This was on the front of the Catholic newspaper that our diocese puts out monthly! I thought that it was a wonderful thing in all ways, and the quote by the U S Bishops was so great! It reminds me of listening to the Christian music channel on the radio a few years back, which is well known as being Protestant/Evangelical... The announcer was saying the we had to fight to keep the Vatican in the United Nations, because they were the only voice for life! So often I have felt sad that so many different small groups feel that they have to reinvent the Catholic Church! We are here and we are covering all the issues with great pray and thought from St Peter on down through the ages!
This image is on the ceiling in my special church in Winsted - Holy Trinity - where I made my first TEC retreat 11 years ago and have made many since then! Such a delightful and heartwarming family scene! The gift of a child, and both Mary and Joseph were well aware that He was God! If you have taken time to read the OT and know anything of the Jewish people... they were looking for and awaiting with great longing for the Messiah! For these two faithful Jews... this was a mind blowing gift but also responsibility! How it speaks for each one of us that have been gifted with children!
Venerable John Paul II - How I love you... as I said; "AS soon as he died... I went to praying to him. In my mind there is no doubt that he is among the saints!" He was a total champion of family and life! I know that Cardinal Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI was right as his side and behind the scenes on all that JPII wrote about the Theology of the Body and all the life issues including the protection of life from conception to natural death. He named the "culture of death" and taught us to live and embrace the "culture of life!"
Such a powerful speaker today at mass - Sue Healy from EuClair, Wisc... spoke to us of two mission trips she has made to Haiti! She was asked if she wanted to go there to hold and feed babies in an orphanage... it turned out to be run by Blessed Mother Teresa's order - the Missionaries of Charity! We were riveted as she so powerfully shared her being shaken to her core and changed forever by what she saw in Port a Prince's slums! I will just say this - 10 rats to every person there and yet there were 500,000 in a 3 mile area of people packed into tiny hovels with no running water or electricity! Then describing the tiny babies dying of malnutrition, and all other "3rd world country diseases." How with the shortage of volunteers that they had to time themselves 15 minutes per child to take them out of their cribs and hold them so that they could feel the human touch! And how when you had to put them back... they would cry with their arms uplifted in want and need for love!
I appologize for jumping around today... I just went to my scanned pictures and am sharing the ones that apply to respect of life! When I saw this one appear on the screen... I got a bit teary and sad! How often have I thought that if I was living now and having my family as my girls are... that I might not have lost the 6 that I placed in the cemetary here, so that I could be with all my kids in a imaginary way! But I was saying that to the one daughter that wouldn't be here today, if I hadn't lost the pregnancy between Ruth and Nancy! That is impossible to imagine and so there is no point in going there. I think that all of us that are open to life... realize that it is the Lord that is in control... just like the brain cancer we have been through with our 21 year old son, John for the last 15 months! That is what I love about the natural methods... it always allows God into the bedroom!
This morning at breakfast in the church basement... The discussion got a bit humorous as some of the women were saying that men had it better all the way around... I totally disagreed with them! I said that women can have the wonder and joy of giving birth, carrying that child within their bodies and forming that bond so early in the new life! Then to have the closeness of nursing and giving them the nourishment that they need with your body... there is nothing more wonderful and close and special! I love being a woman and I do not at all think that men have it better! I had the amazing gift of staying home with my children! I am forever grateful for the 14 years that I had with my nest of beautiful wonderful family!
Once again teary and taking deep breaths when I saw this one come up on the screne! These two were sad and hard losses and John had to wait many years to have brothers... now 3 brother in laws and Fraternity brothers! I experienced 5 month abortion procedures to deliver these two boys that died in my womb at 5 months! The fear of dying due to hemmorhage just made the emotional strain of carrying them after I knew they were dead and waiting to lose them naturally... I found that I couldn't so I allowed them to put a prostagladin suppository, which is actually used for later term abortions! It was horrific with chills and cramps and them delivering my tiny boys about 2 years apart... William and Robert! They are a reminder to me that there are many angels watching out for me and giving me the peace that every child I was to have... I never prevented and they are either here with me on earth or in heaven helping me on the way! I must need a lot of help!
Yesterday, I wrote about my amazing mother in law... well, I can thank and often do in cards and letters... the way my parents instilled in me my love of family and openess to life! My dad was a Protestant minister for all my growing up years and then we all coverted to the Catholic Church when I was about 20 years old! Although Protestant.. my parents continued to have children -8- one died at a few days old - and not only that but took in another 4 when their parents were killed in a car accident! That makes 11 of us! It was amazing and hard... just as you would describe the Cross, but also as life giving to all of us! Life was something that was so apparent to me in all aspects of marriage and openess to family... there was never a doubt in my mind about how life should never be prevented, but rather to be embraced always and without reservation! I found a man in Patrick Verly to stand side by side with me, and support me even with only a hospital bill and no baby in our arms! Thank you dear amazing husband of mine!
There is something special to have my boys buried at the cemetary... it acknowledges to me that they are valued and loved and that we will be united with them someday! On Memorial day... most years... I put up some rememberance for all 6 of our losses - all that have been named and included in prayer for our family each day! Life is a gift... and the ones that we only formed a relationship while they were in the womb are still valued and cherished! I was told of a group called IRIS - infants remebered in silence...
http://www.irisremembers.com/ I just went to their site and thought I would share it if the need is out there!
After just watching how the medical community fights - with many weapons - to save the life of our young and healthy son... I realize that life is definitely fought for on many fronts! Medically but also spiritually! We had an army with us, and huge for us was the fact that his sister, Susan, was joining a wonderful community after saying "yes"to the Lord's call in her life and for her life! As people that embrace life we feel that should be carried over to a person no matter their age... yet there is a point where too much is not called for! We look to the day to join our Lord at the end of our lives without taking drastic measures to cling to life! One shocking thing that John said and brought tears to a mother's eyes..." I am at a good place to die, if I must, I do not have a wife or kids and would not be leaving a lot of loose ends!' Thankfully the Lord has not called him to Himself yet and he is now cancer free for about 9 months now! Hear our prayers Lord for healing!
It would not be respect life Sunday without mentioning the modern day Saint - St Gianna Molle!
Purity: "Our body is a cenacle, a monstrance: throught its crystal the world should see God."
"Purity must control the proper use of the pleasures of the senses. Our body is sacred. It is in conjunction with the soul in doing good. Purity is a resultant virtue, that is, a unity of other virtues that bring it into custody. How does one keep custody of purity? By surrounding our body with the hedge of sacrifice, purity becomes beauty. Purity becomes freedom." I came across these amazing purity quotes by ST Gianna, and to read about her giving her life for the life of her unborn child... I will let you go to her site! She is called the prolife saint for good reason!
St Gianna, we ask you to intercede and reveal to those the beauty and value of life! Most importantly the importance to protect and value the lives that are innocent and helpless in the wombs of mothers! Show us how to save them with our efforts and our prayers with you and assisted by you as you intercede for us in heaven! 
WE must see and hear from Blessed Teresa today!
"Love is, just like Christ himself showed with his death, the greatest gift."
"In 1976, by invitation of the president of Mexico, we opened our first home outside of Mexico City. All the areas the Sisters visited were extremely poor. But the requests of the people surprised the sisters very much. The first thing they asked for were not clothes, medicine, or food. They only asked, 'Sisters, talk to us about God."
"Life is a gift that God has given us. That life is present in the unborn. A human hand should never end a life. I am convinced that the screams of the children whose lives have been terminated before their birth reach God's ears."
"To die in peace with God is the culmination of any human life. Of those who have died in our houses, I have never seen anyone die in despair or cursing. They have all died serenely. I took a man I had picked up from the street to our Home for the Dying in Calcutta. When I was leaving, he told me,'I have lived like an animal on the streets, but I am going to die like an angel. I will die smiling.' He did die smiling, because he felt loved and surrounded by care. That is the greatest gift to our poor!" Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
"In Christ, who died on the cross for us, we can definitely confirm the fact that suffering can transform itself into a great love and an extraordinary generosity." Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
I came across this funny and sweet picture of us... my first baby! I had to wait 7 months to get pregnant according to the Lord's plans for us, so we were so ready and excited! Life is a gift!
Walking out of church today we were given some great literature... "She's a Child - not a Choice." In it was this touching sharing... I thought it would accentuate the "gift" that each child is to families and to the world!
I need to end this... there is so much and it is so exciting to me to share and share and share! This is truly so important to me... hence when I was asked to take the Reverence for Life position that I had left for a year concentrating on John... I felt that it was the Lord knocking once again and I could only say "yes." How I love the issues, but I don't like so much the nuts and bolts... please pray for me!
Lord, our hearts and souls are full with so much today... as we look at all the needs out there when it comes to protecting and giving respect and LOVE to all LIFE! Fill us to the brim with your Truth and ability to see you in all those that we come in contact with! Jesus we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
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