God sure knew what He was doing when He decided that the human species would be able to procreate and raise little humans. For one thing, I see it as His ingenious way of getting the male component outside of their own heads once and for all. Ladies, I imagine you need sweet liberation from your own mental gymnastics of self-seeking fulfillment too, from time to time.
I have discovered that babies have the potential to pull the selfless out of the selfish. When you become a Mommy or a Daddy, powers are unleashed that could not have been extracted in any other way, except perhaps through some great trauma or suffering or epiphany. It’s amazing, exhausting, exhilarating…. “It is life nearest the bone where it is sweetest.”
Our nearly 9 month old baby boy continues to astound, capture, and captivate our hearts on a daily basis. We wake and walk the halls at 3am, and love it. We hear him cry and we run to him. He poops, or should I say explodes, and we think, get this, that it’s cute. And we want to clean it up. We sing to him all day long, and Daddy, over-productive, always reading, writing, e-mailing, planning, or presenting Daddy has been wasting time, squandering time, spilling out time doing nothing (read here everything) with his son. Including making random YouTube videos of his antics… The Boy Wonder discovers the Blues!
Rebecca and I look back at the now seemingly short 5 years of infertility that began our marriage; the days of waiting and longing for a life to share our life with, of the periods when literally everyone we knew was pregnant, or holding a little one in their arms. Our days of seeking help, of discovering adoption at the embryonic level, of Snowflakes, of more sorrows, of miscarriages and then moments with our little Gracie, so sweet and so sad and so short-lived. We were in the Barren Desert, again and again. We were trying hard not to grasp at children as if they were a right. We still hold fast to the truth that all life is a gift, and the timing is in God’s time.
That time is now! Now this most unexpected gift of our son has come! And the years dissipate like thin wisps of mourning mist. And the years of “just us” (which in itself was so full and so rich) has only served to heighten our senses and sensitivities to this Small Wonder of a Boy. Every smile, every giggle, every tear, every thing is a grace. So God surely knows and knew what He was doing. We just had to wait it out, and will again in some new form down the road, I’m sure. I just hope we remember the simple truth that “good things come to those who wait.”
And that, my friends, is the understatement of the year!
Margaret Sanger, the foundress of Planned Parenthood, has recently been awarded a place in the National Portrait Gallery. She is quoted as saying that the poor and mentally handicapped are “human weeds” that “clog up the path…. drain out the energies and the resources of this little earth.” Her solution? “We must cultivate our garden.”
The more I read about this woman, the more bizarre it gets. And this is the woman that Hillary Clinton is in “awe” of for her heroic work? Sanger was a massive proponent of eugenics and quite clearly a racist. Her own words convict her, as cited in her letters and books captured in this disturbing video. And our tax dollars are supporting her agenda by honoring her in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. God help us to see the lie behind the curtains of these so-called Planned Parenthood “clinics.” Please watch and learn from the video for yourself.
For a more in depth look at Margaret Sanger’s thought, watch a 1957 interview with Mike Wallace here (the transcript of the interview is available as well). It’s a bizarre interview, be warned. Aside from Sanger’s thoughts on human life, marriage and the Catholic Church, Mike Wallace holds no punches, and keeps plugging Philip Morris cigarettes! Weird.
PS – Wallace quotes the Church as saying the sole purpose of marriage is the procreation of children. The full teaching is that marriage’s end is two-fold: unitive and procreative, that is, it is for the love and union of hearts and for the fruit of that love and union…. life. In this sense, I feel Margaret’s pain when she fights him on this point. It seems in her experience, women were looked on as merely baby-making machines and subjogated by marriage and pregnancy. Clearly the vision is skewed here. For the ideal vision and definition of marriage, read this!
“Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment… For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God… His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.” – Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II document
Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking. – Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1777
I’m nearly speechless at the complete eclipse of reason, lack of scientific integrity, and disregard for human life in the case of this latest executive order of our president. The Age of Enlightenment has eclipsed. This is only darkness. The fact remains that after 25 years of embryonic stem cell research (which destroys human life), not one cure has been found effective. But in the 25 years of adult stem cell research (which does no harm to the donor or patient), there have been roughly 70 successful treatments given to a host of diseases and conditions. Following this article from the USCCB, you’ll find a crystal clear explanation of the difference between the two studies – embryonic versus adult stem cells. Please take the time to view it, and pass it on, post it on your blog or Facebook profile…. we desperately need clarity here. (At the close of the video, you’ll meet the Johnson family, who are personal friends of ours and wonderful witnesses to the beauty of the Culture of Life. We’ve had the grace of hugs from little Zara, who was adopted at the embryonic level. Today, she would have been a victim of the destructive agenda of embryonic stem cell research. But she lives!
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Executive Order on Embryonic Stem Cells ‘A Sad Victory of Politics over Science and Ethics’ (reprinted from http://www.usccb.org)
WASHINGTON—Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, today called President Obama’s executive order on embryonic stem cell research “a sad victory of politics over science and ethics.”
Under the order, for the first time in U.S. history, federal tax dollars will be used to encourage researchers to destroy live human embryos for stem cell research. Cardinal Rigali also cited a January 16 letter in which Cardinal Francis George, president of the USCCB, urged President-elect Obama not to issue such an order. Cardinal Rigali’s statement follows:
“President Obama’s new executive order on embryonic stem cell research is a sad victory of politics over science and ethics. This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested. It also disregards the values of millions of American taxpayers who oppose research that requires taking human life. Finally, 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.”
In his January 16th letter to President-elect Obama, Cardinal George, writing as President of the USCCB, cited three reasons why such destructive research is ‘especially pointless at this time’: ‘First, basic research in the capabilities of embryonic stem cells can be and is being pursued using the currently eligible cell lines as well as the hundreds of lines produced with nonfederal funds since 2001.’ Second, recent startling advances in reprogramming adult cells into embryonic-like stem cells – hailed by the journal Science as the scientific breakthrough of the year – are said by many scientists to be making embryonic stem cells irrelevant to medical progress.’ Third, adult and cord blood stem cells are now known to have great versatility, and are increasingly being used to reverse serious illnesses and even help rebuild damaged organs. To divert scarce funds away from these promising avenues for research and treatment toward the avenue that is most morally controversial as well as most medically speculative would be a sad victory of politics over science.
‘”If the government wants to invest in hope for cures and promote ethically sound science, it should use our tax monies for research that everyone, at every stage of human development, can live with.” (www.usccb.org)
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If you’d like to know the truth about the whole affair of stem cells, here is a 20 minute video that gives the whole story. Another helpful article – “Stem Cells for Dummies” – is here.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s photo-op with Pope Benedict XVI turned sour when the Pontiff used the 15-minute meeting to reaffirm the teachings of the Catholic Church on the right to life and the duty to protect the unborn. No photo of Nancy Pelosi and the Pope will be forthcoming, since the meeting was closed to reporters and photographers. The two met in a small room in the Vatican just after the Pope’s weekly public audience…
“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
I wonder what Nancy will be thinking tonight, as she says her prayers and beds down in her Italian B&B, after having been schooled by the Pope himself. I pray that she and her husband Paul rediscover their faith, a faith that reverences human life as the building block of all culture. What a force for good they could be!!
It was early, it was cold, it was just twenty three students from Malvern Prep. A day “off” from classes and away from campus, but this was in exchange for a thirteen hour day that began at 6:30am with Mass, a long drive to the nation’s capital, and ended with us pulling into Malvern Prep after 8:00pm. It was the March for Life in Washington, D.C. It was March Madness.
We stood in lines, we stood in the cool shadows of the National Shrine Basilica, with mosaics and sculpted columns swirling up and over us, and before us nearly 4000 people spread out, filling pews and corridors, attending a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Rigali. And everyone was there for Life; standing tall, young and old, babies in arms, swaying, hands clasped in prayer, hearts and minds wondering what this new presidency would bring.
From the train to the trek to the National Mall we marched with a mass of humanity up Capitol Hill. Now the little streams of buses that came from all over the country joined and formed a great river of souls. Thousands upon thousands gathering for the 36th annual March for Life. There was singing, praying, and small talk as we shuffled along. Smiles between strangers from all over the country warmed us up a bit, strangers from every creed and color. But the great madness of this March was that such a strong and vibrant presence was at the same time, invisible.
Once again, the secular media was silent when it came to this event, and our numbers were ignored. We seemed just as hidden as the children in the womb we all wanted to protect and defend; as invisible as the deep pain and grief young mothers and fathers feel after they are pushed and pressured into clinics that promise to “erase” their problems and give them a new start.
Climbing the hill flanking the Capitol building, I turned and looked back and saw an ocean of Americans who believed life is a gift always to be received, no matter what the wrappings and trappings that cover its beginning and end. Life is precious. For nearly 20 years in attending this Trail of Tears myself, I’ve looked down that hill, and hoped we could overturn by our presence and prayer the decree that has “sanctioned” the extermination of 50,000,000 unborn children; The law that continues to wound just as many women and men who were told it was their “right” to terminate a so-called unwanted pregnancy.
I searched for an account of what we did in the news that evening, and the day after… Nothing. I looked for an official count on just how many came to Washington D.C that day to speak their minds, to witness to the sacredness of human life from the womb to the tomb. Nothing. Nearly a week later, I discovered the statistic given by the Beltway Police (a neutral group to be sure, and not prone to overestimating): they reported a quarter of a million people in attendance for the March! Where was this fact earlier? Why did I have to find it on some obscure blog and not a major news service? Unbelievable… How is it that a crowd of 250,000 of such diversity in age, ethnicity, and religious belief could be right outside the windows of our nation’s capital and not be seen?
Sadly, there was something else that occurred in a hidden way the following day, January 23. This action was also “unseen” by reporters, accomplished in the late afternoon once the presses had cooled. Our newly elected President signed an order with no fanfare and with no news media in the room. This was a strong contrast to the signings of executive orders earlier in the week. It was an executive order reversing the ban first instituted by President Reagan in 1984, reversing the Mexico City policy, a move that clears the way for the federal government to provide aid to programs that promote or perform abortion overseas. With all that we are going through as a country right now, this is on the list of top priorities?
“What a terrible way to begin a new administration, with an abortion business bailout that will exploit women in developing countries for political ends,” said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life Action, the Washington-based organization. “We should not export the tragedy of abortion to other nations, and we certainly shouldn’t do so via the hard-earned dollars of American taxpayers,” she said. “We’re concerned this can only be the tip of the iceberg for President Obama’s abortion policy. This should strengthen our resolve,” she said.
In a letter addressing this move, Cardinal Rigali stated “An administration that wants to reduce abortions should not divert U.S. funds to groups that promote abortions.”
Despite the frustration of having our voices silenced, our steps covered up and our presence ignored, our small band of brothers from Malvern took solace in the fact that we were there. We gave our witness. And we’ll give it again, and again, and again.
So let’s get fired up, let’s lift our heads high again…
For “the victory of truth is certain!” – August Rodin
And we must “Yield thou not to adversity, but press on the more bravely.” – Virgil
This story shall the good man teach his son… From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered – We few, we happy few, we band of brothers… – Henry V, Shakespeare
Violence against even one human being is violence against all. – Pope Benedict XVI
Thanks to the Blue Boar for finding this inspiring collection of clips…. this is one to play again and again when the world’s got you down!
God sure knew what He was doing when He decided that the human species would be able to procreate and raise little humans. For one thing, I see it as His ingenious way of getting the male component outside of their own heads once and for all. Ladies, I imagine you need sweet liberation from your own mental gymnastics of self-seeking fulfillment too, from time to time. 
The Heart of Things 