written before about the mysterious powers that a child unlocks in a father’s heart, powers that lay dormant like seeds awaiting the water of life. Well, they keep coming. I feel like the Greatest American Hero, Ralph Hinkley. Remember that show? In the series, he was given a “super suit” but lost the Instruction Manual in the desert. The series moved along and Ralph just had to discover how it all worked. Some episodes had him getting the knack of flying down a bit better, one show had him learn how to become invisible. Pretty cool stuff. I’ve already mastered invisibility…. it’s called “peekaboo!”

Yes, every day is an adventure, and every day Rebecca and I are absolutely blown away by the mystery of this little boy. We’re captivated by his smile, the way his face lights up when we look at him, when I come home from work, when he looks around at Sunday Mass at all the faces, and the stained glass, and the marble columns. And how his eyes flash at the sound of the altar bells when Jesus is coming.

A few weeks back, at Mass, I was holding the wee lad, and found myself… swaying. Finally, swaying. Ahead of me, a young couple stood, friends of ours, each holding a child, and swaying. And ahead of them, yet another woman, swaying. Like a forest of trees caught up in a great wind, there we were. Mommies and daddies, caught up in the Wind of the Spirit of Life. For years this sight caused a deep pain in our hearts, and now suddenly, we’ve entered into the Dance… into the Sway, the Truth, and the Life that God wishes all of us to enjoy.

It gives me pause to consider those still waiting, still hoping for the gift of children or of the gift of a spouse to build a life with, and to share a life with too. These are words and experiences to deep for tears. All I can do is hold and treasure this life, appreciating the utter gratuitousness of it all. Everything is a gift, everything is a grace.

The way to begin healing the wounds of the world is to treasure the Infant Christ in us; to be not the castle but the cradle of Christ; and, in rocking that cradle to the rhythm of love, to swing the whole world back into the beat of the Music of Eternal Life.
– Caryll Houselander

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Touched by Grace

The following words were spoken by my beautiful sister-in-law Linda, on Saturday, in the church where we celebrated Grace’s Mass of Resurrection. I asked Linda to write them out for me because they so clearly speak the truth we believe; that LIFE is good, always and everywhere, and that it is always a gift that should be received with love, regardless of the manner in which we were born or the path nature took in the womb, causing handicaps or disabilities. Where there’s life, there’s hope. Life is good, Life teaches us, Life is of God. 

LINDA’S WORDS…

“Many of you know the song Amazing Grace. One verse states “How precious is Grace that appeared the hour I first believed.” I’m 40 yrs old and have had times in my life when my faith went up and down. “How precious is Grace Elizabeth Donaghy that appeared the hour I first believed.” I believe she was God’s love. I believe she was a reassurance that this world is only temporary. I believe her frail strong body was a Tabernacle. In her profound moments/hours, she knew family. She changed the world. She changed all of us. I know she changed me. For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son… Grace was made in the image of this Son. She was a reflection of the Alpha and the Omega-the beginning and the end. After her long journey began many years ago just like in the story of Horton Hears A Who (through the love of her mom and dad, Rebecca and Bill), Grace was finally able to “YELP.” She was able to make her little voice heard. Her little voice said; “ I AM” 

I am a Daughter. I am a Sister.
I am a Granddaughter. I am a Niece.
I am a Goddaughter. I am a Cousin.
I am Loved. I am Purity.
I am a child of God. I am a Miracle.
I am Life. I Exist. I Breath. I Feel. I Love.

George Bailey was given a great gift. He was able to see how the world would have been as if he had never lived. This is a gift I wish we all could have. Words cannot express what the world would be like without each of us. We are all connected. Our fingerprints are intertwined. As Father Kevin stated “Our understanding is not like His. His ways are not our ways. His time is not our time.” God always has a plan. God knows Grace lives on in each of us. Grace has had a Wonderful Life.”

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

A Stranger in a Strange Land

I’m packing my bags. This is going to be a way of sorrows. A long walk through a valley of death. We have just elected, as a people, the most abortion-minded politician in decades.

“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.” – Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

The Freedom of Choice Act? What’s that all about? Healing the economic crisis, bringing peace to the war in the Middle East? Finding solutions to issues like immigration or health care? No, it’s about destroying our unborn children, America’s future generations. Is this the change you wanted America?

From the National Committee for Human Life Amendment: The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) … is a radical bill. It creates a “fundamental right” to abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy. No governmental body at any level would be able to “deny or interfere with” this right, or to “discriminate” against the exercise of this right “in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.” For the first time, abortion would become an entitlement the government must condone and promote.

FOCA would go well beyond the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in imposing an extreme abortion regimen on our country. No other piece of legislation would have such a destructive impact on society’s ability to limit or regulate abortion. It would eliminate a broad range of laws – informed consent laws; parental involvement laws; laws promoting maternal health; abortion clinic regulations; government programs and facilities that pay for or promote childbirth and other health care without subsidizing abortion; conscience protection laws; laws prohibiting a particular abortion procedure (e.g., partial birth abortion); laws requiring that abortions only be performed by a licensed physician; and so on. For a careful legal analysis of FOCA by the USCCB’s Office of General Counsel, see: www.nchla.org/docdisplay.asp?ID=190. A summary fact sheet for general distribution can be found at: www.nchla.org/docdisplay.asp?ID=194

In a September 19 letter to Members of Congress, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, raised grave concerns about any possible consideration of FOCA. The Cardinal declared: “We can’t reduce abortions by promoting abortion.” He urged all Senators and Representatives “to pledge their opposition to FOCA.” For full text of the letter, see: www.usccb.org/prolife/FOCArigaliltr.pdf.

Recommended Actions: Contact your U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators by FAX letter, e-mail, or phone. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202.224.3121; or call Members’ local offices. Full contact info can be found on Members of Congress’s web sites, at: www.senate.gov and www.house.gov

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

A Song for Grace Elizabeth

Anyone who knows my wife Rebecca knows her gift for music. This is a song she composed for our unborn daughter, Grace Elizabeth, diagnosed with a terminal condition and not expected to live outside of the womb. The first image is of Grace and her siblings at the embryonic level, just prior to their transfer through the miracle of embryo adoption (click here for the original post of our story). Only Grace survived, and for this and for our time with her to date, we are eternally grateful.

As we near an election that could spell hope or doom for the most vulnerable among us, the unborn, may this music stir our hearts into a true and lasting love for human life. Thank you all for your continued prayers!

“Everything is a grace.”
– St. Therese of Lisieux

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Abomination

A couple of nights ago, while our beautiful baby boy slept in mommy’s arms after a good dose of formula, Rebecca and I caught a few minutes of a documentary on PBS. It was on terrorism and the Taliban.

It’s a mad world, isn’t it? There are wicked things that take root in men’s hearts and blossom in chaotic acts of violence. There are eyes blinded by hate that do not see. There are hands clenched in rage that will not receive. There are swords in the minds of many that want only to cut and to desecrate with their ideologies. For them, human life is cheap. People are means to an end; either obstacles or opportunities in a process they think will end as a good for them; for their agenda, their cause, their country.

But that approach never works, because people are not means to an end but ends in themselves. “The reason for the world… you and I” in the words of The Riddle, a favorite song of mine. But the TV told otherwise, and the sanctity of humanlife was again desecrated. In the warmth of our home, deeply disturbing images flashed on the screen. Women stoned for not wearing a full burka, a man tortured and killed for drinking alcohol, mutilated bodies, explosions and burned out cars. Buildings were caved in and carved out, looking like open mouths, screaming. Desert landscapes were filled with throngs of bearded men, waving guns, chanting and burning flags. And then I looked back to our newly adopted son, breathing softly in Rebecca’s arms.

In the essay The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis said “Next to the Blessed Sacrament Itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” These words should be sounded from the rooftops. Now that we have a little boy in our midst, and Grace in the tabernacle of Rebecca’s womb, I am touched more so than ever before by the breathtaking beauty of human life, and by its fragility.

“Behold, you are worth more than many sparrows” was Our Lord’s tongue in cheek way of saying that we are… priceless; worth more than our weight in gold, more that the weight of the whole created universe. Your hairs are counted, your fingerprints are yours alone, you and only you are making the choices of your everyday life every day. And you have been ransomed from destruction and death and decay by the passion of a loving God.

Thank God we see things differently here in America than these sadly misguided terrorists. Thank God we honor every one as a unique expression on the Face of God, that we cherish every human life because in every human heart the Spirit of the Living God lives and moves and gives us being.

Then again…

In the next few days, reflect on the sad truth that we have our own abominations, seemingly neater and cleaner than the images on the TV. With surgical precision, the horrors of abortion are nipped and tucked away from the eyes of most Americans. And yet, 50 million lives have been abruptly and most violently ended by abortion since 1973 in these “United” States. God, save us from this abomination.

“A country that murders its own children has no future.”
– Pope John Paul II

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Fr. Frank Pavone Interview – Priests for Life

My guest on the radio tonight was Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director for Priests for Life. “… started in 1991 to do one of the most important tasks in the Church today . . . to help priests around the world spread the Gospel of Life to their people. The ministry of the priest is demanding. The priest presents to the world truths that are difficult to grasp. The priest confronts injustices in the world, which are often deeply entrenched in the attitudes and laws of society. Priests must be steadfast in calling for the protection of life at every stage, in exposing the myths surrounding abortion and euthanasia, and in working with others to provide compassionate alternatives.”

The podcast can be found by clicking here!

GREAT RESOURCES!
Fr. Pavone’s Blog
Voter Guide on Key Issues
What Abortion Is
Rachel’s Vineyard
CatholicVote.com

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

The Catholic Vote

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Happy Birthday Humanae Vitae!

This year the Church “celebrates” the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s theological lighthouse, Humanae Vitae, a brief letter highlighting what human life is all about and what human love is meant to reflect. It materialized like a beacon atop a pillar of rock in the midst of the fog kicked up from a so-called sexual revolution in the 1960’s. I call it a lighthouse because today, anyone with half a brain can see that the revolution shipwrecked in turning away from it; the Yellow Submarine sank just as soon as it set sail, and we’ve been floating through some pretty dark wreckage ever since. The proof is in the statistics.

Forty years ago, public and parochial reactions to Paul VI’s letter were said to have broken his heart. Souls abandoned the Bark of Peter in droves and chose rather to find their own way through the deep and mysterious waters of human sexuality. But we have paid a high price for jumping ship…

Dr. Janet Smith (click here for the complete text) recently wrote an article highlighting the prophecies that Pope Paul VI made concerning what would happen if the Church’s teaching on contraception were ignored. For one, he said that the widespread use of contraception would lead to more cases of adultery and a general lowering of morality (anyone want to argue with that one?) The Pope predicted that men would lose respect for women and “no longer (care) for her physical and psychological equilibrium,” coming at last to “the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.” Paul VI also foresaw that the widespread allowance of contraception would put a “dangerous weapon . . . in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies.” (enter China’s one child policy, for example). Finally, contraception could lead humanity into a distorted sense of dominion over our own bodies. As Dr. Smith mentions, “sterilization is now the most widely used form of contraception in the U.S.; individuals are so convinced of their rights to control their own bodies that they do not hesitate to alter even their own physical make-up.”

Despite these forty subsequent years of tragically fulfilled prophecies, many still cling to the hope that condoms and the Pill will somehow tame the teenagers and bring us “adults” a marital tranquility that won’t be “interrupted” or “disturbed” by expensive and intrusive children. Forgive us Father, we know not what we do. *

Humanae Vitae hit the culture like a bomb, and many are still picking pieces of its razor sharp clarity out of their shattered dreams of sexual license and reproductive autonomy. This teaching still burrows into the skin of many Catholics, like a piece of metal the spin doctors missed. We can’t figure out why the Church won’t “stay out of the bedroom” – as if the Church were a building built apart from flesh and blood. Perhaps we should recall that the Church is born in the bedroom, for it’s a living body after all. Where else would the Church be found?

Humanae Vitae told the world that the natural and sometimes fertile flow of love from man to woman that held the power to unify hearts and bring new life into the world should never be blocked, barricaded, or belittled into something merely biological, or merely pleasurable. Sex should (and could) always be knit to love and life, pleasure and procreation, bonding and babies. Our biology is never separate from our theology. That would be a divorce. What God has brought together, let no man separate.

What the world wanted to divide, Pope Paul VI announced, the Church would hold together. And I’m so glad he did. But he paid a price too, like Gandalf facing his enemy, standing on the bridge between life and death. The rather intense image in this post was inspired by a talk of Christopher West’s I attended this summer. I was given permission by the artist Ted Nasmith, himself a non-Catholic, who was gracious enough to let me “alter” his work.

What a hero we have in Pope Paul VI, for his courage in holding fast to the beauty of the sexual embrace, of fertility, of life, of its sacred character from womb to tomb. May it be soon that his spirit of love and sacrifice resurrects like the Grey Pilgrim from the abyss in which our culture is falling. That a true Culture of Life prevail…. free, fruitful, and full of hope.

Pope Paul VI, pray for us…

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* I recognize the strong tone of this post may offend certain readers who disagree with the Church’s teaching on contraception. It is certainly a very personal and sensitive issue. I would like to welcome any comments or questions and I pray that a fruitful dialogue might come from it. This is a teaching that I and the Church I love feel very strongly about. For a deeper understanding of the issue, please read the letter of Pope Paul VI first, found here.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Nancy Pelosi is Misrepresentin’

I don’t often get political in this blog for two reasons; 1. I don’t follow politics, and 2. When I do, it seems like endless repetition without any fruition (like Ecclesiastes). But yesterday, a friend pointed out to me a little video clip of Nancy Pelosi, first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, giving her answer to the question “When does life begin?” (Please take 3 minutes and 23 seconds to view the video clip above).

In watching this clip, I was stunned at the ignorance displayed and at the completely distorted picture of Catholic theology she offered. I actually laughed out loud once, but not a happy laugh. I don’t want to attack this woman, or belittle, or throw sarcastic remarks around like little daggers. She is a daughter of the Father and loved deeply by Jesus. I just need to say that this is NOT what the Catholic Church teaches…. at all….. ever, never, past, present, future.

Nancy, before this interview, you should have skimmed through the Bible (Jeremiah 1:5), the Catechism, and the real Doctors of the Church (not the spin doctors). And you should formerly apologize to St. Augustine too, for misrepresentin’.

Our own Cardinal Rigali (here in Philadelphia) has posted a statement on the US Bishops website, and there are links to other Catholic teachings on the issue of the sanctity of life in the womb.

I pray this is ignorance on Nancy’s part, but her words tell me something else. That she is a tool. Rebecca thinks that Madame Speaker was dragged in and asked to throw her “Catholic” face behind Obama in light of his recent and equally foggy “answer” to the question of life’s origins. He claimed that knowing when human life begins is “above his pay grade.” What does that mean anyway? If someone gives you more money, you’ll give us a more adequate answer?

Madame Speaker claims to be an “ardent, practicing Catholic” in this interview with Tom Brokaw, and she says that this is an issue she has “studied for a long time.”

I can’t believe it.

She said in the interview: “What I know is that over the centuries, the Doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition…. St. Augustine said at three months… We don’t know.”

OK… let’s look at just one of the earliest teachings of the Church. This is from the Didache, written about oh…. 70 A.D.!

“You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child.”
– Didache 2:1-2

And let me quote St. Augustine, who by the way, did not have the chance to live in the 21st century, where 4D ultrasound and MRIs have given us an unprecedented window into the womb. He lived 1600 years ago…. they had candles, and sliced bread, and it was really dark when the sun went down. They made the best judgements they could on the mystery of life’s origins (while always defaulting to respect for life and a clear stance that abortion was always a grave evil).

“And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man’s power to resolve it (now it clearly is, thanks technology!): At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too audacious.
– Enchiridion 23.86, St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Therefore brothers, you see how perverse they are and hastening wickedness, who are immature, they seek abortion of the conception before the birth; they are those who tell us, “I do not see that which you say must be believed.”
– Sermon 126

Clearly, Augustine believed it.

Tertullian, aka the Father of the Latin Church (who lived c. 155 – 222 AD), is as clear as crystal on this issue as well:

“In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed”
– Apology 9:8, A.D. 197

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ADDITION:
Please consider taking two minutes to sign in and send a signed petition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Bioethics Defense Fund website by clicking here. The statement is ready and only needs your click to send a message of LIFE.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Where Do They Stand (or Fall)?

These are two short clips of Senators Obama and McCain, each answering the very simple and direct question “At what point is a baby entitled human rights?” One answer lasts 1 minute and 25 seconds, the other 41 seconds (much of which consists of applause). For all of their individual weaknesses, on this point more than any other we need strength. If life is not reverenced, what are we living for? When the womb is no longer sacred, the world suffers.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org