This is my granddaughter, 2 year old Therese... she is named after ST Therese of Lisseux. My daughter, Maria whille traveling to Rome to study for the year... read The Story of a Soul by St Therese, and it affected her so deeply that she returned and within 5 months was in a monastery of Poor Clare Nuns considering religious life! Today is a Carmelite Feast day - the order that St Therese and 4 of her natural sisters were in... It is Our Lady of Mount Carmel.... It marks the day that the scapular was given as a external sign of the mother- child relationship between us and our Mother and Queen of Mount Carmel..
"The faithful who entrust themselves totally to her protection, who have recourse to her maternal intercession, who are mindful of the primacy of the spriritual life, and the need for prayer." Our Lady of Mount Carmel pray for us!
"The Blessed Virgin Mary watches unceasingly with a mother's care over the brethren of her Son, and lights us along our pilgrim way to the Mount of your glory, our beacon of comfort, and the embodiment of all our hopes as members of the Church." (Preface for Our Lady of Mount Carmel)
Talk about lighting our way to the Mount of Glory... the new Catholic Register arrived yesterday and before I did my evening prayers in bed last night... I took the time to scan it. Two articles were especially stirring for me... one about how they are discovering that abortion is linked to breast cancer! This is so easy to see when you realize what is going on in a woman's body when the baby is torn from her uterus as her body is making all the preparations for this life that is growing in her... As this horrific abortion is performed... the killing of this innocent child!.... The woman's body is so traumatized and the hormones that are preparing her breasts for feeding her child are traumatized along with her deepest soul and the rest of her miraculous body... created by God to give and sustain and love the lives of her children! What is the worst part of all this is that this is not being shared, but is swept under the carpet although country after country is coming to this conclusion!
This is the 4th country to do a study and to come up with this result - China, Turkey, U.S., and the U.K...."While concluding that breastfeeding offered significant protection from cancer, they also reported that the highest risk factor for developing the disease was abortoin." The pro-abortion lobby is trying to downplay it and that is a crime!
The second article that I read with interest was from Tuscon, Az where they have an untrasound machine that they have in a RV and take to where it is needed from the a college campus to the areas where the abortion clinics are to a shopping mall... Why is this so important? Because stats show that upwards of 90% of women that see their baby in their womb will choose to give birth to the baby!
In the years that I have worked with Birthright - we have sent women/girls to Sioux Falls to the crisis pregnancy center for ultrasounds! They need to know that it is a baby and not "a lump of tissue"... they need to know that it has a heart and arms and legs and eyes, nose and a mouth that cries out in fear and pain as the abortionist wrenches it from the womb! Lord, protect life!
This is my grandson... precious David Lanoue... it is his 2nd birthday today! Happy Birthday Davey! We love you and you are a wonderful gift of God!
I have shared the story in the past of how David is truly Ruth and Paul's gift... as they were told no more children after Ruth ruptured her uterus after trying to have Mary vaginally after her Csection with Simon.
But with another opinion, learning of the Creighton Model natural method to postpone pregnancy for a safe amount of time and then keeping a close eye on her and getting Davey here with another Csection... two years ago we tearfully and joyfully greeted our pecious little David Lawrence Lanoue!
It wasn't the easiest thing to accomplish, but because of the sacrifice and "cross" they faced and embraced... Now they have a wonderful son and Ruth is now an instructor in this wonderful method that allows woman to naturally understand their bodies and work with infertility and prevent when necessary and any other problem or question they have along the way of the years of childbearing!
I know in my own exeperience... with all the 6 hard losses interspersed among my other children... they are that much more precious to me as I had many hardships and struggles - my most precious cross - getting that "large family" that both Pat and I wanted and prayed for and now we are blessed with 11 - 5 here with us and 6 in heaven praying for their parents and siblings and neices and nephews!
To have suffered those losses openly with our kids was of course hard, and we were asked to "wait to tell them until we knew if we would carry that baby." But I felt that was not right or possible and today I see that the compassion and closeness that we have one for the other is rooted in that deep sense of respect and appreciation for the ones of us that are here and the awareness of those that are with us in heaven to be united with someday!
I question the Lord in my prayers for my girls; "Why does it have to be hard for them, when they are open to life?" And I guess that I just answered my own question! When it is "hard" and a challange... we grow from it and look how it has changed Ruth and Paul's life! And, yes, little Davey is a wonder and how his grandpa and I adore him! A day without Davey is less than it could have been!
I do remember that I thought it was a wonderful day - feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - for little Dave to join us in the world and all that it will hold for him... He will be forever aware of Our Lady and her love for him and her help in getting him safely through and into Glory with her Son our Lord, Jesus Christ!
I always think of St Therese and her roses from heaven as I enter the church and saw the single rose there... it is today like a special reminder of her intercession for us and especially little Dave on his birthday today! St Therese please bless Dave - Ruth's little priest - with healing of his swallowing challange and further blessings as he now enters his second year! May he always walk with your Son and be held close in your loving arms!
This seemed appropriate today - "I saw my people's ways, but I will heal them and lead them; I will give full comfort to them and to those who mourn for them, I, the Creator, who gave them life.Peace, peace to the far and to the near, says the Lord and I will heal them." (Isaiah 57:18-19)
Jesus... as you stand in heaven with your glorified mother at your side... intercede for all the innocent life that has taken root in many wombs... protect each life and allow those pregnant to know and love that life! Thank you for the wonderful gift of our little David Lanoue, and continue to bless him now and always! Use those that "understand" the beauty and gift that life is to help others to come to know the "truth!" The truth that Life is a gift to cherished at all stages! Jesus we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia! 
Jesus... as you stand in heaven with your glorified mother at your side... intercede for all the innocent life that has taken root in many wombs... protect each life and allow those pregnant to know and love that life! Thank you for the wonderful gift of our little David Lanoue, and continue to bless him now and always! Use those that "understand" the beauty and gift that life is to help others to come to know the "truth!" The truth that Life is a gift to cherished at all stages! Jesus we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia! 
Bless-bless, Barb
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