Euthanasia

"You've always been such a..proud, dignified man"

Breaking the silence

 This short film is a reading of a real letter that was written by a young mother to the baby she lost to abortion.
For many women abortion is a shameful grief that they feel they must carry in silence.
Some post abortive women are now committed to offering the kind of support that was not available to them. Slowly, the truth about abortion is being told.
One day abortion will go the way of the slave trade, and our children's children will wonder at our generation's inhumanity.
 How is it possible that we can know about the barbarous inhumanity which abortion inflicts upon our  most vulnerable human beings, then  look away, and imagine ourselves to be humane and civilised?



(ht: Abby Johnson's FB page)

Mary is the Ark of the Covenant? Do you guys ever read your bibles?

 This evening someone left a comment on an old post I put up for the feast of Our lady of the Rosary.
I included a video and added the words too, because I find them beautiful.
My anonymous commenter was shocked by them however.
This is what Anon said:

I am stunned by such heresy. JESUS was the burning bush (I am) - God Himself was the cloud. Do you catholics now believe that Mary is part of the Trinity? That Mary is the savior of Israel? Do you guys ever read your Bibles?
Mary is the Ark of the Covenant??
Why dont you just do away with Jesus altogether - can anyone say pagan??

You know, these challenges are just irresistible to me.
Even though I was getting ready to shut down the 'puter and get to bed, I got a second wind and started tap tapping out what was meant to be a brief response.
Meant to be. Famous last intentions.
Brevity is not my strong point I'm afraid, even past midnight. But this is about as brief as I can manage for a matter which sets my pulse racing like no other ( well, apart from my exceptional progeny of course)
After typing it out I thought maybe I'd put it in a post instead:


Hi Anon.
Sorry to have stunned you.
I hope you are recovering your equilibrium now.
Actually the bible is a catholic book, but you are welcome to borrow it any time you like :-)
And no Anon, Jesus was not the burning bush.
The burning bush was ablaze with God, but the bush itself wasn't God.
It burned with the presence of God, but it was not consumed by the flames.
Mary bore the living God to the world and yet she also was not consumed.

Pregnant with God. Like the bush in Horeb.
Can you see the parallel?
Mary was the living shrine of the Word of God. The Ark of the New Covenant.

This is not a novel heresy, but a very ancient understanding of the scriptures and the role of Mary in salvation history.

No, Catholics do not believe that Mary is
"part of the Holy Trinity" anon.

When David danced before the Ark, was he worshipping the Ark itself?
What did the Ark bear?
The ark bore the word of God made stone.
Mary bore the word of God made flesh.
She bore the living Word. Jesus Christ. God incarnate.
Mary is the " Ark of the New Covenant".

You asked me if "us catholic guys" ever read our bible.
Well now you've gone and bin and thrown down the gauntlet Anony!
It's late so I can't be here all night, but you know I can't resist a challenge, so here's a little catholic scripture lesson to whet your appetite:

Jer 31:31
"The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
   “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel   ...
because they broke my covenant,
   though I was a husband to them"
Lk 1:35
Marys spouse is the Holy Spirit.

2 Sam. 6:7 The ark was so holy and undefiled that the Lord slew Uzzah when he touched it.
Just as the Virgin of Nazareth, Mary, the New Ark, is holy and undefiled.

2 Sam. 6:16
David leaps before the ark of God.
Luke 1:41
John the baptist leaps in the presence of Jesus in Marys womb.

2 Sam. 6:9
David says: "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?"
Luke 1:43
Elizabeth says: But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

2 Sam. 6:11
The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months
1 Chron. 13:14
The ark of God remained with the family of Obed-Edom in his house for three months
Luke 1:56
Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months .

1 Sam 4:11
The ark of God is captured, brought to a foreign land, and later returns (1 Sam 6:13)
Mary is also exiled to a foreign land ( the flight into Egypt) and later returns (Mat 2:14)

"can anyone say pagan?? "

I think most people.
And it's pretty easy to spell too.

I'm just kidding anon. We're not pagan, we're just the original historical christians.
Accept no imitations.

Here's that video again.
Listen this time without prejudice and think about those old testament types, or foreshadowings of Mary, the New Eve, the Ark of the New Covenant.
" The cleft in the rock, which God covers with His hand while His glory passes by"
Maybe then you will even be able to appreciate the words a little.:

A heads up about new posts planned.

I've been thinking that I would like to keep a record of some of my online forum conversations.

Some of them throw up very interesting, or comically ludicrous challenges. But i would quite like to keep them in one place and my blog seems like the best place for that.

I don't want to bore anyone, and obviously there is no obligation to actually read it, but I want to be able to refer back to it myself from time to time.

 Also, it occurs to me that reading through the exchanges may help other readers to think about how to formulate their own responses to similar challenges.

Please don't think that I imagine I have done a marvellous job worth emulating. I don't.

Although I do think the church's teaching is very satisfying to defend because it is so clear and coherent, and I would like to encourage normally timorous readers to be a little bolder in explaining or defending their faith, or the Holy Father .

It has been interesting to see how perceptions of the same conversation differ.

Sometimes I think I am being hilariously LOL funny and I am surprised when others comment that I am rude and arrogant.

I do think that my tone is something I need to watch. But at the same time i don't want my salt to lose it's flavour if you know what i mean.

Anyway, I'm cutting and pasting over the next couple of days and will be putting the exchanges up here, warts and all, for you to read if you like that kind of thing.

 I won't edit to make myself look better, but I will take out some of the extraneous fluff ( mine and other people's) if it gets in the way of the conversation.

Just thought I'd let you know what's in the works.

Young Nuns ( havin some fun, crazy ladies keep em on the run)

I know it's a bit late, but I want to watch Young Nuns on I Player ( I know, quelle surprise) but it won't play for me.
Is it just me?
I'm going to jack it in and go to sleep if it won't work soon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...s7/Young_Nuns/

Nuns are my favourite people, but only when they wear the full shebang.
Progressive nuns in navy polyester trouser suits with a little silver cross pin are all wrong in my traddy opinion. Why on earth bother.
I want an aesthetic ascetic.
I like my nuns to look like Deborah Kerr in Black Narcissus.
I want hemp and sandals and rope and big giant knotted rosaries hanging from the waist.
I want big butterfly wimples or veils so long you could trip over them if you weren't looking..
That's what I want, if you want to know.

"Beneficence towards the fetus"

I have been away from my blog on account of being mired in a lengthy discussion online about abortion.
One commenter argues that the fetus is a 'proto human' whose sole worth is in the eyes of parents as the "potential person" it will become. It has no intrinsic worth of it's own.

Because the conversation has had many twists and turns I didn't want to get too bogged down with the question of fetal pain, since, although horrendous this is not the crucial "wrong" of abortion.
Nonetheless, this commenter challenged me further on a reference I had made to the fetal awareness in utero.
I think it is safe to assume that abortion, for the sensate fetus, is a horrendous death.
He disagrees.
He linked to this paper here:
Fetal Pain: A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence
The conclusion of the report is as follows:

 "Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates
that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester. Little or no evidence
addresses the effectiveness of direct fetal anesthetic or analgesic techniques. Similarly,
limited or no data exist on the safety of such techniques for pregnant women in
the context of abortion. Anesthetic techniques currently used during fetal surgery are
not directly applicable to abortion procedures".

I was struck when reading the report that the language is ambivalent. Phrases like "pain is unlikely", "little or no evidence", "little or no data" are not the language of certainty.
And yet my interlocutor is confident that this report supports his contention that fetal pain is impossible.
If we were talking about any other human being than the unwanted unborn, wouldn't we be giving them the benefit of the doubt?
Wouldn't we be horrified at the merest possibility that any surgical procedure carried out on a born  fetus would cause them to feel pain?
This is how I responded to him:

The report you link to, which was put together in response to moves to legislate requiring physicians
to inform women seeking abortions that the fetus feels pain and to offer fetal anesthesia.

Small wonder that those same doctors with blood on their hands, whose work consists of dismembering the unborn, have chafed at the idea .

The report you link to is littered with caveats like "unlikely" or "possibly" or "little evidence as yet".,
Strange don't you think, that where the wanted get the benefit of the doubt, the unwanted get none.

I thought this passage very telling:

"...Instead, beneficence toward
the fetus represents the chief justification
for using fetal anesthesia or
analgesia during abortion—to relieve
suffering if fetal pain exists."

In the absence of crucial "beneficence" we can sweep away all doubt.

The baby who is not wanted can die and die violently.

The baby to whom we feel is owed  beneficence however, will get the benefit of the doubt regarding it's experience of pain.

This is why I stand in solidarity with the weakest members of our human family, against whom all,
from their parents and grandparents, to the medical establishment to the legal system, have shut their doors.

There is no "BENEFICENCE" toward them.

 Honor and Marie-Aibhlinn on the steps of the BPAS abortuary

40 Days For Life: An inspiring talk

This is so encouraging.
Shawn Carney and David Bereit speaking at Helena, Montana:



                 

HT Discover Happiness

Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Mary, little Mary,

You are the gentle breeze of Elijah

The breath of the Spirit of God

You are the burning bush of Moses

which bears the Lord

without being consumed

You are ‘that place near me’

which the Lord showed to Moses

You are the cleft in the rock

which God covers with his hand,

while his glory passes by.

Let the Lord come with us

if we have found favour

in his eyes

it’s true that we are sinners

but pray for us

and we shall be his Heritage forever.

Mary, little Mary,

Daughter of Jerusalem

Mother of all nations

Virgin of Nazareth

You are the cloud

which protects Israel

The tent where we meet

The Ark of the Covenant

The place where the Lord dwells,

The Sanctuary of his Shekinah.

40 Days For Life. A timely and powerful testimony.

Yesterday morning I recieved this months CD of the month from Lighthouse Media.
It is the incredible testimony of Dr Bernard Nathanson, the abortionist turned passionate pro life activist who died earlier this year, May the Lord have mercy on him.
He gives an eloquent and dignified account of his  life, his Jewishness, the hardship and poverty endured by his grandparents and his father, his fathers subsequent rejection of God and how this informed the young Bernards own worldview.
He explains  how he came to spearhead the abortion rights movement in the US which ushered in the legalising of abortion, and his succesful business running the largest abortion facility in the world.
He estimates that he was directly responsible for 75,000 abortions  and the wrecked lives of many others.
He was the man who, in his own words "uncaged the abortion monster" in the US, and by extension, much of the world beyond.
And he would spend the rest of his life attempting the apparently Sisyphean task of  getting it back in it's cage.
Small wonder that he was quoted as saying "I have such a heavy moral baggage to drag into the next world"
It is simply devastating to consider how it must feel to wake up to the magnitude of the crime against humanity in which you yourself have been a key player.

At one point in the talk he describes how, after he himself had already repudiated abortion, he asked a doctor friend who was a practising abortionist to film a D&E (dilatation and evacuation) termination in progress. This friend, when he saw on the ultrasound monitor, the reality of kicking  limbs being torn asunder and understood for the first time what he had being doing, he was distraught. He never carried out another abortion again.

He speaks beautifully about the significance of personhood. Because the human being in the womb IS a person, and to deny personhood to another human being is to tread in the footsteps of history's most reviled and wicked tyrants. This really made me aware of the importance of the language we use, and I made a mental note to myself to be sure to use the word "person" more often when referring to the unborn baby.

He rejected abortion as an atheist, on humanitarian and scientific grounds. And he remained a pro life atheist for some time.
It was only later, after a crushing depression, that he started to reconsider faith with fresh eyes.
Looking to the Jewish faith of his fathers for some hope for redemption and forgiveness, he found little.

Eventually, through the aquaintance of an Opus Dei priest, Fr John McCloskey,  who understood that Dr Nathanson was a man best reached first in the intellect, he came to accept the peace of Christ.

It was a deeply moving account. And I felt that throughout it, I could hear in his voice the sobriety, gravity and firmness of purpose of a man set on spending the rest of his life making reparation.
I have rarely listened to a talk that so haunted me, and even though there are lots of noisy distractions here, I have found my thoughts drifting back to it all afternoon and evening since.

It was very well timed on the part of the Lighthouse team to send this CD out while 40 Days is underway. And listening to Dr Nathansons story has reminded me not only of the horror of abortion itself, but of the devastating effect on so many people who have been touched by abortion, the consciences dulled, the emotions wounded, the hearts hardened or broken.
It has renewed my zeal to teach my children to protect and defend human life always, and why it is necessary to never "pass by on the other side of the road", but to put ourselves at the service of  the least of our brothers.

40 Days For Life London

 

#

 

You'll be glad you came.
See you there!

Come and join us outside the BPAS abortuary at 26-27 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3HP

  

19th November 2011: Save The Date!

 The Good Counsel Network have announced this years fundrasing ball. 
Book your table now!
A great opportunity to get together with some friends, have a terrific evening without having to wake up to the dishes, and enjoy the warm glow of knowing that you are supporting the worthiest of worthy causes.



Date: November 19th, 2011

Time: 6.30 PM

Location: 55 Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2PN. (nearest tube station is South Kensington)

This will be a fun evening with a delicious 3 course dinner,
live music and great dancing.

Price: £70 per person
Special Offer: £630 for table of 10.
Dress: Ladies Evening Dress, Gentlemen Black Tie

Call to book now on 0207 723 1740 or book online below
Or book your tickets here http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/GCN-Fundraising-Ball.html